Chaos on Earth-2
by TrueHorror88
Summary: He did it to save his new home. His family, to save his daughter and the woman he loves. But instead Seth Fury was flung into Earth-2 and became Zoom's prisoner. Now aiming to use everything in his powers to find his way back to his Earth and reunite with the ones he loves, he fights. But it won't be easy. How will Earth-2 fare against a true demon? A mutant? A Lethal Protector.
1. Chapter 1: Hope

**Hiya ladies and gentlemen, it's your boy, Tony here again.**

**As I promised, here's Season Two of Enter The Demon, with the new name, Chaos on Earth-2.**

**Been anxious to write this one for a while now, hopefully I'm not the only one to think so.**

**A few notes, for you true believers first.**

**The story starts a few days before The Flash S02E01. The first few chapters will take place on Earth-2, then the ones after that will follow the storyline of Season 2.**

**And to any newtime readers, don't read this story unless you have read Enter The Demon. This is the sequel to that story.**

**Also, like I've done in the past, in the last few chapters of Enter The Demon, I have something to ask of you all. I have a feeling that you wonderful people are more experts on the matter than I am.**

**So without further ado…ENJOY!**

**Chapter 1: Hope**

_Everything around them was illuminated, a radiant world that seemed to shine forever and brighter than the sun. The air richened with the scent of fresh flowers and fresh exotic fruits filled his nostrils, a loving smile formed on his mouth in response to the volumes of intoxicating smells entering through his nose._

_As he recognized the familiar shampoo scent, his eyes slowly opened up and he looked down to see her hair on top of his body. Her body curled up against him, her head placed on his chest and her beautiful brown hair shining as the morning light shined down on her head like a glorious halo, only bestowed upon the most beautiful of the angels in skies above._

_His blue eyes caught the sight of her hair locks falling over her closed eyes. Reaching over one of his pale hands, he treated her as though she was fragile and could break with the single touch, and pulled her locks back over her ears. The gentle moving of her hair turned into a gentle caress as he stroked her cheek._

_Lightly opening up her mouth, she let out a moan as she felt his gentle finger touch her cheek in such a gentle manner. He mentally chuckled at her reaction and caressed her cheek with his entire hand, flipping his hand around to stroke her skin with the back of his fingers._

_And then, the most beautiful brown eyes opened up and met his blue eyes. Smiles formed on both faces upon eye contact being established. Love filled both pairs and caused their smiles to broaden. The hand of the woman he loves trails up his left arm as it made its way to his cheek and cupping it. Feeling cheeky, she trailed it further up his head and ran it through his spiked brown hair._

_She then greeted with a happy and loving smile. "Hey, Seth?"_

_"__Hey, Caitlin." Seth Daniels Fury greeted the love of his life back._

_Caitlin Snow perked her head and leant up to meet Seth's head. Titling her head to the side, she pressed her lips on top of his and kissed him tenderly. Their kiss lasted a few moments, but to them…it was like an eternity of nothing but pure love. The love they have for one another._

_She pulled away and, to Seth's confusion, she looked around their bedroom with inspecting eyes. Caitlin turned back to him with a cheeky smile. "Guess we didn't break your bedroom this time."_

_"_Our _bedroom." Seth corrected her while rubbing her cheek gently and getting her to smile again. "This is our home, Caitlin…and it won't change no matter what."_

_"__Yeah, you're right." Caitlin agreed with a smile. "Our home." Seth smiled back and gently ran a finger over her arm, the ice element in him sending out white mist and she shivered lightly in response to her mate's mutant powers. Enjoying the effects of his elemental powers and their capabilities in the outside world and in their home. _

_KNOCK KNOCK_

_The two remained in bed and looked to the bedroom door when they heard the knocking. Both Caitlin and Seth knew who it was. And did find it sweet that she was so sweet and respectful of their privacy. The father smiled with a chuckle as he pointed an arm at the door._

_A black mass quickly formed in the palm of his hand before taking the form of a black tendril and slithered out. The tendril elongated and slithered its way out to the door handle. Wrapping it around the handle, it then pulled it down and opened the door._

_As the door opened up, it revealed the sight of their daughter. Even in the morning, she chose to wear her gothic clothes and the bright pink streaks in her brown hair shined when the light from their windows hit her head. One of her hands was shielding her eyes in an embarrassed manner, as though she didn't want to see anything damaging to one of her young age. _

_Rolling his eyes at her hand over her eyes, Seth told her. "Frankie, you don't have to shield your eyes, honey."_

_"__You sure, Dad?" Frankie Fury asked for certainty._

_"__We are, sweetheart." Caitlin added and patted their bed. "Come over here."_

_Frankie smiled and jumped onto the wall and used her symbiotic powers to crawl along the wall surface. Seth sternly reminded her. "No footprints on the wall, young lady."_

_"__Sorry, Daddy." She stated with a mock innocent smile before placing herself on the ceiling, right above her parents' bed before releasing her hold on it and fell down to them. "I love that."_

_"__You are unbelievable, honey." Seth told her while hugging her with one arm. "But I love you no matter what."_

_"__I love you too, Dad." Frankie said back while snuggling against her father's form. "You too, Mom." She said as she looked to Caitlin. Parts of her clothes turned pink before pink tendrils slithered out of her form and wrapped themselves around the black tendrils out of the elemental's body. The symbiotes, Venom and Magenta both giving each other hugs of familial love._

_"__And we love you, Frankie." Caitlin pressed her lips to Frankie's head in a motherly kiss. "But yeah, you're gotta stop walking on the walls, what are you friends gonna think when they visit us. They're gonna think we have a little monkey."_

_"__Our little spider monkey in magenta." Seth quipped lovingly with a chuckle as he kissed Frankie's right cheek._

_"__Dad, stop it!" Frankie exclaimed in embarrassment and tried to get away. But Caitlin wrapped her arms around her and kept her there with a smile on her face. "Mom! Not you too!" the young metahuman exclaimed to her mother._

_"__You can't get away from us so easily, sweetheart." Caitlin said and kissed Frankie's left cheek, causing the young girl's face to blush into a storm and look like a freshly picked tomato with an additional layer of redness._

_"__You guys are embarrassing me." She said like a real young teenage girl embarrassed by her parents' passionate love for her. Neither of them stopped and continued hugging her tightly. Frankie melted in their embrace and told them lovingly. "I love you two."_

_"__And we love you." Caitlin said before locking eyes with Seth. "I love you."_

_Seth formed a loving smile, "I love you." He slowly leant over their daughter's form and went to connect with lips belonging to the woman he love-_

_CRACK_

_But he never got to meet her lips as the massive and repeated cracking sounds emitted around them. They didn't have a chance to inspect the sound as suddenly the roof above their heads literally tore off of the structure that holds it. The pictures around them, placed on the bedside tables, instantly pulled up and launched themselves into the air. The wardrobes around them tore off the ground and flung into the skies._

_Seth followed the trajectory of his and Caitlin's bedroom torn parts through the air and his eyes widened at its form. The swirling mass of black energy above their heads, the force of its suctional capabilities drew everything into the hole in middle of, vanishing them into nothingness. Or perhaps somewhere else that is unfathomable to man. _

_When Seth saw that, he immediately looked to Caitlin and Frankie's sides…but they weren't there._

_"__Seth!"_

_"__Dad!"_

_Snapping his head upwards to the sky, his worst fears possible were confirmed when he saw them… Both Caitlin and Frankie in the sky…their hands outstretched downwards, trying to reach the elemental again. But it was for naught as the distance between them was expanding due to the wormhole's gravitational pull._

_"__Frankie! Caitlin!" Seth shouted as he rushed to the edge of their ruined home. While keeping his eyes on them, he reached the edge and jumped into the air. As he sprung from the ledge of it, he intended to use his elements to try and shoot after them as well as using Venom's powers._

_…__but…none of them…responded to his commands…_

_It caused the elemental to feel confusion to envelope his mind, turning it the soul of a thoughtless and dark world of pitch-black confusion. "Why?" he muttered in absolute shock as he registered his situation… completely devoid of any of his powers…and unable to save his loved ones…_

_Because of his current placement in mid-air…and his elements and Venom being non-responsive to his calls… he was forced to fall down and saw the singularity above them increasing in size and power and greatened the distance between the family again. And they were only getting closer and closer to the wormhole that kept drawing them in._

_And that wasn't the end of it._

_"__Argh!" His body was pulled back again, as a gravitational force behind him opened up, forcing him to grunt out in shock and pain from the force on his body. Turning an eye downwards, he saw another black hole, underneath him and pulling his body towards it. This one much, much bigger and stronger than the one drawing his loved ones into it._

_The immensely strong force of the black hole drew him closer to the void. And the next thing he sees he's inside of the inner ring of the singularity…and for some reason when he passed through the threshold of it, he was suspended in it . His eyes still looking upwards and saw that his daughter and the woman of his life also in the same state, as though time had been frozen._

_The three sets of eyes connected with each other. Even in their postponed states, the unmistakable fear on the women's faces were visible and increased to the limits and beyond them. _

_But only for a second…because they rocketed out of the stratosphere and into deep space._

_Suddenly, Seth's vision turned blurry as he felt his body flying around within the inner ring. It was like the gravitational force came from different directions from within the inner ring. And the force grew stronger and it pulled him…into the ring._

_SCREAM_

_The screams emitting from Seth's mouth intensified as his body crashed against the ring. The pulse pulsating through the ring canceled out the echoing remainder of his screams. Another fling to the ring hurts him, the spiraling ring hurt his right arm, the momentum seared his right arm and tore flesh off of it. The force pulling him to another side and crashed him into it. The collision with that side caused his stomach to experience immense pain, beyond the levels he was used to, almost tearing it right open. A third crash with the energy form caused his left leg to be twisted around with various bones breaking within the fleshy container and sticking out of it. _

_The clash caused his body to turn upwards with his eyes peering up. And then the worst sight for him to ever even think of looked down on him. He hated himself for what was looking down on… because he knew that if he had his powers, he would be able to prevent what he was seeing now._

_Both of them…Caitlin and Frankie…the two most important people in his life… looking down…tears running down their faces, but merely slipping down for a second before pulled into the wormhole behind them… both of them…reaching out…their hands… to try and grab hold of his hand…but it was for naught… as the pull of the singularity kept pulling them._

_Seth saw that with wide eyes of shock and reached out with his own hand, trying to desperately reach out for them. "Frankie! Caitlin!" he shouted to them, while begging for his partner to return so he could reach out to them and get them out of the wormhole's suctional powers. _

_But nothing and no one were there to either hear his pleas or answer his prayers._

_Forcing him to listen the last echoes of his loved ones' screams and watch them with soul-shattering eyes…as his daughter and the woman of his life…disappeared from sight…when the wormhole shallowed them whole and they disappeared into nothingness…_

_…__while his own body disappeared into the wormhole underneath him. _

_The last thing he managed to utter…_

_"__NNNNNNNOOOOOOO-"_

X

"Argh!" He shot up in shock as he reeled in the horrific nightmare his mind forced upon him, a shock-filled scream followed as he woke up again. Seth felt his entire head riddled with sweat drops that kept raining down his face. "Fuck, not again." he said as he ran a hand over his face, wiping away the sweat that formed on his face.

It's been almost six months since Seth Fury used his powers to destroy the singularity with the fire metahuman, Firestorm, a nuclear charged metahuman created from the transmuted people, Ronnie Raymond and Martin Stein…from their Earth. And though their noble sacrifice ended with them blowing to smithereens, it also ended with him being launched into another universe.

And his body still ached as he recalled the painfulness of being whacked against the spiraling energy form within the inner ring of the Singularity. Every single day of every months were started off with that same exact nightmare. He would always wake up with a screaming voice echoing throughout their cell and those around him in the lair.

"**_That's one way to wake up._**" The dark and deep voice spoke through a pained grunting voice from within his mind.

"_Yeah, yeah, Venom._" Seth addressed his partner as he rotated his shoulder while noticing the pained voice his "other" used. Ever since they got to this universe, the symbiote within him was in constant pain and kept letting out pained words whenever he spoke. "_You're not getting any better, are you, partner?_"

"**_No…we're not. We're still in agony for some reason._**" Venom continued with a panting voice. "**_And we're hungry…really hungry._**"

Seth expected that. They might have been given some food ever since they became Zoom's prisoner, but none of them had chocolate in any form. The only real nourishment that he needed to feed the Klyntar within his body, possibly even getting him back to his full strength so they could bond again, but it was slim hope for now.

"_You handled it well for almost six months now, Venom. Kudos for that._"

"**_Thanks…but we need…food…_**" Venom continued breathing out in agony.

He mentally nodded to his partner in agreement, both of them filling exhaust from starvation. The months of imprisonment here definitely beat the year of General Stryker's experiments back when he was kidnapped as a fifteen-year-old boy along with his thirteen-year-old Olivia Fury and his fourteen-year-old best friend, Matt Stark. Back then, they were fed daily to make sure that their young bodies didn't malfunction and die from the continuous hellish experiments that changed their young mutant bodies into the bodies of modified biological weapons that could be easily disposed once deployed or if fallen in war, or fight the battles so human soldiers don't have to.

And Seth went through the worst of it all, because he would have become the strongest of them all, the mutant killer with the powers of six elements and a clone symbiote of the Venom symbiote, allowing him to be their strongest biological weapon in the military's arsenal.

Compared to one another, this one was nothing for him. But the others in the lair…same could not be said for them.

"Another nightmare?" Seth turned his head to the back of his cell and saw his cellmate, Evelyn Sharp. The young girl he met five months ago when he was brought into the lair. Her long brown hair loose and going down her back as she placed her blue eyes on the mutant while remaining with her arms hugging her knees to her chest. "You had another, didn't you?"

"Yeah. They don't stop." Seth replied to her while scratching his long brown stubble along his face. The months on this new Earth had resulted in him growing a stubble. In the past, he would use his elements to cut it off. But now, he couldn't do so to avoid arousing suspicion from his capturers. "Did I wake you up?"

"No. I didn't sleep." Evelyn shook her head. "You kept saying Caitlin and Frankie in your sleep." Seth didn't look surprised, he kept chanting their names in his sleep ever since the nightmares began. And though the young girl kept hearing them, she never questioned it till now. "Who are they?"

"…People I love…the people I saved…" he revealed in a longing voice.

"You miss them?" the two cellmates turned their heads to the side and saw the bleached blonde-haired young girl, Ruby who was leaning against the wall and made eye contact with them as she conversed with them. The young girl has never been one for conversations with Evelyn, but she did seem to have taken a liking to him for some reason. It happened shortly after his arrival…and another event which led her to cover her arms with an old blanket.

"Yeah, of course I do." Seth replied, his eyes noticing her hair having grown to reach her back. "They're the most important people in my life. We all have people we want to go back to. What about you Ruby? Don't you wanna go back to your family?"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "If this is another tactic to get me to open up about my life, then forget it, Seth. It's not happening."

"Cool, but I didn't ask you for that. Just worried for you, is all." Seth told her honestly before standing up on his feet and walked around his cell.

Schooling her features, Ruby kept the shock from becoming visible on her face as she heard his words. Ever since the mutant had been brought into the lair and become Zoom's prisoner, he's been keeping an eye on everyone in the lair, watching closely at the younger prisoners more than the iron masked prisoner. There was a time when she woke up in the middle of the night, when their criminal metahuman capturers were gone for the night, that Seth was still awake and actually watching over both Evelyn and the girl chained to the pillar in her cell, Jesse.

But neither of them knew it. Ruby knew it and back then she could clearly saw that Seth haven't been sleeping himself and forced himself to be awake the entire time. And that wasn't the only time, he's been keeping an eye on them, even herself, whenever he could. He only did for one reason, concern for them.

"I know…Thanks." Ruby stated in a somewhat gratitude voice.

Seth nodded his thanks and cast his eyes on the old and ragged blanket wrapped around her hands. Fists clenching as he recalled what happened back then.

And how much he hates Deathstorm, Ronnie Raymond of this Earth… and how glad he was here to have been there to help her back then.

X

(**Flashback**)

_A week or so after Seth had been Zoom's prisoner, Seth began inspected the welfare of the other prisoners. He couldn't get much out of the iron masked prisoner who merely kept his eyes on the elemental, like he knew that his existence could change their situations somehow. While it was weird, Seth was used to weirder things and ignored the man's eyes for the most part._

_He wanted to help him nonetheless, but he couldn't activate his powers to their full extend. The only element of his that have responded to his commands is the ice element. But mostly induce freezing mist to cool things off or form small ice constructions around his fists now. His body was still weakened from stopping the Singularity back in his universe. _

_But even though he did care about the masked prisoner, it was the younger prisoners' well beings that Seth focused on mostly. _

_Evelyn still kept to herself in the back of the cell, she didn't show any of her powers yet. Her lack of power display made Seth wonder if she feared using her powers near him or because of what Zoom might do to her if she dared to show her powers without his permission or such._

_Jesse was the only one who didn't seem to be a metahuman or a powered being, according to his information. But she rarely talked and kept crying whenever Zoom would show up and place his pitch-black eyes on her. However, his attention would be diverted to Seth whenever he would fire off another insult at the evil speedster. _

_Ruby was the only one he focused on more than the others. Unlike them, she spoke but her words always came out with pants and coughs and she kept getting weaker and weaker…and she looked like she was on the verge of passing out. _

_And when he saw that, he let his eyes drift lower to her arms. Focusing his eyes on her hands, seeing the tightly wrapped blanket around her hands. _

_"__She's hiding something…"_

_"__**Think something happened to her hands.**__" Venom suggested as he and his host locked eyes on her as well._

_Seth mentally nodded in agreement and directed his question to the shivering girl. "Ruby?" He got her attention, her emerald green eyes peering into his blue eyes. Her eyes looked shallow as though she hadn't slept for a long time. Concern filled up his body and intensified as he asked, "What happened to your hands there?" _

_"__N-Nothing." She stammered her response. "Just tired is all."_

_"__**She's lying.**__"_

_"__Yeah." He thought back in agreement before asking her. Before he stated his question, he looked around saw which of the metahuman capturers are here. He saw that Zoom was here on the further end of the lair, the brown-haired woman in black clothes standing near a table beside Killer Frost and Deathstorm who kept talking with one another. _

_Seeing that it was just them, he looked to her again and asked urgently. "Ruby. I know you're lying. Something happened to your hands and it's affecting the rest of your body right now."_

_Ruby narrowed her eyes while panting. "H-How do you know that?"_

_"__I'm a doctor." He revealed to the girl's shock as well as his cellmate. "Yeah, it's shock, I know. But I can check it. You're hurt and I can check it over-" _

_WHOOSH_

_Their conversation was interrupted the moment Zoom sped to the front of Seth's cell. The speeding presence of evil caused Evelyn to back away and Jesse to cry again, Ruby shivered again and Seth merely looked to him with uninterested eyes._

_Slowly turning his head to look between them, Zoom locked eyes with Seth and spoke. "__**No…talking.**__" A cloak of blue lightning emitting around his body. When they saw their boss talking to a prisoner, they walked over to stand behind him._

_"__Well, hello to you too, Zoom." Seth greeted the evil speedster mockingly. A serious expression took place on his face as he stated. "Ruby's hurt. Let me treat her wounds."_

_"__You're a doctor?" Killer Frost asked with shock in her words._

_He still found it weird to talk to her as she wears the same face as the woman he loves. And he knows that it's not the Caitlin Snow that he loves. But it's still hard to see her and not just hug her tightly before showering her with passionate kisses. Inhaling deeply, he stated his answer. "Yeah, I am. That poor girl needs to be treated. And I'm the only one who can do that."_

_Zoom didn't look convinced and craned his neck at him again. _

_Fists clenching as Zoom merely looked at him with non-responsive eyes like the thought of a hurt child didn't matter in the slightest to him. Seeing that, Seth gritted his teeth as he realized what he had to say to get the evil speedster to meet his demands. _

_"__How about this then?" the black speedster looked to him again, with the others looking at him as well. "This way…" he formed small ice blades on his fingertips and clenched his fists, purposely digging them into his palm and continued through gritted teeth, while blood dripped from his fist. "…none of your trophies will be damaged in any way…they'll be…in peak condition."_

_Both Evelyn and Ruby saw how much pain Seth had to force his way through the words that he uttered. It was like nothing more than poison that he had spew out of his mouth as fast possible. And the way he spoke, it was like each and every word was searing his insides as his punishment for even thinking them._

_What surprised all of the prisoners was how Seth's hand began bleeding as he spoke. Neither Jesse or the man in the mask could see it from the positions of their cells. But Evelyn and Ruby saw that Seth had formed small ice blades on his fingers and had embedded them into his palm, willingly. As though he felt the need to punish himself for speaking that way of an innocent young girl._

_Zoom saw the blood dripping from Seth's hand and shifted his eyes back to Ruby again. While he did so, the elemental pulled out the ice blades and dropping on the floor and shattering upon collision with the ground due to their fragile structure._

_WHOOSH. _

_The black speedster immediately sped into their cell and grabbed Seth before phasing him out of it, making his decision known to him and his henchmen. The mutant placed a hand over his mouth and gagged briefly. Killer Frost saw his action and raised an eyebrow._

_Swallowing the contents of his mouth again, Seth inhaled deeply and stated to Zoom. "You're definitely not getting a five-star review."_

_Leaning his face closer to Seth's face, the speedster told him menacingly. "__**Humor won't get you…anywhere…**__"_

_Seth mockingly grimaced and waved a hand in front of his face and told him. "That might be true, but a mint will definitely get you somewhere. Ever heard of them?" Both the brown-haired woman and Killer Frost had to stifle their giggles._

_While blue lightning kept sparking around his body, the evil speedster pointed a finger to Ruby's cell and told Seth. "__**Go…NOW!**__" He roared at him._

_"__Sure." Seth answered, without being fazed by the metahuman's roaring words and walked over to Ruby's cell._

_"__**But...**__" Zoom kept him from continuing by grabbing his forearm, even forcing his spike-tipped gloved fingers to pierce the mutant's skin. His action merely got his attention and not even a grunt of pain or anything resembling that. "__**…you're not going to be alone.**__" He pointed a finger behind him and pointed it at Killer Frost. "__**Frost will be with you.**__"_

_The ice metahuman merely chuckled echoingly as she walked over to them slowly. "Funny, thought I wouldn't get any time with you again."_

_"__Yeah, I thought I had to schedule an appointment to get your attention." Seth jokingly said while Zoom opened the door to Ruby's cell._

_He walked into the cell while Killer Frost followed him. When he saw Ruby trying to get up, he stated to her softly. "Don't move." The blonde-haired girl looked confused while Seth bent down to her level. "It's better this way."_

_"__You sure?" Ruby wondered while letting her eyes drift upwards to Killer Frost who was leaning against the wall while icy mist circulating her hands._

_Seth knew where her eyes were pointing and stated to relieve her. "Don't worry about her." Killer Frost inclined her head, knowing that she was the one being spoken about. "She's just here to make sure that I don't try anything that might be dumb."_

_"__He's right." Killer Frost remarked her addition._

_Giving Ruby a calming and soft smile, Seth held out his hands. "Mind if I take a look?" the young girl didn't respond for a few moments, fearing that the icy metahuman behind him would try and do something like attack him. But her body continued getting weak and she coughed non-stop. The pain of remaining in this condition outweighed the fear she was feeling and slowly raised her covered hands to the doctor's hands. "Thank you." he softly told her._

_He then got to it and gently unwrapped the ragged old blanket from her hands…and he saw it…with wide eyes of shock…and hate…_

_"__**Who…would do this?!**__" Venom roared in hate at the sight of the girl's hands._

_Ruby's hands were riddled with small blisters around them. The pale white skin on her hands were mixed with red skin…and lightly charred skin…as well as mild swelling. Seth had seen this type of damage before, so he instantly knew what had happened to her…she had been burned._

_Making eye contact with her again, he asked while hate began sizzling inside of him. "Ruby…who…did…this…to you?"_

_However, while she was overwhelmingly surprised by the doctor's hateful words, she didn't say anything to answer the question he stated. Because she feared what might happen to her._

_Seeing that she wasn't going to respond, Seth gently cupped her hands and began the treatment. Using his mutant powers, and limiting himself to one element, he used the ice element inside of him. Letting out a cold mist around his hands, he gently cooled off her hands. As she felt the cooling sensation, Ruby exhaled in relief and the tension in her body were released._

_Killer Frost saw the white mist emitting from their interlocked hands and she walked closer to the doctor, till she stood behind him. Her eyes widened with interest and her tongue licked her lips when she saw the mist was emitting from the male prisoner's hands. "Guess I'm not the only who runs cold."_

_Seth turned his head and placed one eye on the icy metahuman's form and told her. "Trust me, I'm a lot more than what you think, Caitlin." _

_Stepping closer to his back, she placed her freezing hand on his back and rubbed it as she bent down to his ear. Deathstorm looked at her action and wondered what was going on in there. Killer Frost told him with a slow and sensual voice, "Here's something you should know about me…" she lightly bit his earlobe and licked it with her cold tongue and added. "…I hate the name Caitlin."_

_"__Doesn't make it any less true, that's your real name." Seth told her instantly, not even giving a reaction to her wandering and cold hand on his back nor her cold and adventurous tongue._

_Killer Frost couldn't help but feel excited from the willingness he was showing off. To remain steadfast even against her and Zoom and even acting like his imprisonment is nothing to worry about, unlike the rest of the prisoners. "God, this is making me so hot." She couldn't help but think while licking her lips again with growing excitement._

_Turning his attention back to Ruby, he could see that the damage on her hands was being reduced. "Look's like it's going well."_

_"__Never seen anyone use powers to heal others before." Ruby commented while exhaling in continued relief._

_"__Treatment's got unlimited possibilities. Even more if you more tools than others." Seth told her honestly._

_"__Yeah?" They heard Deathstorm comment while hearing his footsteps nearing him. "What if I burn her hands again?" Ruby glared at him with anger while Seth let those words sink in with his head looking downwards. Seeing the eyes on him the fire metahuman threateningly said with his body igniting with flames. "Keep giving those eyes, girl, and I'll burn you again!" He went to strike her._

_But Seth snapped around in a spin and faced him while getting back on his feet. Large ice spikes forming on his knuckles on both fists as he glared at the fire wielder who flinched when he saw the doctor face him. Killer Frost stepped back and watched the same with Zoom and his other henchwoman there while the other prisoners were watching with wide eyes of shock._

_"__Move a muscle and your girlfriend is gonna need a new boyfriend." Seth told him bluntly._

_"__You think you scare me?" Ronnie asked him._

_"__You think _you_ scare _me_?" Seth asked him back, empathizing words in his sentence. "Don't know about you, but I'm not afraid of a pathetic…" he menacingly stepped closer "little…lapdog who can't even bark without his master's permission." he looked directly into the eyes of the fire metahuman with eyes colder than Killer Frost's eyes._

_"__**Enough!**__" Zoom shouted at them roaringly, gaining their attention. At his command, Ronnie extinguished his flames and gulped in fear. Seth didn't seem scared and waited for the evil speedster's next words. Speeding into Ruby's cell, he appeared in front of the elemental and asked, "__**Is she…done?**__"_

_"__She's gonna need regular treatments. Daily to ensure effectiveness." Killer Frost beat the mutant to the punch, making him raise an eyebrow in response to her accurate statement of what needed to be done. Smirking at him, she announced to him. "I studied every once in a while, in med school."_

_Pointing a finger at her, Seth wondered mockingly, to Deathstorm at least. "So you're the brawn, the brains and the beauty of you two?" She didn't respond but merely smiled at his flattering words. "Why the hell do you need this guy then?" he pointed a finger to Ronnie as he spoke. The fire metahuman hissed in anger but a growl from Zoom stopped him._

_"__**Then you're done.**__" Zoom told Seth and pointed to the exit of Ruby's cell. He briefly considered attacking the metahumans, but he didn't because he knew that he only knows the powers of three metahumans and the two other metahumans' powers were unknown. And without Venom's help, he's gonna have trouble getting out of here even with just one element._

_Reluctantly he nodded his agreement and walked out of the cell with Ronnie and Caitlin's doppelgangers moving behind him. Zoom used his speed to lock the doors to Ruby's cell and got of the cell as well._

_However, Seth stopped moving and locked eyes with Deathstorm again. The mutant's cold lifeless eyes looking into the slightly scared blue eyes of the metahuman. Shaking his head briefly, Ronnie tried to act confident while the other metahuman criminals and prisoners looked confused between the two as they held eye contact. _

_Strengthening his attempt to appear confident to him, Ronnie asked, "What do you want?"_

_Briefly looking to the confused eyes of Ruby, focusing his eyes on her lightly healed hands, Seth turned back to the fire metahuman. Smacking his lips, he thought to himself. "Screw it."_

_"__**Just do it.**__" Venom told him impatiently, while knowing full well that the host was going to act without his suggestion._

_Quickly forming thick ice spikes on the knuckles on his right hand, Seth slammed it into Ronnie's face. While shocked and disoriented from the sudden punch, the mutant grabbed his collar and slammed him into a wall of a cell. The criminal metahumans watched with shocked eyes as Deathstorm was being pummeled._

_The impact with the cell wall caused Ronnie to return to his normal state of mind. "What the-"_

_PUNCH_

_Seth cut him off with another ice fist slammed into the side of his face, blood spewing out of his mouth and dripping down his nose cause of the impact on it. Reinforcing the ice on his fist with more thick spiked knuckles before slamming his fist into Ronnie's face again. Another fist reeled back before shooting forward and slammed into his stomach and bile came out of Deathstorm's mouth. Thrusting his knee upward, he smashed it into his stomach._

_WHOOSH_

_But before Seth could unleash more pain to the fiery metahuman, Zoom intervened and forced the doctor away from his lackey and pushed him into the wall of his own cell. Freed from his hold, Ronnie fell down to the ground and landed on his knees with blood falling out of both mouth and nose and forming a red puddle on the floor._

_Killer Frost walked over to him and held him close while keeping her eyes on Seth with shock running over both eyes. She has never seen anyone so viciously attack Ronnie, even knowing full well that he was a notorious metahuman under Zoom's rule. _

_Zoom leaned his head closer to his face and breathed out. "__**Do that again…and I will…**__" he trailed off when he met Seth's eyes._

_Or lack thereof._

_Seth didn't pay the slightest attention to the evil speedster before him. Focusing his cold lifeless eyes on Ronnie who looked back at him with anger and hate in his eyes. Killer Frost and the other female woman in the room saw the look on the doctor's face and it was though not even an emotion would take residence on his face, like feelings themselves were too scared of placing themselves on his face._

_The unknown mutant then told him with a voice devoid of emotions. "You ever even think of hurting that poor girl again, then I'll break through that cell and tear you limb from limb. You pathetic coward!" he roared at the fiery metahuman, his thundering voice shocking the criminals and prisoners alike._

_Ronnie shot up to his feet and shouted back. "I'm no coward!"_

_Raising an eyebrow, he looked to the evil speedster again. "Didn't realize your lapdog is an idiot. Guess you might have to educate him. Or just replace him. He doesn't seem that important."_

_"__Oh yeah." His hands and head lit up with blazing flames again and he placed his white eyes on him and said threateningly. "What if I just hurt her again, and again?" Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse all looked shocked and worried at his menacing and serious voice, he wouldn't hesitate to burn the poor girl again._

_But then, for some reason, everyone in the lair turned confused when they heard Seth suddenly laugh humorously. Even Zoom was turned surprised and narrowed his eyes on him while stepping back. The mutant turned to him again and continued laughing as he spoke, "You must be really, really weak then." His words caused them to turn even more shocked. "I mean, looking for an easy fight. Are you that scared of me? So scared that you need to hurt kids to get an easy fight. Must be hard to fight like a man, right? Forget coward, you're just downright pathetic."_

_He leaned his head further back to the wall behind him, letting him make eye contact with Killer Frost, and just to taunt Ronnie even more. "For a beautiful woman, you sure have a horrible taste in men."_

_Letting out a cry of anger, Deathstorm lashed out both of his hands and fired off a fire blast at the mutant. Seth didn't even try to dodge and accepted the fire blast head-on. The criminals were wide-eyed at the sight while the prisoners covered their mouth with shock. The collision with him caused his body to be enveloped in a smokescreen._

_But when the smokescreen dissipated, the mutant merely stood there with an unfazed expression. As though he didn't care that he was just blasted with fire._

_"__Guess both Ronnies use both types of flames." Seth thought to himself, recalling Firestorm's attacks that were very little in comparison to Ghost Rider's torturous red flames. Drifting an eye to his shoulder he saw a small flame on it. Blowing a breath of air at it, he extinguished the flame and looked to Ronnie again. "I'm sorry, did you actually do something? Because I didn't even feel a single thing." He taunted him._

_Growling angrily, Zoom sped the doctor into the cell again and left him there with his cellmate. Seth chuckled at them all as the metahuman criminals watched him with wide eyes of shock. Turning an eye to Ruby, he winked and took a seat on the ground._

**(Flashback End)**

X

"**_Good thing, we came to this universe when we did._**" Venom stated in gratitude as he too recalled the memory from back then, remembering treating Ruby's wounds with his host's powers.

"_Yeah…_" he muttered his thoughts as he looked to Ruby again while she merely looked to the side and looked at wall behind her.

Mentally raising an eyebrow at the words his host spoke, the symbiote asked in curiosity. "**_You're still thinking about it, right?_**"

Seth mentally nodded back to his partner. Ever since he came into this world and became Zoom's prisoner, he's been keeping an eye on everyone in the lair, the younger prisoners especially. But unlike the others, Ruby was different.

While the others would fall asleep whenever nighttime would fall over them again, Ruby would remain awake and cry while the others slept. Seth had been trying to sleep one night but he heard her cry before fully sleeping, which woke him up. She seems be extremely distraught for some reason and cries herself to sleep. While he did find it strange, he found it more concerning when she would begin murmuring something in her sleep.

Not something…a name… "Werner."

He heard that name being mentioned whenever she would go to sleep. And like he would get nightmares whenever he would fall asleep, Ruby would get her own and she would shoot up again with tears streaming down her eyes and rolling off her face.

The sight of the poor girl crying convinced Seth that he should keep an eye on her.

While he remained in his train of thoughts, Ruby turned her head to face him. "You can stop it, you know."

He blinked his eyes, snapping himself out of his thoughtful trance and looked to her with confusion. "What do you mean? Stop what?"

Ruby wrapped the blanket around her hands, having torn it into two pieces so she could wrap it around both as she stood up on her feet. "I know you've been watching me at night…" Seth didn't respond and continued looking at her. "…and you know that I knew."

"I do." He spoke to her in a soft voice. "And I'm not stopping, you know. I'm just worried for you, Rubs."

"But I don't want it." Ruby started. "Look, I'm thankful for you treating my hands. But you don't have to look after me, like I'm some wounded animal. So stop it… now." she slowly stated her words and turned her back to him.

While looking away from him, she overlooked her thoughts, thinking back to how much Seth had been keeping an eye on her. She wasn't used to what he was he was displaying. His pure concern for her well-being. The only one to ever have shown anything that might resemble that level of concern was… her mother… and she's not here or anywhere close here.

She wasn't used to other adults or even other males to look at her like that. They would only look at her with fear once they learned of her true identity and what she was. Even in a battlefield, they would only seek to strike her down and defeat her. Though because of her strength and training and her abilities, she would remain victorious in those battles.

To see Seth, an otherwise stranger, suddenly show her concern is something she's never been the target of. She didn't know whether or not to get used to it.

Seth looked away from Ruby and looked to Evelyn again. The young girl nodded to the adjacent cell and stated, "She's stubborn."

"That sounds about right." Seth nodded before telling her. "Are you okay, Evie? You look a little pale there?"

"I try." Evelyn giggled as she spoke, her giggle intensified when Seth gave her a mock look of hurt. She hasn't laughed a single time ever since she got here, after she became Zoom's prisoner. But then Seth comes along and he somehow manages to make sure that she always laughs every now and then.

It was very nice.

"Sounds like someone's having fun." Seth perked up his head at the echo-like distorting voice that's become familiar to them all now. Turning around, he faced the glass wall and saw Killer Frost walking over to it with her dark blue leather jacket in her hand, letting her blue leather animal print top with the dark leather belt around her waist shine from the light from the lamps. Leaning against the glass, she made eye contact with the doctor and said. "You must be quite the company."

"Sorry you haven't had the pleasure." He told her while still finding it hard to see her like this. To see Caitlin like a metahuman. It was even harder to see her with Ronnie of this world because it somehow and painfully forced his mind to think that the Caitlin he loves might be with someone else, this very moment. And it caused him heartache. Because in all fairness, they must think that he's dead now.

But he forced it down in a void in the deepest parts of his body. "And I would have thought that you didn't wanna speak with me anymore…after what I did to your beau."

Killer Frost didn't show any emotion on her face but inwardly she was still impressed with how the man can just speak so casual with her. And it made her much more interested in him, even more so after he willingly and without hesitation, hurt her boyfriend. "He's tougher than he looks."

"I highly doubt that." Seth stated.

"Do you now?" Killer leant closer to the glass again. "Are you maybe…jealous of him? Because he has little old me?" she pouted her lips and bent at the waist while using her arms and placed them on the glass, her eyes looking into his eyes. And though this little tactic of hers had brought many others to grow interested in her, Seth merely walked closer from his side and kept holding eye contact, not even a spark of interest inside of his eyes or even letting his eyes drift downwards. "You're making me sad, if you won't speak with me." She spoke with mock hurt.

"Then let me and everyone else in here go…then you and I can talk till we can't even talk anymore." He told her.

Smirking at the offer, she leant closer till they made eye contact at the same height through the glass. "You really think we're going to be talking? I don't see that happening."

"Sounds like fun." The voice of the brown haired female metahuman said as she walked closer to them. It's been almost six months and until now, she's never actually shown any interest in him. Hell, she hasn't actually introduced herself yet. "Mind if I join in?"

"Three's a party." Seth tilted his head to her. "But how about a name instead? Seriously, I have no idea what your name is. You barely spoken to me since I became a resident of Motel Zoom. You've just been acting like a creepy dominatrix and looking at me from afar."

"Didn't know you've been thinking about me. That's sweet." The woman stated, and Killer Frost narrowed her eyes at the words her friend said. "But you can call me…Black Siren."

"Huh?" Seth looked her up and down before saying. "Siren…seems accurate. Definitely got the looks of one. Truly evil acts hiding behind the mesmerizing beauty."

"Why thank you." Black Siren smiled. She turned around, giving Killer Frost a victorious smirk before returning to her corner of the lair.

"Interesting, that one." Seth said, slightly impressed by Black Siren.

"She's fine." Killer Frost said, clearly in displeasure, before she pulled her jacket back on before walking onwards and over to the others again.

Seth shook his head while chuckling. "It's gonna be fun getting out of here and watch them piss their pants."

"Just stop it." he turned shocked and looked over to the middle cell and saw Jesse looking at him with pleading eyes. Zoom didn't see any more of a need to restrain her so he took off her cuffs not long ago. "You keep giving us hope, when you don't even have a single plan. That's false hope, and that's worse than this." Killer Frost and Black Siren looked to the cells and listened in closely on their conversation.

Both Ruby and Evelyn looked hurt and shattered by her words, feeling as though they actually lost all hope despite Seth having finally provided them with the most essential item that kept them from losing their minds and falling into pits of despair.

Seth saw their crestfallen expressions and turned back to Jesse who holds a similar hopeless expression on her face. "How can it be false when it's hope?" she didn't' respond and merely looked at him with a shaking head of denial. "You know…when I was around your age, I was in a similar situation. Well, worse than this."

Evelyn and Ruby shared a look of confusion as they listened on. Jesse scoffed humorlessly. "There's nothing worse than this."

"Oh, trust me there is." Seth countered instantly, shocking the young girls who listened and Jesse too. "And wanna know what I never did in that situation…lose hope. Because the moment I would do so…I knew my little sister would lose all hope herself. My best friend, too."

"You have a sister?" Jesse asked him.

"Yeah." Seth nodded. "I miss her. And she was the reason I was able to get out of the hellhole I was trapped in…and the reason for why I was able to help her out of there." he looked to Jesse again and smiled, despite the gravity of their situation. "Jesse, I know that this is your hell right now. And you can't possibly imagine anything worse than this one…but you have to hold onto hope. Without that…you really are in hell." With his finger, he gestured around them, gesturing to the lair. "And Zoom's little hideout here…is gonna look like a pleasant dream. So don't lose yourself and hold on…cause there's hope even in here."

Tears began rolling down Jesse's cheeks and falling to the floor of her cell as she took in each and every word, letting them sink in slowly. She's been a prisoner for a long time now, not as long as the iron masked man, longer than both Ruby and Evelyn…but until now…only witnessed horror. Acts of true hellish horror that only the vilest of all living beings could commit willfully and gleefully.

Acts like imprisoning and hurting innocents…

And she was only here for one purpose…to be used…to get to her father…and it all but a pitch-black void that no form of hope could find their way into. It was truly an utterly hopeless world.

But the words Seth just spoke to her, it was like hope was shining back down on her through small lights of sunshine. Like the dark world she was in was slowly being lighted up and caused it to break down piece by piece and vanish into nothingness.

As she cries, she asks, "…Do you really mean that? That there's hope?" Seth opened up his mouth and went to speak-

_WHOOSH_

But he didn't get the chance to speak them as streak of blue lightning appeared in front of Jesse's cell. Seth saw the black speedster appear and looked around to see that Ronnie's doppelganger had appeared as well while the female criminals walked closer and closer to them.

The blue lightning continued running over Zoom's form as he shifted his gaze from Seth to look at Jesse. It was though his pitch-black eyes were boring holes into the young girl's form without a single ounce of emotion, causing her to break down in tears. "**Believe what you want, but make no mistake…**" the gate to her cell suddenly opened up, removing any and all barricade that was between them.

At the sight of them all the other prisoners began feeling horror enter their bodies, all water in their veins froze. Ruby and Evelyn knew what this meant and looked away in fear of what might be committed before their eyes. The eyes of the iron masked man widened as well and he began banging in the glass wall, trying to force his way through the glass wall of his cell.

When Seth saw what Zoom did, his fists placed themselves on the wall in front of him, clenching against it. Seeing Jesse beginning to cry like that…it reminded him of the time that he saw Frankie cry for him, for Tockman, the Clock King to stop hurting him back then.

But Jesse didn't cry for him…no…she cried because once again…she realized there truly was no hope in this place.

And Seth hated himself for it!

If he had his powers right now, he knew that this reigning evil supreme, Zoom, would be defeated. And he could be able to save all the prisoners in here. Like he did in the past for his sister and his best friend, he could put an end to their nightmares. He could do that again, but he can't!

These thoughts of enragement clouded his mind. His fingertips bleeding as his fingernails dragged themselves over the surface of the glass wall. His eyes turned to murder when they returned to Zoom's form. "_Why…?_" he thought to himself while surges of adrenaline rushed through his veins. Hissing like an angered predator, he felt his heart beating violently in his chest.

Ruby and Evelyn felt like something was happening and their eyes drifted to Seth again. Their eyes widened when they saw sparks of lightning running over his form. His hands displaying mixes of both white mist and black smoke. Feet dripping water and as though wind guided it around his feet. Muscles flexing and veins shifting into another substance with a metallic surface, light bouncing off it in response.

All because of one and only thing…Seth's rage for the bastard who would willingly hurt a child.

"**_This…monster…will not hurt her!_**" Venom roared, despite feeling the pain intensify in him and surge through the host. None of the pain that they felt now would even compare to the pain that the poor girl had been through.

Zoom neared his second-longest prisoner who cowered in fear with pleading tears running down her face.

"**…****there's no hope for you here.**"

Jesse's face was overrun with tears as she screamed in horror as Zoom neared her with menacing steps.

"_No…_" Seth thought as he looked to his hands, seeing the mix of black smoke and white mist emitting from them both. Closing his eyes, he felt them again…the elements inside of his body. Coursing through the entire environment that is his body and roaring again. But not to the level as it was on his home universe, it was still weaker from the aftermath of the Singularity, but they still live in him.

The white mist around his right hand intensified and he thought to himself. "_Gonna have to make do for now._" Venom nodded with his partner's thoughts as Seth reeled his arm back before slamming it forward. Upon contact with it, he instantly froze the wall before reeling his other hand back and then launched it forward and crushed the wall.

_SHATTER_

The prisoners and criminals alike heard the sound of shattering and turned to Seth's cell and saw the doctor himself appear beside Zoom and swing a large iced gauntleted fist for him. But the evil speedster merely used his super speed and returned to his previous position, in front of his three henchmen who turned wide-eyed as they looked to him.

Seth Fury stood before them and cracked his fists together while his lifeless eyes looked directly into each and every one of their eyes. Shifting his eyes around, he turned them to Zoom and stated, "You were wrong, Zoom."

"**How so?**" he asked slowly.

"There is hope." Seth formed an ice gauntlet on his other arm and held them in a fighting stance, not caring that he was outnumbered now.

"And he's not afraid of any of you."

Even without the powers of his trusty partner, he does not allow himself to sit back and watch as an innocent girl is about to be hurt before his eyes. That's not who he is…

… That's not who the Lethal Protector is.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a start, peeps.**

**The two additional characters, Ruby and Evelyn, more information about them will be shown in the later chapters. But they're gonna be somewhat unexpected. **

**Now onto the help that I ask of you wonderful people:**

**Since this is the Flash TV show, we're working with here, then there's of course be Jitters that make their signature hero coffee drinks. And I'm not much of a coffee expert, so I'm asking you readers for help.**

**Come with some ideas for signature hero drinks for:**

**Venom**

**Magenta**

**Iron Knight**

**Angel Fury.**

**And I ask that you only PM your ideas to me. Then I will post them once the chapter is gonna be up. But it's gonna be a while before that happens, so you're gonna have to be patient, friends.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps. **


	2. Chapter 2: Hades

**Hey guys, here's another bedtime story for wonderful readers.**

**Thanks for the wonderful reviews again, people, you are amazing.**

**And to answer a posted question, here's the answer: I will try to update the story with a new chapter every week. It's what I've done in the past with my previous stories.**

**I'm gonna have to ask you guys again with the help of the signature hero coffee drinks. I haven't turned out to be much of an expert since the last chapter.**

**Sorry for that, people.**

**The heroes are still:**

**Venom, Magenta, Angel Fury and Iron Knight. Hopefully, you guys can help me out with this.**

**Oh yeah, they can be crazy if they have to be.**

**So without further ado…ENJOY!**

**Chapter 2: Hades**

The widening eyes of the four metahumans, Zoom, Deathstorm, Black Siren and Killer Frost placed themselves on the metahuman before them. Even though all of them were ready to fight back, they were still in shock of what happened.

And so were the prisoners as well.

Seth stood before them, ice gauntlets on both arms as he stood in a fighting stance. And he was confident, not a single wave of uneasiness nearing his facial expression, not going to let it show to the criminal metahumans.

But as they stood there and looked at him, Deathstorm smirked and chucklingly told him. "You think you can stop us? You're dreaming, pal."

"Put your money where your mouth is, Pissstorm." He taunted the fiery metahuman.

Deathstorm felt a vein popping on his forehead and he exclaimed. "That's it!" Flames ignited on his hands before he lashed them out and fired off a flame blast.

"**_Why not reveal the truth now?_**" Venom suggested with a smirk.

Mentally smirking back, Seth thought back. "_Why not? I'm tired of playing._" Crossing his iced arms over his chest, he took on the fire blast. But it was all part of his plan as the flaming blast melted the ice around his arms. The melting of the ice element caused a steam emitting around his body and shielding it from any eyes that might turn to him.

Swiping his arms to the sides again, blowing it away, he made eye contact with the nuclear fire metahuman. "That all you got, Ronald? Poor attempt at a flame." Black smoke began emitting around his body as he continued. "Oh yeah, here's a little truth for you guys."

"What?" Black Siren asked while wondering what was happening with the metahuman before them.

But then surprise came over them all as Seth revealed to them. "I'm not a metahuman." Their eyes widened when they saw bright red flames igniting around his right hand. "I'm a mutant." Ruby's eyes turned shocked when she heard that old word.

Digging his foot into the ground, he lashed out his right arm and fired off a blast of flames at the fire metahuman. Ronnie saw it and ignited his own flames again before thrusting both his hands out and blasted the incoming flame blast with his own. The clash of flames cancelled out each other with a smokescreen as an aftermath.

While the smokescreen remained big and strong, he turned his head to the back and looked to the shocked eyes of Jesse. "Stay there for a second. I promise you, Jesse, I will get us all out of here."

With tears of relief rolling down her face, she softly said with gratitude. "Thank you."

Nodding his response, he turned back to them and saw that Deathstorm was still in the air with his ghostly white eyes on him. A fire blast came from him and Seth dodged by jumping away to the side. He landed on the ground and tried to place his feet on the wall of the masked prisoner's cell.

However, he fell down the from it as he was unable to attach to the surface. Seth grunted as he fell down to the ground and got back on his feet again. Briefly looking to the wall, he thought to himself. "_Great I can't access any of your powers, Venom._"

"**_Sor-_**" Venom was interrupted the moment that a massive pain surge rippled through the symbiote's form and the host's body too.

Seth clenched both of his fists as he felt the wave of pain come over him. But strangely enough…as he felt it… he also felt relief and pleasure from it…as though he needed the pain to get something out of it. Until now, he's never felt his partner's pain spread over to his own body.

"**_Look out!_**"

Perking his head up, he managed to roll out of the way and dodge a series of cold ice spikes that came flying his way. Recognizing the icy element, he turned to the source and did indeed saw Killer Frost forming more ice spikes at the tips of her fingers.

"I'd really hate to hurt that handsome face." She told him while flexing her fingers, her mouth forming a mock pout. "So be a good boy and go back in your cell, huh?"

"Thanks, but no. If you had said you came with the arrangement then, a maybe. But since you didn't…" Seth trailed off as gathered wind in both of his hands. shifting his eyes to the air again, he slammed them together and sent out a powerful gale of wind that slammed the fire metahuman to the wall beside him.

"Ronnie!" Killer Frost exclaimed in worry as she saw that and launched her ice spikes at the mutant again.

Hoping that all of his elements were back to being functional, Seth flexed his arms and thankfully they turned into adamantium. "Nice." He mutterer gleefully and crossed them over his body to shield himself from the ice spikes, causing them to shatter upon impact with his metal skin.

Uncrossing them again, he let lightning cloak his body, enhancing the muscles of his body and he used his heighted muscles to appear before the icy metahuman with heightened movements, a small wind blew over her face and caused her white hair to fall over her face. Her eyes widening with fear as she saw him suddenly appear in front of her, and she worriedly assumed this would result in her demise.

But she was then surprised when Seth reached up to her face and gently pulled the bang of pure white hair away from her face and over her ear. Killer Frost's ghostly pale skin turned bright red as she felt the gentleness of his touch on her face. "W-Why?" she stammered out in confusion.

"Guess that's for you to figure out." Seth winked and walked away, leaving the woman to be absolutely confused.

He walked past her and looked at Black Siren and Zoom, both of whom looking with a mixture of both fear and surprise. Giving them a smile, he asked them tauntingly. "What's wrong guys? Too much for you guys to handle?"

Zoom hissed like an enraged animal and went to move. But then Black Siren stepped forward with her hand telling him to stand behind. "Mind if I take a crack at you next?" Seth didn't respond and let his arms be wrapped up with ice gauntlets again. "Nice here's mine."

Thrusting her head forward, she opened it up and let out a cry…followed by a massive spiraling sonic scream. Seth didn't have time to dodge the soundwave, forcing him to take on the full force of it and it launched him to the back.

Ruby and Evelyn covered their ears as they also felt the piercing and deafening scream being cried by the dominatrix-like metahuman. And they weren't the only ones to feel the cry as their glass walls shattered instantly into pieces of shattered glass shards.

Jesse heard the same and saw that Seth's body was being flung her way and jumped the side. Perfectly timed, the mutant's body was smashed into the cell door and turned into pieces. He only stopped flying the moment his body crashed into the wall in the back.

Shaking himself free of the pieces of metal, rock and glass, he twisted his head around as he stated to himself. "Son of a bitch, that woman can cry. Wow, gonna feel that tomorrow." He slowly got up on his feet again, dusting himself off as he looked to Jesse and told her. "Ready for a prison break?"

"Why are you smiling?" Jesse wondered of him with shock lacing her voice.

The smile on his face widened and he revealed gleefully, "I haven't fought anyone in almost six months since getting here. I was getting rusty."

"Is that so?" Black siren got their attention as she neared them. "Well, you're gonna be a lot more than just rusty when I'm done with you."

Seth went to speak but he then felt another surge of massive pain and great deal of relief again. Causing him to grind his teeth as he and his partner began panting. But as they heard her words, the symbiote exclaimed to the host. "**_Don't take another one of those! We can't handle too many of those!_**"

Venom was right. That sonic cry was undoubtably painful, strong enough to ripple through them both if they were to receive too many of those powerful sonic screams. Both he and his partner didn't like those, and needed to get out of here quickly.

Keeping his head pointed at her, he let his eyes drift around to find something around him and the lair to use. Eyes widening when he looked up to the top and saw large and sharp stalactites above their heads and pointing downwards. Flexing his hands again, he felt the sharp pieces of gravel cutting and swimming through his veins.

Black Siren saw him merely flex his fingers with closed eyes and asked, "Now what are you going to do with those hands, exactly?" she spoke with an anticipating voice with a seductive tone. Zoom heard it too and wondered what was going with her and Seth.

Slowly opening up his eyes again, he met her eyes and revealed with a smirk. "This." With a powerful and brutal move, he slammed both of his hands into the ground. The very moment his hands connected with the earth; he used his powers of the earth element to shake the ground with a tremor. The tremor followed the earthy walls and spread to the ceiling.

The stalactites felt the earth shaking and a moment later they shook as well. Their foundation attached to the ceiling began cracking slowly before falling down. Black Siren heard the cracking from above and saw the stalactites falling down, and nearing her head. She performed a backflip and dodged the rocky lances from above.

But the crash with the ground caused them to be pulverized and shattering into smaller pieces and developing into a large dust screen. It blinded everyone from seeing each other. Seth went to move but then-

_WHOOSH_

Zoom ran through the large dust screen, the air circulating around his form blew the dust away to the sides as he appeared before Seth with the blue lightning running over his body. The evil speedster clenched his clawed fists and sent one of them into the mutant's stomach.

But the fist ended up ringing with a metallic sound and caused the speedster to grunt in pain. And he couldn't move it away as Seth grabbed it tightly with one hand, strengthening his grip with his tightening fingers. Zoom looked into the elemental's eyes and saw a smirk on his face.

"Biggest mistake a speedster can make?" Seth leaned closer to the metahuman's face while raising his free arm and gathered wind around his forearm. "Getting close to someone who can beat the living hell out of them." Igniting a flame around his forearm, the two elements combined and formed a red-hot burning cyclone around his arm.

Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse saw the combination of elements and widened their eyes with more shock…but as Ruby saw the action and what his species is…she searched through her memories from her world…from her lessons from the Preparatory Academy she attended since she was young…and she remembered it now.

…who and what Seth is…

"It's him." Ruby breathed out in overwhelming shock as she continued to watch their fight.

Seth smashed his fist forward and sent it into the speedster's stomach, causing him to scream out loud in pain. The force sent him forward and into the air and into a wall, embedding the speedster in it.

The mutant looked to Jesse who was still shocked. Handing out her hand, he told her. "Let's go." She smiled and took hold of his hand. Seth pulled her out of the cell and looked to Evelyn and Ruby. "You too." They widened their eyes. "We're getting out of here." They nodded and rushed out of their cells.

Seth looked to the cell with the iron masked prisoner and walked closer to it. the mutant raised a hand and went to freeze it but then the man inside shook his head. Halting his move, he asked, "What?" The prisoner pointed to the three young girls behind Seth and then waved his hand to the side, repeatedly at that. The elemental was dumbstruck from what he watching.

He didn't understand what he was saying right now, parts of him had a disturbing feeling that he might actually know what he was meaning…but he didn't wanna tackle those thoughts…because it was nothing something he wanted to do.

But Venom did. "**_He doesn't want to be saved now._**"

"Why…?" Seth trailed off with a question directed at both the prisoner and his partner.

The masked prisoner pointed a finger behind him while, unbeknownst to the others, Venom told him in agreement on the same matter. "**_He…He wants us…to leave him behind…and save the girls…_**" the symbiote spoke through a panting voice from the surging pain, forcing him to pause throughout his own words.

Clenching his hands as Seth felt the pain as well, he looked deep into the masked prisoner's eyes. Parts of him tried to look for something that resembled falsehood, lies, trying to find something that he could use to reconvince the prisoner.

But it was for naught. The only thing he could see in his eyes was determination equal to that of a thousand of armed men who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for the innocents. It was undeniable that this man was willing to remain in this hellhole for as long as it took…as long as it would ensure the safety of innocents.

The prisoner nodded again, finalizing his statement to the mutant who briefly looked to the girls again. Seeing the shocked and fearful expressions on Jesse and Evelyn's faces caused him to mentally agree with the iron masked prisoner. He didn't seem to notice the searching and curious expression on Ruby's face as she kept her eyes solely on the elemental.

Sighing his concede, Seth returned his eyes to the prisoner and he told him. "I'm coming back. And then I'm busting your ass out of here. And if you start complaining again, then I'm gonna melt that mask to your face." The prisoner nodded while giving him a thumbs up and he was able to form a smile behind his mask…a feeling told him that the mutant knew it.

He turned back to the girls and told them. "Let's go." They nodded and then they ran.

However, Black Siren appeared in front of them. Her hands placed together and knuckles cracking as she charged them. Seth saw it and spun around before lashing his leg out and went to sidekick her. But she crouched, avoiding the kick.

She countered by getting back on her feet and thrusted her hand out. But her fist was caught in a grip and so was her other one, forcing to look into Seth's eyes with a slightly devious smirk. "Not bad. Not many men know who to dance with me."

"Might have something to do you being a bit of a screamer, don't you think? God, your poor boyfriends." Seth quipped to her as he managed to launch his foot and kick her the stomach. The pain in her mid-section caused her to lose her grip on his arms and she was forced to bend over while holding her stomach.

Not willing to give her a moment to he wrapped his arms around her bended body. Digging his feet into the ground, strengthening his arms with the earth element he swung the metahuman screamer away and into his old cell. The sound of her form crashing against the floor before skidding into the wall echoed briefly.

Evelyn looked to him and stated. "You really don't hold back, do you?"

Seth rolled his eyes, "I'm still a little rusty. Come on!" he and the three young women continued their sprint. Zoom was still trying to force his way out of the wall while he felt pain rippling through his body, Deathstorm was still unconscious on top of a cell, Black Siren was slowly getting back on her feet.

Killer Frost was the one who stood near the exit and readied ice spikes on her hands again and threw them out of her hands like throwing weapons. Seth placed both of his hands together and let white mist envelope them before forming ice shield that took on the ice spikes.

Tearing the ice safeguard to pieces, he heated up his hands and melted the pieces to water. Manipulating it to his command, he formed water spheres in both hands. Swiping them both ahead, he shot the water orbs at the metahuman's feet.

The icy metahuman jumped away from the water attack, but the collision with the ground caused the orbs to spread into puddles. Killer Frost's feet landed back on the ground, into the water and she lost her balance and she fell down on the ground.

She would have, anyway at least. But something caught her tumbling form before she could land on the ground, catching her with a pair of arms. Out of instinct, she shot her arms up and wrapped them around the neck of whoever caught her.

Still in shock, she looked up and her shock widened when she saw that it was Seth had grabbed her. The mutant winked at her when he saw the shock on her face. "Careful. The floor's just been cleaned, might be slippery." He quipped to her and lowered her form to the ground. Killer Frost was still in shock as her arms slowly slithered off her arms from his neck, having the momentum of snails when getting off his neck, while her face heated up with blushing of embarrassment.

Jesse and Evelyn saw his action and noted it, putting the memory of this moment into the back of their minds for later.

"Guys?" Ruby called to them, but none of them responded. Seth saw their unresponsiveness and took hold of Jesse's hand and dragged her while Ruby dragged Evelyn. "Come on."

They ran out of the exit and looked around. Seth stood in front of the three girls and looked around to see that the evil speedster's hideout was hidden within a wall of a humongous cliff. "I did not expect Zoom to have this kind of a lair. Nice view." He commented as he looked ahead and saw that there was a large metallic bridge in front of them, but it didn't seem the least bit stable. If the rust on the metal were indication then it was evident that it hadn't been used for a very long time. And the occasional creaking of metal and metal falling off didn't make it safe for them to stand on it.

"Wow." Ruby muttered in shock as she looked down, over the ledge and saw they were really far above. Looking further ahead, he saw there was a forestry area over there, looking like woodlands.

Evelyn stepped behind the mutant and hid behind him, not liking their current placement. She felt a hand pat her back and rub it comfortingly as she heard him tell her. "Don't worry, Evie. We're gonna be alright."

"You're joking right?" Jesse shockingly stated to the elemental. "How are we supposed to get down from here?! We're so high up!" she screamed out loudly, her words echoing after bouncing off the rocky cliffs as they stood there.

"You don't need to shout." Ruby reminded her while still reeling in the shock of this base.

"I got an idea." The three girls looked to him with curiosity. Seth tilted his head downwards to the grassy ground way, way, way down the cliff. "We're gonna jump."

….

….

"Are you crazy?!" Jesse exclaimed at him; her scream didn't seem to faze him in the slightest as he merely continued to measure the distance from their current place to the ground with his eyes. "We're gonna die if we jump from here!"

Seth then countered. "Trust me, I would normally…use the same idea, but it would be much safer." He quickly corrected himself. "But I can't right now, because of some of my powers are not working right now."

Jesse and Evelyn thought he might be lying to comfort them, not thinking that he could possibly hold anymore powers. But Ruby noted his words and did consider the possibility of him holding more than what he's revealed now. It wouldn't be impossible for a powered being to hold hidden powers or additional powers at that point.

And if he really was who she thought he was…it could prove advantageous for them in this situation. Then he would definitely be able to help them out of this situation if it were to happen.

Ruby looked to him again when he began grunting in pain while holding his stomach again. Looking him and down, she asked him in curiosity. "You really think you can get us out of here?" her words came out as a statement rather than a question, knowing that this could either spell out their escape from this hell or one-way trip to a whole new afterlife.

Jesse gave her a wide-eyed look of shock at her words. "You're seriously not considering this?" she asked with greater shock.

Evelyn briefly looked into the lair and told the other native captive of this universe. "I think we have to do this." Jesse looked to him as well with even more shock. Seeing the eyes, she shrugged and continued. "We have no other choice."

"Jesse." The native captive and the two others looked to Seth, surprise coming over them as they saw the determination and conviction on his face. "I promise you guys that I won't let anything happen to you, any of you. Not even this cliff." He briefly nodded to the lair again. "But we have to hurry. Those guys don't seem like the kind that wants to wait around."

He held out his hand, his ears perking as the sound of rocks falling and ruffling around in the lair. Seth knew that time was of the essence now. And the last sand grains in the time glass was slowly falling down to join the rest. "Do you trust me, Jesse?"

Jesse was dealing with a conundrum. She didn't know what to say or even what action to take. She didn't know whether ot nor she could allow herself to trust Seth right now. Despite him being another one of Zoom's prisoners like her, she didn't know if she could fully trust him. But then memories of him purposely breaking and piercing the barrier of his own flesh flashed over her mind, reminding her how he was willing to hurt himself because of the venom-like words he spat out to convince Zoom to let him treat to Ruby's wounds.

He was willing to do that and even assault Deathstorm for the damage he did on Ruby.

Seth truly cares about their welfare and there's nothing and no one that could scare him into submission.

With those thoughts coursing through her mind, she nodded and grabbed his hand. "I do. Let's get out of here."

Seth nodded and wrapped an arm around her waist. Turning to Ruby and Evelyn, he bent his back and told them. "What about you two? Trust me?" they nodded instantly. "Hop on." The two of them jumped on his back and wrapped their arms around his throat.

"_This is getting uncomfortable, really quick._" Seth thought as he felt the girls' arms tighten their embrace around his throat.

"**_If we could help, we would. But it's not possible now._**" The symbiote pitched in.

"_Don't need to tell me twice._" Seth thought back as he stepped back a few steps and exhaled a few times. The earth element coursing through his veins responding to his call as he flexed his muscles, his feet digging into the ground and cracking it from the pressure he was putting into his limbs.

Killer Frost appeared behind them and saw the prisoners latching onto each other. Knowing what might happen to her if she didn't try to prevent their escape, the icy metahuman quickly formed ice spikes on each one.

Venom saw the metahuman behind them arm herself and informed his host. "**_Quickly!_**"

Seth nodded. And just as the icy metahuman behind them was about to launch her ice spikes at them, the mutant rushed forward. As the girl's tightened their grips around his body, he neared the edge of the entrance and jumped off it. His leap was short lived as he had dodge mid-leap to avoid the bridge before them. Thankfully, it helped him as he managed perform a half-spin to dodge the incoming ice spikes from behind.

But gravity would take its natural course, meaning that it would never be on their side. The gravitational force forced them all down, falling down with the air blowing against their faces. While Seth remained calm during the plunge, the three girls clinging to his body didn't hold the same composure through the descent and screamed at the top of their lungs.

The combination of the three thundering voices close to his's head was on par with the force of Black Siren's sonic cry. And it caused both Venom and Seth to feel like they were on the verge of having their heads split open by an invisible bonesaw.

However, now wasn't the time to let himself be distracted. He had to take action. Swinging his free arm around, he quickly turned the skin into adamantium. Twisting his neck around, he placed a single eye on the cliff wall behind them and slammed his hand into it. Adamantium fingers thrusting into the wall and were dragged down through the surface.

"_Damn it!_" Seth thought as he got the exact opposite of the result he wanted. He hoped to use the tactic to perhaps slow their descent through the fall. But the odds were against him as the fingers of his enhanced limb were plowing through the rocky surface of the cliff with ease, pieces of rock flying off and hitting against their faces which were shielded by their hands.

With one arm wrapped around Jesse and the other plowing through the rock surface of the cliff, Seth's hands were too occupied so he was forced to take on the pieces of rock. But that wasn't all that he and the others had to be wary of.

A blast of fire hit the side of them, almost causing Seth to lose his grip while the girls screamed from the attack. "**_Son of a bitch!/_**_ Son of a bitch!_" both host and symbiote let out with anger when they saw Deathstorm raining flame blasts down on them from above. The fiery metahuman stood on the edge of the entrance of the lair and kept lashing his hands out in succession.

Momentarily twitching his head left and right, Seth saw that the girls attached to him were keeping their heads down to shield themselves. Seeing that, he made his decision. "_Screw it!_" Bending his legs, he blasted a wind current from his feet and pushed himself away from the cliff, avoiding another series of fire blasts in the process.

But despite them getting away from the fire blasts, the wind current forced them down quicker than before, their descent quickening and the wind force pushing against their faces made it difficult for them to breathe.

Ruby felt the same despite having her eyes closed and her pulse quickened, her heart beating like a freight train as she tried to breathe. But with the fall, it made it damn near impossible for her to inhale a sufficient amount of air. Eyes opening up and the most horrifying sight met her eyes…

…the distance between…them…and the ground…closing…quickly…as the sound of their impending doom…rang like a bell…the ground zooming in on them…like it was right before their own eyes…

…subconsciously, her hand flexing with her fingers stretching out…

Seth went to blast another wind blast downwards to cushion their fall. An arm lashed upwards while gathering wind around his palm, ready to launch it down to the ground that were nearing them very quickly.

…

…

But strangely enough...just as they were about to impact with the ground, the very same ground that was now…underneath them…as they somehow… remained suspended in the air…right above the rocky ground.

Seth's eyes were filled with shock and surprise as were the mental eyes of the symbiote inside of him. Evelyn and Jesse looked shocked as well and instantly turned to the mutant, thinking that his other hidden powers have manifested right before their eyes, saving them in the process. ¨

None of them noticed Ruby's eyes looking shockingly at the ground before them as she thought to herself. "_Guess I still have them. Even in another universe._" She briefly wondered what her mother would have thought of this if she knew that her plan back in her home universe worked.

As her thoughts went back to her mother, she felt a pang of sadness sting her and caused her a bit of heartache. While her thoughts went back to her parent, she also recalled the gruesome sight of what she had done to the man she cared deeply for back then. Even though it was an accident, she was the reason behind his death.

And when her mind would go to that place, she would instead see the different faces now, blurry faces.

Though, she wanted to investigate those images deeply, she couldn't now. Making sure her blonde hair covered the sides of her head, to prevent others from seeing her eyes, she looked to the side and saw that the three of them were still in shock and didn't look to her. Ruby kept herself from exhaling in relief and with a motion of her hand, she slowly lowered them all to the ground.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Seth let go of Jesse's waist and put her down. Bending his knees, he got into a crouch and let the others get off his back. Twitching his neck to the sides and stretching his arms, he looked around the three girls with intensive inspecting eyes.

Seth placed his eyes on Jesse, "_Evelyn said that Jesse was the only non-metahuman there._" he recalled from his first conversation with Evelyn Sharp when becoming Zoom's prisoner.

Venom mentally nodded, while he and Seth pointed their eyes on the other prisoners of Zooms'. "**_One of them must have done so then._**"

As Venom spoke his thoughts, the mutant kept his eyes on the forms of both Evelyn and Ruby. Seth knew that the chances of Evelyn doing that could be possible, but she didn't perform any action that could have led him to believe that she was the one to activate her powers.

Ruby was the last one then, but like Evelyn, she didn't show any movement whatsoever to show the activations of powers. However, what it made it suspicious was the way she's been acting…like she knew what to say at the right time, what to do at the right, for concealment of her inner secrets.

"_Keep an eye on her, Venom._" Seth asked of his partner who mentally nodded and turned his attention to the blonde-haired young woman. Shifting his eyes upwards, up along the tall cliff he saw faint blue sparks of lightning going off at the entrance of the lair. At the sight of that, he knew that the evil speedster was watching them right now from afar.

Jesse looked to him and stated with disbelief. "If your other powers are flying, why didn't you just say that?"

"Not exactly." Seth responded sheepishly before turning his eyes to them again. "But that's something for later." He grunted again, his hand clenching around his shirt on his stomach as growing another surge of pain and relief coursed through his core again. "We gotta go now."

"You sure, you're in shape for that?" Evelyn worriedly asked him.

Seth looked calmly to her and replied, "Don't worry about me, honey. I'm stronger than I look."

"_…__let's hope so…_" Ruby thought to herself as she locked eyes on his form, mentally determining Seth was who she thought he was.

"Let's go. Zoom doesn't look like the most patient fella in this universe, so let's not just stand around for him to come to us." Seth hastily told them and once they nodded in agreement, they all rushed into a sprint, running away from the cliff and the evil metahumans in the lair.

X

**(Zoom's lair, entrance)**

"**NNNNNOOOOOOO!**" Zoom screamed out in rage as he saw his former prisoners running away and into the cloak of the forestry area of the woodlands. He just lost four of his prisoners in one swoop, and he lost Jesse too, an essential piece of his game. And it was all because of that meta…mutant, Seth. It caused the blue lightning to erupt around his body, sparking off and flaring in response to his growing anger.

Deathstorm clenched his hands in anger as well, his head igniting flames and his hands bursting into flames. He didn't think that he would lose to someone like that. And it pissed him off that the mutant didn't even break a sweat against the might of them all now, especially against Zoom.

Killer Frost walked forward to his side as did Black Siren. The icy metahuman was still in shock of what the mutant did, or didn't do before. It was very shocking and it caused her mind to try and work out a solution for his actions. But nothing came to mind…aside from his gentle and warm touch.

The mere thought of it caused her to blush slightly.

The sonic-screamer looked to her leader and asked, "What now?"

"**Get Reverb here.**" Slowly turning his head to point one eye at her, he instructed her. "**And call the others…hunt down our prisoners…**"

"Which ones?" Deathstorm wondered.

Turning back to the woodlands, Zoom continued bluntly while wondering what fate was in store of the prisoners who escaped his clutches.

"**All…of them.**"

X

**(Woodlands)**

The sound of crickets buzzing and animals howling in the woodlands were mixed with the sounds of heavy panting followed by feet rapidly running through the terrain. Twigs breaking and grass stomped down to the ground as the four escapees ran through the forest in haste.

Seth swung his head backwards and saw that in the short time they've run, they actually managed to get very far away from the cliff. As he saw that, he told the others. "Looks like we're pretty far away from the lair."

"That's good." Evelyn breathed in relief, thinking that they had dealt with the worst now.

"No, it's not." Jesse exclaimed, shocking them into gaining the others' attention. "Zoom's a speedster. He can catch up to us in a second, if we stop now."

"Wow, you really know how to ruin a moment. First class buzzkill." Ruby scoffed, causing Jesse to gape her mouth open in hurt.

Despite, not liking how Jesse caused the others to lose hope now, Venom had to agree with her. "**_Jesse's got a point. Zoom is a speedster. If we rest for even a second, then he will catch up to us within that second._**"

"_You're righ-_" Seth stopped his thoughts as he felt another stream of pain and relief began clawing inside of his body again. "Damn it!" he said through gritted teeth.

Evelyn saw him hold his stomach with both arms and saw the sweat rolling off his face from exhaust. With concern displayed on her face she asked him while stepping closer to him. "Are you okay, Seth? You look like hell."

"Thank you, Evie." He jokingly stated with a nickname for her. Looking to her, he saw that her concern was genuine and she was worried for him. Inhaling deeply and schooling his features, he told her. "Don't worry, Evelyn. I'll be alright. I can take a beating." She smiled in response.

"You should be, shouldn't you?"

Seth perked his head up and swung it back to look at Ruby who was standing far behind them. The mutant noticed her eyes, seeing the pure examination of his form in them, reflecting on the surface of her eyes. Her stance was that of awareness and she looked to ready to react at a moment's notice.

Eyes widening in Seth's head as he recognized a similar stance. It was one of the basic stances he and his sister learnt of in their first days at SHIELD. If inspecting a new element, a stranger you don't know whether or not to consider a friend or foe, you take a stance that lets to quickly go to either defense or offense in a moment's notice, or even make a getaway.

And that was Ruby's current stance. It worried Seth…and made him wonder who Ruby really was.

"Why do you say that, Ruby?" Seth asked her with confusion and examination in his voice. Venom focused on the young woman as well, ready to spot a lie that might pass her mouth. But both he and his host are having conflicting feelings with the direction this conversation is going in. It was like they were going to interrogate the young girl, and neither of them wanted to do that, especially since they've been watching over her since getting to this universe.

Evelyn and Jesse shifted their eyes between them with nervous motions, watching their staredown growingly intensely with each second right now. However, their eyes mainly settled on Ruby. Wondering why she was suddenly acting the way she was.

"…" she didn't talk for a few moments. But when she did, confusion came over them. "You're him, aren't you?" Her eyes were solely focused on Seth while Ruby walked forward with slow steps. "I didn't think you were real."

"What do you mean?" Seth asked.

Standing in front of him, Ruby continued. "You're him…Weapon X Hades."

Seth widened his eyes with pure shock as he registered the words she spoke, and the name that he hasn't heard for many, many years. Realization caused him to fall over his mind as he understood it. "You're not from this universe either…you're from mine, aren't you, Ruby?"

"Looks that way." She replied calmly, but she noted that there wasn't a hint of denial in his words. Meaning she was right. "Didn't think that you were real. I always thought you were some sort of an urban legend. A story to tell bad kids."

"Is that where you learned it?" Seth wondered while stepping closer to her. "A little spooky story your parents told you before your parents tucked you into bed? I was the boogeyman, the monster under your bed?" he didn't like that.

His aim with becoming Venom was to be the Lethal Protector who shreds nightmares to pieces with the powers of elements and symbiote. To be the shield that defend others without hesitation and strike down evil. Not to become the nightmares of innocents…to be Hades again. The very name that Stryker and his operation gave him. General Stryker never called him that whenever he would visit, but the scientists always did so whenever they would cut him open and stuff him with new elements… to their ultimate biological weapon…the mutant-killer…Hades.

The mere thought of that name brought all the bad memories from that hellhole back to the forefront of his mind again, forcing his mindset to be riddled with the horrific reminders…And the screams of his little sister, Olivia, filled his mind again. His teeth grit in anger at what he felt back then, recalling the painful of a cold scalpel cutting through his flesh.

Hell returned to his mind…and it would have stayed there…if the young girl before him hadn't spoken next.

Seeing him return to their realm from his walk down memory lane, Ruby shook her head, "My mother wasn't one for tucking and bedtime stories. I read some old files that she and…her old teachers kept around." She didn't know whether or not she could reveal that part of her life to him, yet. "I used to think that she kept them around just for me…for what I could become…back home."

Those words caused him and his partner to grow both worried and confused for the girl, and what her mother was trying to do to her. Seth locked eyes with Ruby again and asked, "Ruby?" she nodded awaiting the next question. "What exactly did you try to become, Ruby?"

"Something that would surpass the greatest heroes…Captain America…even…you." She explained with a strange tone of coldness and desire, shocking Seth and the two others. "But…it all changed back home…and now I'm stuck here instead. It was everything I ever wanted in my life. I trained myself to the bone to be that…and it all went straight to hell." Her eyes looked down at the ground, in sadness mixed with hate and regret…all of them aimed at herself.

"Do you still want that?"

Seth's question caused her head to snap up again to meet his eyes. She expected her words to have brought forth hate in his eyes, emotions that would have resembled anger or anything like that. But to her surprise, Ruby didn't find anything like that in his eyes.

Only concern and worry for her.

And the way he was looking at her was…was unlike anything she's ever seen from other males. But he did, and it was like the gaze of her mother's, only full of care and warmth. "W-What did you say?" Ruby asked with a stammering voice from confusion.

"I asked, if you still want that, Ruby?" He repeated. She didn't speak, shocked into a pause. "Guess you haven't been asked that before, huh." Seth chuckled. "I know you had your goals set on this one thing, whatever it is. But take it from me, it's nothing good. You haven't given me the full story of this thing that will surpass even me, but I was made to be a weapon as well."

"A pretty powerful one at that." Ruby quickly added.

Rolling his eyes in response he continued, "You know a lot about me. And I would like to know more about you as well. But Ruby, if you still want to be whatever you were made to be, then…I'll help you back if it's possible. But trust me, it's not worth it. Yeah, it helped me become who I am now, but you…" he comfortingly placed a hand on her shoulder.

Ruby felt herself calming down, and sensations of calmness entered her body instantly thanks to Venom who sent those feelings coursing through her body along with his host's body, as both of them are experiencing another burst of pain and relief.

"You still have your whole life ahead of you…and I might not know your mom, but I'm sure that she would not want you to waste your life by becoming this weapon that you want to become. Any children are a gift from life, a precious gift granted to life. She's not gonna want you to become that weapon." Seth continued.

"What if she wanted that from the beginning?" She asked, wondering what his response would be.

"Then she's looking at the mirror right now, and she regrets the choices she's forced onto her baby girl's shoulders." He answered calmly, his words caused her eyes to widen with shock.

"You think so…" she asked again with more surprise, her fingers subconsciously curling and tree branches began breaking and dangling by their thin attachment to the trees. None of them noticed the trees suddenly losing their wooden limbs…nor did they notice the grains of sand slowly converging on one spot, gathering into a mass of sand…

"I know so, Ruby. Don't waste your life away and be this weapon, your life is not meant to be that. You can be so much more than that." Seth told her caringly.

Surprisingly, Ruby showed a wide and warm smile. "Thank-"

"**_BEHIND YOU!_**"

Stiffening his body from the shocking and urgent roar in his mind, Seth instantly wrapped his arms around Ruby's form and twirled them around in a roll. As he and the young girl rolled, the mutant noticed that they had dodged the large form of a thrusting hand…made of sand.

When Seth saw that, he felt an eerie feeling entering his core as he recalled a familiar power in his home universe. "_Please be wrong…_" he hopefully thought to himself. Thrusting his hand into the ground, he halted them from rolling further and looked up at the source.

They saw the large sand fist retracting to the owner, the sand returning to its previous state and looked like a normal fist. The man revealed himself to be a man with black hair and crazed hazel eyes that looked directly at the mutant and the three girls he rescued from his leader's lair.

Showing off a wicked smile, he greeted them. "So you're the one who broke out of Zoom's prison? Guess you might be worth the while after all."

"Thanks, but I'm taken." Seth quipped, while inwardly relieved to see that it was not Flint Marko. He recalled his continuous battles with Sandman in his home universe. And if this guy was anything like Sandman, then he would have his work cut out for him.

"It's Sand Demon." Evelyn gasped in shock at the sight of the villainous metahuman.

"Sand Demon?" Seth wondered as he threw a gaze at the young girl. Evelyn nodded while stepping back with Jesse beside her. "Nice name." the mutant turned back to the sand metahuman. "Can you live up to the name?"

"Why don't you stick around…" Sand Demon clenched his fist and turned it into sand, reforming his large sand fist again. "…and find out for yourself?!" Launching his fist forward, the limb extended and shot for the mutant and the prisoners.

Grabbing hold of Ruby again, Seth jumped out of the way and avoided the fist. When he landed again, he let go of her, "Stay with the others."

"I can fight too." Ruby stated defiantly, she didn't want to be sidelined in a fight.

"I know that." Seth pointed a finger at Jesse and Evelyn. "But they can't. So for now, Ruby, you're gonna protect them."

"Not really my thing." She countered in disagreement.

"Neither is interdimensional travel, I take. But we all got to try something new." He quipped his counter hastily before turning back to the evil metahuman who swung his sand fist for him like a whip. Seth gently pushed Ruby back and crossed both of his arms over his torso, the ice element heeding his call and coating them with a thick layer of ice.

He took on the sandy attack, only pushing the mutant back a few feet with his feet digging into the ground. Seeing that the sand fist was still attached to his body, Seth spun around. Gathering wind around his left arm that grew thanks to the momentum of his spin. Tightening his arm and clenching his fist, he threw his arm forward, blasting a wind stream into the sand limb.

The force of the wind strike pushed the sand fist back into the evil metahuman's body. It also blew Sand Demon back with his body turning into sand and into the ground. But the metahuman wasn't done there. Converging back to one spot, the metahuman returned to his true form and he growled in anger at the mutant.

Tightening his clenched fist, Seth commanded his ice element in his system to form an ice weapon on his fist. But it didn't form when his body experienced another painful surge of agony and relief again, causing him to lose his concentration, and he panted in response to the vile sensation. "_Seriously? Why now?_" he thought with his arm wrapping around his stomach.

"**_Goddamn it!_**" Venom growled in anger as well, feeling the painful and calming experience again. The symbiote hating himself from the uselessness that it was feeling now, utterly useless to help his brother in his need and forced to watch it from deep inside of Seth instead.

Sand Demon saw the mutant standing there in pain and saw his opening. Wrapping both of his fists with the sand, he enlarged them into massive sizes before shooting them forward again like torpedoes. Seth saw them briefly and formed sharp ice claws on one hand. Swinging backwards, he dug his sharp icicle claws into the trunk of the tree behind him.

Increasing his strength with the earth element, he jumped onto the tree, higher up the large trunk. Seth felt the sensations dissipate again, so he used his free hand and jumped higher up the tree. With the two fists now devoid of a target, the sandy limbs smashed into the lowest part of the trunk.

_SMASH_

Both Venom and Seth underestimated the strength of the metahuman as the sandy fists were able to punch two massive holes into the trunk. "Damn…" the host muttered in shock at the sight of the tree breaking down there on such a low point.

"**_Wait it's the lowest point, right?_**" Venom asked his host.

"_Yeah. Why…_" Seth realized what damage to the lowest point meant for the tree. "_Oh yeah._" Releasing his grip on the tree trunk, the mutant let himself fall down to the ground, just as Sand Demon retracted his fists from the tree trunk.

The two of them stared of against each other with intensive eyes. But Seth smirked as he heard the cracking sound emitting behind him. Recognizing it and hearing it intensify, he stepped to side, making sure that his body was right beside the creaking tree.

Sand Demon saw the mutant stepping to the side and asked him curiously while readying another large sand fist. "What's with the smirk?"

"Not much. Just a little…this." Water sprout out of his forearm and swarming in his palm. Gathering the water into a small orb of water in his hand, he shot it backwards and into the breaking point of the tree. The burst of water broke through the bark, forming another massive hole in the trunk. And that was all it took for it the tree to tilt, the gravitational force pushing it further down with each second.

"Uh-oh." Sand Demon let out in shock as the tree near-

_CRASH_

Time was not on the metahuman's side, meaning he was forced to the take on the tree instantly.

Seth felt another painful sensation come over his body again. "_Damn it._" he hissed in his thoughts as he had to abandon his plan of checking on the metahuman's well-being, and rushed over to the three girls. Getting to them, he quipped. "What? No one calling "Geronimo"? Shame."

Jesse brushed his joke to the side and asked him. "Aren't you going to check on him? If he's still alive?" she gestured to the fallen tree where the metahuman was now underneath.

"His body can take on the form of sand, so even a blunt strike from a falling tree is not gonna affect him that much. I've fought someone with a similar power in the past. If he's anything like that one, then he's gonna come back up again." Seth explained to her. "Let's go."

"Wait." Evelyn called out to him with shock in her voice. "Why didn't you use fire? He's sand, then you burn him, he would have been finished off."

Ruby nodded in agreement with the native girl's words, "She's right. Why didn't you use fire? Would have charcoaled that bastard easily."

"So would you guys." Seth told them, his words confusing them. Seeing that he gestured to the large and tall trees around them. "We're in a forest, people. I use fire in this place, I'm likely to start a forest fire quicker than we get out of here. And worst of all…" he turned to face the three of them. "…I could end up hurting you three. And that will not happen under my watch."

"…Thanks." Ruby told him appreciatively.

Nodding his response to her with a smile, Seth looked to Jesse and Evelyn. "You two are from here, right?" they nodded, awaiting his words. "Okay, where's Central City. That's gonna be our next stop."

"Why?" Evelyn asked shakily. "W-Wouldn't Zoom and the others just…follow us there?"

"Maybe so. But hopefully we can get some help there…" Seth grunted again in pain and relief. "And I can't fight at full strength yet, so it's better to get there for now."

Jesse considered suggesting S.T.A.R. Labs of this universe, but she didn't know if that would be a good idea, considering her father was the target Zoom had set his sights on. If they were to go over there, then it would only enlarge the target on her father's back. She couldn't risk it. "What about CCPD?" She suggested.

Seth noticed her brief trance-like state in her thoughts before her quick suggestion. While he made a mental note of it, he couldn't dig deeper into the matter because of their situation now. It would be another fight for another day.

He then returned to her suggestion. "CCPD? It's any good?" he wondered. This being another universe, didn't mean that its lawmen were the same as the ones he knows in his universe.

"Yeah." Jesse stated adamantly before recalling, "Detective West might be able to help us."

"Detective West?" Seth asked in shock. Jesse nodded, and Evelyn gulped silently with fear going down her throat. "_So Joe's still a cop here?_" he thought to himself in shock.

"**_What would the alternative be? An employee at Big Belly Burger?_**" Venom jokingly stated.

The elemental smiled at the thought of his best friend's doppelganger wearing a Big Belly Burger uniform. "_Photo of the ages._" Shaking off the thoughts, Seth stated to them. "CCPD it is, then. Let's go." He and the others began running.

Evelyn ran behind them with slow steps in her pace. She didn't know if she could allow herself to be witnessed by the policemen again, they were already on the lookouts for her since…she began her extra-curricular activities…

…the ones she committed before Zoom kidnapped her…

X

_A series of flashes ran over his mind as he saw the four escapees standing there after dealing with Sand Demon._

…

"_CCPD it is, then. Let's go._" Seth stated to them before running off again with the girls behind him.

…

X

**(Zoom's lair)**

Reverb removed his hands from his temples after he received that… informational "vibe." Zoom had ordered his participation in the matter, getting the viber to track down the four escapees with the powers of his dimensional awareness.

After receiving his "vibe", the metahuman turned to face his boss, Zoom and his fellow metahuman henchmen. Seeing the vibing metahuman's eyes on him, the evil speedster spoke growlingly. "**Where…are they?**"

"They're making their way to CCPD." Reverb told him.

"Why would they go all the way there?" Deathstorm asked in confusion, not getting the mutant's choice.

With a smug smile, Reverb told him. "Probably going to get those girls somewhere he thinks they will be safe." Making eye contacts with the fiery metahuman, he continued. "In other words, he's using his brain. A skill you clearly haven't perfected yet. Or even learnt."

Deathstorm growled in anger, but Zoom halted it with a hard glare pointing his way. Killer Frost gulped in fear of what the black speedster was going to do next to them, seeing as though their much larger group were overwhelmed by Seth.

Thinking back to what had happened, and who they had assigned to take them on, she asked Reverb in wonder, "What about Slick? Did he handle them?"

Reverb shook his head, to their surprise. "Sand Demon was defeated. Turns out we've been underestimating this…Seth guy too much."

"What do you mean?" Black Siren asked him next. Zoom listening in closely.

"He only used a few elements to take down Eddie Slick." Reverb began, "If this guy is in possession of different elements and able to use them freely, then it means that he was holding back against Sand Demon. And he also used the terrain to his advantage, making a tree fall down on him."

"**He knows how to fight…**" Zoom growled, getting their attention. Blue lightning continued crackling over his form ash he looked to Reverb again, his gaze shaking the viber. "**…Have Lamden intercept them next. If he fails, then he and the rest of us here are gonna wait for them at CCPD.**"

Nodding his consent, the viber asked, "Anyone else?"

"**Rothstein too. Seth is gonna regret challenging me.**" Zoom finished off.

_WHOOSH_

He disappeared into a streak of blue lighting, running out of his lair, leaving his henchmen to handle the preparations of the welcome wagon for the mutant and his group at CCPD.

Black Siren walked over to Killer Frost, after her boyfriend continued having a staredown with Reverse. Making her way to her, the sonic-screamer asked her. "Looks like we're gonna be taking down our handsomest prisoner."

"Yeah…" Killer Frost trailed off, her cheeks turning red at the thought of the elemental again. She recalled the way he held her when she was about to fall down to the ground, and it only intensified the blush on her face. Shaking it, she director to her friend. "You think Seth is that much of a threat?"

Tilting her head from side to side as though she was weighing her thoughts like a scale, Black Siren stated, "Maybe. But I think there's more to this guy than we think…" She smirked teasingly, for her frosty metahuman's sake. "…Maybe even more on him…don't you think Frost?"

Killer Frost rolled her eyes at the poor and obvious attempt at teasing her. "Go ahead, I doubt you'd even get far."

She raised an eyebrow and commented with a smug smile, "Someone's feeling confident just because she had a little make-out with our handsome…mutant." Killer Frost didn't respond but she did feel another heat wave pass over her cheeks, creating a beautiful mix of clashing colors on her face.

Black Siren could see it and she wondered what kind of mischievous acts she could play on her. It was a rare opportunity for her to actually have some fun with her cold-hearted friend. And she wasn't going to miss it. She couldn't help but think her next thought.

"_Maybe I should have a taste myself._"

X

**(Woodlands)**

Seth and three girls reached a spot on the ground, reaching a place with fallen trunks of large and tall trees on the ground. Jesse and Evelyn had to sit down on the ground, feeling air getting out of their system. Jesse felt more exhaust than Evelyn.

Ruby didn't seem as exhausted as the other girls, clearly showing signs of adaption to intense workouts. Seth saw it and deduced that she must have been training herself for a very long time.

"**_There's more to this one than meets the eye._**" Venom stated as he looked at Ruby with examining eyes.

"_Yeah, there is._" Seth thought back before shifting his eyes to the other girls briefly. Seeing that the two of them are still in a state of exhaustion, Jesse being near collapse, he walked over to Ruby, hoping to have a private talk together.

"What's up?" She asked when Seth neared her.

"Hey, Ruby." He greeted as he walked to stand beside her. "Ruby, about what we talked about before-"

"I won't talk about it anymore." Ruby interrupted him, knowing that it was still a lingering topic of theirs. "You don't have to worry about it." seeing him sigh in relief, she followed up with more questions. "Is that much of a pain to talk about it?"

"You have no idea how much I hated that entire year." Seth breathed out with teeth gritting. "An entire year of non-stop torturing experiments, forcing me to change into a weapon of mass destruction. It's not something that you would ever wish for."

"That sucks." Thinking back to her own life, what she had done with her life, what her life-long purpose in life was, she directed at him. "What if you worked your whole life to become this?" The mutant turned to her. "I worked myself to the bone ever since I was born…to become this…thing that I wanted to become…and now that I finally got it…it backfired."

"Something happened with…Werner?" Seth recalled, Ruby's head snapping to him in an instant. "You've been saying his name in your sleep. Remember, I've been keeping an eye on you for a while now."

"…he's someone I cared about…and it…" Ruby clenched her fists tightly with anger. "…_I_…hurt him."

Judging her from her forced words and the way her face became overwhelmed with sadness, Seth knew there were that story. That she didn't just hurt him…but he couldn't force the poor girl to speak her mind like that, she had to open up on her own terms.

"I think whatever happened to you, was the same thing that drove Zoom to kidnap you right?" Ruby nodded with downcast eyes. "Ruby, you don't have to say it or show it to me, but your powers…for anyone inexperienced, then it's like holding a Gatling gun for your first time. It's uncontrollable."

"I'm not inexperienced." She countered defiantly.

"With powers, you are." He countered himself, making the woman concede. "For anyone to get powers, it's impossible to control right away. It's like strengthening your entire body: training and time. I assume that's how you became this frightful fighter, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "I've never met a mutant before. That's pretty cool. Thought they were just…not there anymore."

"Glad to be the first to tell you, you're very wrong." Seth chuckled and she joined in as well. He then looked over their surroundings, seeing the massively tall trees around them, leaves falling off of the trees and landing into piles of green leaves. Near their position, he found a large body of water, a lake in the far. "There's a lake over there. Nice place for us to take a break for a while."

"Please!" Jesse exclaimed, agreeing with those words instantly. She was nigh collapse.

"Okay, okay, okay. Jeez, Jesse." Seth told her with shock in his voice. "Let's go, then." They nodded and got up to their feet again before walking towards the place. Looking between the young girls again, he saw that Evelyn wasn't there.

"**_Behind you._**" Venom started, and the host looked back to see Evelyn walking behind them with a purposely slow pace. "**_There's a lot we don't know about these girls._**" The symbiote further stated when he and Seth saw the emotions running over Evelyn's face.

Mentally nodding his agreement to his partner, Seth halted his progress and waited for Evelyn to catch up to him. When she did, the mutant asked her. "What's wrong, Evelyn? You seem a little down? You're not sick, are you?"

"No, I'm alright." Evelyn answered with an unsurely tone, "It's just…You sure it's good idea bringing us to the CCPD? I mean, we're gonna be surrounded by cops at every angle…I don't know if that's smart."

"Something I should know?" he tried to get her to open up about her life. He really didn't know anything about Jesse and Evelyn that much, aside from the former being the only non-metahuman from Zoom's lair. Knowing whether or not if it was because they trusted him or not, he chose to let them go at their own pace.

However, to really help them, he needed them to open up to him.

Evelyn shook her head. "No I'm fine. Don't worry. It's just…I'm not comfortable around cops. They've never done much…good for some of us in the city."

"I'm here." She looked to his eyes, and found a burning infernal-like conviction in his eyes. "You don't have to worry about them, I'll be here. And if anyone's gonna try something, then they're gonna have to go through me." The moment he finished his sentence, he felt another sensation of pain and relief again.

"You might wanna get something for that." Evelyn joked with a giggle. Seth patted her head as she giggled and walked over to the lake, where both Jesse and Ruby were standing at the shore of it.

Jesse splashed water into her face, relishing in the cold and refreshing water as though she had been treading through a desert for a very long time. She looked to be pure bliss while she was enjoying the dripping water.

Ruby took off her shoes and dipped them into the water as well while taking a seat by the edge of the grass. Forming a smile from the cold and pleasant sensation wrapping around her feet. Grunting a bit in pain from her hands, she unwrapped the blanket from them. Examining her the reduced damage on her fingers for a moment, she inhaled deeply before leaning forward and dunked them into water as well. Her smile widened as she enjoyed the feeling of water.

Evelyn took a seat on the ground, merely enjoying the feeling of grass straws touching her fingers and feet instead.

Seth didn't go to the water yet. First, he took a few leaves and placed them on both hands. walking back over to the water, he dropped the leaves to the water. The moment they did so, the leaves sent out a small shockwave and formed a circle of leaves. The three girls saw him do so and looked to him with interest. Crouching down on one knee, he placed both hands on the water surface and manipulated the water in front of her into spheres of water.

The leaves gathered into water orbs, spiraling around within each one. Seth pushed the orbs on one side, pushing the top side of it with the water element. When he was sure that he's made the desired shape, he used ice to freeze them. Once it was frozen, the girls saw that he had made ice bowls with green leaves encased in the ice.

"That's pretty neat." Ruby praised his use of elements.

"Thanks." He replied and dug the bowls into the water, pouring water into them both. Holding one of them out to Jesse she grabbed it and drank from it. He gave the other one to Evelyn who drank immediately.

As Ruby walked closer to him, Seth managed to form two more ice bowls and poured water into them before holding one out to her. "Thanks." She accepted it and drank from it with loud slurps. "Awesome."

"Didn't think people could use powers like that." Jesse commented surprisingly as she continued drinking from the ice bowl.

Taking seat on the grassy ground, he explained while drinking water himself. "Powers are like tools; they can serve more than one purpose. More than just superhero-ing and supervillainy. Sometimes, they can be used for simple tasks," he gestured to his ice bowl. "like making a bowl."

At his words, Evelyn drifted her eyes down to her hands. Thinking that they were more to her than what she's been doing. Thinking that…she could be a lot more than what everyone in her home have been thinking of her, how they've been seeing her all this time.

"Guess that's true." Jesse sipped on her water again. "But we all that's been happening around Central City, it's pretty doubtful for anyone to think that powers can do simple tasks."

"I'm gonna take a guess here, and say that your city was blasted with dark matter from a particle accelerator explosion, right?" Seth suggested knowingly.

"Yeah…" Jesse trailed off, not willing to explore of that topic to Seth. Not out of distrust, but because she didn't wanna put more heat on her father.

In the far end of the lake, something began swimming under the water surface. Its form barely visible from any eyes, and none of the four escapees on the shore have not seen it yet.

Noticing her words, or lack thereof, Seth told her. "Don't worry about it, Jesse. I'm not forcing you guys to spill your guts to me." He revealed to them all. "My main mission is to make sure the four of us are safe."

"Then what?" Evelyn wondered.

Seth opened his mouth to speak. But was interrupted by his partner's words. "**_Seth._**" Hearing the serious tone, he stopped himself from making any move. "**_We're not alone._**" Venom had sensed the presence of someone else…something else.

Getting back on his feet hastily Seth looked around with his eyes scanning the terrain around them, focusing them in the water. When the three girls saw him shoot back to his full height, they did the same and returned to their full heights as well. They stood clear of the water once they saw the elemental's eyes on the lake.

Shifting his eyes from left and right, looking on both sides of the lake, the mutant walked closer to the edge of the water. Clenching a fist, he reeled it back with the wind element coursing around the hand. Increasing the wind current around it, he launched his arm forward, blasting the wind current forward and hit the middle of the lake.

The wind thrust causing a blast in the water, blowing up a small amount of water into the air. A shockwave ran through the lake water, rippling through it with small waves following the aftermath. Seth drifted his eyes around the lake, trying to find the source of the presence in the water. Venom could feel the presence, feeling the presence with the senses spread to the limits.

Jesse looked to him with narrowed eyes of confusion. "What was that for?"

"We're not alone." He answered, while walking closer to the waters. Inhaling a deep and large amount of air into his lungs, he bellowed. "Come on out! I know you're out there, so show your face!" His words caused confusion to grow over the girls' minds and were met with no response…

Until a few moments later…

In the middle of the lake, the water began to rise. As though it was being pushed upwards from underneath the surface. And it was…as the rising water became a towering form that forced the eyes of everyone on the shore to widen their eyes to their limits and beyond. The sight of the sharp fin piercing through the top of the water cloak around its form revealed itself and the water dripped down its large form.

It revealed itself to be a large humanoid white shark with terrifyingly massive muscles. Large hands with fins and claws at the fingertips, strong enough to bend metal with ease and pierce through it just as easily. Gills on the sides of its large and long head inhaling air as it held its dark blue shark eyes on Seth. A mouth opening up and revealing jaws of sharp fangs that looked large and strong enough to tear through flesh and bones like thin paper. As it raised itself from the lake water, it revealed its lower body. Massive legs with booming muscles and clad in…ragged and torn brown pants.

Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse widened their eyes as they laid them on the large humanoid shark being. The sight of it caused them to walk backwards. Seth widened his eyes and his face couldn't form a single expression as it took in the sight of the metahuman shark being…with pants.

The shark metahuman walked through the lake and reached the shore, stepping up on the ground. Exhaling, the shark being looked to Seth and pointed a large finger at him. "Zoom wants you back." he spoke with a booming dark voice, devoid of any emotions.

"And nothing says that better than a giant talking shark in pants." Seth gestured to the metahuman's choice of clothes. "But seriously? Why the pants? They look like shit on you, pal."

Roaring at the mutant while lashing his arms to the sides, the metahuman bellowed. "Come now, or die!"

"I'll take option number three." Seth took a fighting stance, his hands forming ice spikes on his knuckles while his feet dug into the ground with the earth element strengthening his limbs. "And beat your ass into the ground, Sharkbait."

Ruby raised an eyebrow and thought. "_Someone likes Finding Nemo._"

The evil metahuman roared in anger before charging at the mutant. Once near him, he launched his right arm for him, swinging it at him with quick swing. Seth saw it and spun around, dodging it. When he returned to a standing, he launched himself at the shark being again. An ice spiked fist slamming into his stomach.

But the much larger shark metahuman didn't seem fazed by the attack, feeling as though the fist was nothing more a cold pebble touching his stomach. Grabbing hold of the mutant with both hands, he lifted him closer to his mouth and roared at him.

Smelling the metahuman's terrible breath that followed the roar, Seth had no choice but to grimace in disgust. "Okay, seriously, are there no such things as breath mints on this Earth or are they just off-limits for villains?" he quipped while being held in the shark metahuman's vice-grip. Blasting wind from his feet, he blew them upwards and slammed them into the shark's gills.

The attack on the side of its head caused him to loosen his grip on Seth, letting him free. As the shark metahuman held its gills in pain, the elemental ignited flames on his right arm before delivering a burning uppercut into the metahuman's jaw. It caused burns to appear on his jawline, reddening some of his flesh, while he staggered back in pain.

Seth slammed both of his hands into the ground, the earth cracking along the ground under the shark being's feet. As he was staggering and trying to regain his balance, the mutant shot forward like a bullet. Freezing ice spikes on his leg, he swung it into the shark metahuman's stomach. He dug them deep into his stomach, embedding the spikes in his stomach.

While still in pain, the large metahuman raised an arm, clenching his fist and thrusted it forward. Seth went to move away and dodge the attack. But before he could, he felt another sensation of pain and relief course through his body, this one much stronger and coursing through each and every nerve in his body. "**_Damn it!_**" Venom roared in pain as he too felt the massive increase of pain and relief.

"_Why now?!_" He thought in dismay as the metahuman smashed his fist into him and hurled him into the air. His body clashed into a tree, the force that brought him into it strong enough to send his hurling body through the trunk like a cannonball bursting through the side of a battleship.

"Seth!" Evelyn gasped out with shock as she saw him crashing through the tree trunk.

"Shit!" Ruby gasped in horror as she saw the same.

"Oh no." Jesse let out.

However, the sound of their shock was heard by the large shark metahuman who turned to them instantly. Walking to them with large and heavy steps, he told them repeatedly. "Zoom wants you back!" he stepped closer to them.

While Evelyn and Jesse saw the massive humanoid shark walking over to them, they began to walk back in fear, but Ruby didn't do that and instead took a fighting stance. Unlike the others, she didn't feel fear when she saw the large metahuman coming their way. She felt as though she could finally prove herself again. "Wish I had blades right about now."

Seth got up on his feet, wind emitting from his body and blew the wood pieces off his body. His face paled, completely drained of all color as he and his partner from within saw the large shark metahuman walk over to the three girls. Its clenched hand raised into the air, ready to be brought down like a sledgehammer.

"Hell no!" using wind and lighting, despite the latter hurting his body, he accelerated his leap and launched into the air.

"**_STOP THAT BASTARD, SETH!_**" Venom bellowed in anger at the thought of the shark being hurting those three innocent girls or bringing them back to Zoom's lair for more hellish memories in a cell.

Seth managed to appear before the three girls again, standing before them like a true protector would. His hand reeled back, ready to launch it like a rocket.

But before he could do that, he looked into the eyes of the large shark again. He… saw… fear… horror… terror… in his dark blue eyes. The being kept his hand in the air, but as he laid his eyes on the elemental, he stepped back with staggering steps, almost falling down on his rear in the process.

Seeing that, Seth recognized what was going on within the animal's mind. Having seen it before in various animals back home in his native universe and his new home, he knew what was happening. And while he could have used it to actually destroy the animal before him, he can't now because of the overwhelming sensation of agony and pleasure that increased with small and powerful bursts.

Making eye contact with the large animal again, he let out in anger. "Piss off!" Once the beast registered the angered roar, it immediately dashed away from them like a runner with the devil on his ass. When he saw the shark metahuman running away from them, increasing the distance between them with each thundering step he took, Seth fell down on his knees, feeling like he was being assaulted from within. It caused his entire face to be riddled with sweat and pain washing over him.

"The hell…_pant…pant…_is going on?" Seth breathed out with painful pants.

"**_AAARRRGGGHH!_**" Venom screamed out in absolute pain as he too felt the massive increase of excruciating pain and relieving pleasure.

Ruby was shocked and relaxed her body, relieving herself from her battle stance and allowing herself to calm down. She looked to the elemental mutant with shocking eyes, she never expected to see a large half-shark half-man before. Nor did she expect to see it run away from them like it was trying to win a marathon.

Jesse had to breath in and out a few times. She was experiencing difficulties of otherworldly kinds as her mind was still struggling to comprehend what had happened. A large metahuman with the physical attributes of a great white shark, able and ready to tear any of its opponents to shreds with ease. That same metahuman is now running away like a coward after sharing eye contact with Seth. She couldn't understand it.

Evelyn were relieved to see the evil metahuman run away from them. Especially as it was on the very path to hurt her and the others. But like the others, she too was shocked to see the mutant just handle it like that. However, she turned her attention to Seth who was still panting heavily with a hurting breath.

She instantly shot to his side and placed a hand on his back, getting his attention in the process. "Seth? What's wrong? You look worse." Her voice brought the others' attention to them and they walked closer to him.

"I don't know why, but it's worse now." Seth grit his teeth, feeling as though he was on the verge of breaking them off of his jawline. "It's like something is trying claw its way out of my body." He revealed to their confusion.

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Something good or bad? Cause that can go both ways. And I'm only hoping the better one of the two." Her voice was covered in smugness, but only in effort to try and hide her concern for the him.

"I really don't know." He admitted. "But whatever it is…it's both great to feel because it's relieving me but it's also pure agony."

"You feel those two at the same time?" Evelyn asked with a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I am." Seth shook his head before forcing himself back on his feet, his right hand wiping the bullets of sweat off his forehead as he told them. "It's not important right now. What matters is that we're going to get away from here." He saw the looks of sadness on their faces so he offered. "When we get back, I'll make sure that I'm checked on. Okay?"

They nodded their reluctant agreement and walked after the elemental who staggered forward with slow steps.

X

After a while of walking through the woodlands, the girls and Seth finally reached the edge of Central City. Looking around the city, Seth was surprised to see how much the Central City of this universe was like his own. But he did notice the train running over the city via a railing on a bridge.

Eyes shifting around, he saw the various buildings around them. And did notice a difference between the two various of Central Citys, this universe's buildings are more metallic, either with decorations or purely made of it. The sunlight reflecting off the building's surfaces and spreading the sun's light around the city. The cars that passed by them, also seems to be different as they are designed after old models, at least from his knowledge.

"Not bad. Pretty amazing city." Seth stated while panting, his body still feeling pain and relief now, coming in much stronger waves.

"**_What's happening to us?!_**" Venom screamed out in disbelief.

"_No idea, Venom. But hold on, for now. I promise you, I'm get food for us both. Just…hold on._" Seth pleaded to his partner as he looked around again, taking in the sights around them.

Evelyn looked around, while keeping her back to the wall of a building that she was near. Her head looking downwards with her long hair covering her eyes and the rest of her face. Turning to the side, she saw a familiar empty alleyway with a familiar container and she walked over to it.

Ruby saw the metahuman walking into an alleyway and considered following. But that idea was shot down when Jesse walked over to her. "What's up, Whiney?"

Jesse rolled her eyes at the nickname. "Still going with that nickname?"

"Well, you only whined back in the lair with no end." She stated her answer. "So yeah, I'm sticking with "Whiney." What is it?"

Before she replied, she looked back to Seth to see that the elemental was out of earshot. Seeing that again, Jesse asked her with a low voice. "You saw what happened back there right?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, slightly interested now. Somehow the suspicious and worrying tone used by the native brought her interest forth.

"Back in the forest." Jesse made sure they weren't being eavesdropped with another swing of her eyes into Seth's direction. "One minute, Seth is getting trashed by that shark metahuman. The next, the shark metahuman runs away screaming like a wounded animal…afraid of Seth. Because of one _look._" She empathized her words.

"Well considering what I read about him, it's not that surprising." Ruby had to agree with the evil metahuman's choice of actions back in the forest.

"That's what I was talking." She got Ruby's attention. "What exactly is that thing you said before? Weapon X Hades? Cause I don't know if it's a good idea to trust him so easily now. A guy who can scare anyone like that with a single look, called Hades, and is not a metahuman…I'm not sure about it now." she was full of disbelief.

Flickering some of her hair out of her eyes, Ruby started. "Well, apparently it was some major rogue military project that happened years ago, many years ago. Three powered beings, mutants, not much longer than us, actually, were picked off of the streets, and they were changed into biological weapons that would be used by the army. My mother used to say that they could level enemies both inside and outside their base with ease. Unlike humans, they were disposable, I think. Less than trash." She said harshly.

"_Like Inhumans._" She thought to herself before continuing. "But what I do know? Hades was the strongest of them all." Jesse's eyes told her to continue with the explanation, awaiting the rest of Ruby's knowledge to be shown. But her words did cause the native to gulp, in either fear or shock, she did not know. "Of all the weapons, he was the weapon to be used against other countries' weapons, if they wanted to use their own bio weapons. He was the only one of their bio weapons that could use elements. And Seth was chosen for this project because he was an anomaly of some sorts when it came to elements, to his powers in that sense. He's crazy strong…but that's not all."

"What do you mean?" Jesse asked impatiently.

"From what I could find and from what my mother told me, there was something else, that was also to be used on Hades. A special compound. They only called it one thing: V." Ruby revealed.

"But you don't know what it was?" Jesse asked.

Ruby shook her head. "No idea. But I gotta admit, it's pretty cool to actually meet him. I always thought he was some urban legend even. He was kind of like an idol of mine back in the day, before someone better showed up. I actually thought I was gonna become like him."

"Like a weapon?" Jesse asked confused. "A weaponized, powered, bio-logical idol with control over elements?"

"I had a complicated childhood." Ruby revealed stoically.

"Okay…" Jesse accepted that vague revelation.

"Ladies." They turned to Seth who was staggering towards them. "Let's go. We're gonna need to find CCPD."

"It's not far from here." The three of them looked to the alleyway and saw Evelyn walking out of it with a ragged least-one-size-too-large red hoodie on her body. Her head covered by the hood, covering her entire head from any eyes. "Just down the road and then to the left." She raised a hand and pointed in the direction of the police department.

"What's with the oversized hoodie, Evelyn?" Seth asked her in confusion while he and his partner noticed how the hood was covering her face and was ragged.

"Its…nothing important." Evelyn answered suspiciously.

Seth felt his partner mentally point his eyes into the alleyway. Following the same direction as Venom, the elemental saw that both of them are looking at the trash container. Judging by the open container with pieces of trash around it, only one conclusion came to mind. "**_It came from the trash container._**" The symbiote followed his host's thoughts. "**_But why?_**"

"_There's still a lot of things we don't know about Evelyn._" The mutant thought to his partner while his eyes placed them on the young metahuman who was hiding her face with her hoodie. "_She's hiding something._" He really wanted to help her out of her shell, but he couldn't do it now.

Sighing to himself in defeat, he looked in that direction and stated. "All onboard, ladies. Next stop, CCPD."

Venom panted while his host walked and stated mockingly. "**_If this one has a ridiculous mural too, then we're destroying it._**"

"_Depends on what it is. Or what it says._" Seth genuinely hoped it wouldn't be a sappy message like the ones he's seen.

X

**(Earth-2, Central City Police Department)**

Just like the police department in the Central City he knows, this one also holds an elevator as well. He did notice that like the one in his new home, this elevator does not play any music inside of it.

"**_Pretty dull design._**" Venom commented with a heavy breathing on the interiors of the elevator.

"_Yeah._" Seth thought back his answer while he leaned against a wall, he began breathing as hardly as though he would lose breath any second now. "Damn it all." He muttered under his breath.

Shaking his head, he looked around the girls again. He saw Ruby looking bored and though her mind was elsewhere. Jesse tried to hide it, but ever since the fight with the shark metahuman in the forest, she's been keeping her eyes on him for a long time. He didn't know if it was distrust or something else boiling underneath the surface of her skin, but he was unsure of what it was.

Evelyn was the only one he was solely focusing on at all times. Trying to understand why she was in such a need to conceal her face, any hints of her identity had to be hidden underneath her red and trashy hoodie. He didn't feel like there were any ill intentions in her, not a single ill-mannered bone in her body. But one thing he did recognize since he revealed their next stop…he knew one thing…

She was scared of entering the city.

And Seth couldn't figure it out, no matter how much he tries to.

"**_Wonder what she's hiding?_**" Venom wondered when he saw the girl try in vain to pull her hoodie over her head and extend over her face.

"_Whatever it is…_" Seth clenched his hand over his stomach as he felt pain again. "_…We're gonna protect her, all of them…_"

"**_Till the end._**"

Mentally chuckling, Seth thought. "_Or die trying._"

_DING_

His train of thoughts ended when he and the girls heard the sound of the elevator reaching the right floor. The doors opened up and he and the girls walked out of the lift. As he walked, he saw that Evelyn was placing both hands in her front pockets and perking her head down as though she was avoiding eye contact with anyone in the police department, shielding her head behind the covers of her red hoodie.

However, much like his first visit to the police department in his new home, he felt the eyes of the dozens of police officers pointing at him from every angle. Even trying to be intimidating with their guns showing and revealed them to the eyes of the dozens of civilians there. Although Seth thought it would have been done so because of how suspicious his and Ruby's clothes are, especially since her clothes are a ragged combat armor.

Feeling his interest heightening by the second along with his curiosity, Seth looked to the side and eyed the wall there, finding a large mural just like his own universe. "_A Free and Just Society._" The mutant thought to himself with a raised eyebrow.

"**_That sounds…no better than the one we know._**" His "other" pitched in his two cents while exhaling in exhaust.

"_Nice message, though._" Speaking his thoughts, Seth inclined his head. "_But doubt it's gonna be easy with Zoom still around and about._" Venom mentally nodded in agreement with that statement.

Ruby walked over to Seth's side and eyed the mural herself and spoke to the mutant. "Strange, it doesn't say anything about watching the mutant in trashy clothes like a hawk, does it?" She humored with crossed arms, after noticing how the officers were watching him like hawks.

Giving a short laugh, he replied, "Might have something to do with the tiny blonde kid in a battle armor, but who knows?"

Ruby chuckled. "Yeah, but if they try to put me in a cell, I'll kill them." She spoke back.

"Not something you wanna put on your resume, sweetie." He told her calmly. "Or say out loud in a police precinct." She didn't seem the least bit bothered or seem to care at all about that.

Jesse saw them just talking casually, which made her ask them. "Guys, aren't we supposed to find someone here?" Evelyn kept her head down and walked towards them as well

"Right. Let's go and fin-" Seth stopped himself from talking as he felt a small presence behind him. Turning his head to that direction, he saw Evelyn hiding behind him like his form was going to shield her somehow. "Evie, what are you doing back there?" he had Venom listen in on her next words, in case of lies.

She shook her head, "Nothing."

"**_She's hiding something._**" Venom stated.

"_Great._" Seth thought sarcastically. "_More secrets._"

Venom mentally raised an eyebrow. "**_For a secret agent of a spy organization, you sure have a problem with other's secrets._**"

"_Only those I'm trying to help, Venom._" he assured his partner.

"Can I help you folks?" the four of them turned to the side and saw a man walking towards them. He was wearing a black suit with a striped yellow tie around the collar of his white shirt under his coat. His hair id black and shining as he pointed his eyes on them. "You guys look a little lost. Need directions?" he spoke with a happy and cherry smile.

"Um, yeah. We're looking for someone. And yeah, we're kind of…new to town." Seth spoke unsurely.

The man smiled, "Great. It so happens that finding people is my specialty." He struck out his hand before introducing himself. "I'm Detective Floyd Lawton. Pleasure to meet you folks."

Grabbing the hand and shaking it, Seth greeted back. "Likewise. Seth Fury." He considered introducing the girls around him, but didn't find it smart to reveal too much about them for now. So he went straight to the matter instead. "We're looking for a Detective West. Hope you can help us with that?"

"Someone call my name?"

At the sound of that familiar voice, Seth widened his eyes with shock as he turned to it. He found the surprising form of Iris West, her clothes consisting of loose brown trousers and a black top shirt with long sleeves. What surprised him was the badge on her belt, seeing that it was a detective's badge. He also noticed a holster on her upper body, holstered with a firearm.

At the sight of the familiar woman, Evelyn tried hiding behind Seth again.

Walking to Floyd, she said. "Lawton, think you could take care of the wife and husband you brought in before? The wife of the two needs to be in a hospital soon enough."

"Sure thing, partner." Floyd accepted the request and walked away to handle the request.

"Why? Is she okay?" Jesse asked, seeing that Seth was still in shock of the detective.

Iris held her hand up and told her, "Don't' worry about her, honey. She's fine, she just needs to go to the hospital in a while." She turned to the stunned Seth again. "But I heard you're looking for Detective West." Using her hands, she gestured to herself. "You just found her."

Snapping out of his shock, Seth asked with a stammering voice. "Y-Y-You're Detective West? Detective I-I-Iris West?" the three girls were shocked to see and hear the mutant, the one who faced down Zoom and his henchmen without fear in his core, now stammering with shock and disbelief.

Iris raised an eyebrow at his state of shock. "What's wrong with you? Cat got your tongue?"

As she waited a couple of officers escorted a man and a woman into the lobby. The sun-kissed tanned woman revealing herself to be in a long yellow maternity dress that was stretched over her large belly, making sure nothing tightened against her stomach and protecting her child within. Her pale husband was walking beside her, his arm wrapped around hers. The two uniformed officers kept walking on either side of them, their eyes shifting around the lobby of their precinct, taking the various people in there.

Seth chuckled and said, "I'm sorry. But…you're not what was I expecting, I guess."

"It's okay. Don't worry, Seth, was it?" The mutant nodded while Evelyn kept herself back, making sure the detective didn't see her face. Ruby and Jesse noticed her strange behavior and found it suspicious, the two of them sharing eye contact while curiously nodding to the other girl. "But what can I help you and your friends with?" Iris continued with her question.

The two cops escorting the pregnant woman saw the girl in the oversized hoodie and saw how she was concealing her face with every single effort she put it into it. Seeing that, senses of familiarity came over their minds, like they've seen the way she's acting from somewhere before.

"We're in a bit of trouble." Seth sheepishly stated to the detective before him.

"If trouble is your situation, then you have nothing to fear, because Detective West is here." Seth widened his eyes at the surprisingly cheery voice of a familiar person. Turning to it, the mutant's thoughts were correct as he laid eyes on him.

"**_Wait, is that?_**" Venom asked dumbstruck.

"Yup." He muttered his response, barely above a whisper, as he took in the sight of that man, who he last saw on the face of his friend, who also is responsible for him being launched into this universe.

The face of Barry Allen revealed itself as he walked towards them. Walking with a happy smile, and a body clothed in a rather…geeky choice of clothing. A white shirt with a black and yellow butterfly tie around his collar. A brown vest around his torso, revealed through the zipped open coat of his. His right hand touching the leg o his black pants, his silver ring shining when light hit the surface of it.

Making it to the side of the smiling detective, Barry gestured to Iris and stated. "Don't you worry, friend. Detective West is gonna handle all of your troubles." The words got the detective to widen her smile while rolling her eyes at his cheesy smile.

"And you are…" Seth trailed off, still in shock. Especially after seeing the man's clothing.

"Barry Allen, forensic scientist for the CCPD." Barry introduced himself.

"**_This guy looks like a geek, a real nerd._**" Venom commented harshly with surprise.

"_…__yeah…I agree._" Seth thought back in shock.

Iris smiled at his words and placed a hand on Barry's shoulder. "Forgive my husband, his mouth runs faster than his brain." Her husband smiling happily at her words and kissed her cheek.

"_Husband?!_" Seth thought in shock. "That must happen, every now and then." He joked, while still in shock.

"Yeah." Iris began before taking a professional stand. "But back to the ma-"

"CCPD! Hands up!"

The booming voice of an exclaiming officer drew their attention to him. Seeing the raised police-issued firearm pointing at Seth and his group. Iris and Barry stepped back in shock, the wife standing in front of her husband in worry.

Seth lost any emotions in his eyes and looked to the pair of officers who pointed their guns at him. Looking behind them, he saw a very pregnant wife and her husband beside each other. Ruby saw them herself, but she took a battle stance instead, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Jesse hid behind Seth in worry.

"What the hell do you guys think you're doing?!" Iris demanded the officers who kept their weapons trained on the mutant.

"You guys better explain why you assholes are pointing a gun at us, otherwise there's gonna be a couple of vacancies very quickly!" Seth roared at the officers with a threat.

One of the officers nodded to Seth. To the one behind him, specifically the one behind him. "The girl behind him. She look familiar to you, Detective West?" he asked the detective.

Iris didn't understand and looked at the girl behind Seth, seeing the way she was clutching and trying desperately to use her hoodie to cover her head. But strands of her long hair blew out from the sides, and a blue eye of hers showed itself too, looking to her.

When she saw that she instantly knew who it was, and spoke. "Evelyn Sharp." Stiffening her body in shock for a few moments, Evelyn took off her hoodie showing her face and looked at the detective's face. "It's you again."

"Hi, Detective West." She greeted the detective with a small voice.

Confusedly, Seth looked to her and asked. "You know her, Evelyn?"

When Evelyn didn't answer his question, the two officers were more than willing to answer it.

"The girl behind you, Evelyn Sharp, is a notorious thief. She's been charged with the charges of theft from dozens of civilians in the city." The first one stated loudly.

Her name got the attention of dozens of the other officers and they drew their guns out and trained them on them as well. Evelyn began shaking in fear as she saw them, the city's finest pointing their guns at her without a shred of hesitation.

The other officer then spoke to Seth. "Sir, you and your two companions have to walk away from her now."

However, Seth didn't heed their order and instead turned to Evelyn. He saw her eyes, fully of fear. Shaking to her very core. In return, Evelyn saw his eyes. She saw his eyes, full of…concern…care… and… impressiveness. The only one to ever have shown those kinds of emotions for her…was her…father…a long time ago.

Chuckling a bit, Seth asked. "So you're a little thief, huh? Been stealing from the rich and famous? But that's all, right, Evie?"

Evelyn never wanted to hide anything from Seth, especially after he's been showing nothing but kindness to her. She couldn't lie to him. But she couldn't look him in his eyes as she gave her response. Pointing her head down, avoiding eye contact with him, she slowly nodded her agreement.

Ruby and Jesse shifted their eyes from the ready to fire officers and the elemental who was standing before the young metahuman girl.

She heard another chuckle coming from Seth, which made her confused. She then felt a hand touching the top of her head, patting it comfortingly. Evelyn slowly looked up to his eyes again, her own pair widening to new limits when she saw him merely smiling in comfort for her.

"Glad it's nothing worse." He started comfortingly, confusing the three girls he saved along with the officers. Iris and Barry shared a confused look between themselves as they heard his words.

"W-W-What do you mean?" Evelyn asked in shock once his words were registered. "You're not mad that I was hiding this? That I'm a criminal."

Seth smiled, not caring that a least dozens of guns are pointing his way by officers. "Evie, I knew you were hiding something this entire time." Gritting his teeth as his body experiencing another feeling of anguish and relief. Exhaling again, he smiled to her again, he continued. "But you're still a kid, sweetie. You can make up for all the things you did with time. Don't worry about that. And no, I'm not mad at you for being a criminal. Trust me, you haven't done anything that I haven't done before when I was kid, maybe around your age, I think." Evelyn raised an eyebrow at his words. "Yeah, I had a strange childhood, not the kind you guys want."

He patted her head lovingly again before continuing. "But the point is, I'm not mad and, Evie, nothing's gonna happen to you. I promise you that."

Evelyn couldn't believe what she was hearing, so much that her eyes began leaking eyes of joy. She had never heard anyone speak like that to her for so long. Her shock took control of her action, and she shot to him and wrapped her arms around his waist in an embrace. "Thank you." She spoke into his chest.

Wrapping his arms around her, he told her back. "You're welcome, honey." he stroked her back calmingly as she continued crying into his shirt, wetting it with each tear that rolled out her eyelids. Jesse was surprised to see the young metahuman do that, seeing her crying so heartfelt from the mutant's words. Especially since the mutant is an experimented mutant desired to be a biological weapon of mass destruction, one who had saved them from captivity and now hugging a distraught girl.

Ruby was just as shocked from what she was seeing before them, seeing him comfort Evelyn at gunpoint without a care in the world. She liked that, despite their current predicament. But she was really happy and surprised that he would still comfort the young girl who was hurting now. And she didn't want to let anyone hurt them now.

Her right hand clenching slowly…and unbeknownst to her and anyone else in the lobby…the trash can beside the elevator slowly began imploding, the metallic garbage can's walls pushing by an invisible force and bending the metal inwards.

As he held her, Seth used Venom's powers to soothe the young girl with calming sensations. But he stopped them when he unwrapped his arms. "But for you guys…" he slowly turned around to look at the officers with a shockingly ice-cold glare, getting them to shiver while holding their guns with shaking hands. "… I can't say the same."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" An officer called out his demand.

"Pointing a gun at an unarmed and innocent child!" Seth roared at them, shocking them once again to their core. "You dishonor the very badge you're wearing you sons of bitches!" he stepped forward menacingly, as though he was ready to strike down the wall of officers.

"Move a muscle, and you'll get a third eye!" an officer exclaimed.

The threat caused Ruby's other hand to clench…with her face paling with anger… and the railing on the upper level was slowly being bended, as though the invisible force was increasing and trying to twist the metal to pieces.

That's where Iris drew the line. "Okay, everyone stops it now! Lower your weapons and calm the hell down!" she shouted to the officers who lowered them slightly, pointing the guns' barrels down at the ground. Nodding her gratitude to her fellow lawmen, she looked to Seth then. Like her colleagues, shocked to see the pure lifelessness in his eyes. But she didn't let it stop her, not now. Not after what her colleagues were thinking of doing. "Seth, right? Calm down, you guys aren't going to get hurt. I promise you that. You can trust me."

"I know I can, Iris." He spoke to her in a familiar manner, knowing that Iris West could always be trusted, regardless of what universe she originates from. "But I honestly can't say the same about your trigger-happy colleagues here." Venom roared in his head. But his roar was interrupted as a much stronger painful/relieving experience erupted in their body.

"I can keep them from shooting, just trust me." Iris, with her hand, told her fellow officers to holster their weapons. But her words seemed to have very little effect on them as some of them kept their weapons upwards and pointing at the-.

_CRACK_

A much loud and sudden cracking sound halted them from making another move. All of them swung their heads to the back and saw the origin of the sound.

Seeing a completely smashed piece of metal beside the elevator. "What the hell?" Seth muttered in shock at the sight.

"**_How?_**" Venom asked in equal shock.

"Why should we trust you?"

Recognizing her voice, Seth looked to her and saw Ruby standing there with clenched hands. But her eyes caught his attention. Both he and Venom saw it, two wide emerald eyes showing a violent coldness like a blizzard in a frozen tundra, tainted with. He had seen it before in the past, in the eyes of so many of the villains he's fought against in either of his universes.

But it was unlike anything he's seen before. To see such a cold ruthlessness in her eyes, in such a young girl. He saw such a familiar sense of ruthless whenever Frankie's alter ego, Magenta would show herself whenever Frankie was in a state of great fear. Eyes of shining magenta like stars brightening up like a flashlight with emotions of ruthlessness that was aimed at anyone in their vicinity.

He hated how he saw that in his own baby girl, and he feared that was how she was right this moment, when he's there with her…

…and he hated how Ruby was looking like that…and it was though her true nature had been revealed before Seth's eyes now…and it terrifies him.

_CRACK_

The cracking sounds of metal in the lobby increased. Everyone in the lobby shifted their eyes around their surroundings to see the various objects around them, slowly being pushed from the sides of it and inwardly compressed by an invisible and powerful force.

Iris and Barry held hands as they saw it. Evelyn and Jesse neared each other, walking back to avoid the damage. Some of the officers followed the detective's request and lowered their weapons, and stood near the civilians, especially the pregnant wife and her husband. However, some of the officers continued having their weapons trained on them. Or more specifically on Ruby.

Seth was not focusing the damage around them; it didn't bother him that much. He was solely focused on the girl before him. Blue eyes taking in her eyes, the change in them. Ruby changed when she saw that her powers were responding to her emotions.

From pure readiness to take actions of ruthlessness…to scared out of her poor mind.

"Oh no…" Ruby spoke with a shocked and painful voice as she directed her eyes at her hands. Eyes widening when they shifted around to see the damage around her. "Not again. NO!" She screamed out in shock, her arms lashing out to the sides and somehow, a force pushed things into the air. Officers, civilians and others alike had to avoid them by dodging.

When pieces of the railing came his way, Seth turned his arm into adamantium and slammed it away from him and into the mural. Using the gravel pieces flowing through his bloodstream, he embedded his feet into the ground, strengthening his place on the floor when he felt the invisible force beginning to push his body. The pieces of torn objects kept being thrown his way, but he kept sending them away with his fists.

Ruby began backing away with small staggering steps as the entire police department began shaking like an earthquake. She saw it and recognized it from her home universe. Her eyes closed it was like her mind returned to that place.

She could see it all again. Getting out of the infusion chamber…her body levitating out of it…eight percent of that substance infused with her cells…falling down to the ground with a massive earth-splitting headache, her entire being feeling like she was being split apart… cutting through her like death…her mother trying to console her in her time of need, only to be pushed away by a man who she cares…who also tragically died by her hand… her own pleading words going to two scientists to get them to fix her…but it was impossible and her mind continued splitting apart like she was be ripped to shreds… from the two fighting minds inside her own.

Her own hero, everything she wanted to be, tried to help her…despite Ruby herself being more than she would ever be…and all her hero offered to her was denied… Her heart and mind broke down as she asked for her mother's help, when she felt as though she was never good enough for her…it made Ruby realize something that day…

…what she tried to accomplish…was a mistake…and she screamed out in pure agony!

The flash of blue lightning that enveloped herself…seemed like a suitable punishment for her.

"RUBY!"

For a second, she thought she heard her mother's voice. But instead it was a male's voice, one she knew well enough after almost six months in captivity with him.

Opening her eyes, Ruby saw him standing in front of her. She could see Seth standing before her with a calming expression, that seemed to be able to catch her attention. What really surprised her was how, despite the entire police department shaking, he was still walking towards her. And not away from her like the others.

"Stay back, Seth!" she exclaimed her demand to the mutant.

However, he shook his head in refusal and kept walking forward. "Sorry, Ruby. But I'm not doing that." His voice was full of conviction, not willing to back down or leave her to own devices, seeing that her entire world was being riddled with pain. "But you got to calm down, sweetie. You're kind of shaking things up here, and it's not exactly comfortable." His words didn't get her to stop. He then began inspecting the situation, "_She's not a telekinetic. This is way too destructive to be telekinesis._" The way the metal was being compressed by an invisible force from every side, it was not telekinesis.

"**_This is something much, more powerful._**" Venom stated his thoughts, shocking the host as he too saw the more powerful acts of Ruby's powers. "**_Whatever it is, it's not something we've seen before. And it's frightening._**" The symbiote continued, mentally seeing the growing havoc caused by the young girl's capabilities.

Looking at him again, Ruby pleaded. "Seth, please get away! It's not safe."

"No powers are safe, Ruby. Especially if you're not used to them." Seth told her calmingly, despite the floor cracking up from her powers. "Believe me, I've been right where you are right now. It seems impossible, but you're strong enough to overcome this."

She placed her hands onto her temples. "No." Ruby shook her head.

"Ruby!" Seth's loud voice got her attention again, along with everyone else in the lobby. "Focus. You did it once, you can do it again."

She got confused. "What…"

"Before at the cliffs, remember?" Seth tried to jock her memory back on track, knowing that it would help ease her mind. "You used your powers to make sure the four of us didn't turn into ground pizza. You were able to keep your powers in check then, and you can do it again."

"It just happened!" she exclaimed.

…unknowingly, her voice got an officer to raise his gun at her in fear of what might happen next…

"No, it didn't!" he countered, she stopped and locked her tearing eyes on his. "You did it because you didn't want us to be hurt, Ruby. And now…" he gestured to the sides, pointing them to the others around them. He saw her eyes looking at Barry and Iris, Evelyn and Jesse, the husband and his pregnant wife, the dozens of civilians and officers. "…these people need you."

"They were gonna hurt us!" Ruby shouted again.

"I wouldn't have let that happen, Ruby."

"Screw it!"

At the sound of that foreign voice, Seth turned around to see an officer pointing his gun at Ruby who was behind him.

Iris saw his finger moving and ordered him with a shout. "NNNNOOOO-!"

_GUNSHOT_

But her words fell on deaf ears as the bullet was fired out of the barrel of it. Ruby covered her eyes when she saw the bullet pass through the air. Jesse and Evelyn saw it as well and covered their eyes with their hands. Iris pulled out her gun and aimed it at the officer, despite knowing that it was futile now with the bullet fired off already. Barry fell to the ground in overwhelming fear.

_PIERCE_

_CRACK_

Much to their worst fears…they heard the sound of the bullet tearing its way through flesh and bone echoed like the sound of a church bell inside the police department within Central City…Somehow, the sound of it deafened the cracking sound that emitted.

When her ears registered the sound, Ruby expected her light, her life to go out like a candle in the wind and she also expected the very sound of flesh and bone being penetrated to be her own. But alas, she felt nothing like that nor did she feel her skin ripple from the sound of the bullet touching her flesh or bone. Despite what her worst fears told her; she found the will to open her eyes again. However, she wasn't the only one to do that, and the moment they saw it, their eyes burst straight open.

Sparks of lightning ran over his form, crackling every inch of his body. His right arm held up like a shield to prevent the bullet from touching Ruby. His ragged panting increased after he felt the bullet pave its way through his arm before getting stuck within his limb. But Seth's eyes were ice cold lifeless as they looked at the wall of officers in front of him, focusing them on the man who fired off the bullet at the young girl behind him.

The officer felt his lifeless glare and it shook his entire body, his gun falling down to the ground with a clatter. Clattering following by the sound of his body falling down to the ground echoed as well.

However, Seth's mind wasn't on him. He was focused on something else, someone else. Fighting through the all pain unleashing throughout his body, he turned around to look at Ruby. Noticing that the building stopped shaking and inspecting the rest of its current state, he told her. "Ruby, what you did is…"

"_Dangerous._" Ruby already knew what he was gonna say to her. And for some reason, she knew it was gonna hurt her more than anything else.

"Amazing." Her head snapped up so fast that it craned her neck. The mutant elemental before her grinned at her reaction. "It's an amazing gift you have, Ruby. Yeah, you did some damage but that goes for all fledglings. You're not used to this power yet, so it's pretty overwhelming to use it for real now. I know, I've been there before. It's okay, you did-"

"Seth?" he heard Evelyn call out to him and he looked to her. However, she didn't speak. Her eyes were full of horror and shock as she pointed a finger at Seth's arm. Jesse, Barry and Iris saw the same and they gaped their mouths before covering them with their hands.

"What?" the mutant asked confusedly.

"**_Seth…look at your left arm._**" Venom stated to him, getting him to point their eyes at his limb. Heeding his partner's words, he looked down at his arm. Eyes widening in shock at its current state, and he wondered how he didn't feel it before.

The left arm of his body was…in a different state than it was before. Ruby's powers had completely changed its state in a whole new way. Its state was not unlike that of a…pretzel. The bone underneath the skin twisted from the massive force, compressing it on a single side, a single point and it grew too much, forcing it to spiral around. He couldn't feel his hand anymore in it.

"_Happened so fast that my body must not have registered it._" Seth thought as he tried to move his broken and crushed limb around but to no avail. None of his commands was sent or accepted in his arm. The destructive pressure placed upon his limb…was incredibly powerful.

"**_She's stronger than Liv was at that age._**" The symbiote pitched in. "**_Much stronger than she was. Whatever her powers are, they're…intriguing._**"

"_Yeah._" Seth thought back before looking at Ruby, his heart ached when registering the level of fear in her eyes. As though, she thought he would scold her or something worse. He smiled at her and raised his left arm for her to see. "Don't tell me you wanted pretzels after this?"

"H-H-How can you joke about this? I twisted your arm around like a spiral, and you just joke." Seth stepped closer to her as she continued speaking in an exclaiming voice. "Why?! I could have killed everyone in here with this…"

She trailed off when she felt Seth wrap his one good arm around her in comfort. Ruby instantly felt calmer than she did before, her nervousness decreasing and her powers no longer shaking the entire building that they are inside of. The mutant then told her, "You haven't done anything that I've never done before, Ruby. It's not your fault. You're just new and you're scared for your friends' safety. There's nothing you have to worried about. And my arm isn't that much of a bother."

"But…"

"It's okay." Seth spoke caringly to her while using his partner's help to calm her down, sending numerous soothing sensations through her entire core. "I'm okay. And so are the others." He unwrapped his arm from her and looked back to the officer who was still on the ground with fear in his core. "But you…won't be for long." Blood began seeping out of his mouth, overflowing it with a sea of red from his usage of lightning.

Spitting out the massive blood puddle in his mouth with dozens of coughs and spits, Seth thought. "_God, I wish you were here, partner._"

"**_You're not the only one._**" Venom thought, another bomb of sensations blasting over their forms again. Causing the symbiote to mentally grit his teeth and scream in pain, and causing the host to hold his stomach with clenched hands.

"Damn it." Seth muttered in pain before looking at the quivering officer. "Now's time for you to die." His right arm lighting up with flames he began walking forward.

Iris jumped in front of him and placed her hands outward, blocking him from continuing onwards. "Seth, please. He made a mistake, he was scared."

"He almost hurt a child, Iris!" Seth countered. "He dishonored his oath as a police officer!"

"And he will serve his time for that, I promise you that!" Iris countered back. "But he doesn't deserve to die-"

_PIERCE_

Any and all words that might have been spoken was immediately cut off when the sound of a launched object pierced through the meaty and squishy form of a human body that fell down to the ground. Seth and Iris turned around and saw the officer the mutant was about to take down, now with a familiar ice spike in his chest.

"Well, I beg to differ."

"God fucking damn it." Seth muttered as he recognized that familiar female voice. Had it been the one that he has grown to love over his time in his new home universe, then he would have been overjoyed with happiness. But since this was much colder version than the voice belonging to the love of his life, which only made him want to not look at her. He knew that it would bring him pain from remembering that he's not there for her now. Seth and the others turned around to see that their worst thoughts were confirmed.

Ruby saw them to and was about to run away and into hiding, briefly contemplating a fight with them. But Seth used his right hand, the blood from the wound sipping over his fingers, and pulled her back to them as they took in the sight of them.

Zoom stood in front of them, blue lightning crackling along his form in all of its glory while his henchmen stood ready beside him. Deathstorm cracking his hands in anger and growing interest as he saw the mutant. Reverb remaining calm and taking in the damage around them with interest. The massive form of the shark metahuman looking down on them. A new addition was of a large man with a black mask and black gauntlets on his arms, his suit revealing itself to be a protective suit.

At least, ten humans came out and joined them too. All of them armed to the teeth with firearms and blades. Iris, her husband and the other lawmen recognized them as criminals that have joined Zoom's posse after recruitment.

Black Siren stepped out, her heels clicking against the floor she walked on. Her long brown flipping to the side when she looked at the mess that the mutant and their other prisoners have done. A smirk formed on her mouth as she took note of all the destruction around her.

Killer Frost walked forward, her icy blue eyes pointing into Seth's with excitement while ice cold mist enveloped her hands. Her tongue slithering out of her mouth and licking the surface of her blue lips when she saw blood dripping down from the mutant's bullet wound.

"Seriously?" Seth threw his arms to the sides. "Do you guys have nothing better to do than this?"

"**You…have something that belongs to us.**" Zoom slowly said, his finger pointing to the three girls behind him. "**They're our property.**"

"Dream on, Acid Trip Sonic." Seth countered mockingly before looking to Iris and the other officers, all of them aiming their firearms at the evil metahumans. Shifting his eyes from the three girls and Zoom and his men, he gained dozens of thoughts of what to do now.

"**_We know what's the best option._**" Venom knew where his host was going with his thoughts.

Seth leaned over to Iris's ear and asked her. "Which is more dangerous?"

"What are you talking about?" The detective asked in confusion.

"Which are more dangerous? Zoom and company or Evelyn?" the younger metahuman spoken of was confused as she was brought into the conversation. Iris still looked confused, her expression getting Seth to elaborate. "If I can get them out of here, then any and all charges against Evelyn will be forgotten, dropped immediately."

"There's at least a dozen of Zoom's army here." Barry jumped into the conversation with a worrisome voice.

"It's either I take them on, or they take back the girls and kill everyone in here, including your wife and that pregnant woman back there." Seth nodded to her direction. His eyes lingering on her, seeing that she was clutching her stomach tightly. "_That's both good and bad._"

"**_It's close…too close._**"

"Unlike the rest here, I'm the best chance you got here for getting out here with everyone." Seth said, his eyes shifting between the ones in front of him and the pregnant woman. "And I'm doing this no matter what." Turning to Iris, he continued. "But Evelyn and Ruby, their charges, anything you have on them…they go. Take it or leave it." he finalized.

Iris wasn't sure about what to do now. She knew that these evil metahumans before her were some of the worst criminals her city has ever faced. The police force within this very department has struggled trying to take down Zoom and his group of metahumans. Heck, dozens of them even feared the very thought of standing before the evil speedster and chose to steer clear of him.

At the thought of her co-workers, Iris looked around and saw to her dismay that only her, her husband and the civilian wife and husband are in this place. "Damn it." she muttered in hate of her cowardly colleagues. But it did fast track her mind to a decision.

One she would definitely regret.

She looked to Seth and asked. "Are you sure that you can take them on?" Iris had to know if his mind was deadest on his decision, she wouldn't nor could she have him sacrifice his life for them. Barry looked at her like she was crazy.

Without hesitation, he stated. "I can. And if you make sure everyone's out of here, then I can let loose."

"We're discussing a suicide plan in front of a group of psychotic metahumans, and you think they will just let us out?!" Barry questioned his thoughts.

"Take it down a notch." Seth held his hand out for him to stop. "_Can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss the Barry Allen I know._"

"Argh!"

Seth snapped his head back to the back as did the others, seeing the pregnant woman screaming while clutching her hands around her stomach. Having seen this before, the mutant only thought one thing. "_Oh shit._"

"**_Really, really lousy time._**" Venom stated.

"Is she…" Jesse trailed off in shock.

"Yeah. Her water just broke." Seth stated bluntly, to their surprise and Iris and Barry along with the three girls ran to them. He snapped and began walking towards the evil metahumans who looked curiously at him. Despite them all looking ready to strike him with their full force, he spoke to them while gesturing to the woman.

"Her baby's coming." They didn't show any emotions at his words. "She's gonna need a doctor, I'm the only one here who can help her and her child that's about get his or her first take on this world." His eyes shot to Killer Frost for a moment. "And I don't know about you guys, but I don't want her baby to see a bunch of evil metas when its about to get into this world."

"**So what?**" Zoom asked.

"So you guys go and then fight us another day." Seth told them. "How about that?"

"Here's the better option." An armed thug walked forward, cocking the machine-gun in his hands. He raised it and pointed it at…the pregnant woman. Seth widened his eyes. "How about I-"

_SLASH_

The thug's gun clattered onto the ground the moment Seth swung his arm over his throat with a large ice scythe, slashing through the skin and bone. The henchman's head falling down on the ground after departing with its attachment. Another thudding sound emitted when it fell down to the ground.

Seth held up his twisted and broken left arm, holding up the ice scythe with the blood of the fallen thug dripping down it. turning his eyes to the metahumans again, he stated through gritting teeth from repeated waves of agony and relief. "Guess I should have expected that." His words were also aimed at his ice weaponry that crumbled into pieces before shattering onto the ground.

Jesse saw his action and covered her mouth in shock. Ruby for the first time since meeting him, now saw Hades in action. Evelyn saw it too but her actions were focused on the woman who was about to give birth to her child in only a few moments. Iris and Barry saw the same, and both of them wondered if there was something darker behind Seth, because it looked a bit like Zoom's darkness but also mixed with light.

"That wasn't very hero-like." Killer Frost told her with a raised eyebrow, but his brutal and cold action sent shivers through her body and she licked her lips enticingly.

Making eye contact with the frosty metahuman, the mutant told her. "I never said I was a hero."

Zoom nodded to the shark metahuman and the masked metahuman and ordered them, "**Kill him!**"

Before charging to fight, the masked metahuman activated his powers. Machines around the lobby shutting down as though everything within them were derived, absorbed from them. In response to it, his form began changing. Booths expanding in size, fists swinging forward and widening their size into the fists of a giant. The rest of his body growing as well, the metahuman roaring and grunting through his masked mouth while his body heightened into the same size as the large shark metahuman beside him.

The two large metahumans charged into battle like battering rams seeking out to attack the mutant. Seth saw them coming his way, looking through the wall of sweat pouring over his face. Feeling the blood sipping out of his bullet wound on his right arm, he used his ice element to seal the wound. Patching it up, he said. "Time to work."

Gathering wind around his feet, he shot for the two large metahumans. The shark metahuman saw him incoming and swung his fist for him. Crouching down onto the ground, Seth dodged it by sliding on the ground and sliding through the gap between the shark being's legs. Twirling around, he thrusts an ice blade into the metahuman's Achilles's heel.

Lamden roared in pain and was brought down on his knees as Seth left his ice blade in the back of his foot. "**_Look out!_**" The host heard his partner's warning and he snapped back with a spin, dodging the large fist of the masked metahuman. But though he dodged the first one, the other one came quick as lightning and slammed him into the mural.

Its metallic surface cracked upon impact, but Seth didn't let himself fall and he jumped from it with lightning cloaking his body. Fighting through the feeling of his aching muscles, he turned his right arm into adamantium and slammed it into the masked metahuman's fist. The force of both fists canceled each other, blasting a shockwave that damaged the ground with cracks and pushed them both away.

The masked metahuman was send into the staircase on the left side of the lobby. Seth was sent rolling on the ground before getting on one knee. Looking forward, he saw Deathstorm flying towards him. He lashed both hands with a fire blast.

Still feeling his left arm incapable of attack, the mutant gathered water in his right palm, circulating the sphere of water before launching it to meet the fire attack. The two opposing elemental blasts nullified one another with a small steam in their place.

Though he aimed to move out of the way, another eruption of both anguish and relaxation halted his movements. And unlike its predecessors, it was much, much more powerful. Unlike an eruption, it was like a tidal wave that flooded his entire body with the clashing sensations, overloading his senses like a beast was trying to claw its way out of the gate that was his body.

"Come on!" Seth spoke through a pained voice. He couldn't move as he heard his partner's screaming voice echoing through his mind. Shooting his hands up to his head, he held it with each second that passed filled with pain.

Seth didn't have to worry about getting back to his feet again, as the massively powerful and familiar sonic scream pushed him off the ground and hurled him into the air. Once landing on the ground again with a roll, he looked up and saw Black Siren walking to him with small steps.

Spitting out more blood, he managed to get back on his feet and looked at the smirking face of the sonic crier. "Shall we dance?" She asked with a somewhat flirtatious voice while she cracked her hands together, ready for a battle.

Chuckling, he craned his neck and giving a mock bow, he said back. "Ladies first."

The chilling short laughter of Killer Frost was heard when she walked up to stand beside her fellow metahuman companion. Icy mist emitted from her hands, before ice spikes grew on them, taking the form of ice blades that she could hold. "Don't hog him just for yourself. I wanna have some fun, too."

"Why am I not surprised?" Seth rolled his eyes while he let ice grow on his broken left arm, encasing it with the cold element and forming an ice blade around it. This way, he could fight with the twisted limb and protect it at the same time. His right arm turning to adamantium before he took a battle stance.

The mutant charged and spun around, sending his metal fist forward for the sonic crier. She avoided it by bending her body backwards. Using the momentum of that, she performed a backflip, her feet slamming into his stomach. Her attack sending his body spinning in the air before touching back down.

While on the ground, he jumped back on his feet quickly, avoiding the incoming strikes of Killer Frost's blades. Using own his ice blade, he blocked the two ice blades that she wielded. Their blades held onto each other as their respective wielders locked eyes.

Releasing a breath of cold air directly into his face, Killer Frost stated. "This how a girl gets a first date with you? Straight into a fight?"

Smirking, Seth released an equally cold breath into her face. Somehow, she seemed to like that, if her reeled back head was any indication. "Well, beats a cheap dinner at Big Belly Burger, don't you think? Speaking of, you guys have those here?" he then lost himself in the conversation he's having with her, feeling like he was speaking with the love of his life again after months apart.

"Wouldn't know." She swept her foot with a side kick from the right. Kicking him off his feet, which surprised her since she was able to bring him down on the ground.

"Argh!" A painful grunt emitted from his mouth as a strange blast full of vibrations sent Seth flying from the floor and into the ground. Seth shook his head as he looked up and saw Cisco's doppelganger walking to him with an outstretched hand. "That's a new one."

"You'd find that I'm one of the better fighters amongst my group. The name's Reverb." Cisco's doppelganger introduced himself.

"Awesome. Name's Seth." The mutant introduced himself to Francisco Ramon's evil doppelanger.

Killer Frost hissed at Reverb, "I didn't need your help."

With a cold and calm expression, the viber countered. "And yet, you took your time and played with him like he was a toy."

"Well, if the shoe fits." Killer Frost shrugged off.

Seth felt pain grow inside of him and it brought him down to his knees while panting heavily. Black Siren saw his state and blasted him with a sonic cry. But she held it there with her screaming mouth, forcing the sonic blast on him, increasing his pain tenfold as he was suspended by the sonic attack.

"Argh!" He screamed out in pain as he felt his entire body shake, like every single nerve was being torn apart inside of his body. The sonic cry was booming his system, his partner screaming and sharing the pain his host was, both of them feeling as though every part of them were being extracted by sound itself.

Jesse, Evelyn, Ruby, Iris and Barry saw the mutant's current state and they gaped their mouths with horror. Hearing the echoing screaming voice that was discharging from his mouth. The detective wanted to go in and help him, save him from that agony he was willing to accept for her and the others here. But she couldn't move, her instincts telling her to remain at her current position and defend the ones who couldn't fight for themselves now.

To be there and protect her husband and the innocents that Seth is fighting to protect now.

While Seth was being put through his sonic torture, Zoom watched it from the beginning. Inspecting his agony. Examining his torturous state. Even though he hadn't joined the fight to retain his prisoners again, he didn't see the need to now. Seeing that his group of metahumans are able to take him on by themselves, he didn't see any need to enter the fray now.

But he didn't see the need for them to continue with this. He looked at the masked metahuman who regrew back to his previous height of a large being. Feeling his leader's eyes on him, the masked metahuman looked at him and awaited his command. Nodding to the mutant with his head, he ordered.

"**Kill him…now.**"

The masked metahuman nodded his reply, accepting the command. He charged for the mutant and slammed his fist into his body, hurling into the mural and through it. Embedding his body deep into it, practically through the wall behind it.

"Oh no…" Iris let out in fear and regret as the large masked metahuman clenched both fists before thrusting them into the pull that Seth was through. Sending him deeper, deeper and deeper into the wall without any mercy.

Barry fell down on his rear end with his hands on his head once seeing the metahuman throwing another fist and implanting Seth farther into the wall. "My God…"

Jesse's eyes were leaking, tears falling down her face as the metahuman continued with sending out another fist. "All hope is lost…"

Evelyn didn't want see it, she had to cover her ears and turn away from witnessing the sight of the mutant being smashed deeper and deeper into the wall. "Please stop…" she begged.

…the palms of both hands, emitting a faint different light each…one…a black shadowy smoke…the other…a white shining light…

Ruby was frozen in her state. Instinct upon instinct, forcing her to stand on the ground and remain away from the fight. As such, they all in unison forced her to watch Seth continuedly be pummeled into the wall.

None of them could move and continued to watch the metahuman mercilessly striking Seth, cracking the mural's surface.

X

_PUNCH_

_PUNCH_

_PUNCH_

_PUNCH_

Seth was only able to see the hailstorm of punches that kept raining down on his body. Each fist was sent down on him with the powerful force of a wrecking ball. Each fist causing the mural to be cracked further and further.

"_No…_" Seth thought to himself through the pummeling he was receiving. "_It…can't…end…like this._"

Venom's screaming had subsided by now, the symbiote and the host too distracted by the physical pain to even take notice of the mental sensations of clashing emotions. "**_It's unbearable…this…_**"

He had to agree with his partner. The tidal wave of conflicting sensations continued to flood over his body…it was too much for him to handle, mixing in with the physical pain he got from the vicious beating proved impossible for him to handle.

He felt as though the end was nearing him.

Death by a metahuman's hand. Like Cisco's memory from the alternate timeline, from that alternative time.

His eyes twitched when he felt something hit his eye. Even though he was being thrashed from the colossal fists that kept raining on him like rain drops in a rainstorm, Seth opened up his eyes and looked at what was hitting his eyes. Blue eyes kept twitching again when he saw that it was sunlight that reflected against something with reflective surface, directing it to his eyes in annoyance.

"_What the…_" the mutant stated in confusion.

"**_What is it?_**" Venom wondered as well.

Their eyes widened once the sunlight dissipated and both of them could see it clearly…and they couldn't help but feel like the biggest idiots in the entire multiverse.

It was the shining beautiful form of his dog tags. The ones, only one person ever gave him. The woman he loves… the woman his heart beats for… the woman of another world, who loves him…

"_Caitlin Snow, the Cure to the Venom._" Seth read the words engraved on one of the tags, the tag blowing up from the fists' momentum and showing itself before his face. The words caused his heart to beat, remembering their good times. He remembered their first kiss, their next one, the one after that…all of them. Remembering how he stood in front of her, protecting her, being her shield. Moving in with her, sharing a bed with her, having a life with her, fighting for a future with her…hoping with her for a future of when she and him are married…how they have a family now…

"_Caitlin…_" a tear fell from his eye from his eye

The other tag blew up as well, flipping in the air as it revealed itself to his eyes. "_Frankie Fury, the Magenta of our hearts._" Both his eyes snapped open as he recalled the times he met her, taken care of her. The day he saved her from muggers, the first time he heard her laugh genuinely out of happiness, the day he met her as himself for the first time, the smile she formed when she got the crystal bracelet from him, the day he saved her from Carnage's grasp and killing him, ending her nightmare… He remembered the way she jumped into his arms when he said that he would adopt her, that she would become his daughter and he will become her father, he remembered the time…she called him "Dad" once they had moved into their loft. All the good times came back to them, filling his mind with the times, they shared a meal, cooked a meal together, laughing together…all the hugs and kisses that they gave to each other.

Venom remembered how his daughter was within Frankie was fearing that she would no longer have her father. Her birth might have been an accident, but she was without a doubt the single most important thing in his life. It was a scary thought…one that both host and symbiote feared.

"_Frankie…_" Tears fell down his eyes, growing in volume as he recalled his daughter.

"**_Magenta…_**" Venom was feeling the same, recalling his baby girl that he was blessed to have.

Both of them feeling heartache as they felt they would never to see their daughters again…not be able to watch them grow up.

Another redirected light hit his eyes. and he looked at it. The sight of caused any thoughts he was having to change greatly. "_Seth Fury, the Venom that protects the Cure._" The dog tag read. His hand clenching through the destructive beating he was getting, black smoke emitting from his hands along with a small gust of wind.

He was supposed to protect her. the woman he loves and his daughter. As long as he lives, he would be the one to be their shield, their protector…their Lethal Protector.

"_And they're waiting for us!_" He roared in his mind as his entire body turned red from the flames that ignited on his skin, combining with the increasingly powerful wind emitting from his body before bursting in a flash of red. And in response, the massive pain and relief exploded inside his body, uncontrollably into a chain reaction of similar explosions.

X

_EXPLOSION_

"Argh!" Everyone, innocent civilians and evil metahuman criminals, were surprised to see the large masked metahuman be launched into the air when the red blast of firestorm exploded from within the wall, unleashing a shockwave that blasted the large metahuman away.

But it was the sound of his muffled but loud screams that caught their attention. The masked metahuman's hands charred from the burn damage the flames brought him, it caused him to experience great deals of torturous pain that easily surpassed the pain of his fall.

However, the others are no longer focusing on the hurting metahuman…when the sound of feet stepping on the ground echoed from the mural. They turned to it; their eyes met with the sight of a hand tearing off a piece the mural before throwing it at the masked metahuman's head.

The piece of the mural broke his mask, causing a tear in his mask before his body crashed down the ground.

Seth walked out of the hole he was repeatedly punched into, the pieces of wall on his body blowing away thanks to the wind he was gusting out of him. As he walked, he held his head downwards, not looking at anyone, worried the ones who are on his side. Blood dripping down his body,

Zoom and his henchmen were equally surprised and confused when they saw the mutant just walk out of there. Deathstorm was readying another fire attack, blazing up flames on his hands. Reverb holding out both hands, ready to blast the elemental with dozens of vibrational blasts. The human henchmen held their weapons high, aiming them on him. But sensations of horror and fear began washing over them.

Black Siren grew even more interested when she saw the mutant turn to face them, avoiding eye contact for some reason. However, it was rare for her and the others in Zoom's metahuman group to receive such a challenge. Willing to fight them all singlehandedly…it made her respect him a bit… even though his death was within moments from now.

Killer Frost twitched her head to side to side in curiosity, wondering if the mutant was right in the mind. But his willingness to stand before them without an ounce of fear, even after a ruthless beatdown, was still amazingly enticing and made her body heat up like a volcano. And she couldn't wait for more time to play with Seth Fury, knowing that his determination could unleash elemental calamities of excitement in her core like never before.

And for the first time in a long time, the large shark metahuman felt his large head riddle with sweat dripping down it…like every single instinct, primal and human alike, telling him to do one thing…run. Escape…while he still could.

But a single hard and ice-cold glare from Zoom prevented that. A finger pointing at the mutant before he ordered, "**Kill him!**"

"You think I'm that weak?!" Everyone in the lobby shook and gasped when they heard the mutant bellow out his words. At the sound of his voice, the shark metahuman walked backwards with small steps. "You really think any of you can stop me?!" Strangely enough, to them all, something happened to Seth. Black mass on his arms grew, growing into drops of massive weight that fell down on the ground. And it wasn't just his arms, but around his body. Face, hands, stomach, thighs, back. Everywhere. But Seth continued no matter what. "None of you can stop me!" he shifted his eyes between the evil metahumans. "I'm going back to them again…" Flashes of memories appeared in his mind, focusing on his best friends and his little sister, the woman he loves and his daughter. The mass kept falling off his body, gathering around his feet. "…and nothing and no one is gonna stop me from getting back to them."

Zoom grew angered when he heard the mutant's roaring words at them like his evil presence was nothing to him. So he ordered the shark metahuman again, with a bellowing roar. "**Kill him now!**"

However, what happened next, surprised them to even newer heights.

The shark metahuman stepped back with a shaking voice. Walking backwards without looking in that direction, was a mistake on his part because it led to the large being falling down on his rear. Its head kept swinging from side to side, clearly in refusal as he looked at Seth. The words coming out of its mouth next, shocked everyone again.

"M-Monster!" it let out in terror.

"Monster?!" Seth asked in mock assurance before laughing maliciously. "I'm not anything as nice as that." The black mass around his feet had grown into the form of a large pool of dark miasma, with him in the eye of it.

One of the armed men didn't like that thought and told his men. "Shoot him down!" None of the other men didn't even hesitate to move and fired off their machine guns. Firing off a storm of bullets that went straight for the elemental and those behind him. The ones in the back saw it and went move away from the hailstorm of bullets.

But it was unnecessary when all of them were suddenly whipped away by something.

Everyone saw with planet-size eyes that the bullets were whipped away by…black tentacles that were shooting out of the black mass around Seth's feet. Recognizing the black tentacles around him, the mutant formed a smirk and told the criminals.

"I never told you my name, did I?"

The tendrils stopped moving and snapped to Seth's body. All of them wrapped around his body. A leg, an arm, his neck. One of them wrapped around his crushed arm, spiraling around it and tightening its hold on the limb. The tendril pulled on his arm, forcefully spiraling it back to the opposite direction, back to its natural way. "Argh!" The mutant let out a scream when he felt the mass force his arm back to normal, his fingers and muscles responding to his calls again, but he also felt its powers return and heal his bones within. Unbroken fingers clenching into a fist as the tendrils hold on his body grew bigger. The mass on the ground slithered up the limbs of the tendrils, using them as ladders and latched onto his body. Its symbiotic mass spread around his body, latching onto it and his clothes enveloped as well.

Black mass pulsated around his body, white veins popping up. The mass slithering down his arms and to his hands, pairing them with sharp claws at the end of each finger. Slithering down his legs, each foot was forming sharp talons at each of them. With each pulse that ran through his body, he grew. Each limb growing and his muscles booming threateningly like they were about to burst out of his body. While he grew, the black mass reached his head and engulfed his head. Revealing a face of a demon with white pseudo eyes and white sharp teeth that could tear through anything with ease.

Ruby recalled the news from her home universe, when she would turn on the television and see him on the screen. "It can't be…It's him…"

But what was happening to Seth and Venom, was not the end. Only the beginning.

His large and demonic body began pulsing again, the black mass feeling the pulses and forming more white veins on his body. But they were merely veins for the untrained eyes, eyes that couldn't look past flesh and underneath it. Something underneath the pitch-black skin was trying to force its way out of them. Steam emitted from the additional veins before scalding hot water spouted out of them. White spikes slowly stuck up, revealing their bone-like forms to the eyes around them. With a cracking sound, they stuck out further and grew longer before bending down, bending forward with the edges digging into the front of his torso's skin.

His shoulder plates moving around on his back. Something moving inside of his back, and then they showed themselves. Two adamantium spikes of the same white mass dug out of his body. They then shot out like snakes, displaying their spine-like forms, before spiraling around his forearms and his arms. Slithering all the way down to his hands. Their sharp ends growing sharper before piercing through the back of his hands, digging into them. Their adamantium reinforcement removed and showed their natural white bone-like structure color.

Like his torso, his entire head began steaming and boiling. Bubbles boiling on his skin like a fiery sea, sizzling sounds emitting from his head. The bubbles kept appearing around his face, popping a moment later. White mist shot out of the sides of his face, his forehead, his mouth and his chin, everywhere around his head. Not even a second later, his entire head was cloaked by it.

_CRACK_

Cracking sounds echoed from with the enshrouded head of the demon, bouncing off the walls of the lobby and registered in the confused minds of civilians and criminals. It was though something within the veiled head of elemental was forcing something to be bended, earth element reforming the ice around the mutant's head. The sound of metal reinforcing his head sounded as well. Panting sounds sounded from the open maw of the demon but only for a second when that same maw let out a burst of wind, blowing away the mist from his face.

What met their eyes, shocked everyone around him.

The pitch-black face of the demon was covered by a skull-like bone structure, an extension of his face that made him look like a true…demonic…hell being.

"Monster!" The shark metahuman roared out his fears again.

"**No…**" His deep and demonic voice shook everyone's minds and hearts as he reeled his head forward again, showing his white eyes to them. Sparks of lightning ran over his white eyes, but only for a moment when the lighting spread over the surfaces of both eyes…changing their colors to crimson blood-red.

His long tongue slithered over the surface of his maw when he continued. "**We… are Venom.**"

Opening his maw again, he let his mark be known to the entire department, to the entire world.

_ROAR_

Once again, the demon roars his return and it shakes the hearts of men and women of evil and good.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a ****_roaring_**** chapter, peeps.**

**Venom has returned, roaring his return back to the multiverse. As I told back in Enter The Demon, Seth's new look is of my own design, kinda of a cross-design between Venom (2018) the movie and Venom 2099 from Marvel Comics.**

**Ruby's powers have showed themselves. Even Evelyn's powers too. Now these two are special characters as one of them originates from Seth's own universe. **

**Maybe some of you have figured out Ruby's character already. She's not from the comics, more about her origin will be revealed in the later chapters, promise.**

**Evelyn's character is different as she is a cross character, cross between Marvel TV and CW's DCTV. Like Ruby, more information about her, her past will be revealed in later chapters. **

**Hope you guys are looking forward to them. I know I am.**

**But for now, you guys have to look forward to the fight between our favorite elemental and Zoom and Evil Co.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps.**


	3. Chapter 3: Enter the Avenging Angel

**Hey guys!**

**Here's another bedtime story for you wonderful readers**

**Sorry for the long wait, been a bit busy here and there.**

**Now I think I should have told you guys in the beginning, but here it is: I'm gonna try to made this version of Season 2 darker than the canon version.**

**And once again, please send your crazy ideas for coffee drinks for the heroes. It would mean a lot if you guys are able to help me out here.**

**I would also like to give my thanks to Ryu otsutsuki, for being a friend who offers me his help. His help including the title for this chapter.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 3: Enter the Avenging Angel**

When the criminals saw the massively large demon before them, they felt like this was the true form of the elemental they've been fighting this entire time. His true colors showing themselves in a pitch-black demonic form with white veins, a skull-like extension on his face and the spine-like armaments wrapped around his arms, giving the appearance of a truly hellish being…or a being that rules demons, standing in the very pinnacle of them.

All the metahuman criminals watched his humongous form with shaking eyes, still shocked from seeing the mutant take on that hellish form through a brutish transformation before turning into that thing…it was too much for them. The human henchmen had trouble keeping their hold on their weapons now, tremors running through them like earthquakes in their veins and they began stepping back in fear.

The civilians on the other side were just as shocked by the elemental's form. Jesse felt as though she had found something scarier than Zoom. Evelyn and Iris and Barry were thinking the same, and all of them were shocked to see that Seth was indeed holding a demon within him, and now was able to unleash that demon before their own eyes. It looked like an untamable beast before them, or perhaps something even mightier than that.

But unlike them, Ruby was even more shocked and confused. Ruby was a native resident of that same universe, where the elemental had been born in as well. She had heard of Venom, seen the television show his thunderous form to the world after her days training. However, this was unlike anything she's seen before in her home. That demon changed his body into a true hellion before her very eyes. It was something that…only nightmares could have brought forth.

And the civilians, everyone who wasn't the enemy, only wondered one thing… if the will of the man underneath the symbiotic form…was still on their side…or against their side.

Raising both hands to the front of his face, the mutant flexed each and every muscle in them, flexing his own fingers repeatedly. Admiring his new form before running his now red eyes up his arms, taking in the form of the white spine-like structures that had spiraled around his limbs like pythons that had sunk their teeth into his hands. "_Guess we really have become a demon._"

"**_Looks like, yeah._**" Venom said with a voice full of relief, and for the first time in a long time, without any pain whatsoever. Seth heard and gave his partner a mentally smile of gratitude. "**_A demon has returned, and is stronger than ever._**"

"_Yeah._" He thought back his answer before turning to the shivering armed humans. At the sight of them, he felt drool dripping down the sides of his open maw, his long serpent tongue rolling out and licking his sharp teeth hungrily, lapping up the drool. "_Time for a feast, Venom._"

"**_A feast?_**" Venom mockingly laughed. "**_They're nothing more than snacks!_**"

Seth and Venom formed a sick smile, "**Time to snack then.**" The muscles on his legs pulsed with the earth element before he leaped. The humans raised their guns and fired off dozens of bullets at the mutant.

But the bullets merely bounced off his symbiotic skin that was like gel, springing them away and down to the ground. And their depleted bullets were the least of their worries when Venom appeared in front of one of them. Ice quickly forming on his right hand and gathering into a scythe that was quickly brought down on the neck of the human criminal. Cleaving his head off his body.

While in a petrified state, one of the criminals was too distracted to escape the large clawed hand that grabbed hold of his entire body. The criminal tries to struggle his way out of the tightening grip. But his struggles came to a halt when the demon's hungry eyes placed themselves on him. "**Eyes, lungs, pancreas.**" All color drained from his face when he realized what his fate would be. "**So many snacks, so little time.**"

Everyone in the lobby, criminals and civilians alike, watched in horror when the mutant unhinged his jaw like a snake, before tilting it and widening his mouth to impossible limits and neared the criminal's head.

He began shaking his head and leant back, trying to escape the incoming head. "No. No! NO! NNNNOOOOO-"

_CRUNCH_

The remaining eight men stepped back in paralyzing fear when the sound of the mutant's sharp teeth piercing through their comrade's flesh and bone spread through the lobby. Some of them had to move away when their comrade's headless corpse was tossed their way like yesterday trash.

At the sight of their fallen comrades, the remaining turned their weapons on him again, blasting him with thousands of bullets. They were too blinded with rage and hate to realize that their assault was no better than their last attempt, resulting in their bullets just bouncing off.

Reeling back both arms, he turned them into adamantium. Trying a new tactic, he activated lightning and ran a current of it and through the spines around his limbs. Forming a smile on his face, he swung his right arm into the criminal on the right, striking him with an electrocuting strike that launched him into a wall. Spiraling around, he slammed the back of his left arm into another one, thrusting him away and through a window.

Grabbing hold of two criminals, he used them like a pair of maces, swinging them into the two nearest criminals. The force of the throw and addition of the wind element, sent their bodies into the mural. Their bodies breaking down upon impact.

The last two took out their sabers and swung them around in their hands before charging him. However, Venom thrusted his hands forward, his claws shooting out like whips with their skin reddening before flames igniting around them. The flaming tendrils snapped into their bodies, piercing through them and burning their insides with great heat, sizzling their innards mercilessly.

Retracting them back to his hands, the large being looked to the evil metahumans who looked shocked enough to be in paralysis. "**What's wrong, guys? Scared?**" he asked them wickedly.

Zoom narrowed his eyes in anger with fists clenching. His eyes looking to the side and saw Rothstein getting up again. The masked metahuman using his hands to feel up the tear on his helmet, feeling it running through the top left corner and all the way across to the bottom right corner.

Turning his pitch-black eyes to the side, he saw the shark metahuman still on the ground, still in fear from witnessing the mutant's demonic form. But anger filled up the speedster's core, his heart beating like it was trying to break out of his chest with rage boiling in his veins.

Snapping his head to his two colossal fighters, he ordered them. "**Get up and kill him!**" Rothstein and the shark metahuman got back on their feet again. The masked metahuman growing up in size and charged Venom. But unlike before, he wouldn't stand there and let himself be thrashed. This time, Seth and Venom would get their payback.

Lunging both of his arms upwards, he fired off tendrils that attached to the ceiling. With his hands, he pulled them into ropes and pulled himself up to it, just in time when Rothstein came and swung his fist for him. Flipping onto the ceiling, he attached himself to it and looked down on the masked metahuman.

Letting out a snarl at him, the elemental turned his entire body into adamantium and let wind circulate around him. Increasing the wind around him, he launched like a rocket for him. Rothstein was about to move but then Venom's large adamantium clawed hand grabbed his masked head and shoved him into the ground. Having used the momentum from the leap, Seth was able to embed the metahuman into the ground with a dust screen blowing up around them.

Rothstein felt like he was on the receiving end of the Grim Reaper's scythe. And that scythe was in the form of the elemental demon who was looking down on him with the most vicious eyes he's ever seen…on pair with the terror that Zoom brought with a single gaze of his eyes.

And the terror in him increased when he felt the mutant's metallic claws digging into the sides of his mask, touching the flesh and drawing lines of blood that led to dripping down the sides of his head. When he tried to move up, he was unable to move when Venom's large foot slammed into his stomach, pinning him down on the ground with a grunt of pain.

Then with a single pull, the elemental tore off the mask and looked down at his real face, unconcealed by the iron black mask, which he threw away. Venom felt the metahuman shaking, quivering in fear underneath him and he stated rhetorically, "**Scared, are we?**" he leant his head down with a hand igniting flames and threateningly told him. "**Good.**"

Clenching his burning hand, he formed a burning fist and let wind intensify the flames before raising it high in the air. Then with a quick and lethal strike, he brought the blazing fist down on the metahuman's stomach.

"ARGH!"

Rothstein screamed in absolute pain when he felt the flames burn his protective suit, searing through most of it. It's protectiveness able to handle the shifting of his form changing made it strong enough to withstand the flames, despite most of the middle section of it being burned through. But it did render his immobile, forcing him into a realm of unconsciousness while charred areas of his suit smoked.

Venom was about to strike him down with a quickly formed ice scythe, cut off his head like an execution. But an animalistic roar from the side, diverted his attention to the shark metahuman who had managed to regain his will to fight and went to attack him.

"**Sharkbait's eager to fight, huh? Come here, fishy.**" the anti-hero said bemusedly and got back on his feet and leaped into the air. Reeling a fist back, he generated lighting around it and slammed it into the metahuman's face, sending him flying and into the mural.

The metahuman tried to get out of the wall but he stopped when he saw the mutant attach tendrils to the mural around him. Fear began coursing through his veins when he saw Venom pull himself back with a few steps. Fear turned to terror when Seth yanked himself forward with both feet pressed together like a lance, turning their skin into adamantium and slammed into his body.

The force of the adamantium strike sent the shark metahuman deeper into the mural, and through it and into the wall. Blood began spewing out of the metahuman's mouth like a red river, and was on the verge of losing his consciousness.

However, any hope of that salvation instantly disappeared with the touch of Venom's hand grabbing the metahuman's head and pulling him closer to his own head. Hissing his anger at him, he spoke. "**You tried to strike those defenseless girls down your hand…**"

_TEAR_

Its dark blue eyes widening at the feeling…or lack thereof…when the shark metahuman tried to move his arms…but they were soon within his eyesight, once they were thrown to the ground after being torn off his body. "**You're not going to hurt anyone now.**" As he stated his words, he noticed the torn areas of his arms slowly moving, as though something was trying to reform there.

"_Oh, great white shark, that's right._" Seth recalled.

"**_They can regrow a lost limb in a matter of seconds._**" Venom recalled an ability of the oceanic animal.

"**Son of a bitch.**" He breathed out in annoyance before slamming his fist into the shark's head, knocking him out. But he didn't stop there and delivered a series of strong fists to the shark's head, implanting him deeper and deeper into the wall. While the thought of killing each and everyone of them did cross his mind, he knew that his mere demon-like presence was enough to make them to sleep with one eye open.

And there was someone else he wanted to petrify…one who burned a defenseless girl's hands.

And he was in the air right now, with flames holding him up in the air.

Snapping his head around like bullet, he locked his blood-red eyes with Ronnie's ghostly white eyes. "**Ronnie…Raymond…**" He hissed out the name with anger and hate, his hands dripping down with blood from the shark's head.

"You really think you scare me?" Deathstorm exclaimed in anger, not liking how the mutant was trying to intimidate him.

"**Trust us, you will.**" Venom menacingly walked to them.

But before he could move to them, Reverb struck his hands out and fired off a vibrational blast from both of them. Venom placed right arm out and formed an ice shield, taking on the two vibrating strikes. Like with Caitlin's doppelganger, he couldn't bring himself to hurt the man who resembles his friend, Francisco Ramon.

However, he still had to deal with him. Though that did not necessarily mean hurting him.

Dozens of black tendrils shot out of his back. With the motions of a gathering of pythons, lightning and wind coursing through them, they fired off around him and slammed into Reverb's body, pushing him off the floor and into the wall behind him. His limb body sliding off the wall and down on the ground.

Black Siren thrusted her head out, snapping her mouth open and unleashing a sonic cry that hit the mutant's demonic body. Venom and Seth felt the sonic attack rippling through his body with penetrating and painful sound waves. The symbiotic mass shaking like water and on the verge of separating from its host's body.

Though, sound attacks were the one of the epicenters of their weaknesses, neither of them was going to remain suspended in that hellish sound chamber. He bent down, his arms digging into the floor and the fingers splitting into the ground. Paving their way through the floor, they shot up again and wrapped around Black Siren's body. One of them snapping out and wrapped around her throat, applying pressure to her larynx and halting her sonic cry.

Seth's own blue eyes looked up and saw the screaming metahuman trying to pull the tendrils off her throat. Getting back on his feet, the symbiote reattached to his body and reformed his large symbiotic form. His crimson-red eyes peering at her before turning his body into adamantium and the tendrils, lightning crackling over his form before following the tendrils, touching her body and shocking her body.

While still in the hold of the tendrils, her body went limb and the tendrils removed themselves from her body and retracted to the elemental's body. Her body fell down on the ground.

Venom looked around and saw Zoom looking at him with pitch-black eyes. Unlike his henchmen, the evil speedster only stayed there and watched the entire battle. For some reason the speedster was unwilling to enter the fray.

"**_Perhaps he's assessing us at our full strength._**" Venom suggested, recalling how the metahuman .

"_Doesn't matter._" Seth surprisingly stated his thoughts. "_Whether he have the guts to fight us or nor, doesn't matter. He wants to play; he can arrange a playdate._" He shifted his eyes back to Ronnie in the air. "_For now…_" "**…He's our playmate.**"

Opening his mouth and releasing a battle cry of anger, Deathstorm lashed his hands out and fired off a flaming attack. But a retaliating wind strike from the mutant, blasted the fire blast back into his face. The moment, it collided with his body, it sent him flying backwards with a spiral of his body.

His body would have flung further away if Seth's dozens of tendrils hadn't ensnarled his body and pulled him into his large hand, grabbing around his body. Ronnie tried to struggle his way out of it, but the demonic hand that held him in a vice-grip tightened and stopped him from moving.

Venom looked deep into his eyes; his mere glare able to send a blizzard of shivers down the blazing metahuman's spine. "Let me go!" Ronnie remained defiant.

"**You really think that, Ronnie? That we would just let you go like that?**" He mockingly asked him. "**Oh, but you're not getting anywhere, not after what you did to Ruby…**" Half of his face opened up, revealing half of his Seth's face and Venom's face. "**W**e **no**t **go**ing **t**o **ki**ll **y**ou, **beca**use **o**f **h**er." Nodding his head to the back, directing their attention to the cold and pale beauty of Killer Frost whose hands are shaking, her ice blades threatening to fall off her fingers.

"W-W-Why?" Deathstorm stammered.

An unwavering determination laced his honest voice. "**W**e **do**n't wa**nt** **h**er **t**o **b**e **hu**rt. **W**e **wo**n't **k**ill **y**ou." A smirk formed, before the symbiote covered his face again, forming his demonic mask again, completing the devilish smirk on his face. "**But that doesn't mean we can't hurt you.**"

A brutal swing from him launched the metahuman into the staircase on the left side of the lobby, pieces of wooden steps blowing up and falling down around his body. Blood spew out his mouth upon impact. His eyes pointing upwards and saw the mutant looking directly at him, smoke coming out the sides of his open mouth.

His teeth reddening along with the insides of his mouth before thrusting it forward. A bursting flame throwing out of his mouth, wind mixing in and intensifying the flames, and creating a blazing flamethrower that pushed his body up the stairs. The metahuman's body smashing through the staircase, crashing upwards till he hit the wall on the upper level.

"Ronnie!" Killer Frost exclaimed in worry when she saw him be implanted into the wall on the upper level.

Giving her a quick glance, he let tendrils wrap around Ronnie's body, pulling him out of the wall and threw him out and into the ground. Grunts and gasps emitted from his mouth with each impact his body took on the ground.

Killer Frost lashed out her hands, launching the ice blades from her hands at the mutant. Their sharp ends piercing into the symbiotic body of the elemental and becoming stuck in it. However, despite them still sticking in his torso, he walked over to the icy metahuman. The fire element heating up his body, melting the ice blades and falling off his body, shattering on the ground.

The frosty metahuman walked backwards, her steps slow and steady, fearing that the mutant would do something to her now, in revenge of her part in imprisoning him and the others. She could no longer move backwards, her back pinned to the wall and her eyes looking up to Venom who stood in front of her. His large clawed hand reached up to her face.

She expected it to cut her, pierce her heart, drive through her head, ending her life in a second.

But instead, her mind was blown away from what he did. He raised a finger, letting its soft and gentle feeling touch her skin with the stroke of his finger. The touch of his finger turned her head completely red, giving a ripe tomato a run for its money. It seemed as though her powers had left her body, leaving it a blank canvass for her blush to paint completely red.

Seth pulled away. "_It's weird…looking at her, reminds me of Caitlin. My Caitlin._"

"**_She's not that Caitlin, Seth. She's just a cold doppelganger. Our Caitlin would be disappointed in her._**"

He was right. The Caitlin Snow he loves is a woman of compassion, love and care. Easily the most amazing woman he's ever known. Devoting her life to become a doctor, saving innocents through her medical expertise and also with the knowledge she's gotten through her adventures as a scientist who aids heroes.

This one was nothing like her. Clearly an opposite version of the woman he loves, an evil woman with the powers of coldness. Willing to take down anyone without a single hesitation, not showing any compassion whatsoever, nothing like the woman he loves.

And he couldn't bring himself to hurt her, because she looks like the woman he loves.

He didn't pay it anymore mind when he looked around and saw Zoom who still stood there, standing there like a statue with lightning crackling over his body. "**You want fight us next, Zoom?**" he walked around, standing in front of the metahuman with ice growing on both hands, forming a pair of double-bladed ice scythes.

Zoom looked around the carnage of the mutant's attack, seeing the aftermath of his true potential. While it was the right choice to keep the elemental in his captivity, the black speedster was surprised to see the power he truly held within himself. Demonic usage of elements in his palms and a ruthlessness that could only be achieved through a villain's state of mind. It was incredible.

And though the thought of taking him on now did appeal to the metahuman's interest, he couldn't do it now. Having other plans, he chose the strategic choice…which was taking on the mutant…now!

Clenching both of his clawed hands, he stared at the other, larger demon. "**It will be your doom… Venom.**" Blue lightning generated around every inch of his body as he was ready to fight the elemental demon.

"**Only doom that will be here is yours, Zoom!**" Lighting sparked over his own body as well, before he leaped after him. The speedster charged him as well, swiping his black claw for him from the right. Seth retaliated with an ice scythe coming from his right arm.

Time slowed down for the evil speedster and he changed the trajectory of his claws and formed a fist instead and slammed it down on the ice weapon. The increased force of it with the added momentum brought it down hard enough for it to shatter like fragile glass.

But Seth used his own lightning to keep up with the speedster's motions, and swung his left scythe upwards, aiming to cut through his torso. Zoom saw it and dodged it, but the ice blade did manage to graze his shoulder, leaving a small cut. With a jump backwards, he jumped back and put distance between them.

Venom snarled at the metahuman leader and the rest of his henchmen, all of them slowly regaining their consciousness again. He was about to move but then something behind them happened.

"ARGH!" a much louder scream came from behind him. Snapping his head to the direction of it, he saw the pregnant down on the ground, Iris and Barry on her right side and Jesse on her left side, the three of them consoling her as she felt her baby child coming out to the world, sooner and sooner by the second. Her husband was on the ground as well, looking to be struck by fear right now.

Evelyn was holding her head, her hands on the sides of her head. Her hair covering her hands like curtains and shielding what was happening on them.

"ARGH!" The pregnant woman screamed out in pain again.

"**She's close.**" Seth and Venom deduced.

"No." A strange but fearful voice spoke out, drawing the mutant's attention. Looking to it, he saw Evelyn shaking her head, wiping it from side to side with her hair flinging to the various sides. "Not again, please."

Zoom noticed her vivid and strangely bewildered behavior, recognizing it from the past, he stated. "**It's happening again.**"

Both host and symbiote registered the words and looked at the speedster. "**What do you mean? What's happening to her-**"

_SCREAM_

Before he could continue his question, the mutant's eyes were blinded when an intensively blinding white light appeared from Evelyn, following with a deafening and heartbreaking scream from her mouth. Like him, the others were blinded, but Venom was only partially blinded and it allowed its senses to be expanded. Its radiant light intensified, forcing the symbiote's expanded senses to retract.

Seth and Venom managed to open their eyes, peering through the dazzling white light. And they looked to the middle of it, the origin point of it and saw Evelyn standing there. Through the light, he saw the silhouetted form of the young girl as she kept screaming with an open mouth, clearly in fear of what has happening to her now.

"**_What's happening to her?!_**" Venom exclaimed his worry, shouting it over the scream that was emitting from her.

"_I don't know!_" Seth stated as well. But he focused his narrowly opened eyes on her, forcing his eyes through the dazzling world of light. But it was like, even through his red eyes belonging to his partner's form, the flash was searing his eyes because of its illuminated force. "**Evelyn!**" he called out to her, hoping his voice was able to reach her.

"Seth?!" She called back in response.

Jesse, Ruby, Iris and Barry were forced to shield themselves as well. They feared that they would lose their eyesight if they opened up for even a second.

Zoom and his henchmen were shielding their eyes with their arms, the light intensifying with each passing second. The speedster was able to look through the light, seeing the silhouette of Evelyn Sharp in there. His black eyes pointing at her hands, seeing them now out lashed to the sides.

Focusing on her right hand, at least the silhouette of it. An interested smile formed behind his demonic black mask when he recognized the unique manifestation of her powers. He saw it before…when he took away what was most important to the young metahuman…and it was one of the best decisions he's ever made.

Turning to his henchmen, he commanded them. "**Capture her.**" Though they all were shielding their eyes from the radiant light, they had to follow orders otherwise they would feel the wrath of Zoom. And that was something none of them wanted to fight against.

So they obeyed the orders and went to move.

Evelyn heard his orders and her fear intensified, evolving into horror. The thought of returning to Zoom's lair, becoming a prisoner of his again, terrified her. She knew if that happened again, those images would return to her mind. To see that monster's claws pierce through their chests without a care in the world, like it was simplest thing for him to do. Blood running out of their mouths. Every single image from that moment…returned back to her with a vengeance.

"NNNNOOOO!"

Evelyn's horrific screams echoed in the room and her left hand sparked, a pitch-black smoky miasma erupting out of her hand. Seth and Venom and the others were able to see the onyx smoke-like streams spiral around her body, encasing her in the darkness. Slivers of radiant light shooting out of the small openings of her cage of darkness.

With the darkness around her, it lessened the radiance in the lobby greatly allowing everyone to see clearer than before. But whenever the small but powerful lights hitting their eyes through the openings connected, they had to shield themselves.

However, losing their eyesight would be the least of their worries.

The dark smoky mass shot out like bullets, taking on the forms of dozens of darkness tendrils before thrusting themselves out like snakes. Bypassing Seth's form, the tendrils slammed into the metahumans behind him. But they were also out of control. Slamming into the ground, the walls, the windows, staircases, shattering everything they connected with.

And the darkness was not the only one power to act on Evelyn's frantic emotions. Her light intensified and shone like a star. In response to its dazzling radiance, the light spread out as well like the darkness.

Through the brilliant light, Seth saw the shooting light, seeing them in the form of…pure white arrows…of light? And the darkness embedding into objects around…embedding themselves into the sabers on the ground…giving the weapons a shadowy glow.

"_What…_"

_PIERCE_

Everyone was too distracted by their brilliant and attention-drawing appearance of purity that the sound of them penetrating through various objects went by them. the sound multiplied with each light arrow piercing through floor, window and everything else around them.

It didn't show any sign of stopping. Seth saw it that and knew that it was nothing to stop and then ordered the scared Evelyn. "**Evelyn, stop!**" his words came out like a roar. Though he didn't want it to, it was what was needed for the young girl to calm down again, shocking her into calmness. The light and darkness from her hands diminished and she looked at the mutant.

While he saw that, he looked around and saw that Evelyn's damage was added to Ruby's damage. Completely putting the lobby on the verge of complete and utter destruction. Pieces of the broken mural fell off, landing on the floor. Staircase railings shattered, looking as the metal was torn off from the darkness. Sharp pierced holes in the walls, the light projectiles having left their impressive mark on them.

"_These kids are crazy._" Seth stated his thoughts, impressed and shocked by their powers all at the same time.

"**_That is one way to look at it._**" Venom stated. "**_But now, we know why Zoom wants them so badly. Weapons and nothing more than that._**"

At the mention of the evil speedster, he looked back to their direction. His eyes narrowed when he saw that in the midst of the chaos, Zoom and his henchmen had escaped. Leaving the innocents to be alone. Seth retracted his suit at the thought of the civilians, revealing his form again.

Seeing his real form again made Evelyn calmer. But she also feared what would happen next, wondering if he would be angry at her for losing control of her powers. "Seth…" she spoke with a small voice, getting his attention. "…Are you okay?"

"Actually…" he held up his healed arms for her eyes to see. "…I'm great, really great." He continued with a smile, but he turned concerningly as he made eye contact with her. "Are you okay, honey?" he asked her and walked closer.

"Don't!" she stopped him with her hands held out for him. "I don't wanna hurt you. Not anyone in here."

"You didn't hurt anyone in here." His hands gestured to around them, pointing to the ones behind them. "Everyone's fine now. They're okay, you only hurt the bad ones. The villains, trust me. And everyone's-"

"ARGH!"

"Right, forgot about the pregnant woman." Seth stated embarrassedly when he heard the pregnant woman scream again. "To be continued." He quickly added to the distraught metahuman and rushed over to the ones in the back.

Iris saw him coming and saw the way the husband and wife, along with her own husband, and she lashed out her hands, clutching them around her firearm and pointing it at the mutant. "Hold it right there. Don't move."

Stopping himself, he gave her a blank look and stated, "Iris, you can trust me. I only kept my end of our promise. Hopefully, you're gonna keep your end now."

"You did get them out of here. I know that. And I'm thankful for that." She cocked her gun, empathizing her point that she was not willing to stand back. "But what the hell was that before? You turned into that demon-thing and then ate that guy before." The memory was still fresh on her. "I've never seen a metahuman needing to eat someone before. Why?"

"Well, I'm not actually a metahuman." he started, holding up his own arms, making sure that she knew that he wasn't gonna do anything of ill-intentions. "I had to eat that guy before. It was the only way for me to get my strength back. It was the only way for me to use my full strength again, especially since my partner was weak?"

"Partner? Weak?" Barry stated in disbelief, clearly not believing a single word coming out of the mutant's mouth. "So you have to eat people to get your strength back?!" a gulp of shock came from the other husband. "That's crazy!"

"…" Iris didn't speak for a few moments. Her mind weighing the options like scales, good weighing against bad and vice versa. She tried to come up with a solution that would lead them to a place where they would be safe again, one where everyone could be safe again.

Inhaling a few times, she unsurely inquired of him, her hands making sure her gun trained on him at all times. "What's to stop you from eating us? From killing us?"

Seth was surprised with how Iris was able to keep her hands steady. After everything she just saw, seeing him pummel metahumans after metahumans, witnessing tear through the bones and flesh of human criminals with his own demonic hands, eating their heads…and yet she was able to remain calm and steadfast before him.

"**_Impressive._**" Venom stated.

Mentally nodding his agreement to his partner, Seth answered her question. "Because I don't hurt anyone who's not evil. I don't hurt anyone who doesn't have it coming. I don't hurt kids, alive or those who haven't come to be yet." He slowly pointed a finger at the pregnant woman who kept panting through short intakes of breath. "And right now, this one needs me."

"How can we trust you?" The husband to his pregnant wife asked while in fear.

"He's a doctor." Ruby jumped into their conversation, gaining the natives' attention. "He healed my hands. You can trust him." she held up her hands for their eyes.

"If he can save my baby, then it's okay." The woman stated, looking up at the mutant. "Please…help my baby."

"I will. I promise." He bent down on his knees, Iris holstered her gun again and watched him closely, "Nothing is gonna happen to you. But please, you have to trust me. What's your name?"

"Jasmine. My husband's name is Derek." She answered with a gesture of her hand to him, the man shaking still. "And I do trust you." Jasmine finalized.

"Nice to meet you both." Seth nodded.

"Shouldn't we get her to a hospital?" Iris asked as she got down on a knee, beside Jasmine. Derek was on her other side, both of them holding her hands as she felt pain come in short bursts from the baby coming.

"No time. She's gonna have her baby here." He revealed, black tendrils shooting out his back and touched her skin, sending out soothing sensations to ease her.

"You've done this before?" Jesse was the first to ask.

"Yeah. A few times." Seth raised his eyebrow sheepishly before admitting. "Virtual simulations."

"Virtual?" Jasmine stated her confusion, her body calmed down by the soothing waves.

"Yeah." He continued, his voice still sheepishly with an equally sheepish smile. "Technology played a huge part in my education. But don't worry, I did it a few times in real life with real people. Those went well."

"I trust you." Jasmine stated, honestly putting her belief in the mutant.

Seth nodded and began the procedure. "Okay. Breathe out." She exhaled, following her doctor's orders while holding Iris and Derek's hands while inhaling and exhaling repeatedly. Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse made sure to be there, ready at a moment's notice to retrieve items that was needed for them.

"Evelyn, get some water, preferably in a bowl." She shot off with a nod. "Barry, take Ruby and get some towels." The two stood up and ran off to the retrieve them. "Jesse, see if you can get some blankets. We got to get to keep our girl warm." Jesse nodded and ran off. "Iris, Derek. Make sure that this one is calm at all times." They nodded. "Jasmine?"

The pregnant woman looked at him. "What?"

"Push."

X

Jasmine went through one of the hardest times in her life, pushing and pushing with all of her might. Pushing her yet-to-be-born child out of her body. It was painful, utterly painful. But she fought through it, and thanks to everyone around her, she was able to keep fighting.

The three young girls, Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse were able to make her as comfortable as she could be. Making sure she was warm with the blankets, cooling her with water, wiping off sweat and making she was leaning up against a bunch of towels.

Iris, Barry and her husband beside her, on either side, keeping her emotionally supported through the entire ordeal. She was lucky to have them.

Even more as she was able to have Seth be her doctor.

Seth had been making sure that everyone around her was like that for a make-shift hospital room. His black tendrils clutching onto her body, sending out soothing sensations in waves to keep her calm despite every single painful push. It was a blessing.

"Now it's the for the big push, all right?" Jasmine nodded frantically, inwardly hoping that she would be free of this pain and get to see her baby for the first time. Seth smiled, "Good. For your baby then." He looked back down and counted, "One, two, three."

Jasmine's face frowned, tears slithering out of her narrowed eyes as she let out a screech through gritted teeth. Her hands turning white when the feeling of pain increased, clenching down on the hands of Iris and Derek like vice-grips.

Her efforts were not in vain when Seth saw it…the head.

"**_It's coming!_**" Venom announced in his head.

"Here we go." Seth announced to them. "One more push, come on Jasmine!"

Heeding her doctor's words, the woman gave a last and final push, following with a screech. "ARGH!"

…

…

_CRYING_

Jasmine and Derek calmed down significantly when they heard the sound of a small human's crying. The others formed smiles as they looked to Seth held a wide smile on his face, while looking down on what was in his hands. Having his tendrils slither over to the towels, he brought one of them over to his hands. Holding crying being with his own hands, his tendrils wrapped it with the blanket.

Making sure that it was comfortable for the child and breathable as well, he looked up and held up the young child as he got up on his feet. Showing the beautiful face of the newborn child in his arms, cradling it with sways of his hands. "Congratulations. It's a girl."

The two parents cried with tears of joy streaming down their faces. Iris and Barry were in shock as well, shocked to be so overjoyed to see a child's birth. The three girls were just as shocked to see the young baby girl crying in the mutant's arms.

"Can we…see her?" Jasmine asked.

Seth nodded, "Of course." he walked over to her and bent down on a knee, stretching out her hands he gently handled her back to them. The tears on their faces increased into waterfalls of joyous tears when the mother held her daughter and the father looking down on them.

The mutant saw them and he couldn't help but feel nostalgia wash over him. He remembered the time he saved Bucky from the burning hospital, getting out of the blazing building and held his would-be son, Bucky, in his arms as Venom. Remembering the times, he cradled the young boy in his arms, rocking him back and forth while singing him a lullaby till she sleeps. He remembered the first time he placed the bottle of milk in his mouth, trying desperately to keep it at the right angle to make sure he didn't drink too much milk. The times that really rose to the surface of his precious memories were the times when Bucky would smile and take his first steps, walking into his open arms and pulled into a three-way hug between them and Stefanie Panes.

The best one of them though…were the times when Bucky would call him… "Daddy."

Tears fell from both his eyes. His body and heart remembering his deceased family. The memories kept rising to the surface of his mind. Starting out with the memories of his deceased family, they changed quickly into memories of his new family…remembering the woman he loves of another universe…the daughter he saved from an abusive life in foster homes….the two most important of his life, the ones he loves…the family he would risk his life for.

"_I hope they're okay._" Seth hoped for their well-being. Hoping that they would safe. Even with his little sister and his best friend there with them, he was scared for them since he couldn't be there for them. And his heart fissured from those saddening thoughts.

"**_We're going back to them, partner. We will._**" Venom assured his partner with waves of calmness sending out to him. "**_And nothing is gonna stop._**"

With a steadfast mind, Seth wiped his tears away and stated back. "_Not even Zoom himself._"

"Doctor Seth?" the mutant perked up his head, looking up to the woman who was holding her baby girl gently. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." He assured her. "But no need to call me doctor. I'm not that formal. Seth is fine."

"Promise. But why were you crying?" Jasmine persisted.

Knowing that he wouldn't get anywhere, he held onto his dog tags and revealed. "Just remembering my daughter, is all." Barry and Iris widened their eyes with shock when hearing those words. The three girls looking to him with hints of sadness in their eyes.

"You have a daughter too?" Derek asked, his response came in the form of a nod. The husband looked to his wife with a meaningful look. Recognizing the look, his wife nodded with a smile. "Is it any of them here?" he nodded to the three girls.

"No. Just three people I'm helping out of a really bad situation." He told them. Iris widening her eyes before looking to the sides, taking in the damage in the lobby. Examining the damage done by the evil metahumans, and more specifically Seth's damage. Her thoughts went to her mentor's last case and the mutant as well.

"What's your daughter's name?" Jasmine asked with a smile.

"Frankie. Frankie Fury." He answered with a wide smile, showing happiness with that smile.

"Frankie…" Jasmine repeated, her eyes going down to her baby girl who was cooing happily while being rocked in her mother's arms. A smile broadened as she announced, "…Frankie. It's good name. Don't you think, honey?"

"Yeah. It's a beautiful name for our beautiful girl." Derek agreed, his face paled when he realized what Seth was capable of. "If it's okay, Doctor?"

While he used the water element to clean his hands, Seth assured him. "No worries about that."

"So…" Ruby got their attention. "…What are we going to do now?"

"That depends…" Seth made eye contact with Iris. "Are you gonna keep your promise, Detective West? Drop all charges Evelyn and the ones that Ruby might be charged with?"

Iris nodded, "I will." She looked to her husband who assured her of her decision with a nod of his head. "And I think I have something that will you help you guys out."

"What?" Evelyn wondered.

"A place to lay low." Barry sheepishly stated.

"Wait." Ruby got their attention again. she looked to Seth with a smirk. "Can we agree you just mutilated Nemo's half-brother?"

"Bastard half-brother, then yeah. I did." Seth reluctantly admitted. While wondering if he would ever be able to watch Finding Nemo again.

X

**(Zoom's lair)**

The dozens of Zoom's henchmen were tending to their wounds.

Reverb and Deathstorm were bandaging some of their wounds, patching them up to ensure that they wouldn't lose any more blood. The large shark metahuman coughing up the remaining puddles of blood in his mouth. Rothstein taking off his mask, holding it in his hands and inspecting it with his horrified eyes at the damage done to it.

Black Siren taking off her black jacket and rubbing her sore muscles. Smearing mixes of healing herbs and whatnot at her shoulders and throat, still feeling the massive aftermath from the black tendrils' pull around her limbs. It was like they were still attached to her body, even now.

Killer Frost was by herself and taking off her jacket. Letting the blue clothing slide down her arms, she looked at her own reflection in the mirror before her. Unlike her fellow henchmen, she was not damaged in the least. Not a piece of debris touching her pale white and flawless skin, nothing even came close to even graze her. Something above her was looking out for her. Or perhaps someone down on ground level with her.

Noticing her cheeks blushing with redness like magma, she cupped her cheeks with both hands. Graciously, her ran over her paly ice-like skin. "Why didn't he even try to hurt me?" she muttered shockingly under her breath, none of her co-henchmen hearing her words. She was still in shock, disbelieving that she was able to get out of that fight unscathed.

She recalled their first meeting. How he told her that she reminded him of someone he cares deeply about. Perhaps that was the reason behind his reluctant to strike her, because she wears the face of the woman he cares for, the one his heart belongs to.

If so, she might want to divulge deeper into the matter… get some clarity on the matter…perhaps something more too.

"**ARGH!**" Zoom let out an angered cry as he flipped a metal table around, launching it away with rage. His henchmen turned to him with shock in their eyes. None of them willing to move close to him, fearing that they would be the ones to receive his wrath. He had to take out his frustration on something, or someone sooner or later.

He was feeling weak and humiliated right now. His group, his two lieutenants…none of them could stand before the powers of that powerful mutant with the demonic and hellish appearance. They had all failed him! They had failed Zoom!

He looked to the back, seeing Rothstein reequipping his mask again.

_WHOOSH_

Speeding in front of the size-altering metahuman, who stiffened in a second at the sight of him, he locked eyes with him and told him.

"**You get one…last chance…to prove yourself, Rothstein.**" He leant closer to his face, inducing fear with each second of his movement. "**Fail me, and you'll set foot in your home again.**"

"W-w-what do you want?" Rothstein shakingly asked.

There was only one thing he wanted from Rothstein. And he would do it, otherwise he would never again set foot in his home world again. Because he would be going to a world…

… beyond his own…to destroy one person…the person that destroyed the Singularity…

…The Flash…

X

**(CCPD, Evidence Room)**

Not a slither of light, be it radiant sunlight or light from lamps were falling down on the various shelves in the evidence lock-up room within the Central City Police Department. Shelves stocked with the various important pieces of evidence; pieces of evidence that were yet to be presented in their respective cases. Evidence bags holding pieces of shattered remains, pieces of asphalt belonging to the scenes that villains have ravaged with their heinous acts.

Confiscated weaponry in massive cases under lock and key. Long-range weapons customized to do the more destruction with each pull of the trigger, each bullet able to increase their strength upon penetration with a target. Close-range weapons, able to fit in a person's bare hands, allowing them through customization to smash through walls of concrete, crush a man's skull and even bend steel with only an inch of a person's strength.

Such was the weaponry that were within the criminals' hands. Powerful enough to strike fear into the police's heart with the mere sight of them. Which led them to be confiscated and placed within the holdings of the CCPD.

One specific weapon was in there as well…and light of different colors were shining from it, from within its confining walls of the large crater to contend it. The lights were intensifying and along with them a burst of energy, blowing open the lid, even threatening to force it off its hinges.

The light continued running of the weapon's form. Showing that it was a massive sword with a black clothed handle. Blank and colorless crystals composing the elongated blade, the tip of it sharp and strong. Colorful lights emitting from within it, discharging it all of a sudden with numerous energies in response to something out there.

As though it was awakening from a long slumber.

The flashy colorful lights dissipated slowly, slithering back into the large sword. No longer blank and colorless, instead every inch of the crystalized structure has now gained a color. Yellow as the sun, red as fire, black as darkness, blue as water, white as light, green as grass, brown as earth and dozens of other colors.

An energy pulse, without any visible traits, sending out like air and without sound. As though it was calling out to something…

…or someone…

X

Seth's eyes snapped open before he shot up to a sitting on the couch, he had turned into a make-shift bed.

Barry and Iris had done the unexpected for the mutant and the three girls he helped out of Zoom's prison, they brought them to their own house. What surprised Seth was the house itself, revealing itself to be an upgraded version of the Wests' house in his universe.

Lights dimmed down on contact with the switch. A white plushy couch looking to be worth a bit, a white and plushy chair for their feet to be placed on. Dozens of pillows on the couch. Advanced lamps on the tables, looking to worth a lot as well. Pictures at every wall, ranging from small size to larger size, displaying joyous moments of their past or beautiful art pieces.

A shelf beside the front door was filled with dozens of framed photos of wonderful moments. Barry and Iris from this universe holding each other tightly, hugging one another, embracing each other. Even a photo of their wedding day.

Amongst them were a few trophies. To of whom they belonged to, Seth hadn't asked about.

He hadn't checked the upstairs rooms, only used the bathroom to cut off his beard and take a shower. Something he was thankful for, eternally grateful to them after almost six months from Zoom's captivity. But he was thankful to be given a couch to use as a bed.

And the moment he brought himself down to it, he felt himself drift off to sleep when he closed his eyes.

"**_Are you alright?_**" Venom asked his partner in worry.

"_I'm fine._" He replied.

"**_Really?_**" Venom saw through the reply, knowing that it was a lie. "**_Because we know that you're lying._**" Seth didn't respond. "**_Why did you shoot up like that? A nightmare or something?_**"

"I…I really don't know." Seth replied out loud, confused beyond his mind as he tried to work out why he felt the need to get back up like that. Like something told him to wake up from his short nap, ruining his nap with a pulse of longing in him that erupted in him.

"You okay?" He looked to the stairs and saw Iris walking down them and over to him from behind the couch. "Heard your bed creaking a bit up there."

He waved off her concerns, "I'm fine. Just a little nap ruined is all." Directing his eyes upwards, he inquired. "What's going with the three girls up there? They behaving or do I have to Venom up and scare them straight?"

Iris chuckled and took a seat on a chair beside the couch. "No need. They're okay. They're just getting settled into their new surroundings." Seth raised an eyebrow in confusion. She then elaborated. "We have two extra rooms up there; they're taking them while you guys are here." Nodding to the couch, she asked. "And you sure you are okay with this couch?"

"I'm okay. Don't worry, Iris." Seth assured her. "But speaking of the others…" he pointed a finger upwards. "…I might need you to help me, get me some more information about Evelyn and such."

"I will, it's the least I can do after you fought off Zoom and his group." Iris told him.

"But are you sure about letting us stay here in your home, Iris? It might put a target on you and your husband's back." he asked her in worry. He didn't want them to be put on Zoom's radar now.

Especially since neither of them had any powers. The Barry Allen in this world didn't jump into action like the one he knows, nor did he possess the speedster powers of this world. He was powerless to do anything against the metahuman criminals, only able to stand behind them and try in his own way to protect his wife.

"You haven't been in Central City long, have you?"

Seth couldn't help but chuckle at the detective's question. But he knew that he would have to explain everything at one point, but not now. "Let's just say, I'm…a bit of a traveler."

"**_Really? That's the best you can come up with?_**" Venom chastised his host who mentally scowled at him.

The detective didn't pay much attention at the scoff, "Well, ever since Zoom showed up, everyone in the city's become a target. No one is off limits. Man, woman-"

"Child." Seth quickly added, his fists clenching in anger. He couldn't get the news of Ruby's injuries, the fear on Evelyn and Jesse's faces out of his mind. "God, I'm gonna enjoy tearing that bastard limb from limb next time I meet him. Might wanna see him crawl away like an insect before that, without his legs of course."

Iris saw his expression, hearing his words and remembering the powers he displayed before. It was unbelievable, the way he was able to wield them and fight so many of the metahuman criminals single-handedly.

And then he turned into that massive demon-like creature. Pitch-black skin, rippling like water in an ocean of elements. Combinations of elements bending against one another, clashing like opposing swords in a fight and birthing a white skull extension on his face. Bone-like spines shooting out of his body like snakes and wrapping around his arms to form armaments. Claws and fangs belonging to a demon that could tear through anyone with ease. Red eyes that looked like a fiery red ocean of blood, terrorizing anyone with a single gaze.

It was nothing like anything she had ever seen. Despite the metahumans she's faced, the ones she's put behind bars…Seth was something else. Not like them.

"How did you do that?" Seth looked to her in confusion. "What are you, Seth?"

"He's Venom."

The two adults looked back to the staircase and saw Ruby walking down the stairs. Seth saw that she had taken off her ragged battle armor and was now dressed in a white shirt underneath a gray hoodie and black pants. Her hair was drying off with the towel she used on it. Placing her eyes on the mutant, he continued. "One that is a bit of a legend where I'm from."

"You know who he is?" Iris asked with narrowed eyes.

Seth looked back to her and asked of the detective. "Iris, mind giving me and Ruby a few minutes alone? We need to talk."

"Sure." Iris got on her feet again. "I need to check on Barry, see if he needs help with dinner anyway. Gonna be a big one with all the extra mouths here." She walked away and left the two together.

Ruby took a seat on the couch, beside the mutant and placed her hands together. As she intertwined her fingers, she went into a deep thoughtful trance. Trying to decide what she was gonna do now. She knew that it was time to disclose everything.

But only to Seth. He was probably the only one to believe her now.

"What's on your mind, Ruby?" The mutant wondered with a serious expression on his face.

"I think it's time I tell you…" Ruby looked to him. "About everything, about me."

"Would be nice." Seth humored.

Inhaling a few times, she revealed. "I used to hear the stories about you from my mom. Venom, the hero who wields elements like a demon and tears down enemies who threaten the lives of innocents. Roaring into every battle like a catastrophic creature." She chuckled. "The stories scared me so much that I would actually lose sleep as a kid. Think my mother actually liked that."

"**_Why does she talk like that?_**"

"_Like what, Venom?_" Seth thought his question.

"**_Like…something strange…_**" Venom was unsure of what direction he was heading with his thoughts. But there was definitely something strange about the young girl's voicing of her words. She spoke in a weird manner and it shook the symbiote, down to the point where the mutant host can feel them.

"Ruby…why are you talking about me like that?" Seth asked, her eyes widening with shock. "I was…only gone from my home universe for a little over a year."

"A year?" Ruby chuckled. "Try four of them."

"Wait, what?" Seth stopped her with alarm on his face, her face failing to uphold a stoic and emotionless expression when overwhelming surprise began washing over her face as did his own. "What do you mean "four of them"? Four years?"

"W-W-What do you mean?" Ruby stammered her question while surprise continued washing over her like a tidal wave. "It's been that long since anyone has seen you."

"Ruby…What year is it?" he asked alarmingly.

Her eyes wandered up and down the mutant's body, and then a moment afterwards, she answered.

"…2018…"

"Wait what?!" Seth shouted in surprise at her answer, his body shooting up from the couch with shock.

Things can only grow weirder here. And they can't ever get unweird-ed again.

"_Great more time-travel. As if the first one wasn't bad enough._"

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**Venom returned to the surface world again, showing up and taking on various members of Zoom's posse, before helping with a pregnancy. **

**Evelyn has revealed her powers, showing the powers to use some form of light and darkness. But something causes her to lose control, resulting in her to smash the precinct's lobby. Glad I'm not the one to pay for that damages. **

**Seth got the surprise of his life when his brain connected the dots between Ruby and her words, given his experience with time-travel now. Well small-sized experience, since the first time he saw it, it flung him into another universe.**

**Again, more information about Evelyn and Ruby will be revealed in later chapters.**

**Now the next time, we won't see each other on Earth-2. Instead we will venture into the first episode of Flash S02. We will see how after months of mourning their fall friend, brother, father, beloved, the team of Earth-1 are doing as they now adjust to lives without Seth Fury.**

**Hope you guys are excited about that.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps.**


	4. Chapter 4:The Men Who Saved Central City

**And another new bedtime chapter for you guys out there.**

**Sorry for the long wait guys, hope you can bear with me.**

**Fun fact I forgot to mention before guys, there's gonna be changes in a few characters' backgrounds. And there will also be more characters than in the canon version, hopefully make it a lot more interesting.**

**Once again, I'm asking you wonderful readers to send your crazy ideas for signature coffee drinks for the heroes. They deserve their own drinks, do they not? So please help us.**

**Also, I drew inspiration from a very popular movie released a year for this chapter, the beginning at least. Perhaps a few of you wil figure out what movie I'm talking about.**

**Furthermore, this story takes place on Earth-1, following the first episode of The Flash S02. The next chapter, will be a corresponding chapter on what happens on Earth-2 with Seth running amok there. This is how the system will be, for now. So I hope you guys will enjoy it.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 4: The Men Who Saved Central City**

Lightning rumbled above in the dark skies above Central City. Crackling and flashing violently into massive flashes of colors into the darkened city, touching the surfaces of each and every tall building. The lights from above in the dark sky shining into dark streets.

The streets filled to the brim with dozens of the city's inhabitants. Traffic lanes streaming with motorcycles and cars with people in them. Couples walking hand-in-hand with one another as they enjoyed their new and tasteful treats from, the popular coffee shop CC Jitters. Families getting out of toy stores, their youngest child holding their newly purchased toys that their parents gave them with happy smiles.

At this time of the day, the civilians of the city were mostly tending to their usual routines. Minding their own businesses.

And that meant that they do not look up…not looking up at the thundering pitch-black clouds above their heads… or looking up to see the figure on the side of a tall building with the side paneled with numerous windows on every floor.

Somehow the figure was able to look down on them all, all the while attached to the side of the building with nothing but their feet. Their high placement on the side of the high building allowed wind to touch their body with short blows of it, touching every inch of their body.

The edges of the long black trench coat flapping around whenever the air would blow over their form.

Hands with claws on each fingertip placing themselves on either side of the person. Gently pushing their body up, let them sit in a crouch on the side of the wall. Their feet slowly applying pressure on the glass underneath them. White pseudo eyes looking down at the city, the spiraling veins of pitch-black and holy-white over their pink-clad body that was covered by the flapping fabric of the black trench coat.

Inhaling deeply a few times, the person spoke to themselves. "Time to work." The person spoke with a small female voice, all the while increasing the pressure she was putting into her hands. When the pressure reached the right amount, and the glass could no longer keep up with it.

_SHATTER_

Shattering from the tremendous pressure of force, and it with the pressure removed, the person leaped from the side of it with a forceful launch. Performing a backflip before her head pointed downwards. Pieces of shattered glass shot out and followed the laws of gravity, dragging themselves down along with her falling form.

The air began pushing her body down, and in response, she lost her composure. Flopping around like a bird having forgotten how to fly. Her body spiraling, twisting and turning, spinning around uncontrollably with air pushing against her masked face.

The sight of her flopping and falling body did not go unnoticed no longer. Eyes of every man, woman and child on the streets below turned them upwards. Focusing on the falling form of the person. Children gaping their mouths in awe. Women covering their mouths in shock. Men widening their eyes with fear.

All of them forming different thoughts in their minds. Thoughts of amazement. Thoughts of surprise. Thoughts of dread.

"**_Steady yourself. Remember what she taught you._**"

"Got it!" She replied to her "other", her voice loudly spoken against the blasting of wind against her face. Making sure her head was pointed downwards, she steadied herself in the fall. Her arms placing on either side of her calmed body, accepting the fall of her body and going with the drop.

Spinning her body around, she looked across and found a tall building on that side. Lashing out her hands in the direction of that construction, pink mass shot in the forms of tentacle-like beings. Her tendrils continuing their path upwards, even though her form continued falling through the air.

Her white pseudo eyes narrowed as she awaited the tendrils to attach to the top of the tall building before her. Time slowed down to a crawl in her mind, her fall now having the length of eternity itself. Like a leaf floating on the watery surface of an ocean.

And then…it happened.

Her body yanked upwards by the pink tendril. Pulling her up into the air with another flip, her hands releasing the tendrils with another spin. Gravity continuing its work and her body falling down again. She shot out tendrils again, attaching them to the top of another building.

Keeping both hands on it, she lowered herself into the middle of the bustling traffic. Cars of various sizes honking their horns in frustration when the young masked girl let herself fall into their path. Releasing her hands on the tendrils she used as ropes, she ran through the traffic with unwavering conviction.

Speeding cars on either side didn't stop her from sprinting through the lanes. Seeing a manhole in front of her, she flexed her fingers and the metallic lid shot up, as though a geyser was blowing it upwards and into the air. Leaping from the ground, she jumped onto the manhole cover and jumped up from it. Her hands placing themselves on the cargo of a truck that appeared in front of her.

Pushing herself up from the bottom, she launched herself into a spin and jumped away. She briefly jumped off a car and then attached herself on the side of a garbage truck. Her hands and feet pushing her from it and on top of a bus. As it continued to drive through the traffic, she got on her feet again and ran along the roof of it.

She jumped from it and neared a lamppost while in the air. The lamppost is in a street filled with metallic trash containers. Seeing that she chose to make another way up. Both hands clenching and the walls of the containers tore off and crashing into the nearest wall, forming make-shift stair steps. With expert skill, trained to it even, she landed on them and jumped up the staircase.

Leaping from the last step, she launched into the air again. The clawed hand shooting up and shooting out a pink tendril. A smile formed underneath her mask when she felt the end of it connecting with the roof of a building. Pulling on it, she found herself shooting like a bullet between two buildings.

Latching to the side of the building on the left, she jumped away from it the next moment and hopped onto the adjacent building. Performing a zig-zag movement, she jumped onto the first building again. Jumping from it, she landed on top of the tipped roof of a tall tower-like building. She ran along the tiles of the roof, only for a short while, before shooting from it with an impressive leap.

Firing off two tendrils again to a wall, she launched herself into a swing. Swinging around another tower-like building before releasing her hold on them and rolling along the side of a glass paneled building. Stopping her roll, she got up and ran on the surface of the building. Her eyes briefly looking down and seeing that it was dozens of office desks occupied by people and looking at the girl running along the glass surface.

"**_Nice to have an audience._**"

"_I wouldn't say that._" She replied cheekily to her "other". Her run on the surface came to an end when she jumped away and lashed her hand out again, firing a tendril that yanked her up to the top of another building. Her muscles flexed, her legs pulsating as she sprinted through the obstacles on the roof. Running up the water tower and getting off it and continuing her run.

Seeing her end before in the form of the rooftop edge that was nearing her, her eyes seeing that the Central City Museum was on the other end of her path. The muscles of her legs tightened and when she neared the edge itself, the young girl sprung from it with enhanced muscles. Her body flying through the air as she was nearing the rooftop of the building.

The young girl touched down on the roof and rolled on it. Slamming her clawed fist into the ground, she got up on her feet again. Exhaust washing over like a massive tidal wave as she bent over and placed her hands on her knees.

Her "mask" slithered off of the girl's head like water, revealing her face again. Displaying the face of Frankie Fury. Short brown hair grown to the new lengths, reaching her upper back now and reaching down the sides of her face with long strands. The pink streaks shining when the moonlight hit her hair. Rapidly blinking, her blue eyes looking around the surface of the rooftop in search.

"Where is she?" The daughter of Seth Fury asked in confusion as she perked up with a straightened back, her mouth opening and closing with short breaths inhaled and exhaled. "She told me to meet up here."

"**_Be patient, Frankie. She's not one for punctuality, that one, you know that._**" Her symbiotic partner, Magenta, daughter of Venom, told her partner with assuring words. Frankie then clenched her hands, a tear slithering out of her narrowed eye and rolling down her face. Feeling her host's sadness, Magenta sent out an array of soothing sensations to ease her mind and spirit. "**_I miss them too._**"

"Can't believe it's been six months already." Frankie muttered in disbelief. Her fingers drifting over to her arm, touching the surfaces of both bracelets. The two bracelets, one representing herself, the other representing her mother…and her father. One from her father, the other from her mother. Both showing the love they have each other, the family that they have…. That they had.

Her mind went over everything that have happened over the last 182 days. Everything she had to hide from her family, everything she had learned, every memory she remembered back then after her adoption. Even before that. Remembering how her would-be father was willing to sacrifice himself for her, willing to put himself in danger and even risk death for her. Remembering the first time they hugged one another, telling each other they loved one another…all the times she recalled over and over like they were in a loop.

But the one that really returned to the forefront of her mind was the last time she saw him. The time when he jumped into the Singularity and sacrificed himself to save her, her family and the rest of the universe.

However, it wouldn't have been needed if it weren't for that bastard!

Her eyes shining like bright flashlights, showing colors of magenta blazing up like flames in her eyes. "I'm never gonna forgive him…" she hissed the words as though she was spitting out poison.

"Careful, Rose."

Blinkingly, her eyes turned back to blue and she looked to the side, seeing a doorway and saw her again. The form of Felicia Hardy, the tall curvaceous thief walked out from the side of it. her body clad in her signature skin tight black suit with white accents. Her eyes concealed by her visor-like goggles, but only for a moment before she took hold of it and took them off, letting her blue eyes place on the young girl's form. "You don't want blow a casket now, do you?"

"Felicia." Frankie shockingly stated to her herself, barely above a whisper, only hearable to her mentor before her. "Sorry, I was just…thinking about stuff."

"You're definitely not a liar. Gonna be easy for your mom in the future." Felicia quipped, hearing her young apprentice trying to lie and failing instantly. She walked closer to her and placed her hands on her shoulders, the thief rubbed her shoulders comfortingly and said. "Remember what I said, right? Six months ago, you came to me, and what did I tell you that day, and every day since then?"

Frankie couldn't help but chuckle humorously. She remembered that day. Not long after her father's sacrifice, his death, she sought out the master thief. At first, Felicia thought the young girl had come to for her some alone time or someone not of a familial nature to talk to. But she was wrong to assume that.

Instead the young metahuman had asked her to train her. Train her to fight like no one else could. Fight like her, because she was the only one who could fight like her father. Despite only being human, the master thief was able to fight toe-to-toe against people with superhuman powers.

Her father had told her the story of what battles she's fought, the people she's fought, people like her father. Able to swing, perform extraordinary acrobatic moves in the air, crawl on any solid surface with ease, leap from impossible heights and land on all four like a cat. And against all of them, big or small, Felicia Hardy was the only one to take them on, trick them and even defeat them.

More than that, Felicia had her father's respect and he had hers. Frankie could trust her to train her, for her father's sake. Though she did grow tired of hearing the same words she's been telling her ever since they began training.

""Don't bottle up your emotions. It'll end up driving you mad till you end up a nutjob. Channel those emotions into every action you take, every fight you fight. It'll help you both inside and outside of your body."" She recited her mentor's words.

"Exactly. Thought that little pretty head of yours had a brain. Plus, you wouldn't look in a white straightjacket." Felicia quipped with a smile, the tip of her index finger poking the middle of her forehead. A giggle came out of the mentor's mouth when seeing her apprentice rubbing it as though it was hurting. "But I saw you jumping from the top of that building and swinging back there. Not bad."

"But not the best." Frankie stated, knowing full well that it would be the next words coming out of her mentor's mouth.

"Yet." Felicia assured her young apprentice. "But maybe you might wanna loop in Mommy Dearest in on your late night. She has developed a habit of checking on you in the middle of night, now."

It was true. Her mother had begun checking up on her during the night, at least once a night. Sometimes twice even. It happened shortly after her father's sacrifice. Her worry went through the stratosphere and she protected her from anything and kept her safe, stood by her side at every step. Something that brought a smile on the young metahuman's face, feeling her mother's undeniable love and care for her.

A wish fulfilled.

And she couldn't anything come near her mother again. she had enough on her plate as it is, dealing with the death of the love of her life. With that decision in mind, she shook her head in refusal and locked eyes with the thief. "I can't. Mom is still hurting and she doesn't need to worry about me now."

"She's your mother, kid. She's always gonna worry about you. it's a full-time job, being a parent." Felicia stated. Frankie looked down in sadness. "I miss him too, Rose."

Frankie half-laughed and asked, "Why do you stick with that nickname, exactly?"

"**_Yeah it doesn't make much sense._**" Magenta commented. "**_You're not a flower._**"

The thief chuckled and ruffled her hair and explained. "Well you're like a rose. A beautiful little flower with magenta thorns, like a rose. So "Rose". Think it suits you." she replied, getting the young girl to redden her cheeks from embarrassment.

"Thanks." Frankie turned serious again and asked. "Can we get on with training again?"

"Sure thing, Rose. Follow me." Black Cat reequipped her visor-like goggles before sprinting to the side, "Keep up!" she called out as she shot out her grappling hook, piercing into a wall and pulling on it, letting her shoot out into the dark open air above the streets.

Craning her neck from side to side, Frankie slithered her mask over her face again, Magenta revealing her face again before she rushed to the same side and leaping from the edge of the roof, her hand shooting out a tendril and allowing her swing after her mentor.

Swinging into the city to continue their training of the evening.

A wind blew over the rooftop, a pair of posters flying off the ground and hitting a wall. The moonlight from above hitting them and illuminated their words.

The first one reading.

"_Tomorrow Flash Day The Man who saved Central City!_" and the time and place underneath the flash symbol.

The second one reading.

"_Tomorrow night. Venom Night. The Warrior Who Saved Central City!_" The maw of Venom underneath the words, a time and place underneath them.

X

**(CCPD)**

The manly and dark-skinned form of Detective Joe West walked through the array of desks belonging to the officers and the detectives in the police force, the ones tasked with protecting their home of Central City when the next day started.

And though his colleagues were able to do much. It wasn't enough. Not against the masses of forces he and his allies outside the force have tackled. Metahumans rising up to the surface after the Particle Accelerator explosion and trying to take on Central City. Only to fail at the hands of the Flash…and Venom…the Demonic Warrior who sacrificed his life for the city.

The detective slumped down in his chair, sitting by his desk. He looked up and saw the framed photos on the desk. One was of his beautiful daughter Iris West. Another was of her and his adopted son, Barry Allen. There's a third one as well. One showing him wearing a wide smile and holding a beer mug that was clung against the beer mug belonging to the other man in the photo, Seth Fury…his best friend.

Leaning back in his chair with a heavy expression of sadness on his face, Joe recalled everything that happened since then. It's been six months since the Singularity that appeared above their heads…since Firestorm and Venom together sacrificed themselves to protect the city, the home to their friends…and families.

Barry Allen, the man was hit by a dark-matter infused lightning bolt, putting him into a coma and once he woke up he was able to move at super-human speed and beyond that, granting him the name "The Flash"… a hero among heroes felt responsible for what had happened. He blamed himself for the Singularity's origin, punishing himself continuing his operations alone. Thinking that it was better than putting others, those he worked alongside of, in danger.

Keeps the people he cares about safe Barry believed.

At thought of his adoptive son's choices, Joe reached over his desk and grabbed the photo of him and Seth and held with both hands. Looking at the photo with laser-focused eyes, he couldn't help but think to himself. "_What do you think, Seth?_ _Think Barr's right about going solo now?_" the detective felt saddened when he remembered the times he spent with the elemental mutant from the other universe. "_You might have just gone all Whack-A-Mole on him, knocking some sense in his skull._" He chuckled while shaking his head and placed the photo again on the desk.

He got up from his desk and looked up at the television attached on the ceiling, seeing the female reporter speaking while footage of preparations for the big events coming up soon. "_Flash Day and Venom Night are almost here. The special downtown rally and festivities of the night to honor the men who saved Central City. It's been six months since the Flash and Venom saved Central City from the freak black hole that erupted in the sky._"

Joe knew that the reporter was referring to Magenta when speaking of Venom. The young daughter of his deceased best friend having become active for a long time, showing up whenever trouble was brewing. Be it day or night, the young metahuman was there with her symbiotic form and ready to take down anyone who would harm the innocents. He was impressed with how Frankie Fury was able to utilize every aspect of her powers when out in the field.

Though he had reservations about the young girl going out on her own and fighting against criminals, Joe knew that he couldn't deter her from her current path. Knowing full well that she was still dealing with her father's death, she was coping in her own way. But he would be there for her, when she needed his help.

Even though, she couldn't stand the sight of a certain man…after his actions that fateful day.

"Joe," The detective looked to the side and saw his captain, David Singh walking over to him. Over the last six months, his captain had grown a beard. "where are we at with the murder at the nuclear plant?"

His captain was referring to a dead body found at the nuclear plant within Central City. Once getting there, he and Barry checked over the corpse, after starting a short and awkward conversation. The victim was a man by the name of Al Rothstein, a welder at plant.

Being CSI scientist, Barry analyzed the corpse with his eyes. Finding petechiae on his face, the whites on his eyes and bruising around his neck, revealed that the poor victim was strangled… by someone very strong and very large.

Hearing that from the secret superhero, the detective immediately thought it could be something. Mainly being a very large and psychotic telepathic gorilla, the one that took control of his best friend and held him prisoner during that fight. He was thankful that it wasn't the meta-animal.

One encounter with that sociopathic monkey was enough.

Another matter came up in that conversation, but Barry didn't seem to care about it, nor willing to accept it. Didn't think that he was deserving of what the mayor was offering him.

Blinking himself out of his trance of thoughts, the man looked to his captain and answered his question. "Barry's still analyzing the evidence, but there was definitely something weird."

Captain David Singh knew that was the new normal around Central City. "Yeah, which is why I let you have that Anti-Meta-Human Task Force. Speaking of which, where's your scientific advisor?" he asked.

And as though he was waiting for his cue, he revealed himself with a cherry chant. "Ho, ho, ho!" the two lawmen looked to the direction of the sound. Their eyes falling down with annoyance as they saw Francisco "Cisco" Ramon who was pushing a large cart with dozens of technological devices. "Fear the beard!" Cisco excitedly exclaimed after taking in the captain's face. However, his face faltered when seeing the serious glare coming from him. "It's a very distinguished look…sir." He sheepishly added.

Exhaling a sigh, the captain looked to the cart and asked their scientific advisor. "What is all this, Mr. Ramon?"

A giddy smile formed on his face and he answered. "Oh, this right here? This is a little something I'm working on." He gestured to the cart's contents. "I'm cooking it up for Joe and the task force to take down metahumans." Staying true to himself he said. "I'm think I'm going to call it The Boot. Oh, here are the receipts." Cisco sheepishly handed the pieces of paper to his boss.

Grabbing hold of them, the captain released a sigh and walked between them and walked away. Cisco began scratching the side of his head before he asked Singh embarrassedly. "Oh, um, Captain, one more thing."

"You are not getting a badge, Mr. Ramon." Captain David Singh exclaimed his answer to the scientific advisor.

Joe chuckled while Cisco's face fell down. "He's really stingy with those badges, isn't he?"

"Yeah, cops are funny that way." The detective told Cisco with a short laugh. "So you really think you can get this to work? Don't have me caught out on the streets with my pants down."

Cisco nodded, "Yes, once I finish The Boot, CCPD will totally have what it needs to take down a metahuman. Especially now that Barry has decided to go all Lone Wolf McQuade and fight crime by himself."

"I know, right? Have you spoken to him?" Joe asked, he then quickly added a follow-up. "Wait? What about Matt and Liv? Have you spoken to them?"

Cisco responded by shaking his head. "Not really. They've been keeping mostly to themselves since then. Haven't even heard from Caitlin since she started work at Mercury Labs." Looking around, checking to see if anyone were within earshot before asking. "What about Frankie? You know, if she's doing out there on her own?"

"She's doing great. Everyone in the city thinks Venom have taken another look after the Singularity. The Rose Demon attacking everyone who's done evil actions. Think she might give her old man a run for his money when it comes to scaring people." Joe ran a hand over his face, visible with a regretful expression. "But she's pushing herself too hard."

"What do you mean?" Cisco asked in concern.

"She's been going out in the city every day and every night. Going on patrol by herself, taking on every threat that's out there. I'm scared for her." Joe sighed in defeat. "But I know there's nothing I can do to stop her. Headstrong like her father. It's her way of dealing with Seth's death." Cisco nodded in agreement; everyone had their own coping methods.

"Hey Cisco. Hi, Dad."

They looked to the side and saw Iris West walking towards them. Wearing all-white loose clothes that created a beautiful contrast to her skin. Seeing his daughter coming their way, Joe greeted. "Hey, baby." The two of them engaged in a hug.

Releasing her hold on her father, Iris asked them. "Hey, I was wondering if you'd talked to Barry about the rally."

"We were just saying." Joe told her.

Cisco chuckled. "I'm sorry, but I can't believe that they're gonna give The Flash the key to the city, and throwing a festival in Venom's name. It's incredible. Although technically, as members of Team Flash, we should all be getting keys."

Iris couldn't help but chuckle at his pleading voice. Joe then reminded him. "Well, you know Barry. The more we try to convince him to do something, the less he's gonna want to do it."

"Yeah, but he should go. Someone should try and get through to him." Iris said. "Frankie should go to Venom Night too. She could use it."

"Don't know about Frankie." Joe started. "But for Barry? Maybe his best friend could talk him into it."

Iris nodded her quick acceptance. But then Cisco said, thinking that he was the one referred to. "Joe, believe me, I've tried."

Joe shot him a dry look before pointing his eyes to his daughter. "I meant her." Cisco and Iris shared a look before the detective told Iris. "Bye, baby." He walked away, making his way into the lobby while the two continued talking.

"Uncle Joe?" When hearing that voice, he looked to the left side and saw her. Frankie Fury leaning against the railing, standing there with her usual goth-like style of clothing and her father's black leather trenchcoat over her clothes. The detective still felt strange and disbelief whenever he would see her, hearing her call him uncle. Always forgetting that she had grown up over the span of the last six months. Her hair growing longer and growing up to be a mature adult in the making.

He thought it was impressive. But also, hurtful as she had to skip through dozens of stages to get to that point. Admirable, but nonetheless hurting.

"Hiya sweetie." He got closer to her and hugged her with one arm. Pulling back from it, he asked her. "What's up, Frankie? Checking up on your uncle all of a sudden?"

"Well someone's got to make sure you don't eat too many Big Belly Burgers." Frankie cheekily responded and Joe retaliated with a tug of her hair locks. Giggling and backing away from him, she asked him. "I came here to talk about that rally thing."

"Flash Day?" Joe wondered. Frankie's eyes quickly switched from blue to magenta before turning back to blue as her mind returned from a realm of anger. "What about it, sweetheart? You going yourself?"

"No. But Mom's gonna be there." Frankie stated to him surprisingly, giving his eyes a reason to widen to new limits. "Yeah, for some reason, she wants to be there. I was wondering if you and the cops needed a hand with security there."

He shook his head and placed a hand on her shoulder. "No need, Frankie. You just be there for your Mom, okay? She needs you."

"I know. And I will." Frankie said before nodding her head. She thought back to Cisco and asked him. "How's Cisco? He still working hard or still feeling pain from Bette and him?"

"He's working hard." Joe replied. Cisco and Bette Sans Souci broke up a while after the events following the Singularity, mostly due to him holding something back. The mechanical engineer kept himself in work, slowly. He didn't talk much about it anymore, rarely even. But it did hurt, and he channeled his feelings into his work as the scientific advisor for CCPD.

"Okay. Thank you, Uncle Joe." She then walked away.

"Frankie." She stopped and looked back to Joe who walked closer to her. "You know, he's sorry. He didn't mean for that to happen."

Flashing eyes, shining with flames of magenta pointed back into Joe's eyes. The detective shook in slight fear, not liking to see the young girl be taken over by negative emotions again. Any time _he_ would be mentioned in any way, she would be angry. Uncontainable rage sizzling in her eyes at the mere whisper of his name.

"He _wanted_ to do it." She empathized with a hiss. "He wanted to do it, and it cost me, my Mom and my family a lot. And I can't forgive him for that. No matter what…he's responsible for it. I'm not there to make sure that the so-called hero of Central City is safe, I'm not going out day and night to help him protect the city…I'm here and there because I know sooner or later The Flash is gonna do something that's gonna put everyone else in danger, someone's gonna pay a price. And like always, someone is gonna have clean up his mess."

Frankie walked closer to him, her eyes still shining brightly with magenta. "And my family has suffered enough because of him. Not anymore." Eyes returning to blue before she turned around and walking away. Leaving the detective to be shocked as he saw her getting into the elevator and out of the building.

And at that moment, it was like Joe was watching his best friend walking away again. Like him, with anger and rage in each vein that was in him.

X

Landing on the edge of the rooftop into a crouch, Felicia looked across the night darkened streets. Her visor's capabilities zooming in on the building across the streets once her finger pushed the button on side of her goggles. After the night's activities of checking out the damaged areas of the city, watching the results of the singularity's power around Central City. This time, checking in on a specific establishment now.

While she wasn't one for the entire hero business like The Flash and many other heroes, she was still willing to check up on the city every now and then, making sure that criminals didn't feel too cocky and started harassing innocents. This may not have been the city she had grown up in.

But it was the city that Seth fought for, the one he defended, the one that would be the final battleground for the fight between him and Carnage, the bloodthirsty psychopathic mutant that had poisoned them both, shortening their lifespan with a single cut after ridding them from their family.

This was the city…that Ace sacrificed his life for.

That was enough for her to pitch in and help it however she could…even if that involved training his daughter to fight like her.

"Hope you're okay with that, Ace." She asked out loud to the air, hoping the elemental was willing to forgive her for doing this. Felicia then returned to the matter on hand, her goggles zooming in the insides of CC Jitters that was being riddled with the red streaks with yellow lightning behind him. The Scarlet Speedster using his superspeed to reconstruct two specific establishments in Central City.

One being CC Jitters. The other being Seth's old workplace.

The second one he brought up back to speed in short time. Like most buildings, the bar had been damaged a great deal by the Singularity's powers, pieces of the establishment torn off and sucked into it. But after the attack by Carnage, the bar had been reinforced greatly, able to withstand massive damage against it. Reinforced by Seth himself.

"Always making sure everything is able to take a punch. Right, Ace?" she whispered out in the end, her left eye stinging for a moment. Lightly pulling the visor off and placing it on her forehead, she used her free hand and wiped the tear of sadness away. More tears of sadness fell from her eyes when recalling the moments she had spent with the elemental mutant who she had grown to care about.

It was painful enough. Losing Stefanie, her childhood friend. Her son, Bucky, losing the kid that she babysat when his parents were busy with work. And now, while in another universe, she would have to experience the stinging pain of loss again…this time being Seth's death being the cause.

She tried to focus back on the situation in Jitters, fighting through the stinging feelings of the tears.

_CLANG_

The sound of metal clanging against the ground diverted her attention to behind her. Felicia was surprised see that it was him that stood before her now.

Standing before in a suit of white metal plating, a knight's helmet covering his head with golden and red plating around its form. The visor on his helmet, shining brightly with blue energy, concealing the eyes behind them. The four large white thrusters in the shapes of wings dematerialized, gathering into his back again. His gauntleted arms equipped with arm blades, the weapons attached to it followed the same path as the wings, dematerializing into nanites and getting into his suit as well.

Felicia got a little worried, but then she saw him hold up his hands, telling her to not worry with his hand gestures. Though the repulsors in the centers of his palms, with the shining blue energy, did not assure of that. She did have to admire the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo in the middle of his chest, energy shining from behind its hole.

As the armored figure placed his eyes on the thief, his helmet turned into nanites and retracted itself, the man revealing his dark-red hair and green eyes that pointed at the woman. "Hey, Cat."

"Looking good, Iron Junior." She quipped back.

Matt Connors Stark rolled his eyes and walked over to her. "God you're unbearable." His feet kept clanging against the ground he walked on till he reached her. "What are you doing here?"

She merely pointed backwards with a thumb while wearing a carefree expression. "Checking what the so-called "man who saved Central City" is doing in his free time. Nothing else."

"…" Matt didn't speak for a few moments, his eyes focused on the building that was the remains of Jitters. He saw that Barry had stopped moving and was speaking with Iris West in there. His hand clenching, the gauntlet on the arm opening up and revealing a small rocket mounted to a small launcher. The sight of the speedster caused his blood to boil like a fiery sea coursing through his veins.

But he didn't. Retracting the rocket launcher back into his suit, he turned his head to face the mischievous thief again. "I miss him too." She looked down with a saddened expression. "Heard you've been patrolling the city. Glad to hear."

"Not one for the heroing shtick, you know that." She shrugged. "But guess the least I can do is take care of Ace's home."

"Thanks for that." He told her honestly. "He'd be proud of you, and of what you're doing." Felicia smiled. "You coming to the rally tomorrow?"

"Per request, yeah." She vaguely answered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Returning to her usual confident and carefree self, she swung her body around and got up on the ledge. "Let's just say, Iron Junior, that I have my own reasons for sticking around, and they're my business." Matt knew he couldn't get further with her, if she wasn't willing to divulge anything than it would be a waste of time trying to talk it out of her. "How about the wifey-for-lifey? How is she?"

"Still hurting. But she's getting better and better with each day." Matt said, inwardly thankful that his wife was able to healing with each passing day. "It's hard without him now. But if Frankie wasn't here, then it would have been a whole lot harder."

"She staying with you and the wife?" She knew the truth; chances are Matt knew it too. But she had a promise to keep, and that meant holding up appearances too.

Matt shook his head as the response. "No, she's staying with her mom. Those two need each other now. It's hard for them both, especially without Seth."

"Yeah it is." Felicia agreed. "Only thing we can do now." Matt locked eyes with her. "Protect his home, and his family."

"Yeah." Matt agreed. "But it's hard not seeing him every day. It's hard, and I really don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"Like I said. Protect his home, and his family. You gotta protect your wife now. she needs you more than ever now, Matt." Felicia told him seriously. Stretching her body out, she turned around facing the darkened city once more. "I gotta go."

"Hot date or something?" Matt wondered.

She flicked her hair and looked into his eyes over her shoulder. "Guess that's for you to figure out." She winked before leaping off the ledge, lashing out a hand and shooting her grappling hook and using it to swing away.

The mutant leant over the ledge, looking as she swung away. Once she was out of sight, the nanite mutant formed his helmet again and contacted a number, speaking through his HUD screen. "Livia?" he called out his wife once the line connected.

"_Hey babe?_" Olivia Heather Fury-Stark started. "_Let me guess you talked to Cat, didn't you?_"

He briefly looked around, thinking that she might followed him or something. But even the scanners in his helmet couldn't pick up his wife's presence. Meaning that she just knew him too well. "Yeah, I did. Thought I could get some answers from her. You know, about Frankie's late-night activities."

"…_I know you're worried about Frankie and what she's doing in the night, Matt. But you gotta trust her. she'll come forward when she's ready. Besides we both know that she's with Cat._" Olivia told him.

"I know. But I hate how she keeps things from us." Matt sighed. "Think she's talking about it with her Mom?"

"_Doubt it. She's picked up Bro's comfortability with secrets quickly._" Olivia said. "_Trust her, she's gonna be fine._"

"Yeah, you're right." Matt exhaled. "Gonna go on a patrol before getting home again. Love you."

"_Love you too._" Olivia said back before disconnecting. The mutant took flight after his wife ended the call.

X

**(The Next Day, Central City Park Plaza)**

The time had finally come.

The time to celebrate, to honor the hero of Central City, the very one who saved them from the devasting freak black hole that was above their heads six months ago.

And he was gonna be honored the right way.

Balloons of various colors attached to the banner holders around the plaza. One on either side of the stage, both holding the same exact banner as the large one in the middle of the stage. Showing a red and white banner with the words:

"_Flash Day_" written in bright red letters. The Flash emblem directly under the words. The marching band music playing loudly, trying to outmatch the massive cheers of the audience that kept growing with each passing second, cheering and chanting for the hero who had saved them. Standing on the stage with a smile on his face, Mayor Bellows spoke with his men, finalizing a few aspects before moving on with the rally.

Cisco and Joe stood near the detective's car, on duty and waiting in case of emergencies. At the thought of emergencies. The mechanical engineer looked to the detective. "Are we expecting trouble?"

At the question, Joe had to shrug his shoulders as he answered. "Cops always expect trouble. In this city, I expect super evil flying monsters."

"That's a solid expectation." Cisco commented, causing Joe to chuckle. The engineer was about to let out a laugh himself but stopped himself when he looked ahead. His eyes caught the sight of something surprising, his hands raising up to his face and taking out his toothpick. "Well, I'll be." The detective followed the direction of his eyes and was met with surprise himself.

Standing by herself, away from the crowd, was the woman who loved Seth Fury with all of her heart and his child like she was her own. Standing by herself in a red shirt that was covered by a black jacket, her lower half covered by a dark skirt with a checkered pattern, showing various combinations of colors. Her head wiping around from the side, her light-brown hair whipping around as her brought her brown eyes around, taking in the masses that have gathered at the pep rally. Caitlin Snow looked to be standing completely alone by herself. A smile not finding residence on her face.

Cisco was surprised to see her here and alone. But he hated how she was unable to smile again. After months of heartache after the Particle Accelerator explosion, she managed to smile again. Thanks to Seth Fury. However, he was no longer amongst the living now. He worried that she might no longer regain her smile again.

He considered moving over to her side, hoping to help her in any way he could.

But he didn't have to. Walking around the corner, came the person who was able to return her smile again. Frankie Fury walked around with two popcorn boxes, both of which are filled to the brim with popcorn. Caitlin smiled as her daughter came to her side, a warm and motherly smile on her mouth as she accepted the box of popcorn and began eating from it. Her daughter did the same, eating from her box of chocolate covered popcorn.

Seeing the two smile and enjoying themselves brought a smile on the mechanical engineer's face as well as the detective's face. However, before they could continue with their smiling, Mayor Bellows walked into the middle of the large stage.

As he walked to his podium, the Mayor received louder and louder cheers. He waved at them all before addressing them with a greeting. "Good morning, Central City!" everyone in the crowd clapped, Iris did as well from where she stood in the audience. "A year ago, our world changed. Our city became ground zero for…some pretty weird stuff." He admitted sheepishly. "We got a new breed of criminal: Men and women who defied not only our laws, but physics and reason. But we got something else, too. We got Venom and The Flash!"

The crowd went wild again. Professor Martin Stein and his wife, Clarissa, clapping wildly as well. A certain tall man in a black jacket watching as well, hearing and registering every word that was being uttered by the man by the podium. "Our wounds run deep," Bellows continued. "and I know many of you are afraid of what threats tomorrow may bring." A large hooded man walked through the crowd as the Mayor continued his speech. "But the Flash and Venom doesn't just protect us, they restore hope where it was lost. While I'm unable to present it to our Demonic Warrior now, I am honored to present the key to the man who saved Central City: The Flash!"

He held up the key, displaying if everyone's eyes that gazed upon it. And everyone waited for The Flash to come to them and accept the key he's being offering.

Frankie raised an eyebrow and looked to her mother. "You think if Dad was here, he would have accepted the key?"

Caitlin chuckled with a shaking head. "No, he would have gone up on that stage and just roar in the Mayor's face, telling him to keep that key for himself." she shrugged before stating unsurely. "Maybe he would just melt the key in front of the entire crowd. Freeze it, break it, cut it, eat it even. He might just throw it away like a softball, into the crowd like a baseball player."

The young metahuman couldn't help but laugh. "Sounds like Dad." She said with her eyes casted down to the ground. "And instead of the true hero getting an award…someone else is getting it. It's not right." Her eyes turned magenta with anger flowing over her mind.

But it stopped when her mother wrapped an arm around her small form, pulling her into a hug. "…" Caitlin didn't say anything, but let her arms wrap around her daughter, lovingly keeping her in an embrace. The doctor knew that there was nothing she say to help her, be it to ease her mind or something else she knew it wouldn't be enough.

She fears that nothing she could do now, perhaps even in the future, could actually help ease her mind.

_WHOOSH_

Everyone at the rally felt the wind blow up against their faces when they heard the familiar whooshing sound emitting from the stage. Turning to it, they saw him again. The Flash standing on the stage, his body clad in the protective red suit that was friction proof, protecting him from running around without clothes. The yellow accents on the suit highlighted its features, matching the red emblem with the lightning bolt over it. Same lightning bolt emblems were placed on either side of his red cowl, within them are communication devices.

Barry Allen looked around, taking the large banners with his name on them and the mass of people that had gathered for him. He gained a sheepish smile when the people began chanting his name, calling out "Flash" repeatedly, calling out their hero, their savior. They continued chanting his name like it was on an endless loop, showering him with their words of appreciation.

The chanting stopped after a few moments, and then the Mayor was able to speak again. holding out the key to the hero, he said. "The doors to Central City will forever be open for you, Flash." The Scarlet Speedster nodded his thanks and raised his hands, ready to accept the award granted to him.

_SCREAM_

However, any action they had in mind was halted by the sound of a woman screaming in shock and fear. The scream then only became one out of many as others screamed. Joe followed the sounds of the screams, looking at what brought them fear. A trash container flying through the air after hurled into the air. "Look out!" the detective warned.

Everyone in the crowd let out horrific screams as the container was closing in on the stage. Barry saw it and sped away, grabbing the mayor and getting him out of the way. And with them out of the way, the trash container slamming into the podium and shattering it into pieces.

Frankie looked around, ready to jump into action. But before she could, Caitlin wrapped her hand around her forearm and told her. "Get everyone to safety okay?" her daughter nodded and ran away, her suit slithering on before she jumped away.

Barry placed the mayor near Joe's car and asked. "You all right?" Bellows nodded. The Flash looked around for the attacker, who he found very quickly. Standing behind a police barricade in an all-black clothing was the man, wearing a strange black mask with had a scar on the front of it. The protected part of his suit that was visible through his open jacket was strange, as it looked to be charred from fire.

Those scars caused worry to grow in Barry and he swung his head to Joe and asked him. "I got this, all right?" Joe nodded reluctantly and watched along with his metahuman son that the man was walking towards them with his hands pulling down his hoodie. Revealing to the citizens of this universe that the scars were around every inch of his mask, the aftermath from fighting a demon.

Magenta kept redirecting people away, following her mother's words down to the letter. But before she could continue, she stopped herself by latching onto a lamppost and looked at the two other metahumans who stared off against one another.

As the masked man walked, he made eye contact with the Scarlet Speedster. "The man who saved Central City, hate to rain on your parade." Barry took in a deep breath of air before charging with lightning fast speed. However, the moment he was close enough to strike the masked man, Barry was instantly knocked away with a single swipe of his fist. His body sent flying and directly into the hood of a police cruiser.

When he saw his son down for the count now, Joe pulled out his gun and along with his fellow officers, fired bullets against the man. But none of them had any effect, not able to penetrate his mask or his suit and only making sound. The man didn't even seem the least bit fazed by the bullets touching his body as he just took off his jacket.

The man grabbed the front of a nearby car and pushed it, and like a battering ram, it was sent forward into three officers who sent into three different directions upon impact with the car.

Cisco got worried and looked at the man himself. But the moment his gaze locked onto the man, he felt something…a vibe of some sorts….and like in the past, a series of what felt like rapidly flashing lights sparked in his head…and then it was brought to him…

X

_…_

_His eyes looking forward…_

_…_

_Seeing the same masked metahuman…standing before a black figure…blue lights going off his body somehow…_

_…_

_It became clearer…the light was…blue lightning_

_…_

_"__Cisco!"_

X

"Cisco!" Joe's exclaiming voice brought him out of his head. Looking to him, the detective ordered him urgently. "The Boot!"

"Right!" Cisco shot into action, running away to retrieve the weapon while the gunshots continuously fired off and were met with now positive results. The mechanical engineer returned again, this time with the large weaponry in his hands. "Locked and loaded. Go!"

Joe took the weapon in his hands and pointed it at the masked man, who still shrugged off the bullets again. But it proved to be advantageous as the detective was able to use it as a distraction and fire off The Boot. The lock locked onto the man's ankle, tightly secured around his limb.

"Booted!" Cisco let out in success. As per its design, the booth was sending out electricity into the man's body. The man's grunting led the officers and Cisco to believe that it was having the desired effect and causing him pain, meaning that his defeat was imminent.

However, they couldn't have been more wrong.

His body took in the electricity, accepting it, welcoming it into his body. And it only made him stronger. His boots expanding in size as the feet in them grew bigger, his fists swinging upwards and widening into humongous sizes, not unlike those of a giant. The masked metahuman roared as his body grew to new heights.

Frankie saw the same from afar and considered jumping into action. "**_Don't!_**" Her "other" stopped her from taking action. "**_Listen to Caitlin, there are still people here, Frankie. Get them to safety first._**" Her fists clenched as she knew that her partner was speaking the truth. The innocents always come before the villain, they cannot fight nor can they risk fighting him, or be near the growing metahuman.

"Damn it!" she muttered in frustration before shooting out a tendril and swinging away to help the others who were still in the plaza.

"Cisco, you said this thing would take him down." Joe commented to the mechanical engineer. "He's not going down." Cisco gulped in fear as the metahuman continued to grow.

Barry managed to get back up and he looked around. He knew that his fists would be no match against that metahuman's gigantic fists, so he had to take advantage of the things around him instead. Seeing a bunch of gas tanks near a few support beams, he rushed over to them.

"He went up." Cisco stated before gulping.

Holding The Boot up, he pushed it into the mechanical engineer's arms and told. "Run! Run!" Cisco ran away and let the detective face the growing metahuman again. The Flash appeared beside him with a pair of gas tanks in his hands. "What are you doing?"

"I'm throwing, you're shooting." The speedster told his plan before hurling the gas tanks into the air, aiming them at the metahuman.

Joe took out his gun and pointed it at the gas tanks that were nearing the metahuman. Pulling the trigger, he fired off his gun. But no bullets came out of the barrel, telling the detective that he had emptied his mag before. "Damn!"

Thankfully, they were not the only heroes there. A pair of blue energy blasts came shooting down from the sky and hit the tanks, exploding into the enemy metahuman's face. A shockwave pushed the two men to the ground, but they pushed backwards into something metallic, their bump with it caused a clanging sound.

Turning their heads to the back, they saw that Matt had appeared behind them in his Iron Knight suit and recoiled their fall with his body. "Thanks, Matt." Barry said in gratitude and Joe nodded his appreciation.

Matt looked at Barry and reminded him bluntly. "I didn't do it for you. Innocent people are here, I'm here for them and for my niece." The speedster heard the mutant's words and a pang of sadness hit his body, which was then followed with a grunt of pain from a metallic shard pierced into his thigh.

"Not now, guys!" Joe halted them as he pointed to the growing metahuman who seemed to shrink back down to his normal size. His mask opening up and revealing his face…one that Barry and Joe had inspected before. "That's Al Rothstein." The detective let out in shock.

"Who?" Matt wondered while he pointed a repulsor at the metahuman.

"The body we found at the nuclear plant…" Joe trailed off with disbelief written all over his face. "…he's alive."

"Well," Matt held up his other repulsor and continued. "We can change that real quick!" he fired off two repulsor blasts from his palms. The metahuman took the blasts head-on, leaving only small patches of lightly charred areas on his suit and pushing his body back a bit. "Okay, I expected that to go another way when I saw those burns on his suit."

His face fell, "You can't hurt me more than he did." His thoughts went back to the fight with Venom. Seeing that demonic being just tear his mask off like it was tinfoil was a haunting nightmare. Those thoughts brought more adrenaline into his body and he swung both arms to the side, grabbing onto the sides of two police cars.

With ease, Rothstein threw them at the armored mutant. Registering the incoming projectiles, the mutant launched into the air and lashed out his arms to the sides, both of them of enveloping with nanites that formed large elongated semi-circular blades. Both of them pulsating with repulsor energy before he shot off to meet them head-on. His body spiraling with his wing thrusters blazing, blades cutting through the thrown cars. The two cars were now cut in halves and threw into the sides.

Turning his armored head around, he looked for the metahuman criminal. But while in the midst of the destruction of the thrown cars, the growing metahuman had managed to escape from them.

"Slippery bastard." Matt let out in annoyance before he looked around, trying to find his niece or Caitlin there. But neither of them was there, they were gone. And at the thought of his family, his thoughts went to his wife, wondering what she was doing right now.

X

"Mmmm." Felicia moaned happily when she got out of the shower. Her arms taking hold of her white bathrobe that was tightly wrapped around her body. The black robe tied around her waist, tight like a knot, securing its place on her body.

The master thief pushed the door open, opening up to the living room of her expensive penthouse loft. She smiled as she took in her home in this universe. A penthouse loft placed near the top of a building near a wide lake, granting the owner a marvelous view of pure blue watery places at first morning glance. A staircase of shining blue marble leading up to the upper level.

Her living room also leading to the kitchen, which she walked over to. Taking a tray with two porcelain tea cups and small plates for them, along with a few chocolate chipped scones, she walked over to the middle of the room. She took a seat in one of the plushy blue chairs, placing the tray on the table. Taking the steaming teapot, she poured tea into one cup.

She was about to move to the second cup, but she then asked out loud. "You're gonna keep watching like a creeper or do you want to join me for a cup of morning tea?"

Nothing happened for a few moments. Nothing but the smell of steaming hot tea entering the air of the thief's loft.

But then from the corner of a pillar, a figure appeared. Her long magenta hair flowing down the length of her back as she walked with gracious steps to reveal herself. Her body clad in a red shirt that fit her form tightly, dark-blue pants clad on her legs. Dark boots on her feet, making her steps echo out loud as they stepped on the beautiful floor. Her upper body covered by her crimson-red leather jacket with pitch-black accents. A necklace hanging down her throat, the pendant attached to it showing the SHIELD insignia with a small blue light shining out of it.

Her skin white as a ghost's hollow form. Blue eyes locking onto the back of the thief while her hand spun around her metallic handle, ready to use her adamantium razor whip if danger were to strike her. "Thought it was time we had a talk, Cat." Olivia Heather Fury-Stark told her.

Turning around in her chair, the cat burglar looked at the mutant with an intrigued look. "Hiya Liv. You know there's an easier way to talk to me. Like a phone call or something? Sneaking up on me? It's getting pretty old."

"How'd you know I was there?" Olivia nodded to her previous hiding place.

"Your brother had a thing for sneaking up on me back in the day." She got up from her chair and callously walked over to her kitchen, foregoing the mutant's weapon in her hand. "Always hoped it was his way of asking for a booty call."

"Ew." Olivia grimaced. "Glad to see that you're still the same old Felicia Hardy as always."

"You know what they say about a zebra changing its stripes, right?" She quipped as she took out a couple of knives and small butter packages for the little meeting. As she walked back to the table, Felicia asked her. "Are you okay, Livy?"

While she registered the level of concern and care in the other woman's voice, Olivia didn't answer it. Instead she asked about another query. "You already knew I was coming, didn't you?"

"I might not be a scientist like you and your hubby, but it's not rocket science." She took a seat back in her chair again before continuing. "He visits me, clearly wanting to me spill my guts about something specific, I dodge it easily. He doesn't get his answer, and then you show up and now…" the two women locked eyes. "…you want to know the same."

Olivia had to hand it to her. Felicia had dealt with dozens of heroes, villains, anti-heroes, even agencies like S.H.I.E.L.D. had agents losing their minds…and clothes when tasked with dealing with the cat burglar. She was an expert that most would rather not deal with, and one no one would ever show respect to. But she did have her brother's respect. And anyone with Seth's respect was someone she could trust and respect.

"I do." Olivia walked around slowly, walking till she stood in front of the woman. "I want to know why you went out of your way to find Frankie and all of a sudden teach her to fight and out on patrol like me and Matt." She held up her weapon to empathize. "And you're gonna give me a good reason to not use this."

"Easy, Livy." Felicia held up her hand, halting her advances. "What makes you think that I went to find Frankie?"

"What are you talking about?" Olivia asked with narrowed eyes and a confused look.

Felicia inhaled deeply and placed her cup on the table before she revealed. "Six months ago…after I heard of Ace's…" she drew in a heavy intake of air. "I checked the local cemeteries."

"Why?" She asked in confusion, her weapon lowering.

"I didn't know if there was a funeral for Seth. And if there was, then you guys didn't invite me, so I went looking myself." She replied honestly. "I went through them all and I couldn't find a single grave with his name. I thought he might have a grave somewhere else in the city."

"He doesn't. None of us felt right placing a gravestone with his name on it some place, not a body to bury or anything like that." Olivia revealed. "Frankie and Caitlin didn't want that either especially. So we didn't even hold a ceremony or anything like that. We just each…coped in our own ways. And we were angry. Hell, me and Matt went to our universe to break the news to my Dad."

"How'd he take it?" Felicia got curious.

"Not good. He thrashed his office. It's rare to see him let his emotions get the better of him like that. But he lost a child, it's not surprising I guess." Olivia said. She looked to Felicia again and got back on track. "But what did your graveyard visits have to do with my niece?"

"She found me during one of those visits." Felicia started. "When she saw me, she actually ran to me and begged me to do one thing." She recalled the words like they were spoken to her yesterday. ""Teach me to be like my Dad." I felt like it I did this one thing…I thought I was able to do some good in Seth's name, help his daughter." The Black Cat rubbed her eyes. "I know, Livy, it's wrong and stupid to teach a young girl like her to fight like that. To teach her to grow up like that, so quickly. I know that…But I couldn't say "no" to her."

That was the first time, Olivia Fury-Stark ever heard so much emotion in her voice. Felicia was always a mysterious woman of many talents, able to perform the most duplicitous con acts in the world and wrap targets around her fingers with ease. Manipulating foes, heroes and civilians into anything. She was able to feign any and all emotions for the sake of the heist, for the next score.

But now…she didn't feign anything. She actually let her emotions reveal themselves…because she felt the pain of losing Seth Fury. It was a sight that Olivia never thought she would see, at least in this universe.

"I think…" she put her weapon down on the table and took a seat in the adjacent seat. "…my brother would be happy that his daughter is taught under the capable hands of the Black Cat herself." Felicia chuckled. "But I understand why she went to you instead of me and Matt, you actually fight and jump like Seth."

"Yeah." She took the teapot and poured tea into Olivia's cup. "I did consider throwing in a few fashion tips, but it looks like her mother and aunt are helping her with that instead." She gestured to the mutant's clothes. "An upgrade from your usual skin-tight black tactical suit, I must admit."

"Shut up. You don't wear anything but skin-tight black on a daily basis." Olivia countered.

"And I look good in it." Felicia stated smugly.

X

**(Mercury Labs)**

The computer in front of her was in full swing and being worked overtime as Caitlin worked on it. Having been granted assignments from her new boss, Dr. Christina McGee, she worked on them very quickly. It had been a change, adjusting to her new life as an employee for Mercury Labs after the episodes at her old workplace.

But Caitlin Snow was able to do it and she did so, thankfully. She was able to put every single aspect of her knowledge into her research now, even on the task she was doing right now. However, as she worked, she raised her arm and looked at her wrist watch. Checking the time, she saw that she could still make it home in time, hopefully buy something on the way over for dinner.

"So this is what it looks like inside Mercury Labs."

At that familiar male voice, Caitlin looked to the source and did indeed find her old colleague and friend, Cisco Ramon standing there. he looked around with intrigue and they were inspecting everything around him with impressiveness. Making eye contact with his former colleague, he added. "Security is way better than it was at S.T.A.R. labs, what with people walking in and out of the Cortex all the time."

Caitlin got up from her chair and showed a smile. "Hi, Cisco." She looked at her watch again, taking in the current time.

"Sweet Sarek." Cisco let out a reference from the shock of what he found. He rushed over to the device that was the cause of his drooling. "Is that a 6k proton slicer?" he watched with his hands, rubbing and touching the machine.

"Yes, it is." Caitlin confirmed his thoughts. "Dr. McGee insists on having all the latest technology."

"Wow." Cisco looked at her. "You deserve it. I spotted you and Frankie, at the rally today, and I'm guessing you saw what happened." he took a seat on the chair before her.

"Cisco, I can't come back." She said in protest. "I have Frankie, I have to take care of her."

"I know, but…" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small evidence bag. "Check this out, we found this on a victim at the nuclear power plant, but the badge shows absolutely nothing at all, which is so weird. What's also weird is that at the same time that metahuman grew, all the x-ray machines within a mile radius just went belly-up."

"Cisco…"

"Just…if you could just…" he pleaded, "See if the badge was tampered with or something. I mean, if it's broken, or…Whatever. It'll really help."

Caitlin narrowed her eyes, concede written all over her face before she gave in. "Fine." Cisco clenched his hand in triumph. "But I have to do something first."

"Dr. Snow?"

Both Cisco and Caitlin looked to the entrance of the lab and saw the owner, Dr. Christina McGee walking into the lab. Looking at Cisco who waved at her, she waved back before turning to her employee. "I believe you called for me, something about a favor."

"Oh yeah, I'm done with all of my assignments. And I was hoping if it's okay if I leave early." Caitlin asked while turning her computer screen to her boss.

Dr. McGee looked at the screen, watching the results of her work. Nodding her acceptance, seeing that they were all right, she looked to Caitlin again. "It all looks very good, and you have also made the effort of completing tasks for the new few days, very impressive, Dr. Snow." She straightened her back and asked curiously. "But why do you seek to leave early exactly?"

"I haven't had time to prepare lunch or dinner for my daughter before work. I need to buy some takeout for her on the way home." Caitlin explained.

Her boss turned surprised. "Your daughter? I do not recall you mentioning a family member when you received this job before." She stated.

Caitlin scratched the back of her head as she explained. "I'm sorry for that, but back then the adoption process was still under works. I was unsure it was worth mentioning to you at that point."

"It is all right, Dr. Snow. And yes, you may leave early to provide for your daughter." Christina smiled. "But please, do bring your child to work one day. I would love to meet her soon."

"I will. Thank you, Dr. McGee." Caitlin thanked and took off her lab coat and hung it on the coatrack. "Cisco. I will do that favor very soon. But Frankie comes first." Cisco nodded his acceptance and watched as she walked out of the room.

He then looked to McGee who was looking back at him with narrowed eyes of curiosity. Cisco felt awkward looking at her and even more being in a room here with her. With a gulp, he asked, pathetically.

"So…you come here often?"

X

With a twist and turn of her keys, Caitlin walked into her home again. Even though it's been six months, she still felt weird walking into her home. No, not weird. She felt empty whenever she would step foot into the warehouse loft that previously belonged to the man she loved. She knew that he wasn't here anymore, and it scared her how empty she felt. And though she was gone, she could still remember his feelings for her, his words dedicated to her, his touch that brought him love and warmth, the songs he sung to her like they were made just for her… even now as she looked around, she could still see herself and Seth sitting by the dinner table, eating a meal together and telling one another that they loved each other.

Tears fell from her eyes as she walked deeper into her home, her hands clenched around the bags of takeout that she bought. The loft was cleaned up daily, the doctor trying desperately to keep herself busy, fearing that she would break down in any second that she was in this loft.

She inhaled deeply as she sat the bags on the counter. Caitlin took out the boxes of food and placed them on the table. And as she did so, she smiled as she called out. "Sweetie, you know the rules." She looked upwards. "No crawling on the walls with shoes."

Releasing her grip on the ceiling, the young metahuman let herself fall down to a crouch on the floor. Frankie raised herself and walked over to her mother's side. "Jeez, Mom. You know I can cover my feet as well, right?"

"I know. Plates." She pointed to plates that her daughter took out. The two of them walked over to the table and placed them on their seats. "So…hope you're in the mood of Chinese for today."

"Anything as long I can eat." Frankie let out a whine as she slumped down in her chair.

Caitlin laughed and kissed the top of her daughter's head before taking a seat as well. The two began eating their food in happiness, Magenta using a tendril to slither a chocolate bar into her host's pocket. "Nice job at the rally before, honey. It was impressive."

"Thanks, Mom." Frankie said while taking a fork of noodles into her mouth. All of a sudden, her thoughts went back to Felicia's words from their last nightly training session. How it would be smart to tell her mother of her secret training with the Black Cat. Her aunt and uncle would actually agree with her.

"**_Frankie, you want to tell her the truth then you have to._**" Magenta told her while sending out soothing waves of calmness. "**_She's your mother, partner. She's not gonna hate you, she's gonna understand you. Our Fathers did that and so will she._**"

"_I know. But she's gonna worry and she's gonna try and get me to stop meeting with Felicia._" Frankie clenched her hands, tighten her grips on her cutlery. "_And that can't happen. Not yet. I'm not strong enough yet. Felicia's got much to teach me._"

"Frankie?" she snapped out her thoughtful conversation with her partner and looked to her mother again. "Something on your mind, sweetie? You look you're carrying the entire world on your shoulders."

"No nothing, Mom. Just worried about that metahuman we saw before." Frankie sheepishly said. "Never thought someone who could change their size like that before."

"Yeah, it was a surprise." Caitlin agreed. "Cisco actually came to me at Mercury Labs, asking me for some help on the matter."

"What did you say?" she wondered.

"I'm gonna help…" Frankie smiled in relief. "…But…" her smile faltered. "I'm gonna have to ask my daughter of something before getting to that job."

"What is it, Mom?" the metahuman asked with a gulp.

"Well, I was wondering if my daughter was gonna tell me about her nightly visits with Felicia Hardy" Caitlin stated with a callous smile, as though she didn't notice the meteor-sized amount of shock that just fell down on her. "You know, it's not hard checking your room at least twice a night."

"You knew that I was sneaking out like that?" Caitlin nodded with a smile. "But you didn't say anything about it?"

"Frankie." Caitlin took her hand and squeezed it gently, her motherly touch able to bring her daughter much assurance. "I knew you are going through a lot. And, honestly, I kinda had a feeling that you would go to some outside source to try and cope…" she inhaled deeply while the surface of her eyes turned teary. "…with your Dad's loss. I know I did when I left S.T.A.R. Labs. I needed to get away from there."

"And I needed to get stronger by asking the one person who could fight and jump like Dad." Frankie said through a breathy voice, her hand placing on top of hers and her mother's intertwining hands. "Mom, I'm sorry that I kept it from you. but I was worried that it would just hurt you, worry you. I didn't want that for you."

Caitlin raised her free hand and stroked her daughter's cheek gently. "I'm your Mom, silly. I'm supposed to be worried about you every second of every day. Being a parent is a full-time job. And you're never not going to worry me." She got up from her seat and wrapped her arms around her. "And it's okay. Just go out, be safe, and be the hero that I and your Dad knows you can be."

Frankie's eyes turned teary as she wrapped her arms around her mother's form, her head rubbing against the side of her head. Caitlin's hair touching her face, wetting it with each tear that escaped her eye lids. But Caitlin didn't care, she just held her tightly with love and care flowing through her and into her daughter.

"I love you, Mom." Frankie told her.

"I love you, too." Caitlin replied as she pulled back, her fingers wiping away the tears rolling down Frankie's face before getting rid of the ones on her own. Inhaling deeply, she asked of her kindly. "What do say we go to Mercury Labs and help Cisco out with his problem? My boss even wants to meet you."

"Can I go out on patrol later then?" She asked with puppy dog eyes and a pouted mouth.

"…Fine. Just be careful, okay?" Caitlin asked and Frankie nodded.

After that heartfelt conversation, the two cleaned up their plates and walked out of their home again. leaving for Mercury Labs to do a little last assignment for Cisco Ramon.

X

**(CCPD, CSI lab)**

"_Flash Falters._" The newspaper headline said as Barry Allen watched the picture of him being punched in the face by the large metahuman that possesses the ability to enhance his size. He felt regret and disappoint as he kept his eyes on the newspaper. The very speedster who saved this city was whacked around like a punching bag in front of the entire city.

It was undeniably one of the most painful experiences for him to be part of. And his entire home knew it, saw it first-hand. That their protector was still unable to fight and protect them. It was quite a painful thing for him to go through. As he knew that if _he_ had been there, the criminal metahuman might not have gotten away so easily.

"Mr. Allen." A male voice called out, gaining the secret speedster's attention. "Barry Allen?" The man asked for clarity.

"Yeah." Barry answered as he put down the newspaper and got up to meet the man.

"I'm Greg Turk." He introduced himself, walking into the CSI lab and revealing his formal attire in the state of a tuxedo. "I'm an attorney at Weathersby and Stone." The two men shook hands before Greg continued. "I don't usually make house calls, but I've been trying to get in touch with you for several months."

"Yes. Yeah, I'm sorry about that." Barry replied. "I've just, um… I've been really busy with police work." He informed the attorney.

"We need to talk about S.T.A.R. Labs." The attorney spoke. Barry nodded his response, Greg continuing. "As you know, Harrison Wells left the property to you as part of his living trust."

"Yeah, which I did not ask him to do, but I've been keeping the place up." Barry said as he retook his seat in his chair again.

Greg then stated. "Well, it's going to take more than cleaning the floors to retain it, I'm afraid. The facility and the real estate are scheduled to go into receivership at the end of this week unless…" he reached into his pocket, pulling out a flash drive and handed it to Barry. "you watch this."

Grabbing hold of it, Barry asked. "What is this?"

"A video message drafted by Dr. Wells." Came the vague reply.

Barry's eyes twitched with confusion. "What's on it? Have you seen it?"

"No." Greg started. "He was very specific. It was only to be watched by you. The device will send me a notification after you've viewed it. And at that point, I'll have everything ready to execute."

Barry wondered what kind of mind games Eobard Thawne had recorded for him on this drive. Wondering what words would be uttered for him to be manipulated more by the man who killed his mother again. "I'm not going to watch that." He stated adamantly.

"Well, that's up to you, Mr. Allen." Greg said casually. "I'm only here to represent Harrison Wells' final request." Barry nodded. "Good day." He finalized before walking away.

The speedster turned to face his computer screen again, his fingers twiddling around the flash drive for a few moments before he threw it on his desk. He was done being a pawn in Thawne's chessboard, and he knew that if he watched that video message, then he'd let that bastard move him around again like he done six months ago.

His computer screen beeped with an alert popping up on it. A black screen revealing itself with the words:

"_Security Alert: S.T.A.R. Labs. Unauthorized Entry._"

Getting a closer look at the screen to clarify his find, he sped out of his lab instantly.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

_WHOOSH_

Barry rushed into the Cortex of S.T.A.R. Labs and found the last people he'd ever expected to find behind the main console. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Working." Iris answered as she, Cisco and Professor Martin Stein were looking at the results of Caitlin's work.

"So, Caitlin was right." Cisco looked to the professor for certainty.

"Yes, all humans contain small amounts of radiation due to contact with cell phones, microwaves, televisions, et cetera." Martin Stein explained, while Barry found Joe leaning against the doorframe leading to a private lab. "Our bodies are natural conductors."

Cisco nodded before telling his theory. "I think our meta's been sucking up all the radiation around him and using it to power himself."

Iris then followed up. "Which is why the x-ray machines at the hospital failed the day of the rally."

Like a lightbulb, an idea sparked up in Cisco's head. "So if we want to find him, we gotta look for places without radiation." He and the others began their search, starting up the computers and connecting them with the satellites.

"All right, guys, I don't want any of you here right now." Barry told them defiantly, getting looks from Iris and Cisco.

"Tough." The speedster turned to his adoptive father. "You need your partners. You need your friends."

"Barry, everyone in this room cares about you, but we also care about this city." Iris told him. "We all want to make a difference, and that means fighting metahumans, and that means working with The Flash." Barry frowned. "You can't deny us that. Not anymore."

The computer chimed and Cisco let out in triumph. "Got him. There's a three block dead zone near a hazardous waste reclamation plant." He performed a scan of the building with the computers, "It should be blooming with rads, and right now it's at zero."

"That's where you'll find your Atom Smasher." Martin Stein let out excitedly. He chuckled and the two beside him looked at him impressed. Feeling he had two heads, he elaborated. "Because he absorbs atomic power, and he, well, smashes."

"Come here." Cisco opened his arms and hugged the professor while patting his back. "That's a great name. Welcome to the team."

"Thank you." Martin shook hands with the engineer.

"Great, guys, thank you." Barry got their attention again with the clap of his hands. "You can go now, all right?"

Joe lectured him. "Barry, you need to let Cisco and Stein figure out a way to stop this guy."

The day of the Singularity returned to the front of his memories and he felt a pang of sadness stinging him again like thousand small needles. With that in mind, and who they lost that day, Barry deniably said, "No, I don't."

_WHOOSH_

Using his superspeed, he ran out of the facility after suiting up in his Flash suit. The three at the main console sighed in unison when they saw the speedster disappear. Cisco then cast his gaze downwards, pointing them at the desk and found a small device there.

Picking it up in his hand and holding it up to his face, he recognized it as the hearing device that Barry uses. A dreadful feeling came over him as he explained. "Barry left his comm system behind. We can't talk to him. He's on his own."

X

Rothstein's pleased and relieving inhales and exhales filled the entire hazardous waste reclamation plant. With another deep and long inhale, he took in the delightful radiation that was oozing out of the barrel in his hands. The radiation being absorbed by every single inch of flesh on his face. Once he was done with this barrel, he let out a hearty exhale before dropping it to the ground.

His face began aching, pain spreading from the sides of his head. Mainly the areas that had been cut by the demon's sharp claws.

_WHOOSH_

A familiar whooshing sound got his attention, his head turning to it and found the Scarlet Speedster himself standing there. Atom Smasher smirked as he saw the speedster. "Well, this is a curve ball. I thought I was going to have to come looking for you."

"I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else." Barry told him with determination.

"I'm only here to hurt you, buddy." Atom Smasher confessed.

"Yeah?" Barry humored. "Then why'd you kill Albert Rothstein? And why do you look like him?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." The criminal metahuman vaguely said.

The Flash chuckled. "Try me."

"I'm about to." A smirk widened over his face.

"Careful, don't wanna give you more scars than you already have." Barry gestured the damage around his face and suit.

"Trust me, the guy who did this." Rothstein pointed to the damage himself. "He's worse than you will be." He finalized with the image of the demon appearing before him. Then the memory of what Zoom said to him before hurling him into this universe. And he was gonna have to move now, if his visit to this universe would only be limited to this one.

He charged for the speedster, who lashed out his arms out forward and spun them around, blasting the growing metahuman's body with torrents of wind. But Rothstein wasn't moved in the slightest, his feet digging into the ground and the asphalt cracking form the immense pressure he was putting into his feet, functioning like anchors. The speedster's wind attack was intense, both metahumans letting out screams and grunts.

Barry stopped his attack on the other metahuman, realizing that his wind attack was useless because of his weight. Using his superspeed he appeared before Atom Smasher and tried a different approach and sent his fist into his face. over his face.

However, it looked to have very little effect on him. Barry retaliated with his fist lunged into Rothstein's stomach next. Once again, little effect, so he swung his other fist for him. But it was blocked and Atom Smasher slammed his fist forward, pushing the speedster back.

The Flash let out grunts of pain as he staggered backwards. When he looked back to the evil metahuman, he saw a confident expression on his face. "My turn." His mask reequipping while he absorbed massive amounts of radiation again, his body growing up to newer limits. Barry went to move but he was stopped when the large fist wrapped around his throat and choking him with the tightening second that passed.

He tried to struggle his way out of the vice-grip but they only increased when Atom Smasher slammed him into a wall repeatedly. After the last slam, he pinned him to the wall and said. "He said you were some kind of big hero, but you don't seem worthy of him, or this city." Reeling back his free hand, and clenching it, he was about to bash the speedster's head in.

_CLANG_

However, three large empty metallic barrels were hurled into Rothstein's head, causing him to lose his grip on Barry's throat and pushing him back on the ground. Barry slid down the wall and down to the floor with a grunt.

Atom Smasher returned to a stand and looked in the direction of the hurled projectiles. But he was confused when he saw that there was no one there to actually throw them at him. "Who did that?" his answer never came but instead he felt something slam into his back and pushing into a crouch

Swinging his head around, Atom Smasher saw a metal covered fist over his field of vision and pushed him away with a roll on the ground. Rothstein got up on his feet again and he looked forward again. Shock came over him at the sight of the person.

Landing down in a crouch with her hands on the ground, Magenta appeared before him. Her pinkish water-like skin rippling like waves going through her. Contrasting veins of black and white all over her small form as she stood up in her full height. The bended metal on her right clawed fist fell off and her other hand morphed into a long sword.

The white eyes on her head pointed at the criminal metahuman. A line formed over the lower half of her face before tearing open, displaying a maw with sharp teeth that looked like fangs, and a red-rose tongue shooting out of her mouth. Licking the surface of her teeth, she hissed. "**Someone's asking for trouble.**"

His mask opened up and he got a better look at the small powered being before him, clarity lacing his actions. Sweat began pouring down his face like raindrops were cascading his head. Tremors ran through ever single inch of Rothstein's body. Fear coming over him like a tidal wave.

His eyes saw the young girl again…but instead of seeing Magenta…he felt as though he was looking at the blurry image of that demonic hellion again…standing before him again, roaring at him and holding up bladed scythes as an executioner. And seeing Venom again…even just the very reminder of him…brought him terror. It was though the flame that had burned his suit returned again, the phantom pain from the sizzling touch shaking him.

"No. No. NO!" Rothstein chanted in fear as he stood up on his feet again. Surprise came over the symbiote-bearer. "Why?" he asked himself in overwhelming horror. His mind racking through every possible scenario that led to that demon coming to this universe and facing him now.

"**_What's going on with him?_**" Magenta wondered when seeing criminal have a panic attack of fear.

"_Doesn't matter._" Frankie craned her neck. "_He's toast._" She thought back before charging up to meet the criminal.

Seeing the small demon came near him, Atom Smasher shot up to his feet and fear instilled in him, dictating his next actions. Throwing a fist out, he aimed to strike down the demon. But Magenta jumped away, attaching to the wall before launching like a missile with a jump and swung her sword at him.

Atom Smashed fearfully crossed both arms his head, shielding himself from the sword swing. The sword never connected with his arms but her pink tendrils wrapped around his wrists, prying them away and exposing his body again and her sword swung down on his torso. Rothstein's suit was only left with a scar from the symbiotic sword, right in the middle of the charred damage.

"**That's tough.**" Magenta commented before twirling around, avoiding a pair of giant fists that came from above, jumping into the air with a spin. As she spun, she lashed out her hand and fired off tendrils that wrapped around the criminal's mask. With a powerful pull of them, she slammed the metahuman into the ground. The momentum of the throw launched him backwards and onto his back.

Jumping on top of the shelves, using them as a springboard, she jumped onto the ceiling before forming mallets on both hands. Metal around her tearing off their placements and shooting up to her through the air like walking up an invisible staircase. Coming into contact with her, the metal bended and wrapped around her symbiotic weapons, armoring them.

The moment they did, she latched onto the ceiling with her feet pressuring into it. The ceiling cracked when Frankie dug them into the surface before leaping down with her arms crossed over her chest. Rothstein jumped out of the way with a roll, the younger metahuman smashing into the ground.

His arm grabbing a couple of barrels and hurling them at the demon. Frankie saw them coming and she used her new training with Black Cat. Seeing them, she attached tendrils to the opposite walls and pulled on them, launching herself like a javelin with her feet pointing forward through the small gaps of the projectiles.

But when she made it to the other side, she saw that Atom Smasher had disappeared. "**Damn it!**" Both Frankie and Magenta let out in anger when they got up on their full height. Her open mouth patched up again, and she looked around.

To her dismay, she saw Barry on the ground, unconscious. "It'll be a cold day in Hell if I have to help him." she muttered, adamant to not aid him now. Saving him once was enough, especially as he didn't deserve that. Walking away, she exhaled in exhaust before flicking her wrist.

A barrel was launched from its place on the shelf and banged into the wall beside Barry's head. It echoed wildly and the sound boomed in his head, waking him up but he still felt a painful surge from the thrash he received before.

_WHOOSH_

Within the next moment, he sped away instantly. Frankie saw it and she wondered if he even noticed her. It didn't matter to her though. Nothing he did would ever matter to her. Not anymore… not after he was the man responsible…for her father's death.

Frankie and Magenta then looked up to the corner of the ceiling, finding a security camera there. She knew full well that the entire fight was watched by a group of certain people in S.T.A.R. Labs. Making eye contact with it, she called out. "Your _hero_ is on his way. The savior of Central City." Her tone was filled with sarcasm before she used her invisibility to disappear.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

The monitor beeped as it monitored the Scarlet Speedster's heartbeat as he laid on the gurney. Joe West had his son's gloves and put them on the table beside him. Barry was beginning to stir in his sleep, the moment his eyes snapped right open with his body shaking with shock.

Joe saw it and assure him. "You're good. I got you."

Barry slumped back down in the gurney again, exhaling with relief and shame mixed together. He looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"I figured you wouldn't want an audience when you came to." He replied his answer.

"Yeah, thanks." Barry said after scoffing. "How did I get out of there? Atom Smasher had me dead to rights."

"Frankie saved you." Barry widened his eyes. "I think Caitlin asked her to lend a hand here. Glad she did. Otherwise you would might have turned into mincemeat."

"Think Frankie would have liked that." Barry commented, shocking his adoptive father. "Can't blame her, actually. Not after what I did."

That was it for Joe. He tried being supportive this entire time, knowing what ordeal and weight was on Barry's shoulders. He's been afraid of pushing him away. And it was time to stop asking questions when the answer would forever be "no".

"Iris is right." Joe started. "You're not gonna do this anymore. For the last six months I've given you your space to work all this out, come back to us." He shook his head as he stated regretfully. "But today proved that you'd rather just get yourself killed."

Barry chuckled humorlessly. "It's better than getting my friends killed."

"You want me to tell you that it wasn't you fault?" Joe asked rhetorically. "I can't. It was." A painful truth was always something that Barry hated. Each word cutting like a knife, embedding deeply into his heart. "Guess what? You weren't the only person making decisions that day. All of the rest of us were there too. Eddie, Ronnie and Seth…" Barry's hands clenched at the mention of his deceased friend. "…they chose to help you stop Wells, and stop that…"

Barry heard him struggling to find the word for what appeared above their heads six months ago. "Singularity." He helped Joe.

"Singularity thing." Joe continued. "It's on all of us, Barry. So stop with this hogging all the blame and regret. We gotta live with it. Move on."

"What do I do now?" Barry asked.

The detective leaned back in his chair. "Well, I know that you've been rebuilding Central City at night." Barry rubbed his hands all over his face. "It's just bricks and paint. Maybe you should start trying to rebuild…things that really matter."

"How?" Barry felt the need to ask. "Matt and Liv hate me right now. Frankie's the same. They all hate me for what happened that day."

"I know. And they're not subtle about their feelings about you. Especially Frankie." Joe inhaled deeply before nodding to him with a meaningful look. "You of all people know how she feels. Exactly how she feels for that matter." Barry held a hurting look. "It's gonna be a challenge getting them back here, to be our friends again. But I think there is someone else, you might wanna talk to before that."

Barry knew exactly who he was talking about. And though it was the right thing to talk to her…he wouldn't be surprised if she wanted him dead too…her daughter certainly did.

X

**(Mercury Labs)**

Caitlin was working on another assignment given to her by Christina McGee. The doctor had agreed to do one additional task in return of leaving early. Not a hard one at that, just a sample that had to examined through the use of a microscope. She didn't mind that as she had to do something to kill time while her daughter was out on another patrol. Her thoughts on her task were put on hold when she thought of her daughter.

Frankie becoming the hero she had become was quite impressive, remarkable even. Performing extraordinary acts of acrobatic with ease in the middle of a bustling traffic. Leaping from the highest buildings in the city that could have passed for skyscrapers and still landing on her two feet. Fighting against numerous thugs of the night, anyone who tries to hurt innocents.

She truly was her father's daughter. Becoming a lethal protector of her own kind.

A smile formed on Caitlin's mouth and she reached into her drawer and pulled out an article from Iris' blog. She had printed a while back, laminating it even. Deciding to take a break right now, she leaned against the table. Her smile broadened when she read the title of the article.

"_Magenta Saves Children from Burning Hospital._" Along with a picture of Magenta carrying children in her arms and giving them back to their worried parents.

It was two months ago, a pipeline broke in an empty operation room at Central City General, causing an explosion from a spark igniting from failed wiring. Almost the entire floor was set ablaze. Firemen were on the way, but still afar from reaching their destination.

But Frankie wasn't. She had jumped into the building and got everyone in out. Starting with the children. Iris had come to the site and managed to take photos of her performing her acts of heroism. It was incredible and the beginning of Magenta. Though most of the citizens thought she was Venom with a new look, which both Caitlin and Frankie were ridiculous.

Iris had even come up with a nickname for her. "The Rose Demon."

Caitlin smiled. "_You'd be so proud of her, Seth._" she absentmindedly thought. If the love of her life was still amongst them, then he would definitely have been proud to call Frankie his daughter. Even if she hadn't chosen to follow her father's footsteps, he would still have been proud nonetheless.

Feeling something strange behind her, she slowly reached into her pocket. Using her other hand, she placed the article on the desk as she turned around slowly. Surprise came over her when she saw Barry on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall. "What are you doing here?"

"Sorry, I should've called or something." Barry told her apologetically.

Then to his surprise, Caitlin pulled her hand out of her pocket. Her hand wrapped around a Karambits knife, the speedster's eyes full of shock and slight fear at the sight of the weapon. "It's okay. Just got a little worried is all. Not a lot of people sneak on me here in Mercury."

"You keep a knife on you now?" Barry had to ask. And she merely nodded her reply as though it was the most normal thing for her to carry around. What the speedster didn't know was that this was Seth's knife. And ever since his sacrifice, she's been keeping it on her. Not just in case of safety, but also because she wanted more of his near her now. The necklace around her neck was one of those things, but she wanted more as well.

Barry didn't feel the need to the delve deeper into the matter, seeing as she put the weapon back in her back pocket. "I just… I wanted to see you." he stepped closer.

"It's been a while." Caitlin said.

"Yeah," Barry inhaled deeply. "Cisco said he saw you and Frankie at the Flash Day celebration. I was surprised. Especially since Frankie hates me, which I understand." He held eye contact with her. "You, better than anyone, know I wasn't the hero that day."

"…I can't…I don't know." Caitlin had to say, conflicting brewing her core.

"You know I wasn't." Barry inhaled deeply before stating the truth. "Caitlin…Seth…he died saving me. And I should've saved him, and I'm…I'm so sorry."

Caitlin didn't speak for a few moments, needing to process what had to be spoken before uttering them. "Barry, I know that you did everything you could. It wasn't your fault. I know Frankie blames you for his death, but I don't blame you for Seth's death." Though she spoke those words, parts of her did blame him for his death. If Barry hadn't travelled through time, then the Singularity never would have appeared, and then Seth would still be here with her and Frankie. "I blame myself." Caitlin revealed.

A massive surge of confusion coursed through the paths of Barry's thoughts. "Why?"

"Remember when I went after him once and asked Seth for help? Back during the fight with Danton Black?" Barry nodded. "I feel if I hadn't come to him that day, then…" her voice broke. "Then he might be alive right now. He would have been with Frankie right now, without me." Tears gathered in her eyes. "Alive, and happy with his daughter instead. And I blame myself for that. Because I drove him to do that. Because I asked him to do it, and he did for us. I put him on that path, and it's my fault." Now the tears began falling down her face, raining like a waterfall down her face.

"Being at S.T.A.R. Labs just made me think of that every single day." Caitlin continued. "So I got away. And focused on one thing: Frankie. She needed me more than anyone else now. And honestly, I think I needed her just as much." She reached up to her necklace, rubbing the snowflake that was within the demon's maw. "She's the only person who…needed him just as much as I did…as much as I do."

The speedster saw how hard it was for her to open her heart and how much pain she was going through now, and he couldn't help but blame himself for it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. "Here."

Caitlin felt a little of Seth's notoriously blunt and cruel humor seep into her, forcing to joke. "Oh, you carry a handkerchief now? What are you, 80?" Barry realized that a part of Seth was in her, which he didn't know was for better or for worse. As he handed her the handkerchief, something fell down to the floor. Clattering its drop to them. The speedster picked it up, seeing that it was the drive from Harrison Wells. "What's that?"

"Ah, it's uh…" Barry inhaled before revealing. "Apparently, in case of his death, Wells had some kind of a living will."

Her eyes looked at him, recognizing aspects of his posture. Seeing that quickly, she asked. "And you haven't watched it yet?" the words came out rather as a statement.

"No. No, I've…been too afraid."

Caitlin recalled how Barry was able to help her in the past before. While it didn't bring her the kind of closure that Seth was able to bring her, the least she could do is help him. "What if we watched it together?"

He nodded slowly. "All right." He handed her the drive and let her pluck it into a computer. The two took a seat on adjacent chairs, Caitlin being the one to open up the video recording that Harrison had left for Barry.

They then saw the familiar face of Harrison Wells, Eobard Thawne in reality, sighing as he used a remote to have the camera zoom in on him again. The sight of him got them both to inhale deeply. Caitlin subconsciously reaching into her pocket again and holding Seth's knife with anger.

Harrison Wells sighed before taking off his glasses. He gained a disappointed face, if it was for mock or not, neither of them did not know. "_Hello, Barry._" His old voice that once brought them assurance and comfort was akin with that of nails scratching against a blackboard. "_If you're watching this, that means something has gone horribly wrong. I'm dead and the last 15 years have been for nothing. Bummer. 15 years. You know, when I realize that in all those years helping raise you, we were never truly enemies, Barry. I'm not the thing you hate. And so, I want to give the thing that you want most. It won't matter. You'll never be truly happy, Barry Allen, trust me._" His words caused Barry to grit his teeth in anger, his thoughts confirmed.

This was a mere ploy to manipulate him once again, even from behind the grave. "_I know you. Now…_" Harrison cleared his throat as he instructed while putting his glasses on again. "_Erase everything I said up to this point. Give the following message to the police._" The deceased founder leant forward. "_My name is Harrison Wells. Being of sound mind and body, I freely confess to the murder of Nora Allen. In her home, on the night of Marth 18th, in the year 2000. I attacked Nora Allen in her dining room._"

Barry listened on with disbelief in his mind. "Oh, my God." Caitlin let out in shock. "He confessed." She then looked to the back of her lab and looked to the corner of it. rolling her eyes, she nodded her downwards with a serious look.

A scalpel touching the surface of the desk again with a nearly audible sound of clattering, only registering to the doctor and not the speedster.

"This is it." Barry muttered in shock. He shortly laughed. "This is what I need to free my Dad." He then called Joe, walking out of the room and leaving Caitlin alone for the moment.

Or so he thought.

As she looked to it again and mouthed a few words. Her ears perking up at the sound of an exhale, one out of annoyance.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Everyone had gathered in the facility. Cisco, Professor Stein, Iris had come. Even Caitlin, Olivia, Frankie and Matt had come as well. They waited for the speedster and his adoptive father to come back to the Cortex to tell us whatever the results of Harrison's confession would be.

Caitlin looked to her daughter who was still wearing her father's black leather trench coat as she leaned against the console's railing. With a smile on her face, she walked around the console till she stood by her side.

Frankie looked to her. "What's up, Mom?" Giving her a mock stern look, Caitlin pinched Frankie's left cheek with her fingers and pulled on it. "Ow!" she winced, gaining the mutants' attention, both of whom chuckling with smiles on her face. Her mother let go of her cheek and allowing her to rub it. "What was that for, Mom?"

"What did I say about spying on me?" Caitlin reminded her with her hands placed on her hips. Frankie tried to look away but her expression was all the answer that was needed.

Seeing that face from afar, Olivia walked closer to them and asked her niece. "You spying on your Mom now, kiddo?" Frankie didn't answer, avoiding eye contact with either of the women. A curious expression came over her face as she turned to Caitlin. "And how did you know Frankie was spying on you?"

Caitlin shrugged, unsure of how to answer it. "I don't know. I guess I've just been able to get a…feeling of sorts whenever she begins spying on me."

"Great, Caitlin got a Spidey-Sense." Matt joked as he walked over to them. "You sure you aren't a metahuman too, Caitlin?"

She rolled her eyes and elbowed the nanite mutant. "Funny. But don't worry, I'm not a metahuman. I'm gonna leave all the powered part to you and the others here." Caitlin gestured to the others.

"So…are we gonna get anything useful out of this little meeting or are we going to stand around like idiots forever?" Frankie harshly asked out loud, her eyes flashing between blue and magenta like flashlights.

"**_Probably gonna get a happy ending now, until he gets some bull reason to screw it up again._**" Magenta commented with harsh tone as well.

"Frankie." The young girl calmed down in response to her mother's words. "Ease down." Caitlin wrapped her arms around her body and stroked her hair comfortingly. Frankie's eyes returning to blue again.

"Sorry, Mom." Frankie apologized and wrapped her arms around Caitlin as well.

"Don't let your anger get the better of you, honey." Olivia added. "It's not helping anyone now. Nor will it."

"How do you know?" Frankie wondered.

Matt then told them with a lifeless voice. "Because our control of our anger is the one thing keeping us from ripping the hero of the city to shreds." Iris looked to him and could see a cold-steel hate in his eyes. It looked like not even metal could stop it from turning colder and colder. And it scared her that it was only growing colder and colder.

Before they could get on any further into their conversation, Barry returned to them after talking with his adoptive father. At the sight of him, Olivia and Matt took on a formal stance, Frankie clenched her hands after unwrapping them from her mother's waist.

"Is it good news?" Cisco asked him hopefully.

"I think so." Barry answered.

"Henry's coming home?" Iris asked for clarity. Barry managed to give a slight nod of confirmation before she shot into him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug.

Barry looked to the two mutants who didn't hold any emotions in their eyes. "Hey guys." Neither of them responded back. Sighing in defeat, he went back to another matter. "Okay, well…that still leaves Atom Smasher to deal with."

"Last time you faced him; it did not go well." Professor Stein commented, gesturing to Frankie. "The young Ms. Fury thankfully came in the nick of time and saved you from a, beatdown, I believe the kids are calling it, these days."

"Yeah, she did." Barry looked to Frankie. "Thank for that, Frankie."

"Didn't do it for you." She countered with her eyes temporarily shining magenta.

"I know." Barry said in a defeated voice. "I clearly can't stop him by myself. So how are we gonna beat him?"

Caitlin rubbed her daughter's shoulders and then got everyone's attention. "Well, ever since I was shown a drained radiation tag, which I haven't been able to stop thinking about. Thank you, Cisco." She threw him a mock glare.

With a smile on his face, Cisco swung his arm over his head and pointed his finger at her. "You're welcome, Caitlin." His hand covered his head when something hit it. "Ow!" he looked to it and saw a pink tendril that had poked him. "Why?"

"You shouldn't point at people." Frankie lectured him with a mock proudful expression.

Caitlin smiled again as she continued. "If this guy likes radiation so much, I say we give it to him."

"And pop goes his balloon." Matt joked with a comparison.

"Yeah." Barry liked it with a nod.

Frankie took off her trenchcoat and put it on the table. "Good, I'm going out there and getting ready. Give a location and I'll be ready then." She went to move to the exit.

"Frankie." She stopped at Barry's voice. "I know you saved before, and I can't thank you enough for that, but you can't go out like that. Not against someone like tha-"

He stopped talking when she pointed her shining magenta eyes at him. "You, of all people, don't get to make any choices about me. Not after what you did." She snarled at him before walking out to the Cortex, leaving them shocked.

"Sorry for her, Barry. She's still hurting." Caitlin felt the need to say.

"It's okay." Barry said, but still felt pain from her words.

"It's to be expected." Matt muttered, gaining their attention. Looking at the speedster, he continued. "It's ironic, isn't Barry? Speedster responsible for taking your parent away. You, a speedster, responsible for taking away Frankie's parent. Full circle now. Guess you and Thawne have more in common now."

"Hey."

Matt didn't' seem the least bit fazed by Iris' exclaim. Barry put a hand on her shoulder and looked at the nanite mutant with curiosity. "Then why are you still here, Matt?"

"Because I don't trust you with my niece, Barry." Matt stated instantly. "And if you start running again, she's gonna be there to help the city. And I'm gonna be here to make sure that Seth's daughter is safe." He finished off before walking to the private lab.

"And you, Olivia?" Barry wondered when turning to the psychic mutant.

"Same." Olivia stated adamantly, keeping her emotions in check. "But also, because this is the city my brother sacrificed his life for. I'm gonna defend it against anything and anyone till my last breath. Even if I lose my mind, I'm gonna defend it, my brother's friends and his family." Her blue eyes locked with Barry's eyes. "Even if it's against you, Flash, I will fight. I owe my brother that." She finished off before walking to the private lab that her husband was occupying.

Barry inhaled the pain he felt from their words. He would channel pain into his fight against the metahuman, Atom Smasher.

X

Rothstein was stalking the nightly activities from the darkened alleyways connecting to the streets. All of them filled with stands of various kinds. Food stands handing out dozens of festive food variations, either in cones or on sticks, fried food being quite popular of the Venom Night celebration. Being sold on what looked like an endless loop non-stop. Other stands offering toys and such, most of them having the appearance of Venom. Even some of them offering clothes with designs that resemble the anti-hero.

Atom Smasher was watching from afar. He was waiting, biding his time for when the Flash would show himself. Clearly, neither the speedster or the Rose Demon wouldn't dare to start a battle during a festival-like event like this. But as the growing metahuman watched from the shadows, he wondered who this celebration was for. Obviously for someone, but he didn't see it as a need to figure out what or who.

People in the streets then looked upwards as something caught their attention. Rothstein saw it too and looked upwards to find what had gotten their attention. It was a light shining out from somewhere, hitting the dark clouds above their heads.

A light shining onto it and showing a familiar symbol on them, showing The Flash insignia onto the clouds and getting everyone's attention.

"Showtime."

He disappeared into the shadows as he now had his new destination.

X

Frankie swung from a building and followed the light emitting from the projector. As she swung through the air, she passed over the growing metahuman, Atom Smasher. The metahuman hadn't seen her and though she wanted to strike him down then, she couldn't.

She promised her mother that she wouldn't do anything rash now.

And she would always keep her word to her mother no matter what. And that would mean waiting at the chosen spot, waiting for her to show herself and fight the metahuman, while Barry did his part.

Rothstein made his way to the projector and saw The Flash saw there. Standing proud and about as he continued flashing the skies with his mark. Barry looked at him and asked, "What's up?" he turned off the projector. "I see you got my message."

"I see you're alone." Rothstein feigned to smugness but inwardly he was happy about that. The sight of that demon again brought him nothing but pain and fear. "Good. Now I can finish you off once and for all. And no one can save you this time."

"You want me?" Barry asked. A smirk formed on his face. "You're gonna have to catch me."

_WHOOSH_

And with those words spoken, the speedster ran away with the speed of sound. A growl was released from his mouth before the criminal metahuman charged after him.

X

**(Nuclear Power Plant)**

Barry sped into the nuclear power plant near Central City. He stopped himself in front of a chamber that was on the end of a long path. While he waited for the criminal metahuman to come to him, he looked around before settling his eyes on the ceiling and saw Frankie attached to it. As always, the younger metahuman was avoiding eye contact.

He wondered if Seth was here, if he would kill him for hurting him or for hurting his family.

_CRASH_

A massive crashing sound followed with the roaring howl that Atom Smasher unleashed when shooting through the floor. His tyrannically gigantic form smashed down to the ground again, his feet cracking the floor with each step he took through the path to meet the speedster.

"Didn't think I could catch you, huh?" Rothstein wanted to know.

"No, I knew you could." Barry stepped back and shouted. "Now, Magenta!"

Four tendrils from above shot out and connected either sides of the path, gaining the criminal metahuman's attention. His eyes turned wide and scared when he turned upwards and saw metal tearing off various objects around them, launching themselves up the air.

The metal wrapped around the younger metahuman's form before she yanked the tendrils into ropes before pulled on them. Frankie shot down with the power of a cannonball. Rothstein rolled out of the way, dodging the incoming meteor-like strike from her, leading her to smash into the floor.

The impact with the ground unleashed a shockwave that blew the pieces of metal away from her body. Before they could touch the floor again, Frankie got into a crouch and commanded the metal to wrap around her arms and legs. Her clawed hands and feet free of the metallic alloy.

Atom Smasher looked at her and said in realization. "You're not him." Her use of powers made it all the more clear.

"**Don't care about that.**" Magenta let out as she charged with her hand reeled back. Swinging her right hand out, she slashed the other metahuman's incoming fist. The two opposing strikes met each other with a blow. Atom Smasher sent his other fist flying for her head.

But Frankie countered it with her free hand, blocking the large fist with her own. As both of her hands are holding his giant hands, she increased the size of both and they split into tendrils and enveloped his arms. "Get off me!" Rothstein cried in anger as he felt the tendrils tighten their hold around his limbs. And the grip around them continued tightening as though she was trying to squeeze the bones out of their meaty containers.

"**Like hell!**" Magenta showed a toothy grin, identical to the one Venom bears. Her eyes shining with magenta and rage. The metal around her body tore off into smaller pieces. Spinning around in the space around her body before she converged them into a single spot and into Atom Smasher's stomach. The barrage of the metal only pushed him back by a bit.

"_Tougher than I thought._" Frankie had to admit in her thoughts.

"**_We're stronger than this, Frankie. Let it rip._**" Magenta answered with her own thoughts.

"**Let's go.**" Keeping her tendrils connected to the metahuman's limbs, she shot to the criminal with a rush. Machines around them turned off again and his form enlarged, his expanding fist swinging like a mallet and aiming for the younger metahuman.

Watching the arm come her way, she spun around and used it as a springboard, hopping onto it before leaping over him and landing behind Atom Smasher. With another pull on her tendrils, she slammed the criminal's two hands into his face. Its blow echoing upon contact with his mask.

Freeing her other hand of the tendrils, she called the metal lying around on the floor to her once again. Circulating them around her fist, she morphed her fist into a mace with spikes. The metal wrapped around the ball while the spikes elongated and grew sharper and sharper. Stretching out the limb, she swung the mace into the back of the criminal's head.

Frankie released her tendrils from his hands, allowing the other metahuman to hold his head with both hands from the painful blow. Magenta saw him be disoriented from the onslaught of attacks so she sped forward and with a leap, she slid over the floor and between the space between his legs and to the other side.

With another swing of her mace, she slammed it into the metahuman and jumped into the air. Her other hand morphing into a scythe and slashed into the man's mask again, leaving a tear in it causing him to be shocked and staggering backwards. Landing on the ground again, Magenta clenched her hands again and summoned the metal into two balls again, levitating them on either side of her.

"**Eat this!**" She lashed both hands out and sent them into the metahuman's body again. this two the combined force of the two metallic objects hurled the criminal off his feet and back. Atom Smasher letting out grunts of pain when his body slammed into the cell in the back. she saw him quickly get back up again, and she was prepared for another fight.

But a pair of repulsor blasts from behind her stopped that from happening as the blasts pushed the criminal deeper into the cell again. Recognizing them, Frankie saw that it was indeed her uncle that had come to their aid, standing proud and strong in his Iron Knight suit.

Touching down on the ground again, Matt called out. "Now, Cisco!"

In response to her words, the cell door closed down and sealed the criminal metahuman in. He, Frankie and Barry saw entire room flooding with radiation right now. "That amount of radiation in there?"

"He's gonna have trouble absorbing it all." Matt announced to Frankie's question. They then heard as the metahuman unleashed growls of pain that bounced off the walls around them. His body shrinking and growing uncontrollably, limbs growing and expanding. But it was only for a few moments before his body gave out and he fell down to the ground.

The three of them waited for a few moments. Nothing but the sounds of Frankie's panting registering by Matt's and Barry's ears. "_The radiation's been cleared. It's safe for you guys to go in._" Cisco announced to them via their communications devices.

The door opened up and the three of them walked in to see the criminal down on his back. Iron Knight opened up a gauntlet, revealing a rocket launcher and pointing it at the metahuman. "You better not get any funny ideas, pal. I ain't one to mess with."

Frankie began lightly staggering as she entered the chamber. Her body leaning against the doorframe. "Damn it…" she muttered in exhaustion. Atom Smasher began panting loudly as well, pain washing his body.

Barry gave her a short glance before crouching down beside the enemy metahuman. "I'm sorry. I couldn't let you hurt anyone else."

The enemy metahuman looked at him briefly but his gaze returned to Frankie again, seeing her as Magenta. "No…" he whispered. "Get…away…" he managed to stammer out the words. Magenta narrowing her eyes with confusion.

"Why?" Barry asked, getting them back on track, foregoing what the criminal was stammering. "Why did you want to kill me?"

Rothstein gasped in short pauses. "He promised he'd take me home…if I killed you…I had to…" his eyes drifted to Magenta again. "…after I failed back then…"

"Who?" Barry asked the important question. "Who promised you that?"

The image of that horrifying pitch-black speedster appearing in front of him flashed over his mind. Lapis blue lightning crackling over his body that only brought him and his fellow henchmen nothing but fear. He envisioned that demonic metahuman with blood streaking down his claws. Eyes that was able to dig through anyone with dagger-like sharpness.

His name would bring confusion to any first-time hearers, but to anyone who knows the horror of it... they knew that one single name would send a crackle of lightning through the bones of anyone.

And like a terrible melody, his name would be sung. "Zoom." He let out through short gasps again, confusing the heroes before him. His eyes repeatedly blinking as though he was struggling to keep them open. It was a losing battle because he had to give out.

And then his eyes closed…permanently.

"Uncle Matt…"

Matt snapped around and jumped forward instantly, his arms wrapping around his niece that was about to fall down to the ground. "I got you, honey." He whispered as her symbiotic form retracted. "Let's get you back to S.T.A.R. Labs for now."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Caitlin's private lab)**

"She's just exhausted. Poor thing always pushes herself too much." Caitlin announced to Iris, Olivia, Matt and Cisco in her private lab. The group of them were watching over Frankie who was lying on the gurney. She was patched up to an IV bag, helping her recover while in sleep.

"Thank God." Iris let out in relief at the news.

"That's a relief." Cisco rubbed his face with his hands. He briefly looked into his thoughts, his memories before asked the two mutants. "Don't remember Seth getting so tired before." Realizing what he said, he quickly added to them. "Sorry guys."

"It's okay, Cisco." Olivia waved off his concerns.

"Don't worry about it, man." Matt told him with an assuring tone. "But Seth did get like Frankie in the past."

"He did?" Iris got surprised.

"It's because of using metahuman powers and symbiote powers in unison, right?" Caitlin surprisingly stated with her words, gaining wider looks of shock from the mutants. "Seth…told me a while back." they nodded. "He told it was because his body wasn't used to use those powers simultaneously back then. To use elements and symbiote powers were a struggle for him back then."

"That's right." Matt gestured to Frankie. "Unlike Frankie here, Seth and us had years to train our bodies to even fight like we do now."

"So what are you saying?" Cisco had to know if he was right.

"She's pushing herself too much." Olivia said, her hand gently stroking Frankie's forehead. "Using two powers out in the field for a rookie, is too much for her."

"That and her usual sneaking out in the night to get train with Felicia, is not good for her." Caitlin further stated. "Her body can't handle all that pain, all that strain. She's not ready to handle that much pressure, not yet anyway."

"You knew about her training sessions with Felicia?" Olivia wondered with a raised eyebrow.

Caitlin chuckled and sat on the chair beside her daughter's bed and held her hand. "She's not that very good at lies. It's gonna be easy when she starts dating and tries to hide a boyfriend in her room." The others chuckled in response to her humor. "I knew that she would want to get better, get faster, get stronger, getting better at using her powers like her Dad could. I couldn't give her that, but someone else could." She pushed her hair bangs away gently.

"You can give her something better than that, Caitlin." Iris said, gaining her attention.

"What?" Caitlin wondered.

"A home." Olivia said with a smile. "Sometimes, getting stronger, faster, becoming a hero…" she shrugged her shoulders. "They're just nothing compared to returning home, finding a parent who was standing there ready to embrace you with open arms. And telling them that your home is always gonna be waiting for you. That your family will always be your safeguard, the shield from harm. And sometimes that shield can morph into a sword when danger comes around." She pointed a finger at Caitlin. "And you're this girl's shield, Caitlin."

"And always will be." Caitlin stated confidently, assuring them with a motherly conviction that burned brightly like an inferno in her heart. "I ain't going anywhere from here."

"Good." Everyone looked in direction of the gurney again and saw Frankie smiling with open eyes. "Cause it'd really suck if I have to try and bake something in the kitchen. I might end up burning the loft."

Caitlin gave her a mock surprised look and reached over, her fingers pinching her daughter's cheek again. "Language, young lady." She let go and Frankie rubbed her cheek tenderly. "And yeah, you're gonna have to learn how to bake something sooner or later."

"I honestly thought, this would involve something about her maybe dating boys." Olivia suggested her thoughts.

"Yeah, that's not happening any time soon." Frankie pouted at her mother's words.

X

**(The next day, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

_DING_

The elevator doors opened up, letting Barry walk out of the elevator with a heavy expression on his face. It was the day after the day his father was rightfully released from prison, all charges dropped and he walks a free man. Though the elderly man didn't seem to have plans to stay in the city anymore.

Henry thought his presence would be nothing more than just a distraction for his speedster son. But he didn assure his son that he would be there for him when needed, but now…Barry Allen didn't have to be Henry Allen's son now…he had to be The Flash…that's who the city needs now.

Barry thought it was one way to ruin a great party, a good celebration. "Hey." He greeted Joe.

"Hey." Joe greeted back. "Your dad get off okay?"

"Yeah, I just dropped him at the station." Barry said with a heavy heart.

"You good?" Joe asked after seeing how much it was bothering him.

Barry shrugged. "I don't know, I…Just feels like every time I win, I still lose."

Joe had something that might help cheer him up. "Well…" he reached into his pocket. And then pulled out the key that was the very key the mayor was bestowing to The Flash. Both shared a look before Barry accepted it. "It's not bad."

Barry began examining. "No, it's not bad." A cheery smile formed on his face. "It's pretty cool. It's real cool , come on!"

"Hope Frankie's gonna think the same about hers." Joe stated to the speedster's shock, which increased when he pulled out a second shining key. Barry gave a confused look. "Mayor thought I was able to deliver it to her. Think she'd rather want a new phone than a fancy key that's just gonna stay on her shelf."

"Yeah." Barry chuckled in agreement and walked with his adoptive father to the Cortex.

When reaching the entrance, they passed through the door and Iris called out to them. "Hey!"

"Hey." Joe greeted his daughter. He looked around and saw Matt and Olivia standing beside each other. Iris, Cisco and Martin Stein were all at the console. Frankie and Caitlin walking over to the main console. "Frankie." The detective got the young metahuman's attention.

"What is it, Uncle Joe?" Frankie asked him curiously.

"On behalf of all of Central City…" he pulled out the second shining key and held it with both hands in front of her. "I give you the key to the city." He gave a mock announcement like he was the mayor of the city.

Frankie beamed with happiness and accepted it happily with both hands. "_It's just gonna stay on the shelf and nothing more. Heck, gonna stay there for all eternity._"

"**_Yeah._**" Magenta agreed.

"Ho ho!" Cisco called out enthusiastically before looking at Barry with a joyous smile. "Hey, guess what?" he got the speedster's attention. "I added a little upgrade to your suit." he pressed a button on the console and a light shone down on the suit on the mannequin.

It was shining down on the suit and right down in the middle of the suit, showing that the newest upgrade to the suit was something inspired by the future…the yellow lightning bolt over the white emblem…just like in the newspaper of the future.

Matt raised an eyebrow and commented, while the others walked closer to it to study it. "Like the one the from the future newspaper. Nice."

"Yeah, it's not bad." Olivia admitted.

Cisco smiled in response to the mutant's compliments and walked around the console. "I was thinking, you know, you shouldn't fear the future anymore, right?"

"We shouldn't fear something that we can design." Frankie muttered to her mother who hugged her with one arm.

"No," Barry said, hearing the younger metahuman's words. "and it'll be here faster than we think."

Martin Stein gestured to the suit, the chest plate specifically. "Well, see, I like it. The lightning definitely pops more against the white."

Caitlin then followed up quickly with confidence brimming in her voice. "And S.T.A.R. Labs is now safer than ever. Increased security and surveillance." Frankie, Olivia and Matt both gave her suspicious looks with raised eyebrows.

Cisco nodded in agreement. "Re-coded, double firewalled, electronic lock sets. Nothing is getting through here without us knowing."

"You sure about that, Cisco? I mean, I could turn this place into a fortress in less than a day." Matt gestured to the facility.

"If he let you." Olivia said with a frown.

"Yeah, I don't trust that for a second here." Frankie added as well, agreeing with her uncle and aunt. This place hasn't had the best of luck when it comes to keeping out the trouble, like at all.

"Okay, Team Suspicious, I made sure this place is up to date. It's better than before." Cisco told them with a raised head.

Iris followed up, "So people can't just waltz in and out of here."

"Exactly." Cisco finished off with even more confidence.

Caitlin smiled and looked at him, after kissing her daughter's forehead, her eyes looking behind and she gasped…when seeing a figure walking from around the corner.

Hearing the gasp, everyone looked in that direction and readied themselves. Joe pulled out his gun. Matt placed his hands behind him and quickly formed guns in both hands, pointing them in the direction of the entrance. Olivia pulling out her adamantium razor whip. Frankie jumped in front of her mother and Iris, her hands enveloping with the symbiotic mass and forming claws.

"For real?" Cisco had to ask, feeling the universe was against him at every step he took.

"Yeah, Cisco. You jinxed it." Matt had to say.

"Stay where you are." Joe ordered the figure in the dark.

"Not another step, bastard, unless you want this entire place to run with blood." Olivia threatened.

"Who are you?" Barry asked.

The man in the shadows then spoke, revealing himself. "You don't know me, but I know you… Barry Allen." He went to step forward.

"Take one more step, it'll be the last step you take." Joe threatened.

"And if it's not clear yet," Frankie revealed her symbiotic claws to the shadowy figure. "we're a lot faster than you are."

Joe nodded in agreement before saying. "We asked you a question. Who the hell are you?"

Everyone waited for the man to speak again, but instead the man walked forward and revealed himself. A tall man in a black jacket with brown hair and dark clothing. Olivia and Matt recognized the type of clothing, looking like the type to wear if need to hide in plain sight. That brought them nothing but suspiciousness, making them watch his every movement and micro-expression he might show, displaying dishonesty.

The man then spoke. "My name is Jay Garrick, and your world is in danger."

Everyone looked at each other with confusion lacing their faces. But Frankie threw her head back and let out in her thoughts., "_Of course. Why not. Wouldn't be us otherwise._"

**To be continued...**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**Once again, sorry for the long wait, been busy with some other stuff. But hopefully this long chapter is able to make up for it.**

**Also forgot to mention that the sword that was mentioned in the last chapter…it will play a very big part in the story.**

**And now, the lives of everyone on Earth-1 have been revealed, all of them trying to move on from the pain of loss that they have all experienced. **

**Caitlin putting all of her focus on the sole thing that Seth left behind, their daughter. It was the love of her life would want, and she would do anything to uphold it. They need each other for than ever now because they're family. Family holds one another afloat. **

**Frankie devoting herself to become stronger and be like the Lethal Protector, follow in his footsteps as the Rose Demon, all the while quelling her anger for the Scarlet Speedster. With the aid of the Black Cat, she can now expand her arsenal and her athletic capabilities. Matt and Olivia holding their own hateful flames aimed at the Flash. **

**The Fury family blaming him for Seth's death, though he is doing rather well on Earth-2, unbeknownst to them. **

**Cisco working through his pain of losing friends and Bette, while keeping up his cherry attitude. But he returned to the team, just like Barry returned to his roots and allowed his friends and family back in again.**

**But now another mystery has returned to their doorstep… or just walked through it, as usual. Man, Cisco really oughta watch a Youtube tutorial or something on security.**

**That's something to look forward to next time. But it's gonna take place on Earth-2 again.**

**So until next time, peeps.**


	5. Chapter 5: Destroyer of Worlds

**And another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**Sorry for the long way guys, hope you guys weren't waiting too long for the latest update.**

**Hopefully you guys were able to come up with drinks for the heroes. It would mean the world to me! I am begging you wonderful readers out there in the world, please lend your strength.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 5: The Destroyer of Worlds**

**(Earth-2, West-Allen Household)**

"You just going to keep drinking there, Detective West?" Seth asked with a surprised look on his face as he saw Detective Iris West downing her third glass of scotch. Like the Detective West he knows from back in his new home, the Detective West of this world also have a taste for certain alcoholic beverages. He was surprised how much she drank though, having now finished three drinks already.

But given what the subject was about, he couldn't blame her.

Ruby hadn't had the chance to explain everything to him yet, as Seth's surprised voice got the attention of Iris, Barry, Jesse and Evelyn. All of them stormed into the living room again to speak with the two. And though, he would have liked some time to hold off his revelation, he now had to reveal it to them.

He told them everything. About himself, about him being from another universe. About the Singularity that had appeared over their heads, which also appeared over their heads in this universe. He revealed all of it and he now he studied their expressions now.

Barry Allen of this universe was wide-eyed, his eyes almost popping out of his skull like a cartoon character from the shock that was increasing with each second. His glasses were threatening to break from how much he rubbed them with a handkerchief. It was clear that metahumans were the only type of crazy he had seen…before he showed up.

Jesse was just as shocked as the detective's husband. Her mouth gaping with what she had heard. This just blew her mind to new ends. The thought of another type of powered being, one sourcing from a natural source that manifests itself during puberty. She couldn't believe that the teenagers would worry just about getting pimples now.

Evelyn heard the same, though she was just as shocked about hearing the truth of the multiverse being revealed to her now, she was more interested in Seth. She heard how Seth was a mutant since he was a kid, displaying the powers to absorb an element and use it. How he had been kidnapped by the military to become biological weapons of destruction for that army.

But it was how he chose to become a doctor who uses his knowledge to help other children like him. Those who are like him, those who have awakened their powers for the first time. And after witnessing her powers in action, she wondered if he would be willing to help her out somehow.

Ruby was less than shocked than the others. Having heard of the elemental mutant before, she remained composed. But she was still shocked from what he said before. He hadn't been gone for a year. She would know. Ever since he disappeared, she had been looking into old articles about him. Trying to find out what his words meant. It didn't make sense for her; it wasn't one year. It was four of them. However, she knew that revelation would lead to her revealing her own past, and from what she had read and watched about Venom in action…he was working alongside a certain organization.

And Iris she was the only one who had to open her mind to those possibilities…which was only possible after getting glasses of scotch poured down her throat and into bloodstream. It was a lengthy explanation that required her full attention, that wavered whenever she would take a "sip" of alcohol. But now the conversation was over and the detective was trying to let it all sink in her.

Iris placed the glass down on the table with a clang as she let out an exhale. Barry rubbed her hand in comfort and support. She smiled at him and then turned to Seth who was waiting for her to speak. "Okay, let me this straight."

"**_This is gonna be interesting._**" Seth heard Venom snicker.

"_Craziest thing they've seen in this universe is metahumans and an awful singularity…_" Seth inclined his head. "_Well, yeah, it's gonna be interesting to say the least._" He agreed with his partner in the end.

Iris then started out, pointing a finger at the elemental. "You're not from this universe, you're from another universe, which is a thing now. You're not a metahuman, you're a mutant, a type of powered being from your world, one that's gets their powers from a special gene inside you, called the X-Gene. A natural version of metas."

"Yes." Seth nodded.

"Your gene lets you use elements that are inside your body, which is like an environment for seven elements. Most of them you got from horrible experiments, the other ones you got into your body on your own." Seth nodded again to Iris' question.

Barry then continued. "And you come from a universe that's much further from this one, in the multiversal spectrum, at least. Which is why you're nothing like anyone we've ever seen in this city."

"That's just my theory on that point." Seth admitted. "I'm a bioengineer. Quantum mechanics isn't exactly in my ballpark. That would be my brother-in-law's area of expertise."

"Cool." Jesse let out before she continued the list. "And you're someone who was turned into a biological weapon by your universe's human army. They modified your body into a mass weapon…" she looked to Ruby with a gulp. "into… Hades."

"Yeah. But I'm not fond of that name, though. So, let's not stick with that name okay?" Seth came with his statement and Jesse accepted it.

"And…" Evelyn got their attention as she trailed off. "You have an alien inside of you, one that has to eat human…brains. A parasite of some sorts? That's the one that you and him combined into before?"

"**_Why does everyone think we're a parasite?!_**" Venom exclaimed.

"_You're bonded to me and me alone, and unless you get chocolate or human brains, you'll start eating away at my body and if that happens, you might end up dead. Pretty sure that's why you're looked at as a parasite, Venom._" Seth reminded the being in him, who huffed in defeat. "And yes, I do and it was. His name is Venom and that form is our shared form when we bond, he's my partner." He answered Evelyn.

"And Ruby's from that same universe?" Barry asked with a finger pointing at the girl in battle armor again.

He briefly looked to Ruby, seeing that she was withholding something. Something that was only for him to hear. Schooling his features, he looked around the group of people and asked them. "Anything else that you guys have on your mind? Thoughts? Feelings? This is a safe space." He jokingly said.

"Funny." Iris commented as she heard his words. Leaning forward, she asked seriously. "But that thing before…that skull thing that appeared all over your body? What was it?"

"I was wondering about that, actually." Ruby stated, gaining his attention. "Back home, you didn't have that form. You kinda…evolved." She said for a lack of a better word.

Throwing her a mock glare, he quipped. "Yeah, cause I'm a Pokemon that reached level 36 and evolved to my final form." Ruby hit his shoulder at his lame joke. He chuckled and admitted while looking at his right arm, his limb tightening. "I don't know why or how…but after that "transformation", I felt immediately better."

Jesse thought back to what he said back in the forest. "Those things you said back in the woodlands?" She tried thinking back to his exact words. "You said something about something inside you trying to claw out of your body, right?" Seth nodded, giving her his full attention. "Maybe that's what was getting out of your body. That new form of yours." She gestured to his body.

Holding up his right arm, he let the symbiotic mass slither over it. Arming his fingertips with black claws, the white spine-like armaments popped out of his forearm. Even though his form wasn't fully bonded with his partner, the end of the spine was still lodged into the back of his hand. Twisting and turning it around for the others' eyes, Seth said. "I feel much better right now than I did as Zoom's prisoner."

"Can't believe that you were able to fight him and his men like that though." Iris ran her hand down her face with shock and relief that she was feeling. "And won."

"More like they were scared away." Seth looked to the two with powers beside him again. "Thanks to you two, we were saved."

Ruby pointed a finger at herself with a look of disbelief on her face. "I broke your entire arm because of my powers." She turned her digit to Evelyn. "And she broke the entire lobby as well. You call that a "saving"."

"I've have had worse savings, trust me." Seth stated sheepishly. He looked to Ruby who nodded knowingly. Looking to the others, he asked them. "Guys, think me and Ruby need to talk. Mind giving me and her a few moments alone?"

"I'm staying." Iris stated defiantly. "I need to know. And at this point, nothing can surprise me." She looked at her husband who was fidgeting from nervousness. "Honey, how about you go upstairs with Evelyn and Jesse? Think they could use some of my old clothes for the night." She was right. Seth saw that it was getting pretty late now.

"Sure." Barry got up from his chair and looked at the two girls. "Follow me, ladies." He began walking to the staircase and the girls followed.

But before she continued, Evelyn looked at Seth. He smiled at her and told her, "Sleep tight, guys." Evelyn nodded and walked after Barry and Jesse. Once they were out of hearing distance, he looked at Ruby again. "I think it's time you tell us your real name and then your story?"

Ruby inhaled deeply after nodding her response. "My name is Ruby. Ruby Hale."

Seth narrowed his eyes. "_Hale? Why does that name sound familiar?_" he had to ask himself that question. That name brought some small sense of familiarity. But he couldn't recall it for some reason now.

"And my goal, what I was trying to become my entire life was…to become The Destroyer of Worlds." Ruby declared. "And when I tried to get it, I thought I had gotten everything that I ever wanted…but it was a mistake that lead to a whole bunch of them."

X

**(Zoom's Lair)**

The light that was shining from Zoom's blue lightning was the only form of light that hit into the cells that once belonged to Ruby Hale and Evelyn Sharp. The pitch-black speedster was furious and annoyed at how his prisoners escaped from his clutches because of the elemental's powers. And he was able to stop them all, his human henchmen slaughtered like lambs and his metahuman criminals fearing Venom just as much as him.

Zoom also lost Rothstein now. Having died at a trap laid down by the Scarlet Speedster of the other universe. He knew there was something more to that death. It would be something for him to handle in the future, something worth inspecting in the future.

But now…he had to get back his prized property.

"Zoom?"

Slowly turning his head to the side, he narrowed his eyes at the sight of Black Siren walking towards him. He saw that Killer Frost was in the back and tending to Ronnie, his wounds from Venom's onslaught still sore. "**What is it?**"

"It's about that girl you brought here, the blonde one?" Black Siren started, jogging the speedster's memory of the girl from another universe. "Why exactly is she so special? I know she can do…whatever she can." She didn't know how to describe Ruby's powers, much less knowing what they are for that matter. "But is she really worth it?"

"**Yes, she is.**" Zoom growled his response. "**That child is in possession of powers that far from this world. I've seen what she can do first-hand, and it was…glorious.**"

Black Siren narrowed her eyes. "How did you find her?"

Zoom made eye contact with her again. His soulless black gaze sent shivers down her spine, freezing her attention to him and he only looked at him as he spoke his memory.

X

**(Flashback)**

_SHATTER_

_Zoom let out a hissing growl after the injection gun hit the floor, the glass shattering upon contact. Its shards joining the pool of shards on the ground as well, injection guns after injection guns placed on the ground with broken glass. Residual liquid dripping down their roughed edges. Head reeling back with a euphoric expression behind his mask. Mouth opening up and hissing with pleasure coursing through him, his veins feeling the liquid coursing through his system. His limbs shaking violently as he stood alone in his lair, blue lightning erupting around his body like lava spewing out of an angry volcano. The lightning unleashed from his body spat out, running around on his body with tiny bolts of azure electrical discharges._

_His soulless black eyes devoid of any other colors before the lapis lightning thundered over his eyeballs. The howl he unleashed getting louder and louder. As his hands clenched, the speedster swung his head around to the direction of the exit of his lair. Adrenaline pumping through him like stampeding rhinos before he lashed his arms to the sides with another howl._

_WHOOSH_

_With thunderously devasting power, Zoom ran through the lair, speeding out of it instantly. Wind blowing up around like an immense veil armoring his form, pushing away anything that fell down on him from the woodlands. The trail he left behind was close to be burned with each step he ran through the forest and was nearing the limits of Central City._

_And he wasn't going to stop there._

_That decision fueled his powers. So much… that… a flash of blue light shone around him…and he disappeared into it._

X

**(2018)**

_When Zoom got out of it again, he looked around and found himself in a corridor with water pipes on the wall to the right. Turning his eyes to the left, he saw a door there. It looked to be a slide door, the handle looking to be inside of an emergency water hose container._

_But his focus on the door vanished the moment he heard it…_

_SCREAM_

_The sound of a young girl screaming from within the room drew his attention to it. While the blue lighting crackled against his body, he walked over to it with slow steps. He stepped over to the edge of it. But instead of moving further to peer from the side of it and into the room, he vibrated his body. Rapidly trembling his body, it blurred and it allowed him to phase into the wall in front of him._

_His eyes able to see into the room as he witnessed the scene before him. As he did, he heard the young girl continuing to scream as she was inside of the chamber-like container. A woman screaming into it with worry from the other side. A pair of people, scientists perhaps, a man and a woman, standing near one another in hopes to protect each other. A young man holding a gun in his right hand while wearing an angry expression on his face, frustration riddling his form. Near the entrance, a pair of women stood there as well. Both wearing black tactical suits. One is an Asian woman. The other woman with Asian traits wearing the identical suit but with yellow and grey lining on it. Her forearms equipped with metallic gauntlets._

_All of them brought him interest and he wanted to watch how this event would unfold, as it was happening in front of him._

X

_Seeing her daughter in screaming agony was too much for her mother to handle. And she knew that her old mentor's project was not worth her daughter's life. General Hale snapped her head around before pointing her eyes to Alex Braun, also known as Werner Von Strucker, who kept his eyes and gun on the British scientists, Jemma Simmons and Leopold Fitz._

_She didn't have time for that and shouted. "Shut it down!" her daughter continued to scream throughout her agonizing experience in the Particle Infusion Chamber, an essential item to birth The Destroyer of Worlds._

_Alex shut into action, lowering his gun at the scientists and pressed the screen by the chamber, shutting down the infusion process, keeping out the rest of the special element so it didn't infuse anymore of it into Ruby's body._

_The infusion process paused…and the infused percentage remaining: "8%" _

_Daisy Johnson and Melinda May, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., shared worried looks while their scientists walked closer to them. The machine shut down and they all waited for the chamber to open up, most of them hoping that Ruby would be safe and get out of it. but as she waited for her daughter to come out, the worry in General Hale's mind increased to indescribable heights. _

_Hale looked around and asked in distress. "Are we too late?"_

_Fitz got a confused face before answering. "I don't know." He examined the screen on the machine. "She only took in eight percent of the Gravitonium."_

_The moment he stopped talking, the chamber opened up. Ruby's eyes were closed, everyone watching her unmoving form, waiting for her to open her eyes and hopefully still be with them. Nowhere near the realm of pain that she resided in before. Alex and General Hale were the only ones who hoped that she would still remain the same person she was._

_Ruby's eyes opened up then, slowly. May and Daisy looked at each other again, this time in concern. And that concern multiplied when the blonde girl got out of the chamber…her small form…levitating out of the chamber. Everyone around her stepping back in fear. Then all of a sudden, Ruby fell down to the ground, landing in a crouch._

_"__Ruby!" Her mother shot for her daughter who grunted in pain and placed her hand on her head._

_Before she could continue to her side, Alex Braun pushed General Hale back with one hand as he solely consoled Ruby. "It's okay. Hey. Hey." _

_"__Oh, they're screaming." Ruby let out in pain, her head still pointing downwards and her head aching as though thousands of bricks fell down her head. "They're fighting." It was like the two voices in her mind were doing everything in their powers, any that they had in that state to fight one another._

_"__No." Alex got her to look into his eyes. "I've got you."_

_Ruby was in too much pain and it caused her to old speak through a small voice, one barely registerable to anyone. "Help me." She pleaded of Werner._

_He smiled and told her assuringly, "I'm not going anywhere." He was right. She had his affection, his heart. And he would be willing to through thick and thin for her… Werner Von Strucker would be willing to die for her._

_Ruby smiled weakly and raised her hand to touch his face. But it didn't even touch his face… because a force pushed against his cheek, compacting with a massive strength. And it wasn't just his left cheek, it also happened to his eyes, his other cheek, his chin…and it also happened on the top of his head. Pushing down on it, compressing his bone in on each other. _

_His entire head was entirely compressed, blood sipping down what was once his head. Ruby gasped at what she had done. The body of the man she cared for…falling down on the floor with squish of his flesh upon contact with the floor._

_Everyone was unaware of the pitch-black eyes that watched with interest._

_Shuddering in fear and disgust, Ruby looked at her own hands. everyone looked with wide eyes at what she had done. The girl herself let out tears, each one of them ranging between different emotions from sadness, regret and self-hate._

_Ruby couldn't believe what she had done, done to someone she cares for, done to Alex. Someone other than her mother, who would fight for her. Stand up against other enemies for her. Fight alongside her and even go against her mother…_

_All for her…and now…her hands are stained with his blood._

_She looked to her mother and got up to her full height. "I didn't mean to." Another earth-shattering headache erupted in her mind. "Oh God!" she screamed in pain when she felt the two voices in her head continue their war-like conflict. And Ruby felt it all. Every single word, every single thought of hate belonging to one another._

_She was not spared any of it….and her suffering amplified with each and every hateful impulse belonging to Ian Quinn and Franklin Hall._

_Ruby couldn't handle it anymore and she began hitting her head, trying to subdue them with her actions. But to now such luck. "No, no, get it out of me. Please make them stop." She begged of Fitz and Simmons._

_Fitz saw her eyes and stammered his confusion. "Make…Make…Make who stop?"_

_"__All of them." Ruby answered pleadingly. "Just please, please put me back in the machine. Get it out of me!"_

_"__We can't." Jemma Simmons told her. "It only works one way."_

_A sheer of coldness fell over Ruby's eyes. "You lie! You always do this!" she screamed and her powers activated, hurling the two scientists on the wall behind them. The invisible force that was out of Ruby's control pinning them to the wall._

_"__Please." Jemma managed to beg despite the massive pressure keeping them bound to the wall._

_General Hale saw what her daughter was doing to the scientists and told her. "Ruby, put them down."_

_She didn't seem to register the words from her mother and instead let out. "Experimentation without thought of consequence." Unbeknownst to most in the room, the words she uttered were not her own. They belonged to someone else. Her eyes were without emotion, not caring about the going amount of fear that was washing over the two married scientists._

_Hale shifted her eyes between her daughter and the forceful display of her powers she showed. It was both incredible and dreadful. Her daughter showing incredible powers, but dread drowned it when she saw the pain in Ruby. She was at a loss, not knowing what to do in this situation. Turning her head to Daisy Johnson for guidance, her response was nothing more than Quake's eyes pointing at Ruby._

_The General felt certainty arise in her. Looking at her daughter, Hale called out. "It's Mom. Look at me!" Her exclaiming voice got Ruby's attention and also nullifying her hold on the two SHIELD scientists and they fell to the ground with grunts of pain._

_Ruby placed her eyes on her mother. The moment she did so her eyes teared up. "Mom." She tapped her forehead. "There's something really wrong." She stepped closer to her._

_Hale was worried and stepped back a few steps. "I know, we're just trying to figure it out. Just stay strong, sweetie." As she spoke, Melinda May waved her scientist friends over to her side. "Don't panic, just try not to panic, okay? Just…"_

_"__They can't be here." May told Daisy. "I'll get them past any mechs."_

_Daisy nodded and looked at May before saying. "Come back, I'll need you."_

_"__Okay." May said before walking out with Fitz-Simmons. _

_The Inhuman with vibrational powers looked back to the mother and daughter, the former trying to console the latter with her words. "It's okay." _

_"__No. No!" Ruby repeated. "NO!" She let out a deafening howl from the pain that continued its vicious cycle in her body. Her roaring voice shocked the others to step back. As the pain her mind, soul and body continued, increasing even, she began pacing back and forth._

_The General saw the agony increasing on her child's face. and it broke her heart. She tried to assure her with her calming words. "Honey, just listen to my voice."_

_"__Listen to you! Listen to them! Listen, listen, listen!" Ruby exclaimed the words uncontrollably. Her mind was riddled with another series of memories that were not of her life, showing moments of deaths belonging to the ones in her mind. And it caused her to let out another scream._

_Her emotions of distress dictated her powers again and a table flipped around in the air from the force of gravity that was out of her control._

_Both Daisy and Hale saw the painful use of her powers. Her mother then assuringly told her. "Remember your training. We'll get through this."_

_But she shook her head in denial. "But I can't control it. It's like I'm being ripped apart." She spoke through a ragged breathing, voice full of torment and anguish._

_Hearing the way, Ruby had to force the sentences out of her mouth, Daisy spoke. "Ruby. I have been right where you are." Her words of assurance got the young HYDRA assassin to look up at her. "And I know that it seems impossible right now, but you will overcome this."_

_"__No." Ruby once again shook her head._

_"__Believe me." Daisy tried to assure her._

_But the voices in Ruby was not like that. "They're too loud. They're trying to take over."_

_"__Just focus." Quake said, trying to get through to Ruby. "Breathe. Stay calm."_

_"__It's too late." Ruby couldn't help but say._

_"__No." Hale spoke to her daughter. "Daisy's right. She's been through this."_

_Ruby's anger spiked at the mention of the Inhuman. "Daisy, it's always Daisy!" she snapped her head at the direction of the vibrational powered agent._

_"__Try not to lose control, okay? Your powers will only get more dangerous." Quake told her. But her words had no effect on her as Daisy's body was suddenly pulled by Ruby's powers. ¨_

_Ruby's powers dragging her hero over to be suspended in front of her, holding up like a puppet on strings of her gravitational force. "Everything powerful is dangerous." Once again, her own spoken words were not her own, belonging to the ones in her mind. The ones tormenting her very existence and splitting her body apart, pulverizing her being with the hatred that they have for one another. The HYDRA assassin locked eyes with her hero again, "You know, for a long time… you were everything that I wanted." Pain caused her voice to turn shaky, on the verge of breaking. If not already broken. "You were my hero. And now look at us."_

_All of them were unaware that the pair of black eyes were now widening in interest._

_Seeing the spike on Ruby's face, Hale worriedly ordered her. "Ruby, let her go."_

_For a few seconds, Ruby didn't say anything. With a motion of her eyes going downwards, she loosened her control on Daisy, her body fall down to the ground. A smirk graced her lips as she and Quake made eye contact with one another. "I'm more than you will ever be." Despite her painful state, Ruby still felt a sense of triumph come over her. _

_The invincible Inhuman hero, Quake, her hero, on her knees right before her. Brought down to her knees by her better. Proving that Ruby was now superior to her, superior to the one that can bring down buildings and mountains with the mere thrust of her hands. The great hero…now powerless…and bested. It was a dream for Ruby since Daisy Johnson revealed herself._

_And now, her hero slowly raised up, her arms raised to the sides, showing that she wasn't going to make an offensive move. "Ruby, I am not here to fight you. You need help."_

_"__I don't want your help!" Ruby shouted. Daisy inhaled deeply in fear. Another sick smirk formed on her mouth before stating her true intentions. "I wanna crush you." _

_Daisy felt it…she could feel. The invisible and massive force of the gravitational powers in Ruby's veins…forcing and compressing her lungs tightly…practically forcing the airway to close down to prevent air from entering her body. The force increased with each second, bringing down the Inhuman to the ground with painful gasps barely able to escape her mouth._

_"__Ruby, that's enough!" Hale ordered her daughter, seeing the Inhuman in pain because of her daughter's actions. "That's enough!" she spoke with a louder voice, finally getting Ruby's attention and halting her powers' effect on Quake. Daisy stepped back after getting to her feet and watched as the General walked to the front of her daughter. "You listen to her. She is on your side."_

_"__Then why aren't you?" Ruby shouted into her mother's face. Hale looked confused for a few seconds, and as she did, her daughter admitted what her mother was unwilling to confess. "Mom, face it, I was never good enough for you."_

_"__No." Hale stated adamantly. "All I ever wanted was for you to reach your true potential." She felt a pang of sadness sting her heart like blazing hot needles. "I'm sorry. I pushed you too hard."_

_"__Mom." Ruby shook her head as her broken voice brought her mother endless sadness. "This was a mistake."_

_Despite all the chaos that have happened today, even at the hands of her daughter herself, General Hale was adamant about one thing. "No." Ruby looked confused while broken. "My daughter is not a mistake." She continued to speak to her daughter, consoling her with her motherly words…something she should have done a long time ago._

_But as she spoke, Daisy heard footsteps coming from the entrance and saw Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez walking in. she was battered with open and bleeding wounds, her prosthetic arms hurting her as she spoke, Usually, her fellow agent's presence would be welcoming but not now. Not given her history with Ruby. "Yo-Yo, get out of here." She ordered her._

_Zoom noticed the newest addition, taking in the metallic arms that resides on her body with narrowed eyes. his mind connecting the dots as he shifted his gaze between the newly arrived woman and the paining Ruby._

_"__Okay, just breathe." Hale told her daughter, seeming to calm her down a bit._

_But all of that didn't even reach Elena's enraged mind. "That's who took my arms." Yo-Yo recognized the battle armor on the girl's form, remembering that battle that resulted in her losing her arms despite using her Inhuman powers that allows her to achieve abnormally high velocity. _

_Before Daisy could say anything to deter her fellow Inhuman from her current path of thinking, Ruby let out another painful scream, earning their attention again…as well as the speedster that was still hidden from them._

_ "__No, Ruby." Hale told her daughter as she and the others felt the room shaking now. Her powers going off again uncontrollably, even causing the entire foundation of the room to tremble like a quake._

_"__It's here, isn't it?" Elena asked Daisy with an angered tone, her eyes glaring daggers into the girl that fighting against everything that was causing her pain. "She's the Destroyer?"._

_Daisy didn't like that. "Yo-Yo, she's a kid. She is terrified." Her words didn't seem to quell the other Inhuman's anger._

_Ruby shrieked again, the room continuing to shake. Hale then told her. "No, look at me, listen to me." She had to raise her voice, trying to speak over the shaking of the room. "Stay with me, we'll get through this."_

_"__No, Mom, they're getting louder." Ruby said._

_Elena saw the room continuing to shake from Ruby's powers and it worried her. unbeknownst to her, Zoom watched the directions of her eyes and noticed her expressions turning enraged by every glance that was thrown in the direction of the young enhanced individual. _

_"__No! I'm losing." Ruby got their attention, her will slowly dissipating. "Let us out." She spoke again with other people's words. "We want out, let us out. I won't be able to resist." She screamed again after speaking the words of the two opposing minds in her head._

_Hale saw the struggle in her daughter and told her assuringly in a shout. "I can make this better! I promise!"_

_But Elena didn't want that and she couldn't let her continue her path. She couldn't let The Destroyer follow her path and do whatever she wanted. Not at the price of everyone she loves and cares losing their lives. Activating her powers, she ran through the room with slow steps that were invisible to every eye in there._

X

_At least to the eyes of those belonging to this universe._

_Time slowed down to a crawl, Zoom looked in the direction of the HYDRA assassin again. His interest reaching new heights again and he knew what he wanted now, especially since he saw the other powered being with superspeed grabbing hold of the Chakram ring on the ground. _

_He knew that that girl holds more powers than others he could think of now. And that kind of power would be wasted on anyone else. Zoom was the only one to harness that power, enrichen it for his own gains. And for his goals, her powers would be perfect._

_He would have her…even if that meant dragging her away from this place._

_Reaching into his pocket again, he took out two injection guns. Pressing them to his skin and pulling the triggers, both of them injected their liquid contents into his system again. The blue lightning erupted again and locked eyes again in the room._

_WHOOSH_

_He ran into the room with lightning fast speed. His speed easily surpassing that of the Inhuman, making his way to her side. Her eyes not even registering his presence and he continued onwards. Black claws grabbing hold of the girl by the shoulders. With a smirk on his face, concealed by the mask, widened before he turned away with her._

_WHOOSH_

_He ran around in a circle before stopping, sending out a shockwave that pushed everyone away. He resumed his running and once again, he disappeared in a flash of blue._

**(Flashback End)**

X

**(West-Allen household)**

"Next thing, I know…" Ruby inhaled deeply before continuing. "I'm not in that facility anymore, and I'm thrown into the ground of some ratty lair, the one we escaped from actually. I see those metas and Zoom, I fight them. They think I'm unruly and then…" she held up her damaged hands.

"Deathstorm burned your hands?" Iris rather stated than asked. She knew that the metahuman was notorious for burning his victims, but hurting a child was a new low for the criminal metahuman. and she couldn't wait for the chance to put him behind bars.

"But that's my story." Ruby finished and looked to Seth. she reeled her head back in surprise when she noticed the wide eyes that were planted on her. "What's with the cartoon eyes?" she had to ask.

"Hale? You're Air Force General Hale's daughter?" Ruby nodded and Seth threw his hands up to his head with shock. "That Air Force witch actually has a daughter?!" he exclaimed with utter surprise. "Seriously that woman of all people?!"

"I take it you met my mother?" Ruby rhetorically asked.

"Yeah. And your mother is absolutely one of the worst people I've met." Seth instantly stated, he leant back in his seat as he recalled his first ever meeting with General Hale. "I met her once along with my best friend, Matt, the two of us were supposed to work with her on some assignments. But she absolutely hated us."

"Wasn't it because you were SHIELD?" Ruby wondered.

He threw her a glance, "Or something about her being HYDRA?" Ruby looked down at his words. Seeing the change of demeanor, he patted her shoulder comfortingly. "I'm not mad at you or anything. Even if you were trained to become a HYDRA assassin."

"I _was_ trained to become my mother's assassin." Ruby empathized. "I still am, in a way."

"Wait." Iris got their attention. "What is HYDRA?"

The two from the other universe shared eye contact, Ruby nodding her consent. Seth thanked with a nod of his head and Venom bemusedly said. "**_Godspeed, partner._**"

He mentally chuckled his response before turning to the detective. "Well before we can get to that there's a few aspects you need to know about, about our world." Seth gestured to the two of them, "I'm part of an secret governmental agency tasked with both national and global security. The Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short."

"God that's a ridiculous acronym." Ruby had to state.

"Yeah, it's awful." Seth couldn't actually disagree with her, finding the full name to be quite a hassle to explain. "I'm an agent of theirs, have been for the last eleven years or so. The organization was founded after World War II, during a time when a massive threat was at their pinnacle."

"HYDRA?" Iris thought out loud as her response.

Ruby was the one nodded and continued. "It's a terrorist-criminal-paramilitary organization, a long-time foe of S.H.I.E. . The organization was founded on the belief that humanity was not worthy to be entrusted with their own freedom. And HYDRA was thought to have been defeated, lot of times."

""Cut off one head, two more will take its place."" Seth recited their old phase, though it felt like a knife cutting his innards when he had to utter the words. "SHIELD Director, Nick Fury, my Dad, thought that we had wiped them out. But like cockroaches, they were hiding underneath stones and waiting for the right time to strike back. no offense, Rubs."

"None taken." Ruby told her without much care.

"What about that Destroyer, you mentioned before?" Iris asked again, directing her question to Ruby.

"It's old project, made by one of the founders of HYDRA." Ruby said. "Destroyer of Worlds." Seth listened closely. "The project was designed to create a super soldier, something even better than that actually…designing an individual to take on the properties of any known materials."

"And you did it instead." Seth deduced; his thoughts were confirmed when Ruby nodded. "So you got into that infusion chamber and took on the properties of the material that infused into your cells. What was it? the material, I mean?"

Ruby locked eyes with him. She briefly wondered if he knew about it, seeing as it was in SHIELD's possession for a while back then. And though her mother would probably tell her to not trust him, her instincts told her otherwise. Telling her to believe in Seth Fury, despite being the Director Fury's son. His actions spoke louder than the words of her mother, louder than the indoctrination that raised her.

She chose to go with her instincts, telling her to listen and believe in the man who healed her hands. "It was an extremely rare element. So rare that people didn't even think it existed to begin with." Seth heard her words and he got worried. "The material was called…is called Gravitonium."

"That stuff actually exists?" Seth asked in shock. He had heard about the rare substance during a few debriefings back at SHIELD. Matt had also told about the element, rambling about it even, about its capabilities for what felt like hours if not eternity. "I thought that it was just some urban legend."

"Comes from the urban legend himself." Ruby added with a smirk. "Remember you're the guy no one has seen for four years back home."

Iris rubbed her forehead as though her own head was getting shredded. "I think the entire multiverse concept is the only thing my mind can understand now. Time travel is nowhere near the ballpark." She stated her confession.

"Yeah, it's a bitch." Seth admitted before looking to Ruby again. "But Ruby, you said that your head felt like it was splitting apart. Like you had other minds inside of you, constantly fighting the entire time. And that was only 8%. But now…you seem fine. Like a normal teenage girl. Annoyingly stubborn and a horror show to deal with, the nightmare of anyone who meets teenagers." He joked with a gentle smile.

"Says the guy who saved me back then." Ruby reminded him and she elbowed his arm. "And to answer your question; I have no idea. For some reason, after I got into this universe…it was like my mind was cleared." It was the only way for her to describe it. For some reason, the absorbed minds of both Franklin Hall and Ian Quinn had somehow vanished from her mind. "Like the other minds…just disappeared."

"You got a diagnosis for her condition, Doc?" Iris glanced at the doctor.

Seth ran a hand through his hair, his mind trying to work through the possible scenarios that would actually lead to Ruby's salvation from the two opposing minds that plagued her thoughts in the future of their home universe. He couldn't figure out why.

But then as he struggled to figure out the solution to her improved well-being, Venom pitched in his two cents. "**_What if the distance between the universes had something to do with it?_**"

At the thought of it, Seth widened his eyes with realization. "_Venom, you genius!_" the symbiote chuckled happily and listened as his host explained his theory. "There's a chance that the run through both time and space, through at least hundreds of dimensions I guess, it must have somehow… deteriorated the additional minds. And since it was only 8% of the Gravitonium that was infused with your body, recently at that, it must have made it more…I don't know, vulnerable to something of the magnitude of time and dimensional travel. The infused cells don't appear to be affected, since you still have your powers, but the mindsets completely evaporated like water turning to steam from exposure to immense heat."

"My brain hurts." Iris groaned after hearing that undoubtably brain-whacking explanation.

"You and me both, Detective." Ruby let out. "It's much easier to just cut off SHIELD agents' arms than getting science." She innocently said, for a HYDRA assassin.

"Wait what?" Seth worriedly let out her words. And though he looked at her, she just whistled innocently. A shiver ran down his spine and he wondered what the hell of a parent is General Hale. Shaking his head, he looked at Iris. "What do you say about getting to CCPD now?"

"Why?" the detective asked in confusion, Ruby wondering the same.

"You promised me access to CCPD's files, anything that you guys have on Evelyn Sharp." Seth reminded her while he got on his feet. "And I want to see them now, if possible."

"Sure thing." Iris immediately accepted and stood up herself. "I'll get my gear and you…get ready too, I guess." She unsurely stated before walking away to gear up.

When she was out of hearing distance, Ruby looked at the elemental again. "Seth?" she got his attention. "You're not, like…mad at me or something, right?" she expected the worst possible outcome next.

But his next words caught her by surprise. "Why would I be angry at you, Ruby? Don't tell me you took too many cookies out of the cookie jar? That's just wrong."

"No. I meant, about me being HYDRA. Do you regret saving me now?" Ruby actually thought about it. "You essentially saved your enemy."

"Right now, HYDRA or SHIELD, any affiliation with them doesn't play a part while we're here in this universe." Seth told her calmly. "So, no, I'm not mad at you, Ruby, for anything. And I definitely do not regret saving you from that hellhole. You're not my enemy here, nor will you ever be that, not to me. You're just a really strange girl with strange hobbies and a really, really stranger childhood. Hell, yours could give mine a run for its money." The mutant inclined his head before admitting. "Might be the weirdest thing that I've ever said since getting to this world."

"I'm talking to one of the three Weapon X projects, some of my idols, who apparently is in the past and another universe, and I'm from the future of our home." Ruby chuckled. "That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, you're a strange kid, alright." Seth concluded, he heard footsteps and saw Iris coming down. "Well, gotta go with Iris." He pointed a finger upwards. "Try not to share anymore of your stories with those two, okay? It might mess them up, more than before."

"Sure." Ruby stood up. "But shouldn't we go with you?"

"You three are still exhausted from all the running through the Woodlands before, Rubs. Take it easy for now." Seth didn't want to say his next words, but he had to be honest with her. "That and the way you and Evelyn used your powers before, it took a toll on you two. Rest and be easy."

Ruby didn't look so assured and she pointed her head in thoughts. She felt weak, downright useless now. The fearless HYDRA assassin that was able to cut off the arms of an Inhuman who could move at abnormal speed, who was…is going to move at such high velocity with ease. And now, she was reduced to nothing more than a defenseless teenage girl. It was pathetic for her.

Her body stiffened when she felt arms wrap around her. she managed to look up and saw Seth holding her gently. "I know, you're not keen on sitting on the bench like this. But don't worry, I'll come back and I'll help you along with this power of yours. I'm a doctor, I know how to help you with them. It's not gonna be easy but you look like a tough girl." He unwrapped his arms and told her. "I'm gonna get going and take a look at Evelyn's files. You take care of those two." She nodded and watched as he walked to the exit.

"Ready, Detective?" Seth asked her and his reply was a quick nod. "Let's go." Iris and he walked out of the household and made their way to the police precinct.

Ruby looked to the staircase and saw Evelyn and Jesse standing there. "How much did you guys hear?"

"Enough." Jesse shrugged after her response. "But are you still sure we can trust…him." she pointed to the door that they left through.

"Am I." Ruby said, sounding more confident than before.

"So do I." Evelyn surprisingly stated while she and Jesse walked down the stairsteps. "But Jesse, why don't you? Seth saved us from Zoom and fought against the other metahumans, for us. So what's wrong?"

"Guess it's hard for me to trust someone who ate someone before my eyes." Jesse admitted absentmindedly while looking in the direction of the door again. "Heck, he might be worse than Zoom."

"Hey, Whiney." Ruby got her attention with her blunt tone. "Seth didn't torture you back there. He made sure that you and the rest of us had hope back there."

Evelyn nodded in agreement. "She's right, he's not a bad guy, he's on our side."

"_I hope so._" Jesse thought to herself, still in disbelief about the elemental mutant.

X

**(CCPD)**

Seth and Detective Iris West-Allen were waiting in the elevator, waiting for it to reach the lobby level of the precinct. Neither of them spoke to one another as they waited. But they did it for different reasons though.

The detective didn't speak to the mutant out of a bad conscious. Her own co-workers were willing to point their guns at two young girls who couldn't control their powers and did so, despite them both being unarmed, they didn't appear the least bit hesitant to pull their triggers. If Seth hadn't been there…then the same police that was tasked with protecting innocents…would have the blood of two young girls on their hands.

He willingly jumped in front of a bullet that would have penetrated Ruby without hesitation. Showing a kind of merit that only heroes like the absent Flash had shown. And he was willing to strike down the officer who almost committed the heinous act like an executioner with same demonic nature as Zoom have shown numerous times during his reign.

He was without a doubt, a hero of his own kind.

Though Iris had her reasons for not starting up a conversation, Seth had his own reasons to not speaking.

Seth was still wrapping his mind around the things he learnt. Ruby being a HYDRA assassin and her mother was one of the most annoying women of the Air Force, who have been HYDRA since day one. Right under their noses the entire time. But he didn't like how Ruby was looped in on the act. Raised like her mother, raised to be in HYDRA, to be this…Destroyer of Worlds. He didn't like it. No child should have to go through that, it's wrong to turn them into weapons of universal destruction.

"_Can't believe that Ruby had to become that._" Seth clenched his fists in anger. "_She shouldn't have to go through that. Not with all the pain she had to go through from just a small amount of the Gravitonium infused with her cells._"

"**_She's here with us now._**" Venom told him while quelling his anger with waves of soothing emotions. "**_She can't experience more pain than what she had to go through before._**"

"_Yeah. Glad those two other minds, or whatever they are, are gone now. Those and her powers as they are now would have been too much for her._" Seth thought. As he thought of her powers, his mind turned to the memories of Evelyn's powers. "_I've never seen anything like Evelyn's powers before. What was it?_"

Giving a mental shrug, Venom suggested. "**_Looks like Evelyn is able to channel powers of light and darkness or something that at least resembles those two. But they're powerful._**"

"_Yeah, and like Ruby, she can't control them. That's gotta change, really quick._" Seth adamantly thought. "_If they can't control their powers, then they're just dangers to others and to themselves, more importantly. We'll look out for them as long as we're here._"

"**_Perhaps, teaching them the ropes would be the best solution for now._**" Venom pitched in, his host raising an eyebrow curiously at the suggestion.

He heard Iris inhale deeply, snapping him out of his path of thoughts, and he looked at her. Iris looked at him and spoke, "Seth…I'm sorry."

"For what?" Seth asked confusedly, while wondering how and why native people of this universe are always feeling apologetic.

"For my colleagues pointing their guns on you and the others." Iris explained. "It wasn't right for them to do that. Especially when one of them tried to shoot Ruby. And I'm sorry for that." She said apologetically. "I take full responsible for their actions."

"Iris, you can't be responsible for others' actions. That's not on you. they're all adults and they can make their decisions, and live with the consequences." Seth hissed at the end. "And very soon, they might as well die with them."

"I knew it." Iris let out, gaining the mutant's surprised look. "You didn't want the girls to be here just because of them not controlling their powers. You didn't want them to see you kill my colleagues, right?"

"Not bad." Seth said carefreely, not caring that his plan was discovered by the detective. "But yeah, I didn't want them to see me slaughter the officers here. Worse kind of people in the world, are the ones who hurt children. And those officers were willing to do that without hesitation."

"People fear what they don't understand." Seth looked surprised again, turning to the detective again. "The moment metahumans showed up, everyone felt like their worlds were turned upside down. People running around with powers scares them endlessly, scares me for sure. Now they just all have powers."

"A normal person walking around with a gun, like yours," he nodded to her holstered firearm. "is enough for some to have powers. Both metahumans and those with firearms are capable of bringing harm to others. What matters are the people holding them, wielding them. Powers and weapons, they're tools. They can't be good or bad, the person using them…can be. Remember that, Detective West."

"I will, Doctor Fury." Iris quipped with knowing smile, but she did keep his words close to heart. She knew that they should be remembered in the future

"Still not formal." Seth reminded her; his response got her to laugh shortly humorously.

_DING_

The elevator doors opened up and the two walked out of the lift. The moment they did so, Seth looked around and saw that the officers noticed his presence. Most of them took out their weapons, holding them downwards in case of the mutant attacking them. Others among them shook in fear at the sight of him, dictating their movements and forcing them to move backwards.

Iris saw those who held their guns and ordered them. "Guns down and continue your work, people. Seth's a friend." Her words managed to get them to holster their weapons again, but also made them widen their distance to the elemental.

"Thanks, Iris." He told her graciously, and she nodded.

"Let's go." The two walked through the lobby and all the way to the other side of the lobby. Neither of them noticed that a pair of eyes were watching them with serious interest, watching them at every step they made.

Passing through the corridor, both Seth and Iris passed by various people in the corridors. As he passed through the hallway, the mutant had to stop himself after every few steps he took. A strange ringing kept through his ears. It was like a high-pitched sound that was on a loop, repeating itself and hitting his ears.

But as he heard the sound, Seth thought to his partner. "_Do you hear that sound too, Venom? It's annoying the hell out of me._" The mutant scratched the side of his head as it continued ringing.

Then the surprising response came from the Klyntar. "**_You hear that ethereal sound that sounds like something between infernal and heavenly too? We thought it was just us._**" Venom mentally stated with slight annoyance, making mental expressions that matches the words and tone.

Seth looked around and saw that everyone around them were keeping to their own businesses. He noticed their behavior and thought back, "_I really think it is just us, Venom. No one else here is hearing that sound, they just…keep on walking like nothing's out of the ordinary._"

"**_That's alarming, worrying, relieving and strange._**" Venom listed off his feelings as the sound continued ringing. It wasn't intensifying or decreasing, it was just…holding the same level for some reason.

"Seth?" he was snapped out of his thoughts and looked to the other end of the hall, seeing Iris standing at the open door of a room while looking at him with curiously narrowed eyes. "Something wrong? You look a little out of it."

"I'm alright." He said, his reply between a half-lie and half-truth before walking over to her. He had no idea what the sound was and he didn't know if it was for better or for worse, and it slightly terrified him. "Sorry, thought I heard something."

"Cool, another mystery for you to solve." Iris joked.

"Funny." Seth saw the title beside the door and saw the words: "_File Room_". "The file room? Shouldn't you have evidence and such in the…evidence room?"

Iris got a serious expression. "Not for Evelyn Sharp." She breathed out and walked into the room with Seth following. When they passed through the threshold of the room, the mutant was shocked to see so many shelves around them. Rows of filled boxes, not a single space on them available. Central City's finest were definitely kept busy. In the middle of the room was a long table.

"Which of these are Evelyn's?" Seth asked while looking at the files, his fingers grazing the sides of the file boxes.

"None of them." Iris said and gained his attention with a snap of his head. She walked over to the back of a shelves, and bent down to it. Seth walked to the table in the middle and watched as she returned to him with her hands clutching two boxes of files. "But these…" she placed them on the table with a bang. "They are."

"These are the files on Evelyn?" Seth pointed to them.

"Two out of five boxes worth of files, anyway." Iris gestured to the two boxes before her. "All of them dating back to at least a few weeks after metahumans appearing all over the city."

"How can one little girl like her have five boxes worth of evidence files? Just for being a thief? For being a metahuman?" Seth stated his confusion. Iris didn't answer and she continued looking for the rest of the boxes. "Iris, what can you tell me about Evelyn? I know I should ask her directly, but…I'm scared for her."

Iris could see the concern on his face, seeing that it was genuine. She then revealed with a heavy heart. "Evelyn Sharp, one of the liveliest, optimistic girls I have ever met. She loved her family and her family loved her just as much. Both parents had great careers, the father, a contractor and the mother, a senior loan officer. During her time in high school, she grew up to become an excellent student, never missing a day at school. And a star gymnast, of all the girls there, she was the one who loved gymnastic and parkour the most. Some say she was already being scouted by big time universities; she was that good."

Seth continued to hear the detective speak about the young girl that sounded like a prodigy in the making. "Her junior year, she was also elected to be class president and captain of the academic decathletes. My husband kept calling her a genuine 16-year-old badass to be." She smiled and halted her search for the remaining boxes. "Once a bright young girl with an even brighter future, now a kid with a future lost because of Zoom."

"What happened?" Seth asked.

"I don't know." Iris breathed out her response while a confused expression grew on Seth's face. "Suddenly we get a string of 911 calls from her neighborhood. Me and a few officers arrive…and the entire Sharp residence in rubbles. It was completely destroyed."

"Evelyn's parents?" Seth asked with a dark scenario forming in his head.

"Both of them dead, cause of deaths thought to be collapses of the building on their heads." She revealed vaguely. "Some of my colleagues actually think that Evelyn was the cause of the building collapsing because she wasn't there in the rubble, among the dead. It was clear there was a metahuman in there, that's for sure. People think that poor girl was responsible for what happened to that building, to her parents."

"And you? What do you think happened?"

Iris stopped her search, seeing that she couldn't find the boxes anywhere and walked over to the entrance. Peering out to the sides of it, making sure that no one was there to listen in on their conversation, and finding none there, she closed it again. turning back to the mutant, she confessed. "No one other than my partner knows this, so don't tell anyone, okay?"

Raising an eyebrow, he reminded her mockingly. "Hello, agent of a secret agency from another universe. Keeping secrets is one of my comfort zones."

"Right." Iris still found that very weird. "Well, once the bodies were brought to the morgue, I had the coroner double check their bodies. Well, actually their hearts to be precise." Seth gave her his full attention. "Both parents had shattered bones all over their bodies, but not a single wound on their chests or backs, not a single entry or exit wound…"

Seth pieced together what she was going at and concluded. "But their hearts were crushed right?"

"Bingo. And only one person in this entire city I know is able to do that, and he has a thing for speed." Iris laid on thick.

"Zoom." He concluded. "He phased his fist through their chests and crushed their hearts with his bare hands." Iris nodded and he clenched his hands in anger. "I'm gonna get my hands on that bastard."

"You think something else happened?" Iris asked.

Walking around the table, the mutant explained. "Evelyn's a kid, suddenly getting powers is much worse than normal teenage problems. Her powers must have manifested somehow, through great trauma maybe. Chances are Zoom killed Evelyn's parents…and…I don't know." He lurched over and placed his hands on the table. "That poor girl has been through enough and now this…" he gestured to the files.

"Most of them are charges from her other family members, uncles and aunties who heard the news of Evelyn's parents' murders." Seth snapped his head to her with shock. "Evelyn turned to them, trying to get help from her remaining family, but all of them turned their backs on her and called the police instead. They hate her now, don't want anything to do with her because she's a metahuman."

"I hope I don't meet them." Seth let out in anger; he had seen similar patterns happening in his world when a new mutant manifested their powers. Shunned by friends and family alike without hesitation because of their fear of what might happen if the mutant were to lose control again. It was worse when it's around Evelyn's age, at that age anything can make them scared, vulnerable, violent even. Anything could set them off and, in their minds, everything and everyone around them were out to get them.

"You and me both, pal." Iris agreed with a tilt of her head.

_KNOCK KNOCK_

Both Seth and Iris looked to the door once hearing the sound of knocking emitting from it. shifting his eyes to the detective, he raised a curious eyebrow, wordlessly speaking his curiosity. Nodding her response, she walked over to the door and opened it up.

Surprise mixed with hints of confusion met her when she saw her partner, Detective Floyd Lawton standing there unsurely. "Hey, partner." He spoke his greeting with a smile.

"Lawton, what are you doing here? I'm kinda busy." Iris answered bluntly.

"I assume you're helping your new friend? One that might have been responsible for ruining our lobby?" He joked.

Seth heard his chipper tone and called out to him. "In my defense, that mural was fan-freaking ugly. I did you guys a favor."

"More than one." Lawton said and, once Iris let hm inside, he made eye contact with the elemental. "I was hoping to talk to you, actually."

"If it's about what I threatened to do against your friends out there, then you're gonna have to wait a long time, Detective." Seth answered bluntly.

"I'm not, but it's about my friends out there." Floyd inhaled. "I know you won't believe that I'm speaking for them all, but for what it's worth, I'm sorry. For them shooting you and those girls, for hurting you, and everything else. It wasn't right."

Iris was surprised that her partner was willing to come and speak to the mutant and apologize for everything that his colleagues did. He was taking on the responsibility of every other cop in the building by himself. Seth reached the same conclusion and told him assuringly. "Don't worry about that, Detective Lawton. You're not responsible for those fools' actions. And I do believe you. And I have to thank you for not being among those fools."

Floyd laughed, "Pretty sure, my partner here would point her gun at me if that happened." he nodded to Iris who laughed at her words. Looking around, he noticed the boxes and remarked. "Oh, you guys checking out the files on Evelyn Sharp?" they nodded. "And you're looking for the rest of the boxes?"

"Yeah, I don't know where they are." Iris stated. "I only have two boxes."

"I have the last three." Floyd told them surprisingly.

"Why?" Seth wondered.

"Believe it or not, my partner is not the only one worried about Evelyn being out in the world like she is, on the police's wanted list." Floyd stated. "I was worried that some of the others would try look through them, trying to find her next hideout. Not everyone here I trust so well. I can get them for you guys now, if you want to?"

"Not here. Bring them to Iris' house." Seth told him before Iris could speak. both of the detectives looked at him with confused gazes. "Like you Detective Lawton, I don't trust everyone here. It's better to do it in a private environment, and we can ask Evelyn about her past back there as well." Lawton nodded as did Iris before the male detective walked away.

"Iris." The female detective looked to the elemental. "Why are you exactly the only one detective on Evelyn's case?" He gestured to the boxes on the table. "With this much evidence and charges, then she would have more than just one officer on her, maybe even a task force. So why just little old you?"

Iris opened her mouth to respond. But before she could, she caught sight of dozens of officers running through the hallway. Both Seth and she saw it, sharing a look of shock between them before the detective walked to the hall. She grabbed hold of one and pulled her in. "Johnson, what's going on?"

"It's Slick again." Officer Johnson started out. "Sand Demon is attacking Central City bank. Squad cars are already on their way to it. but they're gonna need assistance. Gotta go, Detective." The officer ran off after replying with her response.

Iris turned her head to the mutant who gave her a knowing look. "Need me to give them a hand with that Sand Demon?"

"If you would, yeah." Iris nodded.

Seth smirked and looked to the back and saw a window. Shooting out a tendril he opened it open before using wind and earth inside and around his body to leap out of the building. The moment his body passed through the window, his clothes shifted and turned black. Spreading around his form before enlarging his form. White veins spreading on his body and more forming his form, the additional white spikes bending down into the front of his torso. Around his humongous arms, the white spine-like bones formed. His head engulfed and his new face appeared, the white skull-like extension on his face peering his blood red eyes into the streets.

Lashing out both arms, he shot out tendrils. Attaching them to the top of a tall building, he swung from the building and his way to the targeted bank. The eyes of the many on the streets didn't cross his mind in the slightest, he didn't care about it.

Only about the metahuman that was attacking the bank.

X

**(West-Allen's Residence)**

"_Sand Demon Attacking Central City Bank_"

Ruby, Jesse and Evelyn watched the local news and read the headline on the footage, seeing that it was live footage from the Central City Bank that was in the process of being attacked by Sand Demon. The three young girls shared looks of shock.

"Guess little sand castle is going for a little robbery now." Ruby quipped.

"Wouldn't be the first time." Evelyn commented with a tilt of her head.

Jesse kept her seat on the staircase step, her eyes still locked onto the television screen. She kept running her eyes over the headline, repeating it in her head like a freight train following the same rusty old metal rails again and again in a circle. Along those tracks, the train would take a detour down the tracks leading to the city of disbelief. And then a new loop repeated itself, one that was full of distrusting passengers. All of whom had the same target for their distrust…

…Seth Fury…

Parts of her couldn't help but doubt the elemental. Perhaps it was because of how he was willing to kill the human criminals without hesitation, eat them even… or because he had the chance to eradicate the frosty metahuman, Killer Frost multiple times, and yet…hesitated to hurt her…and merely caressed her in a loving and gentle manner.

It made no sense in her mind. That psychotic woman was willing to kill anyone, even an officer of the law without a care in the world. Yet she still did it and the mutant let her live for some reason. One thing was for sure in Jesse's mind.

The moment he let her continue to draw air, he was not getting her trust anytime soon.

And she wondered if that same thing would happen today. Jesse shot up to her feet again and walked down the stairs. Ruby and Evelyn saw her speeding down the stairs and the blonde called out, "Hey Whiney, where are you going?"

Jesse opened up the door and looked at the girl from the other universe. "I'm gonna need to check something out. Don't stop me." With those words spoken, she walked out immediately and left them alone.

Ruby grit her teeth, "Really wish I had my blades on me now. Could have cut that girl's legs off by now." She turned to the metahuman. "What do you think is gonna happen next?"

"She's probably going to that place." Evelyn nodded to the television.

Seeing that Ruby scoffed while rolling her eyes. "Great, means she's probably gonna get herself killed. Damn it."

"You wanna help her?" the metahuman asked wonderingly.

"Got any better ideas?" Ruby countered before walking to the front door. The moment she did, Evelyn followed and went to the door as well. "What are you doing?" the HYDRA assassin asked in confusion.

"I'm born and raised here; you know just as much about the city as a newborn animal in a zoo." Evelyn quipped. "You need me. Try to keep up." she smirked and got out the door.

Ruby threw her head back and let out an enraged groan. "I hate this universe." She closed the door and ran after the metahuman to look for Jesse.

X

_GUNSHOT_

_GUNSHOT_

_GUNSHOT_

_GUNSHOT_

Series of bullets flew through the air after the officers pulled the triggers on their firearms. But not a single one fazed the smirking form of the sand powered metahuman, Sand Demon who kept walking out of Central City bank with both fists clutching around the straps of the two bags he bears.

But Eddie Slick couldn't help but feel smug and brim with cockiness. His hands unclenching and dropping the bags to the ground all the while taking on the hail of bullets. He took hold of his jacket and flipped it open with a confident expression. The bullets still pierced his body but only to meet the hardened and sandy form that he uses.

The officers saw the same and though they knew it was futile, they still kept firing their weapons again and again. They had to subdue the metahuman no matter they had to. But so far…nothing they had on them could stop him.

Sand Demon smirked, "You know this is getting really boring, you know that right." He clenched his fist and it turned it into a massive sand fist. "So how about I just smash you guys to pieces now and run off with my money instead?" his smirk turned sick, displaying villainous and dark intentions.

However, his plan was put on hold when the large adamantium fist slammed into the side of the metahuman's face, its force increased with wind and blew the man into the bank wall. His body colliding into the solid barricade and turned into a large pile of sand. When the officers saw Sand Demon hurling into the wall they turned to the origin of the hand.

Their eyes widening when they saw the familiar and new horrible form of Venom who peered into the metahuman's sandy form. His red eyes looking around and saw that thankfully no one had been damaged. He took a step but he accidently stepped on one of the money bags. The elemental saw them and looked to the barricade of officers who were paralyzed with fear.

Using his tendrils, he wrapped them around the straps as he told the officers. "**Here.**" With a pair of swings from both tendrils, he threw the bags to the lawmen who were confused by his action. "**Take them and get the civilians out of here. We'll deal with him.**" Venom nodded to the sand pile that was converging into one spot.

"T-T-Thanks." Officer Johnson thanked the demon-like being while her fellow lawmen took the bags and put them into their cars. Seeing that, she looked back to the elemental and wondered, "Need help?" others looked at her like she had two heads.

Venom couldn't help but narrow his eyes in confusion and shock. "**Thanks, officer. But no need. We can take care of this for now. Get to safety instead.**" She nodded and run off. The mutant turned to the metahuman that was slowly being reformed again from the pile of sand that kept rising higher and higher till his entire form had returned.

Slick craned his neck, cracking it as he said, "That's your real form, isn't it? Zoom and the others told me about you. Thought they were tripping or something. Same guy I fight in the woodlands actually look like this. Freaking strange."

"**Trust us.**" He let white mist envelop his right hand, forming a long ice blade. "**You're gonna wish you killed us back in the forest.**"

Letting out a roar, Venom leaped into action. His arm swinging down on the metahuman who dodged it with a spin. Sand Demon launched his fist forward, thrusting it with an enlarged sand fist that hit the mutant's torso. But unlike before in woodlands, the fist was only able to push him back slightly.

Causing more ice to form around his ice blade, he turned his blade to turn into an ice scythe. With a swing he slashed an arm off the metahuman. Shocked from losing his sandy limb led him to be an east target for the mutant to gather wind in his hand and slammed it into his torso. The wind blast led his body to be exploded with sand blowing up around them, essentially covering them both in a sand screen.

X

As Seth was covered by the sand screen, his sights were distracted to notice the three young girls who appeared in the opposite alleyway. Jesse and the others had come to witness the fight firsthand. But frankly she was there to see it all, see how the mutant would fight again, now with his full strength.

Ruby saw the look on her face and asked her, "Why exactly don't you trust him?"

Evelyn looked between the two curiously, her hands rubbing along her forearms gently. But her gentle manner quickly shifted and she rubbed her arms roughly now, as though she was trying to get rid of an itching feeling.

"I already told you why, Ruby." Jesse said without making eye contact, her eyes only on the mutant and the metahuman criminal.

A flip was switched in Ruby's mind and she shot forward and grabbed Jesse by her shoulders. A gasp of pain came out from her mouth when the native girl was thrown into the wall. And before she could move away, the HYDRA assassin's arm pinned her to the wall with her arm at her throat.

"Let's be clear about something here, Jesse." Ruby hissed coldly. "Seth might be a nice guy, but don't assume that everyone from our universe are nice. Cause trust me, I'm not nice by any means. So, when I ask you a question, you answer. Otherwise, I'm gonna end up beating you into the ground." She leaned closer with a dark look on her face. "And I don't stop."

Jesse gulped in fear at the tone used by the assassin from the other world. "Alright." She felt the arm tighten on her throat. "Alright! Alright! I'm sorry."

"Ruby, stop it." Evelyn exclaimed to the blonde who rolled her eyes with a nod and backed away, letting the native girl grasp her throat with both hands. The metahuman placed her hand on her back and rubbed it comfortingly. "Are you okay?"

"Fine, so far." Jesse breathed out with coughs. She looked at Ruby who leaned against the wall. "You're crazy."

"Yeah, no kidding." Ruby didn't see all that bothered about her words. "Now, answer me. Why don't you trust Seth? And don't give me that entire "he eats people"- crap anymore. It's getting really old."

"I don't trust him because of what he did before." Both Ruby and Evelyn drew blank looks at her words. Jesse recognized it, smacking her tongue before stating. "Back at Zoom's lair, back at the precinct…both times, Seth had the chance to kill Killer Frost…but he doesn't. Instead, he treats her like he cares about her like a loved one."

"That's why you don't trust him?" Ruby wanted clarity on the matter and she received a nod. The HYDRA assassin inhaled deeply before admitting, "Well, it is strange, that's true. But he might have his reasons for doing it."

"Ruby's right." Evelyn agreed. "So far, he's always had a reason for his actions. Maybe, we can ask him about it. He saved us, Jesse." She looked at the other native. "We gotta trust him."

"Why are you so sure about that, Evelyn?" Jesse asked curiously. "Why do you trust him so much? We barely know him." she had to know that. She noticed how the metahuman was trusting the mutant so much, even defending him. For some reason she was putting a lot of faith in him, and now…she had to know why.

Evelyn looked at her hands, "Cause, he didn't hate us for our powers. He didn't turn his back on us like so many others have done. He didn't hate us, he protected us from harm. When Zoom tried to take us back, he was the only one to actually stand in front of his group, fight them by himself. For us. He did that for us. No one has done that for me before." She pointed a finger back to the street, pointing to the sand screen that covered the elemental. "He did it alone, despite him almost losing an arm, getting shot at and being pummeled into a wall. I trust Seth, no matter what. No matter what you think, Jesse."

That was the first time, Jesse had ever heard that much conviction from her. Even in the clutches of Zoom and his henchmen, Evelyn never uttered words like that. Whether it was from fear or something else, she only remained in the corner of her cell and tried to shut off the other sounds that emitted.

But nothing like this.

And though it was impressive and admirable, it did not do much to answer her questions in Jesse's mind. "It does help me a bit, Evelyn. But honestly? I don't know if I can actually trust him, yet."

"Trust him or not," Ruby spoke next. "he's the only one in his universe who can and will protect us from anyone. Pretty sure, he's the only one who wants to fight Zoom unlike the police here."

With those words spoken, the three girls turned back to the fight. They saw a wind blowing up from within the smoke screen, blasting the sand dust away.

X

Venom unleashed the wind into a current and blew the sand away from him. He saw the sand grains on the ground gathering, forming small streams of it and passing by him. Following the direction of the streams, he saw the sand converging into a single spot.

"_This guy is gonna be a real pain in the ass._" Seth couldn't help but think to himself.

"**_Could have been worse. He could have been like Sandman._**" Venom thought back his reply.

He couldn't disagree with that. If this guy, Eddie Slick, was anything like Flint Marko, then this fight would have reached a whole set of levels. Sand Demon wasn't able to move and fight like Sandman, he hadn't reached that level yet. If it was even possible for him to get to that level.

The sand raised again, quickly forming the form of Eddie Slick again. "You know, you're a real pain in my ass."

"**Funny, we thought the same.**" Venom quipped. Clenching both hands, he turned them into adamantium. "**Let's go.**" He reeled them both back, wind circulating them as he readied another onslaught.

Sand Demon knew that the mutant was going to be a real threat to him. But thankfully, he knew that there was a way to distract him.

And there was a gathering of them right behind him.

Lashing out both his arms to the sides, he extended the sandy limbs and they grabbed hold of a car on either side of him. Fists enlarging and putting more pressure into the vehicles. With a smirk on his face, one that confused the elemental, Sand Demon thrusted both hands outwards and launched the two cars into the air.

They passed over the mutant's head. And his eyes widened when recognizing their trajectory, while his senses picked up the presences of dozens of frightened innocents behind him. Flexing the muscles in his legs, strengthening them with the earth element, he leaped into the air.

Wind blasting from his body, shot further into the air, right above one of the cars. Bringing both fists together, intertwining the fingers. And then, like a sledgehammer, he brought them down on the vehicle with lightning cloaking the adamantium fists. The force of his fist slammed the car into the ground, far from the innocents who were still trying to escape the second car.

"**_Get the other one!_**" Venom ordered with a shout.

"_On it!_" Seth mentally shouted. Lashing both hands, tendrils shot out and attached to two opposite buildings. Using them as his anchors, he shot himself forward with a massive pull. He bypassed the car and landed on the ground, right before the innocents, most of them fearing what the demon being would do to them next.

The car came his way, the mutant placed both arms together, side by side. Ice began to grow on his arms, forming a large shield. The ice grew very large, able to shield his entire being. The car connected with his shield. Despite it being dense, the car's weight surpassed it and shattered into pieces.

But he still remained strong, turning the rest of his body into adamantium and tanked the force of the vehicle. It stopped and he threw it to the side. Sand Demon saw Venom making eye contact with him again, and neither of them spoke or did anything.

However, the mutant swung his head backwards and looked at the innocents there. Though he saw that no harm had come their way, but he asked them still. "**Are you alright?**"

"W-W-We're fine." An elderly woman answered while keeping her grandchildren close to her. "Thank you." she managed to say through a panting voice, managing to speak with a gracious tone. The elemental nodded his head.

"**_Behind you!_**"

Seth turned his head back and saw three more cars hurled into the air. Jumping into the air, he allowed flames erupting around his body. Like a blazing rocket, he slammed down one car into the ground. Landing on the ground again, he dissipated the flames and opened up his maw. Blasting out a fire blast that burned through one other car. Exploding the car in mid-air.

The third car was coming down to the ground quickly. Ice grew on his right arm, forming his scythe, forming a double-bladed weapon. When the vehicle neared him, he cut the car with a single powerful swing. It's two pieces landed on either side of him, the mutant himself locking eyes with the metahuman criminal.

Sand Demon hissed in anger at what the mutant had done. His eyes looked around their battlefield, seeing pieces of glass on the ground melted to the very asphalt itself. He knew that it was pieces of his body that had been melted to the ground, the fire that he breathed spelling his end.

But he didn't dare to unleash a full-blown fire attack here, the buildings very close to the streets, their battleground. One massive attack could hurt innocents unintentionally. And he couldn't risk that, though hurting innocents were not worth losing sleep over when it comes to the metahuman criminal.

Thankfully, the criminal saw something in the corner of his eye. Three very good reasons for him to not attack him, standing by themselves in an alleyway. Thrusting his arms outwards to the side, he grabbed hold of a long car. Venom saw him swing the car around, releasing it a moment later and hurling it into the direction of an alleyway.

Looking to it briefly, his eyes widened when he registered the unmistakable forms of the three girls that he saved from Zoom's lair. "_Why are they here?!_" he thought angrily before lightning sparked around his body, and then like bullet, he jumped into action.

Ruby saw the car coming their way, and she tried to use her powers to throw the car back. But it didn't appear her powers were hers to command now. Jesse and Evelyn paralyzed in fear, petrified to even move a single muscle in them.

As though they were bounded to the ground itself. And all of them feared the last thing they would witness, would be the impending doom that was the vehicle that came their way.

Fate, however, would not let their lives end now.

The massive lightning-cloaked form of Venom appeared before them. The mutant's adamantium-enforced body shielding their bodies. Like a massive ocean on his back, the skin began rippling like water and tendrils shot and pierced through the car. The tendrils' penetration kept the car in the air, but only for a moment because he slammed the car down to the ground.

Seeing that the girls were safe, he looked back into the middle of the streets again and saw that the metahuman criminal escaped. "**_These metas are getting on our nerves, really quick._**"

"_Amen, brother._" Seth agreed with his symbiotic partner. "_They're scared now. Scared of us now. It's gonna be nice hunting them down._"

"**_Agreed. But why the hell are they here?_**"

Seth could feel his partner mentally looking at the three girls. He was about to turn to that same direction, but then he looked into the street again, seeing dozens of bystanders looking their way. Some of them are journalists, taking photos of him now.

He made sure that his form covered the three girls behind him. At the thought of them, he turned back to them. Before any of them could speak, he wrapped both arms around them. One arm wrapped around two of them, his other arm clutching Ruby before he jumped away into the open air again.

Now Venom was known to everyone in Central City, once again. Just on a whole new territory.

X

Eddie ran into an alleyway, his body exhausted from the fight he just had. He also felt the toll of his own powers. He leant against the wall of the alleyway, he breathed out and let out in pain "God, should have killed that guy back in the forest…."

He trailed off when he heard the loud sounds of high heels stepping on the ground. Sand Demon turned to the sound of it, the direction and-

"Wow!" he let out in surprise as he reeled his head, just in time to avoid the long ice blade that came flying his way. Enlarging his fist into a sand fist, he let out in anger. "What the hell, Frost?!"

Stepping out of the shadow, the only thing that came out of the frosty metahuman's mouth was a chilling giggle. Killer Frost let icy white mist twirl around her fingers, like a cat playing with catnip. "Now…" she formed an ice blade on one finger. "Didn't your Mother teach you how to talk to a lady?"

Sand Demon growled at her and asked angrily. "What do you want, Frost?"

"Well, you see, Slick." Killer Frost walked closer to him while mockingly speaking to him, standing in front of him. But only for a moment before she began circling around him like a shark closing on its prey. "You never asked, did you? Never asked Zoom for permission, did you?"

"Permission for what?" Eddie asked, not understanding her point all the while shaking.

"Tsk, tsk." Killer Frost clicked her tongue disapprovingly while she checked her ice blades on her fingertips, like their nothing more than extensions of her beautiful nails. "Someone hasn't been listening in school now. Naughty boy. And I think this little riddle could be solved by anyone, even a kindergarten child. But then again…" she smirked sadistically. "…you didn't have much brains to begin with, did you?"

"What do you want?!" Eddie screamed, and she didn't look the least bit fazed, and merely widened her smirk into an evil smile. "What did I do that was so wrong-"

_PIERCE_

"ARRRGH!" Sand Demon screamed when he felt the cold ice blade launched and digging into his shoulder. The coldness emitting from it, actually hurting his cells and causing him pain.

Killer Frost laughed at his pain. "Maybe you should think twice about raising your voice at me, Slick." She licked her lips as she imagined torturing a certain mutant in this world. "Now onto business. Who gave you permission to robbing a bank? And failing at it so miserably. I didn't give you permission. And Zoom didn't."

While he was still in pain, she grabbed hold of his hair. Pulling it back, the frosty metahuman forced him to look into her cold eyes. She raised an ice blade and pressed it against his face, applying more and more pressure. Another lick of her lips, she ran the blade down his face. Though, it didn't bleed and merely turned into sand grains, he hissed through gritted teeth in pain.

"And I don't recall…letting you fight Venom, did I?" she rhetorically asked while deepening the cut she was giving him. "Now…the next time…you meet him…" she drifted the blade down to his throat, right in the middle of his larynx. The cold tip of the blade, hurting him and keeping Eddie from speaking any words whatsoever.

"You don't touch him. He's mine." She snarled her orders to him. Her smirk then returned again with a vengeance. Killer Frost stepped back, releasing her hold on the sand metahuman, letting him breath again. "But then again, you might not come back again after this."

Eddie's eyes widened while holding his throat. "What? What do you mean?" he fired off his questions. But the only response he received…was a vague wave of the frosty metahuman's hand. Colors drained from his face when realizing what his face was gonna be.

"No. NO-"

_WHOOSH_

Eddie Slick's worst fears were confirmed when the haunting flash of blue lightning dragged him away. The cold ice blade falling out of his body and shattering on the ground.

She smirked again, her lips parting and placed the tip of an ice blade between her teeth. With small pressure, she bit off and began eating slowly as though it was an appetizer worth enjoying with each bite. Once swallowed, she said. "Can't wait to see you again…Seth." her cheeks turning red from the feelings she felt at the memory of him.

It was gonna be such a blast when she and he get another date.

X

**(West-Allen Residence)**

"Argh." Iris let out a groan of pain when she set the fifth box of files on Evelyn Sharp on the dinner table. She looked around and saw other open four boxes, seeing the files spread around the table. The detective was still surprised no matter how many times she's been through the boxes, still surprised to see the charges on the young metahuman.

Charges ranging from Petty Theft and Grand Theft. Common thieves had dozens of these charges on them, but they paled in comparison to Evelyn's track record. Her entire family turned against her, calling the police and telling them the location of the infamous young master thief of Central City. Evelyn had stolen from at least fifty if not hundreds of people, random people in the streets. Able to pick-pocket them with ease, none of her targets noticing the sleight of her hands when they entered her pockets.

The young girl had even managed to sneak into various secured places, stealing least valuable things and pawned them to sleazy pawn shops. Suckers who are willing to pay huge amounts of money for what they perceive as valuable objects. Nothing more, nothing less. Evelyn was smart, that was for sure. Never hurt anyone, only went for the score. Anything to survive.

A real survivor. She had to be. No family anymore. No family to turn to. No friends that would help her now.

And Iris hoped that the elemental mutant would be able to change her, lead her down a new path. One that would not involve her participating in more thieving.

Her thoughts instantly went to her old mentor's case again… before his demise.

"You're thinking about it again, aren't you?" She heard her husband say as she walked closer to her from behind. Reaching her, he rubbed her back comfortingly and told her. "This bringing back memories. Isn't it?" he nodded to the boxes of evidence.

"A bit, yeah." Iris breathed out. "I know, I promised you I wouldn't think about anymore, but-"

"But it's hard to forget about something that you have a file about, under your bed." Barry knowingly stated.

Iris didn't appear the least bit surprised and told him. "Yeah. Thought you might have found it by now."

"Well, wasn't exactly hard, Detective West." Barry joked and kissed her forehead lovingly. "You want to finish it, right?"

"I have to." Iris told him adamantly. "I need to do it, for Chyre. I owe him that, at least. After everything, he did for me, I have to."

"It's too dangerous to go after him again." Barry neared his wife. "It's too dangerous to go after Blackfire. He's dangerous."

The mere mention of his name sent chills…no…burns down her spine again. She hadn't heard his name for a long time, and it still send sizzling sensations down her skin. Threating to boil her skin and blood alike with a heat unknown to everyone in the city, even her husband. It hurt her…knowing what he was out in the world, right now and he was continuing to do it.

And Barry was right. He was too dangerous for anyone to take on…. even the police…but maybe someone else could help.

"Think Seth could help us?" Iris suggested, and Barry widened his eyes with shock. "I know, it's crazy. But you've seen everything he can do. He's strong. And honestly, I think he can actually take him down. He's just as worse as Zoom, if not more, and Seth's not even scared of him."

"But he might be scared of Blackfire. The entire police force is…" Barry tried to reason with her. "Yeah, he's stronger. And he's the hero we need now, now that the Flash is gone. But he's not invincible. So…if you think he can help us, then…think carefully, please." He begged of her.

"I will, always." Iris kissed his lips. Once dislodging, she told him. "But I think he can help us. I really do. But it also means…that he has to…ask _her._"

"I know. Pretty sure, he can handle _her_, though." Barry told her. "And I'm sure, he can scare the hell out of anyone."

Before they could continue onwards, their front door swung open with Seth bursting into their household. They watched with confused eyes as he held up the door for Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse to walk through. The last of them immediately went for the staircase.

But Seth called out to her, "Hey!" Jesse stopped and looked to him. "Last time, you do that, Jesse."

"Why?" Jesse crossed her arms over her chest. "Why do you care so much? No one else does."

"Let's just say it's a trait of mine, okay." Seth told her. "But if you haven't forgotten, Zoom and his henchmen are all gunning for you, Ruby and Evelyn. The three of you have targets on your backs now. So you waltzing around in the city? Not the smartest idea, you've had so far, Jesse."

"Told her that." Ruby commented. Jesse gave her a hurt look, but it did not affect the HYDRA assassin in the least.

"Jesse." The native looked at him again. "Whatever is going with you now, don't put you or Ruby and Evelyn in danger because of it. Whether or not, you trust me," she widened her eyes with shock as Seth continued speaking. "doesn't matter. Cause guess what? I'm gonna protect you three no matter what. And I'm a really stubborn guy."

Jesse didn't know what to think anymore and walked up the stairs, leaving the others to talk amongst themselves.

Evelyn rubbed her arms slowly, her eyes pointing to the mutant who inhaled deeply and asked, "You knew, she didn't trust you?"

Shrugging, he answered. "She's not subtle with her looks. They speak values." He pointed a finger at Ruby. "And I'm sure that me and Ruby are the only ones in this universe, who are remotely trained to actually keep a secret." Evelyn nodded. "And thanks for keeping an eye on her, you two. And sorry, you two were almost put in danger before."

"Not your fault, that would be Whiney's fault." Ruby smirked. "Though, I did threaten to punch her senseless before, so you might wanna hold off on any "thank-yous"."

"Why am I not surprised?" Seth admitted. Ruby merely shrugged and walked up the staircase. "Don't go and sleep-choke her or something okay?" he told her.

"No promises." Ruby replied uncaringly as she walked up to the first floor.

Iris walked into her living room and asked, "Should we be concerned about her saying stuff like that in a cop's house without a care in the world? Like it's normal for her?"

"Normal's overrated." Seth told her. he looked to Evelyn and saw that she rubbed her arms tenderly. "Something wrong there, Evie? Need me to check on your arms?"

Evelyn shook her head, "No. it's nothing. Just a little itchy, is all." She nodded to them. "I'm think I'm gonna take a nap." She walked up the stairs, all the while rubbing her arms in a comforting manner.

Barry walked closer to them and asked the mutant, "Is she okay?"

"I don't know." Seth told him with a shaking head. He looked to the direction of the dinner table and saw the mountain of files on it. "That Evelyn's files?"

"Yeah." Iris said and waved him and her husband over to them. Getting to it, she waved her hands over the files. "She's got a pretty impressive track record."

Seth held one of them up and read it. "Petty Theft." He held up another. "Petty Theft." Another one. "Petty Theft." Another one, this one causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Grand Theft. Way to spice it up, Evie." He put down the files and looked around the files again. "Damn, this is much more than what I expected."

"Yeah." Iris locked eyes with the elemental again, inhaling deeply and sharing a look with her husband before revealing. "You asked me why I was the only cop on Evelyn's case before?" Seth nodded while looking over the files again. "Because of my mentor."

"Your mentor?" Seth repeated. He didn't recall Joe having a mentor in his days as a cop. He had Iris and Barry to take care of and he was alone to take care of it. That was enough for him to work himself to the bone and beyond, working for his family. But he had stories of his past, he worked alone…unless he had a partner, one of which asked for a transfer. Probably Joe's fault.

The detective nodded, "His name was Fred Chyre. He was my father's friend for a long time. and when I joined the force, my Dad asked him to take care of him. Show me the ropes and all. He did good."

"I can vouch for that." Barry said with a cheery smile on his face.

"That makes two of us." Seth added in agreement.

"Thanks, you two." Iris said in appreciation. "But Chyre was an old friend of the Sharps, I think he mentioned in the past. His friend was Evelyn's father, I think he was. He used to check on Evelyn every now and then." She turned to Seth again, inhaling deeply. "Seth-"

_THUD_

Before any of them could speak further, the sound of a loud thudding came from above. Seth heard it and he immediately shot up the stairs with Iris and Barry running behind him. Reaching the first floor, he and the others shot to the end with the residents of the house.

Seth pushed the door open and burst into the room. His eyes widened when seeing Ruby and Jesse crouched around Evelyn who was on the ground, unconscious. The two others tried shaking her awake, but to no success.

Ruby looked to the mutant. "We don't know what happened. She just drops all of a sudden."

Jesse checked her temperature with her hand on her forehead. "She's burning up."

Seth got down on the ground checked her temperature as well. "Ah." He hissed when feeling the heat emitting from her head. It was indeed like she was burning up. "_What's wrong with her?_"

While inside of Seth, Venom mentally looked around the young metahuman's body. Mentally widening his eyes, he pointed out to his host. "**_Seth, check her arms._**"

Taking note of his partner's words, he looked at her arms, finding them shivering as though she was suffering from hypothermia. He saw that her oversized hoodie was covering her arms entirely, her hands, forearms and everything.

A horrifying thought entered his mind and he prayed to whatever was out there, be it some deity that was watching over the multiverse or some divine being that was lurking in the shadows of this universe…that he was wrong. He reached over to her right arm, he rolled up her sleeve. Seth gulped as he realized his fears have come true.

Her right arm…was shining with pure white light…radiating it…not blindingly so, but lightly radiating so it's visible to those who looked at it without damage to their optical organs. Everyone saw it and they feared what was happening to her arm.

At the thought of this arm, Seth looked at her other arm. And once again, he prayed that he was wrong again, because he hated whenever his worst fears became true. He reached over to her left arm, and like the other one, he rolled up her sleeve.

"I really hate myself now." Seth hissed through gritted teeth, as once again he was right.

Her left arm…was leaking the black shadowy miasma…bleeding it…not like the onyx-like dark streams from before, not offensively shooting out like before. Now it was like blood oozing out of an open wound. The others saw it and their fear intensified when they saw the mutant's face…losing all color.

"…This isn't good." Seth breathed out.

At the words emitted from Seth's mouth…everyone feared the worst possible result for Evelyn.

**To be continued….**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**Evelyn is in trouble now. Something within her is happening, rendering her unconscious. And it's causing her pain. Seth sees this and frightening fearful thoughts entering his head upon the sight of her arms. It's as though something like this, he recognizes.**

**Ruby's life has been revealed to them now, her ambitious life with the singular goal to become The Destroyer of Worlds. But all of it failing and leading her to be kidnapped by the evil speedster who had experienced an additional rush of power by some mysterious reason, something that was coursing through his veins.**

**Iris keeping an eye on the young metahuman who's the child of her mentor's dear friend. And something happened to her mentor in the past, at the hands of the man known as Blackfire, someone that the police force fears. A threat that might even scare Seth. A fact that Iris fears as well.**

**Jesse does not trust the elemental in the least, founded on the fact that he would not even scratch the frosty metahuman, Killer Frost. Unbeknownst to her and the others, it is founded on the sole foundation of who she is, who she reminds him of.**

**Killer Frost is hoping for a date with our favorite elemental. He's a bit more interesting than her usual flavor, apparently. Let's hope that she does get her wish fulfilled soon enough. She doesn't want to lose her prey to Black Siren, of course.**

**All of this scare them greatly, especially the fact that Evelyn's powers are causing something to happen to her now. Like something is hurting her.**

**So until next time, peeps.**


	6. Chapter 6: Flash of Two Worlds

**And another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**Very, very sorry for the very long wait. Had to go France with the rest of the family to attend a birthday party for a family member. So I've been a bit of out of the loop for the last few days.**

**Have watched some of the new episodes of The Flash, amazing as always, hope you guys enjoy them too. And of course watched the other incredible CW Superhero shows, new and old. They are amazing!**

**Do hope that you guys are able to help me with signature coffee drinks for our OC heroes, would mean a lot.**

**Now that stuff is over with.**

**Without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 6: Flash of Two Worlds**

Everyone kept their weapons, their eyes on the man who stepped into their facility. None of the two mutants willing to lower their weaponry. Frankie standing in front of her mother, her claws out and sharp, and the metal around her vicinity shaking, ready to call them to her aid. Caitlin worriedly standing behind her daughter, though she was inwardly prepared to jump in front of her if the time turned bad.

Joe holding his gun up and standing near his daughter and Barry, who was ready to jump into action again with lightning fast speed. Cisco curiously shifting his gaze around. The elderly professor standing in worry as well, watching the man's every move. Iris watching carefully, her eyes darting around the man, wondering if he was alone or had brought friends.

"Please, just let me explain." The man, Jay Garrick, begged of them. Barry looked to the two mutants, seeing them both hold no trust in their eyes. Clearly not trusting him. "I mean you no harm."

"Funny, I can see more weapons on our side than there are on yours." Matt told him threateningly.

Barry had to agree with that and asked the man, more civilly. "How do you know my name?"

Jay Garrick then said. "I know all your names." This worried them as he continued. "Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, Detective Joe West…"

"Enough." Joe halted him, empathizing to his firearm with a raise of his hands.

Olivia nodded and ordered him, "Heard that you're a stalker, nice. But that's not an explanation, which is what we want. So you better make it good, otherwise, we're last people you're ever gonna see. So…" pressing the button to her hand, she released her razor whip, making sure that the crack of her whip cut the floor audibly. "…talk."

Jay gulped before raising his hands, telling that he wasn't gonna make a move. Sighing once, he explained. "This world is in danger."

"Yeah, something new, please." Frankie uncaringly said.

Cisco heard his words and looked at the two mutants, knowing their origin. He narrowed his eyes and played dumb for a little while, just playing along with whatever game the stranger was scheming. "What other worlds are there?"

"When you created the Singularity above Central City, you also created a breach between my world and yours." Jay continued.

Iris lost track and spoke from overflowing confusion. "I'm sorry, a breach?"

"Yes," Jay confirmed, "a portal connecting our two Earths."

"And what precisely is your concern?" Martin Stein asked.

"A few days ago, you found a dead man named Al Rothstein at the nuclear plant." Jay got their attention, the others sharing looks. "But then a different Al Rothstein tried to kill you."

"Oh, yeah…" Matt knew Cisco had come up with a name for him, but he forgotten about it. "Cisco, what was his name, again?"

"Atom Smasher." The mechanical engineer answered.

The stranger nodded, "That man was from my world. If he got through the breach, I suspect there'll be more to follow."

Barry let his arms out to the sides with a lash of them. "Okay, so, Jay," the speedster remains suspicious. "how exactly do you know all of this?"

"Where I came from, I was a speedster like you." Now everyone of this world had their attention dialed up to new limits. "They called _me_ The Flash."

"_As if one awful speedster wasn't enough._" Olivia thought, she then looked to him. "How about you get to the point you want to get at. Cause that's really the only thing we're waiting for, and the one thing keeping you breathing."

Jay nodded his consent before continuing. "Before I arrived on your Earth, I was in a fight with a man named Zoom." The fresh memory of his yellow lightning and the other speedster's blue lightning chasing one another coming back to him.

"Zoom?" Frankie asked herself with familiarity in her voice.

"Something wrong, Frankie?" Caitlin asked her in concern.

Frankie looked to her. "It sounds familiar, is all."

"Yeah, I've heard that name before." Matt commented familiarly as well at the name.

"So have I." Barry commented before revealing to those who did not know the full story. "Atom Smasher, he said Zoom sent him here to kill me."

"Then the question beckons then." Matt started.

Olivia continued then. "Who is he?"

"He's a speedster, like you and me." Jay Garrick answered with a nod of his head directed at Barry. "And fast. Maybe the fastest of all. But evil. He is an unstoppable demon with the face of death." He remembered their last fight, the rush, the power, the crackling lightning in his veins. The running through their hometown, through Central City. "We were engaged in our fiercest battle ever, racing throughout the city. But I wasn't fast enough to stop him."

Jay remembered the feeling of the pitch-black speedster's claws plunging into his chest, forcing him to scream out in agony. "Zoom had me beaten. He was about to kill me when suddenly there was a blinding light and the sky split open." He remembered both he and Zoom turning their gaze upwards, to the skies. "A breach, between my world and yours, caused from the Singularity. It pulled me in…and I somehow ended up in your world. Powerless. Unable to return home."

Caitlin stood in front of her daughter defensively and asked, "What do you mean?"

His face fall and he answered. "I lost my speed."

"How?" Barry asked suspiciously with arms crossed.

"Not entirely sure." Came the vague answer.

Joe looked between his adoptive son and the two mutants. All of whom, showing confusion on their face. the detective then looked to the stranger again. "So, you've been in Central City for six months. Why haven't you come to us before?"

The stranger shrugged his shoulders. "I'm in a foreign world here, Detective. I didn't know who you all were." He briefly looked at the two mutants again. "Who some of you still are." The two in question shared a glance. "Took me that long to piece it all together."

"So that's how you know our names. You've been following us." Iris stated after connecting the dots.

"**_Great, a stalker from another universe._**" Magenta commented at the words.

Jay walked closer to the main console, leaning over it and explained. "Look, I know how this sounds." Their faces spoke volumes, they couldn't wait to hear his explanation. "The existence of another earth, you, another Flash, it all came as an expected shock to me, too. I just wish there was something I could do to convince you."

Matt then spoke, condescendingly so, "Yeah, about that entire "existence of another earth"- thing?" he got Jay's attention. "Not exactly new, cause me and my wife here, " he gestured to himself and Olivia. "we're from another earth."

"One much, much, further from this one." Olivia continued.

"Wait? You're from another earth as well?" Jay blinked rapidly from confusion. "How? Because of the Singularity?"

"Nope. Something that happened earlier than that." Matt lowered his weapons before getting onto the matter. "But is there anything about this," he gestured to the stranger from the other world again. "we can actually prove. Like, is there something that actually help us out here."

"Yes, there is." Barry stated. Everyone looking at him, "We're gonna…do some tests on you." he walked closer from the other side of the console. "See if you're telling the truth. Cause if you're not, this Zoom, he's not gonna be your only enemy."

"And…you're gonna die." Olivia added quickly, her words causing the man from the other world to shake.

"Caitlin." Matt got her attention. "Think you can do a check up on Mr. Garrick, here?"

"Sure." Caitlin nodded, she made eye contact with the man. "This way, please." Jay nodded and followed after her.

"Frankie." Olivia called her niece, "Go with your mom. Keep her safe."

"Always, Aunt Liv." Frankie said and walked into the private lab on the right side of the Cortex. Once she passed the threshold, she saw found her mother placing pads on Garrick's upper body, which was now devoid of clothes.

Caitlin smiled to her happily, happy to see her daughter with her. Frankie smiled back to her mother before taking a seat on a chair. The doctor returned her attention to Jay and asked, "So, Mr. Garrick, how long have you been The Flash on your world?"

"And are you any better than the one we have? Cause ours suck." Frankie stated bluntly, her mother giving her a stern look.

Jay chuckled at the questions. "Not long enough to call me Mister. Please it's Jay." He told Caitlin, he hoped that his slight joke could get a smile on her face, but not a single one came to. He then looked to Frankie. "And I wouldn't know about being better than your Flash. What's your name? you didn't say it before."

Frankie sarcastically answered, "First name: None Of. Last name: Your Business."

"Frankie." Caitlin sternly said, her daughter pouting in mock innocence as the response. She looked to the man of the other world. "Jay, it is then." She told him.

Jay nodded and said, "On my world, I've been The Flash for about two years."

The young magnetic metahuman raised an eyebrow and asked curiously, "And your speed? How did you get it?"

Caitlin liked how her daughter was able to take the initiative like that, willing to seek out the questions before others. She was proud of it, proud of her child. Jay heard the question and replied. "Not really sure. I was at my lab trying to purify heavy water without any residual radiation when there was a blinding light. I fell into a coma. When I woke up, I could run almost as fast as the speed of light."

Sharing a mildly shocked look with her daughter, Caitlin turned to the man from the other world. "Sorry. Did you say lab? Are you a scientist?"

With his eyes, Jay gestured to the private lab he was inside of. "Well, I certainly didn't work at a place like this, but, yeah. I had a respectable solo operation. Part-time chemist, part-time physicist."

"Part-time superhero." Frankie quickly added with a smirk.

Jay nodded with a smile before his face fell with sadness. "I can forget that superhero part now, though, huh?"

Both mother and daughter could see that Jay was saddened by the thought of his powers gone, thinking that he had lost parts of himself now. Probably have lost his life's purpose now. All that, piled on to the very fact that he was on a totally different Earth.

Alone from his own universe.

X

Iris stood with the others in shock, hearing her thoughts repeatedly orbiting around the thought of another universal traveler. Though her father still struggled through the understanding part of the universal travel, as well as time travel for that matter, she had somewhat gotten an understanding of it.

But still, hearing about the multiverse once and seeing the mutants of another universe was one thing for them. Though hearing that another universe is out there as well, another Flash for that matter, raised more questions in her mind.

"Is any of this possible?" Iris asked, turning around. "A breach to another Earth? It's not, right?"

Matt opened his mouth to speak, but Martin Stein beat him to it. "The contrary. Just recently, the many-different-worlds theory proposed interaction with parallel universes was plausible. Now, if what Mr. Garrick's saying is true, that theory's been proven sooner than we all thought."

"_That sounds familiar._" Cisco thought as though he was having déjà vu from this conversation.

The nanite mutant then said, "Yeah, and besides me and Livia here proves that as well."

"Yeah, the same thing happened with us, with my Big Bro before." Olivia told them; her tone saddened while she rubbed the shining SHIELD pendent hanging from her neck.

"It doesn't add up." Barry let out in confusion, like Cisco he felt déjà vu as well from the man's encounter.

Joe held up his hands as he admitted, almost embarrassedly, "I'm gonna be honest here, I might have understood a bit of what Seth told us back then, but now…I don't understand what the hell any of you are talking about."

Cisco thought up a quick explanation and explained, "Remember when Seth said his world is like ours? Aspects of it, anyway?" Joe nodded, vaguely remembering those words. "Jay is saying he's from, like, a mirror-world."

"Or a parallel universe, that's very, very similar to this one." Matt pitched in, hoping that his words would help him.

"Multiverse would be a more apt description." Professor Stein added.

"And this Earth," Olivia pointed a finger to the ground, empathizing this world. "is just one out of many."

They waited for a few moments, hoping that the detective understood their words. "No, not helping." But they failed.

Cisco and Matt shared a look before stating at the same time. ""Bless your heart/ God bless you.""

Olivia raised an eyebrow in surprise, "_Nerds._" She thought of their seemingly practiced unified voice.

"Okay, let's see if this helps." Martin chose to lean into one of his strengths, his teaching skills and took hold of a transparent glass board, rolling it over to them. Everyone walked closer to the professor who held out a yellow marker.

The psychic mutant leant over to her husband's ear and whispered cheekily, "This is gonna be fun."

"Yeah." The nanite mutant said back.

"This is our earth. Let's call it Earth-1." Stein drew a circle, writing it E-1 in the middle of it. "And this second Earth, let's call it Earth-2." He quickly drew a secondary circle, representing another universe. "This is where Jay claims to be from." The professor drew more circles, more earths as he spoke. "And these other earths, three, four, five, to infinity, all of them, are nearly identical to ours. And they all exist at the same time, giving us endless alternatives to what we have here."

"For example," the professor pointed to the secondary universe on the glass board. "the Joe West on Earth-2, your doppelganger, he might not be a detective." Joe looked interested. "He could be a Nobel Prize-winning physicist." Neither the detective or his daughter could imagine him as a scientist who were awarded an award, for science of all things. Martin pointed to Barry. "And you, the Barry Allen here, is not The Flash," referring to their universe before turning his finger to the second universe. "but over there, he could be an electrician."

Joe pointed a finger at the board of the multiverse, "So, I'm assuming that the people on all these other earths…work to make money to pay billets and such."

Olivia cleared her throat, gaining their attention and spoke. "Well, we did and yeah they do. And didn't Seth tell you guys that before?"

"Yeah, but now we're sure." Joe jokingly said.

"Something I don't get." Everyone looked to Iris, who pointed a finger at the board. She made eye contact with the professor. "You just said that there are other…doppelgangers in these other universes, right? Like one of my Dad and Barry, like you just said?"

"Yes, I did, Ms. West." Martin nodded. "What troubles you then?"

The young reporter turned to the two mutants, her finger raised and pointing at them. "Wouldn't that also mean there would be like…another pair of you two…and a doppelganger of Seth? Here, in Central City?" That question was one that had been growing like a seed in the other natives' minds, but none of them dared to speak it, fearing that it would bring the mutants down another painful trip on memory lane.

But it didn't as the mutants merely chuckled instead, both husband and wife feeling as though that question was expected from them. Olivia saw Frankie entering the Cortex, most likely hearing in on their conversation from the other private lab. Sighing, she started. "It's not possible for us to have doppelgangers here. Same goes for my brother."

"How are you so sure about that, Aunt Liv?" Frankie wondered in curiosity, while hope simmered in her core.

Olivia saw the hope in her niece's eyes, she didn't want her to lose hope. But it was better she had to learn it now. She looked to her husband and nodded, telling her without words to take the reins and explain his thoughts.

Matt nodded and started. "Because of the distances between our universes."

As soon as those words left the nanite mutant's mouth, Joe confessed. "And, you lost me again." They all chuckled in response to his confession.

Matt walked over to Martin Stein, holding out his hand and wordlessly asking for the yellow marker. Intriguingly, the professor handed him the marker and stepped back, allowing the nanite mutant to roll in another transparent glass board, that he placed in the middle of the Cortex.

"Okay, to start us off, the world where my wife and I come from, that's Earth-616, according to my Dad and a friend of his." Olivia knew that it was Bruce Banner, seeing as though she was there at the time. When they heard him say the number of his universe, the natives' mouths gaped open in shock. He saw their shock and told them. "Infinite Earths guys. Remember that. Ours and this one here, is just one small drop in the entire ocean that is the multiverse."

"But back on track now." Matt turned to the board. He drew a dot on one side of the board, drawing it on the left side of it. "This little dot, is Earth-1, this one." Drawing "E-1" under it. "And this one here," he drew another dot on the other side of the board. "is Earth-616, where me and the interesting people are from." Writing "E-616", he then drew a line between the two dots. "This line here is the distance between the two universes, and between them is 614 universes, all of them maybe totally different or nearly identical to either of our origin universes."

"That's wacky, there's so many universes in the multiverse." Frankie let out in shock, the other natives agreeing.

"Actually, there's infinite Earths out there in the multiversal world." Olivia told her niece, who furrowed at the thought of it.

Matt chuckled before continuing, "But the point is, my Dad and I have this theory that the closer the universes are to one another, the bigger are the chances for doppelgangers appearing on multiple Earths."

"What makes you and your father so adamant about this theory, Mr. Stark?" Martin asked, he could see the logic behind it, but he wondered what made them so sure of it.

Olivia was the one to answer the question, "Because on our earth, there's no Barry Allen, Francisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe or Iris West, Frankie Kane even, which is a massive bummer." She pointed a finger downwards, "Just like there's no, Olivia Rogers, Matt Almond… or Seth Rogers on this Earth." She added at the end of the sentence, using their old names.

"Great…" Joe rubbed his forehead, feeling his brain was trashed around like crazy in a blender. He threw his hands up and said. "I'm heading back to the station. Call me when this makes a little bit more sense," he turned to Matt. "and no more theories from you or your wife, alright? Not all of us wanna have scrambled eggs for brains. And I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole idea of time travel." The detective admitted and walked out of the Cortex, leaving the others to chuckle.

"**_What's wrong with Stein?_**" Frankie heard her partner ask.

Frankie looked to the elderly man and saw him fidgeting as though something was weighing on his mind. Tilting her head to the side, she asked him. "What's wrong, Professor? You look a little distracted?"

Martin shook his head and told her calmingly. "Nothing to worry about, Ms. Fury." He inhaled before revealing to them. "There is, uh, one problem that remains. If Mr. Garrick is telling the truth, there is a breach somewhere in the Central City that we need to find and close for good."

Matt nodded in agreement. "That's a good point. Unless of course, whatever he said is a load of BS."

Cisco shrugged his shoulders. "If what he said is true, then yeah, but how do we find it? We don't even know what to look for."

"Well," Frankie asked, gaining the others attention. "since Garrick came through the Singularity, could we imagine something like that? Just, and hopefully, smaller, maybe?"

"Could be possible, yeah." Matt agreed with his niece's thoughts.

"Aw." Olivia cooed, "Our niece is a secret genius. Your Mom's gonna be proud."

"Auntie!" Frankie exclaimed embarrassedly.

Martin agreed and stated, "Well, I…I suggest we put our heads together and come up with a solution. Not, literally, of course. Those days are over." The professor spoke sadly in the end, clearly remembering the moments he spent with his past Firestorm half, Ronnie Raymond. They all saw his sadness on his face and watched him walk away.

As they saw him walk away, they saw Caitlin walking out of the private lab, having done her check up on Jay Garrick. Frankie saw her and hugged her briefly before asking, "Hey Mom."

"Hey, sweetie." Caitlin said back, bending down and kissing the top of her head. She made sure to hold her tablet in one hand while embracing her daughter.

Iris turned to her, "What'd you find?"

Unwrapping one arm from her daughter, Caitlin explained. "Well, Jay's heart rate is extraordinarily low. And he does have regenerative capabilities." They all waited for her to speak her real thoughts, and she did. "Other than that, I'm not seeing any evidence of the Speed Force in his system."

"That's awesome." Matt said. "Means he has no proof whatsoever to aid his story, being a speedster or much less from another world."

"Not necessarily." Caitlin got their attention again. "I know, Frankie could have done it herself, but I wanted to do it myself instead."

"What does that mean?" Barry asked confusedly.

"Mom, what did you do?" Frankie asked suspiciously of her mother.

Giving her daughter a mock stern look, she revealed, "Well, Jay doesn't know this, but while I was testing his heart rate, blood pressure, and motor responses, I also measured his autonomic reactions while we were talking."

Iris' mind clicked and she asked for clarity. "You gave him a lie detector test?" she whispered at the end, making sure that Jay did not eavesdrop on their conversation.

Caitlin gave a sheepish smile and continued, "And he passed it."

"Nice job, Caitlin. Got the mind of a spy in your head." Matt praised.

Barry heard and registered the words spoken by the doctor. Tests were conclusive and were a lot more understandable, a lot more honest than words. But parts of him still didn't believe them, thinking that there was indeed more to the story behind the man who claimed to be from the other universe.

He lost friends from trusting people too easily. And he couldn't make that mistake again. Not again.

After briefly looking in the direction of Jay, Barry stated the obvious. "What if he's not a good guy, and he just wants to find our weaknesses?"

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but Barry's right." Oliva spoke, as though she was fighting to swallow poison. "The biggest mistake you guys can make is trusting some dude who walks through your front doors, instantly claiming to be an ally of yours." She clicked her tongue before admitting bluntly. "The last thing you guys can ever afford to do, is putting too much faith in one person again. Not a good idea. Better be safe than sorry."

The speedster inhaled and looked to Caitlin again. "Keep running tests. See what else you can find out." She nodded her consent.

Frankie looked to her mother and walked over to her. "Do you need me to be here, Mom?"

"Sure, honey. I would like that." Caitlin accepted as she stroked her cheek. "I need my Little Protector." Both of them giggled at the humor before walking back to the man from the other world.

Iris watched them from the Cortex, only for a moment before looking to Olivia and asked. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. But don't know about that guy." The psychic nodded to the man on the gurney.

"No argument here." Iris agreed before stepping closer to her. "But you can figure it out, you know." The reporter tapped the side of her head for empathize.

"I can't, Iris. Not again." Olivia replied sadly, her right hand drifting upwards and clutching her pendent tightly. The light emitting from it, shining through the small gaps between her fingers. "It's too much."

X

**(CCPD)**

Joe walked out of a room inside of the police precinct. As he did, he felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. Checking on it, he felt his eyes widen with shock at the number that revealed on his screen. He hadn't seen that number in a long time. and though it kept ringing, and ringing, and ringing…

… he refused to accept the call…

Pressing the button on his phone, he canceled the call and put back in his pocket. Shaking off the thoughts that rose into the forefront of his mind. He walked over to his desk, deciding to focus on the work that was awaiting him on his desk.

"Detective West, sir."

But a female voice from behind him called out to him. He saw a female officer standing there, fully uniformed and her weapon in the right place. Her badge attached to her belt. Her dirty blonde hair braided into a bun and her eyes looking hopefully at him.

Joe saw her and asked slowly and unsurely. "Yes, Officer…?" he purposely trailed off, having no idea whatsoever to who this officer was.

"Spivot. Patty Spivot." The officer introduced herself. She shook his hand. "Captain Singh mentioned there may be positions available on your anti-metahuman task force."

Joe chuckled as he replied. "Yeah, everybody quit. There is no task force anymore."

"Well, I know someone who's interested in being on it." Joe drew a blank as he returned his attention to her. "Me." Patty announced.

Joe straightened his back as he told her, "You do realize that metahumans have super powers, right?" The officer laughed softly. "And even if they didn't, you wouldn't be a good fit for the team."

The officer narrowed her eyes, "Because I'm a woman?"

"I didn't mean to imply that." Joe quickly stated in his defense as he walked to the reception.

Patty was not done yet, and persistently followed him. "Good, because I know how difficult this job would be, but I think I'm an excellent candidate." She then proudly listed off. "I triple-majored at Hudson in biology, chemistry, and physics. I'm in prime physical condition. And I rated top of my class in marksmanship."

"Your class?" Joe chortled while he signed some papers at the receptionist's desk. "You don't even have your stripes yet."

"Soon." Patty countered with a statement. "Been on the job seven months, sir."

Seeing that she wasn't one willing to back down so easily, Joe went to darker territories. "Are you aware of what happened to my previous partner?" he walked back into the room with the other desks, all while Officer Spivot followed him.

"Detective Thawne, yes." She started. "I know that he died and the one before him, Fred Chyre, died, too, but the one before that's not dead, just transferred. I'm sure it had nothing to do with you." she quickly added at the end, quite embarrassed with herself actually.

The detective inhaled before starting. "Listen, Officer…"

"Spivot. Patty Spivot." Patty recited.

"Yes, Spivot, the answer's no." Joe said adamantly.

"All I'm asking for is a shot, sir." Patty pleadingly asked. "Please, just an interview."

"You just had the interview. Didn't get the job." Joe finalized his decision before walking away.

But though the detective told her no, repeatedly at that, she was a woman on mission. And she would treat this as it was the Holy Grail. She would stop at nothing to get it.

X

The brown-colored liquid residing in the bottle fell down into the tumbler glass that was placed before her on the bar counter. Placing the bottle beside the glass, knowing that it would be used more and more after this glass, the girl on the other side of the bar took hold of it.

Raising it to her lips, Olivia downed the glass' contents and poured it down her throat, relishing in the burning feeling that followed its taste. She slammed the glass down on the counter and exhaled, breathing out her alcoholic breath.

"Careful, don't wanna lose any more glasses."

The psychic mutant chuckled as she looked in the direction of the other female voice. Despite all the chaos that had happened through the city, JC still managed to remain peppy as ever. Her hair still as golden as ever, eyes still colorfully brown. Wearing blue jeans and a red flannel shirt, she walked over to the bar counter.

Getting to the other side of it, she locked eyes with the mutant before her. "Are you sure it's a good idea to be drinking? All by your lonesome."

Olivia scoffed and said. "Take out a glass for yourself, join me. No one likes drinking alone, even me." Her right hand enveloped with pinkish energy quickly, and with a flick of it, she yanked a glass off the shelf with her telekinesis. Sliding it across the counter, she stopped it right in front of the current bar owner. "What's your poison?"

"Funny." Joan Celia pushed the glass to the side as she looked around her father's bar, seeing that it was still under repair by The Flash. "Dad would love to see his bar under repair by a superhero. He would lose his mind."

"…how is he?" The psychic asked concerningly.

"He's good, good as a comatose man can be." Joan said sadly and finally poured whiskey into the glass. As a consequence of the Singularity's powers, the entire city was hurt, damaged. But the bar was wrecked a lot more as it was in the middle of the city, very clear to location of the black hole.

The bar had been torn thoroughly and Stan, the owner, was in the middle of it. He had taken on massive wooden beams on top of him. Thankfully only damaging his body to the point, where he had to be in a coma. For the last six months, he's been in that condition. He had to be in the hospital at all times, all those he holds dear worried that he would wake up to a room with no one there to witness his awakening again.

"Think…Seth would have had a solution to his condition?" The bartender asked worriedly, while also in hope.

"Maybe, but he's not here, so I don't know." Olivia poured herself another drink before tapping the side of her head. "Messing and getting into peoples' minds are my specialty, not getting into their bodies and poking their innards."

JC chuckled, "Yeah, I get that."

"Well, this is a sad excuse of a girls' night out." A voice spoken, following after the sound of the front doors opening up.

Olivia and Joan Celia rolled their eyes as they recognized the voice, looking towards it and found to their surprise, Felicia Hardy walking through them. She was wearing thigh high black boots; her upper body clad in a black shirt while her platinum blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail. She purposely walked with powerful steps, allowing her heels to click against the floorboard.

The infamous thief took a seat on a barstool and looked to the two other women, "What does a girl has to do to get a drink around here?"

"Felicia, what are you doing here?" Olivia asked curiously.

She reached over the counter and took out a bottle of champagne. "Think this is more appropriate for a ladies' night."

Joan chuckled, "Can't believe I'm in my bar with a psychic and a master thief, both of them from another universe. My life's crazy." She took a swig of her drink.

"Yeah, the new normal." Felicia playfully said and drank directly from her champagne bottle.

"New…doesn't mean better." Olivia said before downing the contents of her glass in one gulp. Her tone was saddened, still full of hurt from the loss of her brother. And the other women could hear it, and they desperately wanted to help her.

But it was impossible for them to do that.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Pipeline)**

Jay Garrick kept his eyes forward, looking straight ahead as the containment cell doors closed down on him. He kept his eyes on the speedster that responsible for closing the doors on him. Barry walked out from the panel and looked at the man from the other universe.

"I hope you understand why we have to do this." Barry told Jay; his voice still full of suspicion.

"I get it, kid." Jay acceptingly told him. "You're doing what you think you have to do. But you'll all realize soon enough that this," he gestured to the cell with his head. "the tests, it's unnecessary. I want to help you, Barry, not harm you."

"You're not the first person that's said that to me." Barry instantly told him.

"_Because the last one meant what he said and kept them like a promise._" He thought absentmindedly as he thought of his first meeting with Seth and Venom, how they saved him from pummeling by Multiplex, from Captain Cold's freezing ice blasts…from so many others too… all leading to the point where he would cause a city-wide catastrophe that led to his death… his sacrifice to protect them…

"If what you told me about Zoom is true," Jay's words brought Barry out of his mind. "that he sent Rothstein here to kill you, instead of locking me up here, you better start listening. Because if Zoom is involved, you are gonna need a lot more just me at your side to stay alive."

"_Barry, there's a fire at the waterfront. Fire department's en route._" Cisco exclaimed through the speakers.

"I'm on my way." Barry said back before briefly looking at Jay again.

"Be careful." The man told him seriously.

Barry nodded his acceptance.

_WHOOSH_

He sped out of the Pipeline quickly, pressing a few buttons on the panel before speeding out of the facility as he aimed to save the lives of the citizens of Central City.

X

The blazing flames within the building dissipated slowly as the air was sucked out of the flames. Barry saw the same and increased the strength of the vacuums he generated with his arms. Once he repeated the spins of his arms repeatedly, he lowered his arms again.

Bending down with his hands on his knees and panting exhaustedly. "That was a big fire." He admitted out loud. Straightening back to his full height, he pressed his earpiece and informed Cisco. "It's out, Cisco." He briefly looked around and saw that it was holding a lot of equipment for boating. A boat behind him and some thick ropes around him, spread around the ground.

"_Copy that, see you in a bit._" Cisco said back.

Barry smiled happily and relievedly, another day the Flash was able to save the day. He was about to move away, speeding out of the building to continue with the problematic situation with Jay Garrick. But he had to stop himself from moving as the strange sound of rustling could be heard from behind him.

He slowly turned his head in the direction, hearing the rustling intensify by each second, only able to peek a glance before his eyesight was shrouded by the large sandy fist that knocked him backwards. The force pushed him back into a spin, spinning his body around on the ground.

Pushing himself up with his hands, he looked down at the ground and saw…strangely enough…sand underneath him. He narrowed his eyes confusedly at the sight of the wave of grains around him. The sparking confusion ignited to something bigger as he saw the sand retract to somewhere, converging to a spot.

Following the direction of the sand, he saw the sand retract into the bottom of the feet belonging to a man with a crazed look on his face. Barry perked higher up, pushing his body up further as he focused his eyes on the strange man…unbeknownst to the Scarlet Speedster, this man was not from the neighborhood.

Eddie Slick from Earth-2 smirked. "I thought it would be harder than this." Barry got back on his feet, managing to take a stance as he saw the metahuman thrusted his arm forward and launched his large sandy fist.

Time slowed down and Barry sped forward, moving past the incoming fist that flew with the velocity of a small fly. He let out a small war cry as he tackled the metahuman's sandy body. His body turning into dust of sand grains, falling everywhere around him.

Barry snapped around to look around for the sandy metahuman again. But the moment he did so, his eyes only found the internals of the building that he saved, no metahuman criminal there for him to fight against. He was both confused and scared as he failed to find the criminal.

"_Barry?_" He heard Cisco call him through the comms device in his earpiece. When the mechanical engineer didn't hear a response from the speedster, he asked again. "_Hello? Are you there?_"

_WHOOSH_

Barry sped out of there instantly, running into the open streets with lightning fast speed. "_What was that?_" He heard Cisco ask him.

"I don't know." The speedster said back while he continued to run at full speed. "We need to find out."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

The next day, Caitlin, Iris and Frankie sat in the observation room, watching from within the room and looking into the room with the treadmill, watching Jay Garrick running and running on the machine. Medicinal pads are attached to his body, scanning his internals while he was performing exercise.

Frankie attached herself onto the ceiling, keeping herself there in a crouched position and looking into the room upside-down. She looked down at her mother who was looking into the room with distracted eyes, like something was hurting her now and causing her mind to wander. "_Think Mom is okay?_"

"**_Doesn't look like that._**" Magenta commented. "**_She looks to be…somewhere else. You might wanna ask her at some point, you know._**"

"_Good idea._" Frankie agreed with her partner.

Caitlin looked up from her computer and told out loud, "His blood pressure is low, his heart rate is low, his oxygen levels are impressive."

Detaching herself from the ceiling, Frankie landed down on the floor, raising to her full height as she stated. "Doesn't mean much, does it?"

Iris walked closer to them and said, "Yeah, that might be true, but nothing compared to Barry's." She compared them.

Frankie rolled her eyes. "Well one thing they do have in common," her eyes briefly shined magenta, her anger spiking. "neither of them can be trusted in the slightest."

"Frankie." Caitlin said in a playfully stern voice as she pinched her daughter's cheek. The moment Frankie let out a small grunt of pain, she released her fingers and let her rub her cheek again. "Calm down, it's not healthy for you to keep getting angry like that."

"Sorry, Mom." Frankie said apologetically, "Mind if I walk over to Uncle Matt, see if he needs help or something?"

"Sure, honey." Caitlin nodded, watching her daughter walk away. As soon as she was outside hearing distance, the female doctor stopped holding back and exhaled, finally releasing the tears that fell from her eyes. The dam that she had tried to reinforce with her will now broke to pieces, unleashing tidal waves of tears. Each of them filled with sadness and hurt, trailing down and falling down to the ground. Pooling around her feet, and it was only getting bigger and bigger.

Iris saw the tears rolling down her face and rushed to her side, and asked her concernedly. "Caitlin, what's wrong?"

She blinked rapidly, trying to blink the tears away but to no success. She couldn't help but scoff at her own failing action. Caitlin looked to Iris with teary eyes, she tried to force a smile but it was near impossible for her to do so. but that did not stop her from confessing.

"Barry and Cisco don't know this, but…" she wiped her tears away, but they continued streaming. "…after Seth told us who he was, that he was Venom, he and I were alone in the Cortex. He got me on the right path again, telling me to not blame myself for Ronnie's death back then, that I was desperately trying to force the blame on myself. It helped me a lot."

"But why are you crying?" Iris asked again.

"Because... it's too much like Seth, this." Caitlin gestured to the testing screens around them. Iris drew a blank. "Seth…he let me take tests of him and Venom after he showed himself to us. Like Jay is doing now. But…" she turned her heartbreaking eyes to the reporter again. "…I just miss him so much. And I want to…hold him again, to see him again, to… feel him again."

"I know, Caitlin." Iris placed her hands over hers. "But he would not want you to feel so much pain. He saved us all, he's a hero to us all. The only thing we can do now is just…protect his friends and family now That's what he would want."

Caitlin wiped away the tears again, feeling like she was getting back to her usual self. Able to hold on now again, feeling like she was rejuvenated once again. Able to fight on for her friends and family again, to fight for Frankie again.

"_You would have wanted that, right? Wouldn't you, Seth?_" Caitlin thought to herself. She smiled graciously to Iris and pressed the intercom system to notify the former speedster. "That's enough for today, Jay. Thank you." she told him as she shut down the machine, letting Jay get off the machine.

She really did feel as though her encounter with the elemental was put on repeat, but she hated how it was replaced with the former speedster now. Her heart longingly beats for Seth Fury, and wished above all things, good and bad, that he would somehow escape the clutches of death…and return home…

… to her.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Using the large macroscope in front of them, Cisco and Matt watched the sample of evidence, which contained what appears to be sand grains, that Barry brought along from the crime scene that was the previous site of the fight between The Flash and a new metahuman criminal.

As they inspected the contents, Caitlin, Olivia, Frankie, Iris, Barry watched from behind with careful and examining eyes.

"Found it at the crime scene." Barry informed them. "I mean, it's gotta be from the metahuman who attacked me."

"Ya think?" Matt mocked as he kept examining the container's contents. He also felt an eerie feeling grow inside of him as he saw it. And after sharing a look with his wife, he knew that she was thinking the same.

Cisco pushed the macroscope away and turned to Matt who looked a bit scared. "Huh?" he let out, gaining the nanite mutant's attention while he shook the container. "What is this stuff? Sand?"

Olivia sighed in fear, "I hope not. Cause then this city's gonna be in real troubles."

"It's not sand." They heard Jay say when he stepped into the Cortex. He was wearing an S.T.A.R. Labs-issued shirt as he continued, "It's human cells whose myosin II protein have migrated to the cell's periphery."

Hearing him speak in such impressive scientific terms, the natives and others all widened their eyes with shock. As she saw the spread of shock on their faces, Frankie explained shortly. "Guess what, guys? Jay's another science nerd. Am I the only one who's not that here?"

Olivia narrowed her eyes on her niece. "The heck, sweetie? Don't loop me in with these uber-nerds. I just mess around in people's minds."

"_Literally and figuratively._" Matt thought to himself.

Jay didn't know what to think of the female's words. But he did put them deeply into his mind as he continued speaking, starting with a nod directed at the small container in Cisco's hand. "Those cells have the ability to rearrange and harden, giving them the appearance of sand."

"And how do you do know this?" Barry asked, still full of suspicion.

"They belong to a metahuman I've fought before named Sand Demon." Jay answered them.

Instantly, Cisco shot up from his seat and told the man from the other universe. "I know you're new here, so I'm just gonna break it down for you."

"Are you for real, Cisco?" Matt had to know.

"Yes, I am, Matt." Cisco told him determinedly before turning back to Jay. "The whole "naming the bad guys thing," that's my jam. But you know what?" Jay turned intrigued, mixed with mild shock. "I'm gonna let you have that one 'cause I actually kinda like it. I'm not mad at that one." The mechanical engineer was turning giddy like a true geek. "Is that Barry's sweatshirt?"

Iris then told them, "Oh, uh, sorry. It was all we could find, so…"

Barry looked shocked and hurt, which only increased as Cisco continued. "I was gonna say, 'cause it looks a lot smaller on you, right?" he chuckled embarrassedly. Gaining looks from the others.

The psychic mutant exhaled in relief as she pointed out to her husband's agreement. "Well, at least it's not Sandman."

"Sandman?" Iris inquired.

"Flint Marko, a gigantic pain in the ass of a villain from our world." Matt began. "A powered individual who has the powers to convert his body into sand on command. He was able to convert all or parts of his body into…animated sand at will." He said for a lack of a better word. "It caused his body to alter his body composition and increased his density or loosen the particles of sand."

"Meaning, he could become hard as sandstone or loosen his body, turning it into sand, allowing him to be virtually invulnerable to physical attacks." Olivia continued, rubbing her fist as she said. "He could use this to trap his opponents in him."

Frankie heard this story before and stated, "He also has some sort of shape-shifting powers, like me. He could shape his limbs into weapons right? Or even hurl them like bullets. And the worse thing is, he could convert sand around him to his own form, letting him increase his size and volume."

"You know that how, Frankie?" Matt asked her.

His niece rubbed the back of her head as she admitted sheepishly. "Dad told the weirdest bedtime stories."

"Of course, he did." Olivia admitted. "But damn it took the three of us to take him on back in the day."

"Okay, that sounds terrifying, but I'm gonna give the name a "D minus". I mean, "Sandman"? Sounds like someone trying to get their breakthrough on Broadway, and failing miserably. Maybe I should pay your Earth a visit? Show them my swag." Cisco told them proudly, but his demeanor faded upon recognition of the mutants' gazes on him. Tapping the small container, he stated. "I gotta do this thing."

Everyone watched as Cisco walked away, leaving the Cortex to do his thing. Iris looked to the mutants briefly. "Let's hope your villains just keep their paws away from ours, okay? Carnage was enough for us." They nodded their agreement while the reporter turned to Jay again. "So, who is this Sand Demon?"

Jay shook his head. "I don't know his name, but I know how to stop him."

Frankie, Olivia and Matt looked intrigued and was about to ask for his advice. However, Barry had other plans. "You know what? I think we'll be fine on our own." Everyone looked to him with narrowed eyes.

"Look, Barry, I don't know what else I can do to prove to you I'm on your side." Jay exclaimed to him. "I've been poked, prodded. I even subjected myself to a full body scan."

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "It's called being thorough. Don't flatter yourself, pal." She stated bluntly and looked in Caitlin's direction to get her aid on the matter. But she was not here, having slipped away while they were all busy talking apparently.

Frankie saw her mother was gone too; she even shifted her eyes between the two private labs that are on either side of the Cortex. But like her aunt, she was unable to find Caitlin anywhere in the room. It scared her that her mother was able to vanish like that, disappearing into thin air without a sound.

"Sand Demon's from my world." Jay tried to make the speedster see reason. "Let me teach you how to stop him."

"Yeah, I don't need you to teach me anything, Jay." Barry denied his aid.

"Zoom sent Rothstein here to kill you. He must have sent Sand Demon here to do the same thing." Jay said. "Don't you get it? Anyone close to the Flash, all of you, are in a lot of danger."

"Tell us something new, would you?" Matt mocked. "Central City ain't exactly known for just being sunshine and rainbows, Garrick."

"And all of us, we have been in a lot of danger already." Olivia added. "We lost a lot as well. Something more than powers."

"All right." Barry stepped closer to Jay, who was still reeling in the shock from the mutants' harsh words. "If you're so good, you would have caught him already." The man from the other universe looked defeated. "Let's get Jay back to his cell."

"Wait, where's my Mom?" Frankie asked out loud.

Jay blinked rapidly in shock, "Caitlin's your mother?"

Olivia didn't heed his query as she said, "I know where." She walked around the main console and over to the exit of the Cortex, passing through it and into the corridors.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Time Vault.)**

The blank walls opened with a whirring sound, doors opening up and allowed Olivia to walk into the futuristic room. The doors closed behind him and he looked towards the other end of it, looking in the direction of the white console in that end.

But it was covered by the form of Caitlin Snow who stood in front of it, all the while she was watching the massive holographic article before her. The article that spoke the future that was once hers…and Seth's.

"_Venom Returns Villains Cowers in Fear_" the title of the article read. The picture underneath showing the massive form of the elemental mutant's new form. Showing a pair of blood-red eyes, residing within the white skull extension on his face. Spirals of white bone-like spines wrapped around his forearms and his arms, penetrating their ends into the backside of his hands. Pitch-black skin, white veins and white bone spikes that are sticking out of his torso and bending forward, allowing them to dig into him.

No matter how many times Olivia walked into this room, the sight of that hellish and demonic was still able to send shivers down her spine. And she wasn't the only one who thought that. The others who have watched this, kept thinking that it was enough to scare the living hell out of anyone who placed their eyes on the article.

Though none of them had problems with the thrashed head of The Reverse Flash in his hand, feeling like it was a well-deserved punishment.

"Thought I might find you here." Olivia said sarcastically as she walked closer to the native doctor. She wasn't surprised to find her here, since Caitlin had come here many times ever since her elder brother's sacrifice. It was though she was trying to convince herself of something, but the psychic had no idea what exactly.

Caitlin chuckled as she turned her tearful eyes to her. "Guess, I'm that predictable, huh?"

"That's one way to say it." She stood beside her. "Another way is that you're still hurting. No can blame you for that."

"I'm not just hurt. I'm confused as well." Caitlin revealed, her head pointing to the medical article on the lower half of the article. "It still says "Dr. Caitlin Snow-Fury" for some reason. I don't know why but it keeps saying the same. I check it every day and I always expect the article to change…but…" tears fell from her eyes again, a flood unleashed. "It doesn't."

She made eye contact with her. "Do I change my name in the future? Or something else?"

"I really don't know, Caitlin. I don't know what to tell you." Olivia told her honestly. Her eyes looking at the article again. "Something's gonna happen, and for some reason, your name becomes Snow-Fury in the future. But just so you know," she put her hand on her shoulder. "whatever you choose…Seth would be happy.

Caitlin smiled. With Olivia and Frankie here, she able to feel as though Seth was still with her. His sacrifice might have parted them from one another, leaving a broken heart as the aftermath. Though it was still feeling like the cracks remaining kept cracking from not being with the man who she loves, the remaining relatives of his family eased her pain. Forcing the cracks to slowly return back to their places again, making her heart whole again.

It was able to keep her going, but she never really felt whole…no longer feeling like herself now.

Once again, Caitlin wiped away the tears from her face before holding eye contact with…the woman who would have become her future sister-in-law. "Thanks, Liv." She hugged the psychic who reciprocated. Sniffling a few times, the doctor unwrapped her arms and looked down the mutant's body when she felt something poking her.

Her eyes narrowed at the pendant that was hanging from her neck. She reached up to the pendent and held it between three fingers as Caitlin asked. "What is this? I saw you wearing it before, but I never asked before. But what is it, Liv? Why is your pendant shining like this?"

"It's a little more than a normal pendant." Olivia started off vaguely, she held up the necklace as she continued. "It's an inhibitor, meant for my telepathy." Caitlin looked shocked. "After everything that happened to me, Matt and Seth back when were kidnapped…it left a scar on my mind. It caused my telepathy to go haywire, forcing my memories onto the minds of anyone near me. Like they were forced to experience the horror that I went through. It went on like that for weeks, everyone around kept giving me hate glares because they would get either massive headaches or nosebleeds like their minds were boiling."

"So what changed?" Caitlin asked while surprised that she hadn't heard of this story before now.

"Matt's Dad did." Olivia smiled. "I was still young, having no idea how I would be able to control my powers like I can now. I kept losing control of my new powers, forcing me to listen in on others' thoughts and minds… it was a new Hell after the one I had escaped from." She held up the pendant and stated. "But thanks to Matt's Dad, who spent days working on a solution for me with SHIELD and my Dad, I was able to handle others thoughts and keep my own from affecting others' minds. Made my life a hell of a lot easier."

"But you can control your powers now, so why do you need the pendant again?" Caitlin asked, she was getting impatient as she waited for the reason.

"Because I lost my brother." Olivia bluntly said, causing the doctor to gape her mouth with shock. "I lost control of my telepathy again after years of keeping it in control. Emotions are funny that way. Just one of them can burn all of your training down, like a lit match thrown into a forest. Fucking annoying, wouldn't you say?"

"I'm sorry." Caitlin told her.

But Olivia waved off her concerns. "Don't you worry about that, Caity. It's the only thing I do now. And until I'm ready to use my telepathy again…" she clutched he pendant tightly. "…this stays on. For everyone's safety."

"But without your telepathy…"

"Yeah, I can't read Garrick's mind." Olivia finished off her sentence quickly. "So whether or not he's a big fat liar, is something we're gonna have to figure out on our own instead. Old school is the new cool now."

Caitlin chuckled. "Yeah. Old school it is then." She walked back to the white console, giving the article and the picture of Venom longing looks before touching the button on it. A second later, the article was shut down along with the rest of the Time Vault.

X

Cisco and Matt walked through the corridors and turned a corner, walking into the native engineer's workshop. But the two took a brief pause as when they saw Professor Martin Stein writing dozens of equations and such on the blackboard.

"Whoa." Cisco let out in shock.

"Got that right, Cisco." Matt nodded in agreement while he saw the professor's work. He could easily imagine the elder man's intelligence to be on pair with Bruce Banner and Tony Stark. "_Those three in a room… sounds like a "War of the Minds"._"

"Hey, beautiful mind," Cisco called out of the professor. "I think you need to take a breather."

"He's right, Stein. We need your mind to be at its best, so take a break." Matt smirked, "If not, I'll jam a syringe in your neck and sedate your old wrinkly ass."

Martin Stein gulped in fear and withdrew from the blackboard while he put the marker down. He inhaled and told them, "After some, uh, lengthy calculations, I believe I have discovered the key to proving the proposed breath theory."

Cisco went to work and Matt looked at the elder man. The nanite mutant asked, "What do you have in mind, Stein?"

"Exotic matter."

That single uttered word was enough for them both to give the elder man their full attention, fearing to even blink as though it would cost them valuable time and knowledge. Cisco was the first one to speak, "Huh. You mean, like-"

""Transdimensional energy?"" both Cisco and Matt said in unison.

Martin smiled, "Precisely. Exotic matter, transdimensional energy will theoretically leak from universe into another." he gestured to the blackboard, where he has drawn an example of wormholes and universes. "Now, if this breach Mr. Garrick's talking about is real, if there is indeed a hole in our universe which leads to his earth…"

Cisco caught on, "We can make some adjustments and upload an electrophotography program to the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite…" he trailed off letting the nanite mutant continue.

And Matt got a giddy expression as well and continued, "… and essentially photograph the exotic matter leak. Basically, pinpointing the location of the breach."

"Precisely. With this," the professor gestured to his calculations. "we can gain the locale of said breach."

Cisco's giddy expression expanded, "Last time I saw the kit, it was in the fabrication room."

"I shall return." Martin instantly let out before giving excited exclaims and laughter of triumph as he walked away to the fabrication room.

"Awesome, this is gonna be good." Matt let out in success, enjoying how they were able to go somewhere now.

"Getting gooseys." Cisco shook excitedly and high fived Matt. "Hey, since you dealt with something similar on your Earth, think you can give Stein's calculations a run over again, maybe see if we're missing something while I'm checking out the sample."

"Sure thing." Matt accepted and went to check out the professor's work.

"All right." Cisco went to the microscope and put the sandy sample on the device. "Let's see what you're made of." He saw that he had made a mistake and said, "That's too much." He took out some of the sand, touching it afterwards.

But then it happened again… another… "vibe"…

Like flashing lights, it was brought to him.

X

_He looked around in confusion, swinging his head from side to side. He stopped when seeing the familiar form of The Flash, getting on his feet again._

_…_

_"__Barry?" Cisco spoke to himself._

_…_

_Looking to the other side, he saw Barry's opponent who was retracting sand particles back to him by drawing them to his feet. "I thought it'd be harder than this." The metahuman criminal asked._

_…_

_"__Cisco!"_

_His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he breathed heavily._

X

"Cisco!" Matt's exclaiming voice brought him out of his trance and back into this world. He saw the mechanical engineer hold his head with one hand while he continued panting heavily. "You okay, man? You looked a little out of it."

"I'm fine. Just a bit…dehydrated, I think." Cisco let out with a small chuckle.

"Okay, I'm gonna get you some water. Stay here and don't do anything, okay?" Matt didn't wait for an answer and he walked away hastily.

When he was sure that he was not within hearing distance, he said to himself.

"What's happening to me?"

He felt a few memories from a certain conversation return to his mind…and he didn't like that, in the least.

X

After a while, the skies had darkened and everyone in the Cortex watched the news footage from a somewhat new Star City hero. Olivia and Caitlin had returned from the Time Vault, now standing on either side of Frankie who leaning up against her mother's side. Cisco and Matt were there too, watching the news footage with the title. "_Star City Protector?_"

They heard the man speak his news. "_Yesterday's surprise broadcast from a Star City vigilante who is calling himself the Green Arrow has spawned a massive outcry of both support and dissenters…_"

"Catchy." Caitlin admitted.

Frankie perked her head up and looked to her mother's eyes. "It doesn't take much to please you, does it, Mom?" she said cheekily.

"Someone thinks she's funny." Olivia jokingly said and ruffled Frankie's hair.

Cisco was not thinking the same and spoke his thoughts. "I hate it when they put a color in their name." he was full of disapproval.

Matt then reminded him, "You do know that the speedster of this world is known as The Scarlet Speedster, right? And scarlet is a synonym for red, so…why don't you hate Barry's name?" Cisco didn't speak and growled his retaliation in a mocking manner.

"Yo." Barry called out his greeting to them when he and Iris stepped into the Cortex.

"Speak of the useless devil himself and he shall come." Olivia muttered under her breath.

"Yo." Cisco called out to him. "The sample you gave us?" Barry looked to him. "Not sand. Definitely human cells." He pressed a button on a remote, switching screens on a monitor.

"Yeah, I know. It's not him, I get it." Barry said in defeat.

Cisco crossed his arms over his chest, "I hate to say this, but with everything we've seen and everyone we know now," he gestured to the mutants. "I think this Earth-2 theory is starting to make sense."

"For real?" Barry asked in disbelief.

"What, you think Jay is lying about the Sand Demon?" Iris asked the speedster curiously.

"I don't know. That's my point." Barry said. "But I'm not gonna just believe some guy that walks in here and says a few things that sort of check out. It's not like with Seth, guys. We already knew he was a good guy, one of the best." He added.

Frankie's eyes shined with anger, "You really aren't the one to talk about my Dad."

Barry backed away while Matt spoke. "Frankie's right…and so is Barry." The speedster looked shocked. "Yeah. Jay's not Seth, nor will he ever be like him. He had already been saving people before joining this gang, and Jay honestly doesn't have anything that actually supports his story.".

"What do you mean?" Cisco dejected. "He was…he was right about Zoom."

"We don't know anything about Zoom." Barry told them defiantly. "What is Zoom? Is Zoom even real? Right now, that's just, you know, a story around a campfire."

"A story that somehow scares the living hell of people, enough to make them go after us." Olivia told him.

"Yeah but what if it's not that that scares them?" Barry interjected. He turned to Martin, "I mean, have you discovered a breach yet?"

"Not yet, but we know how to now." Martin regrettably answered.

Barry looked to Caitlin and Frankie, "Have you found one thing to suggest that Jay is a speedster? Is the Speed Force even in his system?"

"It doesn't appear to be, no." Caitlin answered just as regrettably.

Barry looked to Olivia. "Liv, have you looked into his mind, see if he's even speaking the truth?"

"First of all, you don't give me orders. I'm here for a couple of reasons, and you're still not one of them." Olivia said determinedly. "Second of all, no, I didn't. I don't do that anymore." Caitlin rubbed her back comfortingly.

Barry felt his insides stinging with pain from each spoken by the psychic mutant. However, he had to force his pain down and keep it buried within himself, for the bigger fight. "See? We are scientists." He looked around. He pointed to Iris, "You are a journalist." He shifted it to Olivia. "You are a psychologist. We test, we prove, we report, we dig into people's minds. That's what we do. Except right now, nobody here wants to do any of that except me."

Everyone looked hurt by his words, causing them to frown. Frankie saw her mother's hurt in her eyes and it caused her eyes to blaze with anger while her hands clenched and unclenched, shaking metal around them and forming claws on her hands. Matt and Olivia turned angry as they saw their hurt, and they looked ready murder.

Iris saw the hurt on her friends' faces and the anger spiking on Seth's family members. She inhaled deeply and looked to Barry before asking the others. "Can we have the room for a minute?"

They all walked away, intending to leave them alone to talk for now. But Matt leaned over to Iris' ear. "Either you talk some sense into him, or The Flash is gonna find himself on the ground, without legs. And I'll happily dismember him." He spoke lifelessly before walking away.

Iris felt the cold lifeless shiver run down her spine, an indication that the nanite mutant would indeed be willing to cut down the speedster without hesitation. She turned to Barry himself and asked disbelievingly. "What has happened to you?"

"Are you…me?" Barry asked, he couldn't believe what he was hearing now.

"Yes, you." Iris clarified. "The you that I grew up with. The you that is my best friend. The you that became The Flash. I haven't seen that you in a very long time."

"A lot's changed, Iris." Barry told her, his tone displaying sadness.

"Yeah, it sure has." Iris agreed. "You have learned how to not trust people." Barry leaned against the railing of the main console. "What is it about Jay that you don't like?"

"I don't know." Barry sighed.

But even though Barry couldn't see it, she could. Stepping closer to the speedster she said. "It's because he reminds you of Harrison Wells."

At the mention of that man's name, Barry opened up his heart and spoke truthfully. "I trusted that man. For months. We all did…well most of us anyway." He added at the end, recalling that the mutants who did not trust him in the least. "And you know what? Eddie is dead. Ronnie is dead. Seth is…dead." That one caused a lot of pain to spread through them both. "And a whole lot of other people in this city, they are dead because we trusted him. I'm not gonna let us make that mistake again."

Iris understood his reason. That man had caused unimaginable pain to everyone here in the facility, in the entire city, to every single person in the city for that matter. Destroying their lives beyond any normal measure.

But to see everyone like that… it was nothing like how Barry is. He was a beacon of light, trusting everyone when they showed their purest and honest intentions that ensured the safety of everyone around them. However, he refused to let his light shine now. Keeping its light imprisoned behind the barricades of distrust that he has built.

Iris, however, couldn't allow that. "Barry, not everyone is Harrison Wells." She took a seat beside him. "Besides, you defeated him _because_ you trusted in people. Because you believed in them. This team that you have here, they will follow your lead. They'll do what you say." He gave her a dry look, "Okay, not all. But they're still hurting." Barry nodded. "But if they think that you don't believe in them, it won't be long before they don't believe in you."

He hated how right she was now. But it was right. If he continued to act like they weren't doing their best, like they weren't on his side and let his paranoia dictate him… then they would all fall down like dominos because of his words.

Words could cut deeper than words.

X

Time had passed now.

And now they had worsened, greatly.

Joe had caught Eddie Slick, the one native to this universe, and taken him into custody, interrogating him to show his powers. Like Barry at the time, he too was suspicious of Jay's claims of another universe that is similar to this universe, so he once getting a facial recognition on the criminal, he brought in the criminal's doppelganger.

But it proved to be no use keeping in within the precinct's confines, so he released him. It only led to another act, one that resulted in the capture of Officer Patty Spivot. When that happened, they had to go to the one and only source that could help them and Patty…

…Jay Garrick…

Now they all stand in the Cortex once again, waiting to hear what plan Jay Garrick had in mind. "We're looking for any structures that promote humidity. Greenhouses, grow rooms, anything of the sort. His body will literally start to fall apart if he becomes dehydrated."

"Like dry sand." Frankie stated.

"Exactly." Jay agreed with the young metahuman's words. "Sand Demon always attacks on two fronts. He creates a diversion, then strikes when you're distracted."

"So this joker is actually smart enough to use his brains." Olivia said. "That's something."

"Okay, so what do we do?" Barry asked.

"Smart also means overconfident. We can take advantage of that." Matt said.

Jay nodded. "We use your speed to get to him before the distraction can happen."

"Jay," Barry stopped him from speaking further. "how do I stop somebody who can slip through my fingers?"

"The way I was never able to." Jay looked directly at Barry. "With lightning."

Cisco clapped his hands in excitement. "Yo, are you about to pull a Zeus right now?"

"What are you talking about?" Iris directed at Jay.

"Yeah, Barry has lightning in his body. And it only shows itself when he's running. So how is it gonna help us here?" Frankie asked in confusion.

"**_Think we're gonna have to help here._**" Magenta said.

"_We were gonna do that anyway, partner._" Frankie told her "other" in agreement.

Jay then explained, "Barry's gonna hurl lightning from the energy he creates when he runs."

Caitlin smiled. "Because lightning plus sand equals…"

"Glass." Her daughter said immediately.

"Time to learn something new, kid." Jay said to Barry.

The native speedster chuckled softly. "All right." He turned around and looked into the corridors. His facial expression faltered when he saw Joe pacing back and forth while holding his phone tightly in his hand. "Give me a sec, guys."

The Scarlet Speedster walked into the hallway and asked his adoptive father. "Hey, are you good?"

Joe held up his phone, waving in his hand as he told. "That was Singh. CCPD still hasn't found anything yet." He then inhaled deeply. "Irony is, I didn't want Patty to have anything to do with the damn task force in the first place. And she gets taken because of me."

"No, no, no, this isn't your fault, all right?" Barry assured him.

"It's hard not to think that." Joe dejected.

"Well, look, we're gonna find Patty, all right? Whatever it takes." Barry told him before walking away to begin his training with Jay Garrick.

As he was walking away, Joe sighed and leant against the wall. He rubbed his eyes in annoyance as felt blame take over his mind.

"You okay, Uncle Joe?"

He looked to the side and saw Frankie walking into the corridors. Joe chuckled. "I'm fine, sweetheart. Just blaming myself for what is going on with Patty now."

"You know what Dad would tell you if he was here?" Joe looked at her smiling face. "He would tell you to stop exactly that and get your head in the game, cause it's gonna need you now. Soldier on, Detective and pull your head outta your ass."

"Sounds like your Dad." Joe agreed and wrapped his arms around Frankie who reciprocated. "Thank you, honey. Means a lot."

"When we get a lead on Patty's whereabouts, I'll being going as well." Frankie told him. "I'll make sure that your partner gets back, safe and sound."

Joe raised an eyebrow. "She's not my partner, kiddo."

Frankie giggled and walked backwards with slow steps. "Sure, Uncle Joe." She turned her heels and walked into the Cortex again.

The moment she did so, she saw her mother standing by a monitor as she announced. "I've searched all the vacant buildings in Central City and none of them fit the description that we need." She walked over to Martin Stein.

The professor then spoke next, "And I've looked at any draw upticks on the electrical grid. Nothing out of the norm, I'm afraid."

"_Me and Liv aren't having much luck either in the skies!_" Matt shouted over the communication lines.

"_We haven't looked everywhere yet. We can't give up now. Keep going._" Olivia added from her current position in the skies.

Cisco looked deep in thought, a look of conviction and determination crossing over his face. His mind swelling with theories and actions that he could do, anything at all that would allow him to help his friends find Patty Spivot. But none of them were more than thoughts that eased his human state for a short a while.

Only one thing kept returning to his mind, one that had proven itself to be useful.

"We gotta do whatever it takes." Cisco muttered to himself. "I'll be back." He rose from his chair and walked out of the Cortex, Martin Stein the only one to notice him walking away. The elderly professor sharing a look with Frankie and Caitlin, both of whom who shook their heads.

X

Cisco shot into his workshop and rushed towards the microscope, the sample of Sand Demon's cells still on it.

He knew that he had to do this again, just like before. Hoping and begging for the same thing to happen again…a person's life was on the line now.

And he could save her.

"Okay, come on." He said to himself with closed eyes. With shaking hands he reached for the sample glass…touching the very sand-like cells on it with a mere of graze of his fingers.

It worked.

It was brought to him within a veil of flashing lights.

X

_Somehow Cisco returned to that place again…a world within his own mind…of sorts._

_…_

_He found himself in a place of humidity, plants around him and other gardening items used for that purpose._

_…_

_He walks around in search, hoping that this strategy was the right thing to do._

_…_

_"__Flash is coming for you, you know?" He stopped at the voice and found Patty Spivot bound to a chair there, he remembered her face from Joe who showed her photo._

…

_"__Yes, I'm sure he is." A familiar voice spoke. Looking towards it, Cisco saw Eddie Slick working on something._

_…_

_"__You can't beat him." Patty spoke while the mechanical engineer looked around, trying to find any indication to their whereabouts. He found something a box with the logo of the building, while the officer spoke. "I don't care what powers you have."_

_…_

_"__I wouldn't be too sure about that." Eddie said all the while working on his weapon._

_…_

_Cisco saw the weapon, recognizing what it is he let out in horror. "Oh, no."_

_…_

_Another series of lights flashed over his mind and it ended._

X

Cisco returned to the reality and his head banged like a speaker was blaring in his mind. His breathing was disturbed and came out in pants as he felt the aftermath of the "vibe".

"Mr. Ramon?"

"Cisco, you okay?"

The mechanical engineer perked his head up at the voices that called out to him. He looked back and saw Martin Stein and Matt standing there, both wearing confused expressions that were mixed with worry as well. The nanite mutant standing wearing his

"What are you doing down here?" Martin started off.

Matt looked him up and down, "Cisco, did you have another episode or something like before?" Martin turned to the mutant with a shocked expression.

But none of their questions reached Cisco as his mind were dealing with another matter. "I figured out where Patty is."

Martin snapped his head to him. "And how exactly did you do that?" he spoke suspiciously.

"Just a…hunch." Cisco replied vaguely.

"A hunch?" Matt repeated. "You're kidding, right?"

"We gotta tell Barry." Cisco ran out of the room, leaving the two other men to stand there confusedly.

Matt pointed a finger to him. "Does people just forget that me and my wife can help out as well? We're heroes ourselves."

Martin looked at Matt again. "Do you know what is troubling Mr. Ramon, Mr. Stark?"

"I have no idea, Martin." Matt replied with a shaking head. "But honestly, I know he's hiding something. And I'm not letting him keep it to himself." he smirked.

Martin thought he saw devious intentions hiding within that smirk and said, "You're not thinking of hurting Cisco, are you?"

"No, of course not!" Matt exclaimed before waving him over. "Come on!"

X

Down in the large and open space of the basement level under S.T.A.R. Labs, Jay watched Barry running around in a circle, running around the target dummy with a large target circle behind him.

He saw Barry stop and let the lightning he generated run over his form, over his right arm, and swung it. As though he was wielding it, The Flash launched the lightning. But it never came near the intended target, hitting the support beam in the far back.

At the sight of it, Jay told the panting speedster. "Again." He spoke in an ordering manner.

Barry took off his cowl and said, "I've been doing this for an hour. It's not working."

"It's because you're trying to rush it." Jay stated instantly and walked down the platform as he said. "This is the one time you need to slow down." Barry practiced the swing that he had to use while the former speedster continued his lecture. "Let the energy pass over you, then simply direct it to where you want it to go."

"All right, Jay…" Barry breathed. "I don't know if I'm gonna get this in time."

"You'll get it. I believe in you." Jay honestly told him.

Barry inhaled deeply as he heard his words, feeling the sense of familiarity inside him, which only brought him disgust. "The last person that helped me like this was a man that I looked up to. Idolized. He taught me how to get faster, how to get stronger, how to use my powers to save people. That same man murdered my mother and was the reason people in this entire city is hurt."

Jay walked closer to Barry. "It's a tough break, but I'm not him."

He nodded before saying. "Yeah."

"I know where they are!"

Both Barry and Jay turned their heads around and saw Cisco running towards them with Martin Stein and Matt beside him. He and the others reached them and the mechanical engineer revealed, "The abandoned Woodrue grow house. That's where Slick's keeping Patty."

Matt and Martin share suspicious looks while Barry and Cisco engage in a hug. "Dude, great job." The speedster telling him.

It was a brief hug as the mechanical engineer continued. "And I was thinking, if I were Sand Demon and I were attacking a speedster on two fronts, I-I would probably want to slow you down, like, by using a concussive bomb or something like that." The suspicion within the mutant and the professor increased again.

"That's a good thought. He's actually used one on me before." Jay informed them. "His body absorbs the blast so it doesn't affect him." he looked to Barry. "Well, kid, gonna have to think of something."

"Great. Wanna give this dude a mirror to distract himself? He could definitely use one, he looks like a hobo." Matt joked after remembering what the man looked like. At least the doppelganger of the metahuman.

However, that joke inspired the speedster's next thoughts. "You know what? What if we give Slick a diversion?" all three of them looked as he pointed his eyes to the former speedster. "He knows you, right? You said you went up against him."

"Yeah, but, Barry, I don't have my speed." Jay regrettably told him.

The Flash smirked, "He doesn't know that."

"Pretty sure that's a shitty idea, Flash." Matt said, annoyingly and surprisingly enough, both of them looked to him at the same time. The nanite mutant inhaled deeply in growing annoyance as he pointed to Jay. "And if Jay's anything like most speedsters, then it means he doesn't have much fighting experience. He'll be a punching bag, literally."

Both Barry and Jay looked saddened by those words. Martin then said to the mutant with a solution. "If that is a problem, then why not have the young Ms. Fury enter the fray as well. I believe she possesses more fighting abilities now our friends here." He gestured to the speedsters, former and current, "Were Mr. Garrick to be in danger, Frankie would no doubt offer her aid and fight herself."

"Sounds like Frankie, yeah." Matt had to admit. "But sure, she can do it, my niece is a fighter all right."

"Frankie's just a kid." Jay stated.

"Trust me, she's a lot more than just that." Matt told him vaguely, leaving the man with practically nothing to think of.

Barry smiled in agreement and looked to Jay again. "You got your suit?"

"Sure." He inclined his head. "Well, except my helmet."

"Helmet?" Martin asked, gaining the man's attention.

"Silver kettle helmet?" Matt asked.

"Gold wings?" Cisco followed up with another question.

Jay widened his eyes, "Don't tell me you guys found it."

Matt chuckled to himself as he thought absentmindedly. "_You would have loved this, Seth. Hearing that the stupid helmet that hit you is actually worth a damn._" He clenched his hands. "_I'll protect them all, I promise Seth._"

X

**(Woodrue Grow House)**

The sound of beeping and faint whirring was the only sound that echoed within the walls of the abandoned grow house. Patty was the target, sitting tied to the chair while Eddie Slick, Sand Demon, walked around her like a shark swimming around its prey, as though it was closing off all exits.

The criminal looked bored…considered…reconstructing something within the grow house.

_WHOOSH_

But the sound of whooshing and wind blasting away and hitting his back stopped his thoughts with his back straightening up. "Is that you, Flash?!" Sand Demon called out. "Found you way here." He turned around to face the direction of the wind's incoming.

But it was not The Flash that he expected…it was one he had traded blows with in the past.

He stood with his head pointing downwards to the ground, wearing a suit that resembles a soldier's uniform from his native universe. A dark red jacket covering his upper body, golden outline of a lightning bolt in the center of it. Blue pants on his lower half. Hands covered by grown gloves. Feet covered in brown boots. And his signature silver helmet with gold wings on his head.

The Flash of the other universe looked upwards, making eye contact with his enemy again. "I came quite a distance."

"I thought you were dead." Eddie Slick said in shock.

"You were wrong." Jay said instantly. "Like usual." He taunted the metahuman criminal who walked closer to him. "Let the girl go." He nodded to the bound officer.

"Have at it." Sand Demon challenged. "But you touch her, she goes boom." He carefreely imitated an explosion with his hands. "And I think even you aren't fast enough to save her." he kept walking closer to him.

Jay saw that he was close enough and swung his fists, sending blows with both of them. Both of them dodged by the criminal who lowered his body to a crouch at each one that came coming. Another one came, but it too was dodged.

Eddie returned to his usual stance and said in surprise. "Quite a bit slower on this Earth, aren't you, Flash?"

The Flash launched his fist again, this one connecting with the sandy metahuman's face, causing it to turn into sand grains. Sand Demon's face reformed again while a smirk formed on his face, he then turned to him again.

And the counterattack began.

Eddie Slick sent his fist into Jay's face. Disorienting him and leaving him vulnerable for the two fists that impacted his stomach. Jay had to unleash a series of coughs while Sand Demon held him up, pulling him up to look into his eyes. "You don't have your speed, do you?" his smirk broadened.

_SLASH_

A large jagged pink sword came down from above, cutting off his sand arm and spreading its sand-like cells. Tendrils wrapped around Jay's form before pulling on them and pulled the Flash away from danger. While Sand Demon's arm regenerated, he looked to the side of the sword and saw a surprising form standing there.

He found Magenta standing there in her full height. A pinkish sword with black and white veins on her right arm while her left arm retracted its tendrils and formed her arm again. She let her tongue glide over the teeth of her open maw, licking the saliva away from them. "**What's up, Sandcastle?**"

Sand Demon took a step back, his eyes blinking repeatedly. Each time they opened; he saw a different person standing before him. Opening them once, he saw Magenta before him, her weapons strong and armed on her limbs. Opening them again, he saw _him…_ that pitch-black hellish demon that wields elements that he fought against before on his earth. The fear of fighting that monster against shook him with surprise.

Surprised that that demon had come for him, surpassing universes to find him now. But once his eyes opened up again, he saw that it wasn't Venom. Merely someone who looked like him.

But he had to know. "You're not him, right?"

Magenta twitched her head with a complexed expression on her face. "**Don't know who you're talking about, and I don't care.**"

Sand Demon lightly scoffed while turning both hands into massive sand fists. "You're not him." he was sure that it wasn't Venom. his words caused her to briefly tilt her head in confusion. "Good. I can kill you."

"**You can try.**"

She jumped forward in a leap, entering a spin and swung her sword after him. She expected him to dodge, but he took head-on instead and let the hardened symbiotic blade tear into his body, splitting its way through his sand-like cells without causing the least bit pain in him.

Frankie came to a halt, looking into the back of the sandy metahuman. She saw his targeted area slowly regenerate again. "**That's annoying.**" She muttered to herself while the man turned around to face her.

His fists launching themselves and shooting out for her. Using her extra senses belonging to her partner, Frankie clenched her left hand and swung them, a pair of metal barrels slamming into the fists from the sides and smashing them into dust screens.

Jumping from the ground and into the air, Magenta brought her blade down into his shoulder, driving it deeper through his body and cut his arm off again. Following up with the slash, she twirled around and cut off his other arm. None of his dismembered limbs seemed to have least bit effect on Sand Demon as he continued to smirk.

Inhaling deeply, Frankie raised her right foot and swung it into the criminal's face, kicking off sand from his face. Utilizing the momentum of the attack, she jumped backwards with a backflip and landed on her feet. She saw the sand slowly getting back on place.

"_He needs to be distracted._" Frankie thought to herself in thought of a solution.

"**_His body looks to take time when regenerating again._**" Magenta said, mentally looking at the metahuman's body that was returning to its natural state. "**_Wreck all of him. Quickly!_**"

Showing a toothy grin, she lashed both of her arms outwards. Launching them both into dozens of tendrils that flew through the air like bullets and penetrated through the criminal's body, leaving no places on his physique to be unharmed and turned into dusts of sand.

"**Now!**" she called out loud.

_WHOOSH_

Precisely on cue, the Scarlet Speedster sped into the grow house and appeared before Patty Spivot with time slowed down around him. He released the officer from her confines and brought her away.

_EXPLOSION_

But in the process, the concussion bomb under the chair blew up and unleashed a shockwave. Barry and Spivot were launched into the air as though they were hurled into it. Jay was hit as well, flung into the air and Frankie was as well. But her tendrils connected to pillars around her, lessening her blast. Eddie Slick's body absorbed the shockwave, not even appearing to be affected by the explosion.

Barry and Patty were brought down to the ground. The speedster getting into a crouch quickly and checking over the officer's welfare. Finding good results, he told his friends. "Patty's alive."

"_Is Frankie alright?_" He heard Caitlin call out worriedly.

The Flash looked in her direction and saw the young metahuman hanging by her tendrils. "She's fine, I think she's just unconscious."

"_I'm going over there._" Matt exclaimed at his words, the sound of his thrusters blazing in the background making its way through the comms device.

"Must be my lucky day." Eddie let out in happiness. "Zoom sent me here to kill you." he looked at Barry who got up on his feet. "Now I get to kill The Flash from two worlds, plus some scary little girl, before I go home." He sent his arm out backwards, extending the limb and wrapped his fist around Jay's throat.

The formed speedster tried to force the fist off his throat, but to no success whatsoever. Barry saw it by he was paralyzed now, fear overtaking him while Iris called out. "_Barry, you gotta do something now._"

He and Jay shared a look, both nodding to one another while Frankie detached herself from the spot and got onto the ground. She looked up in time to see Barry gaining a determined look before running around in a circle around Eddie Slick.

The metahuman criminal released his lock around Jay's throat and let him fall to the ground. Eddie looked around briefly before exclaiming. "Come on!"

Barry stopped and time slowed down in a crawl, the lightning that he generated latching onto his right arm. He felt the eyes of the other three in the room looking at him. Unleashing a battle cry he swung his sparking yellow lighting like a harpoon,

Eddie saw it coming and was too slow to move away…forcing him to accept the massive force of the lightning bolt. Its heat touching his body and hardening it, hardening into glass and threw him into the air. His body falling down to the ground, shattering it into pieces that were once the pieces of his life.

Barry and Jay panted as they walked closer to one another.

Frankie panted as well, feeling exhaust coming over her body again. "You okay, honey?" she looked back and saw her Uncle Matt standing there in his Iron Knight suit, his helmet opened up to show his face. she opened her mouth to speak but instead exhaust won the battle and she fell into his arms. "I got you, Frankie. Don't worry."

"She okay?" Barry called to her while standing beside Jay.

"She's fine." Matt stated.

Jay admired the damage Barry had done and looked to him. "Nice shot, kid."

As they both admired the work left behind from Barry's attack, Patty Spivot regained consciousness. With a grouchy voice, she called out. "Flash?"

Both of them looking up and said at the same time, ""Coming."" Matt saw them run over to Patty in perfect unison, which creeped him out a bit in all fairness.

Even when they both got into a crouch at the same time.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Caitlin was in the private lab with Jay sitting on one gurney while her daughter was sleeping on the adjacent one. She was busy wrapping bandage around the former speedster's stomach, but her eyes would drift over to Frankie every now and then.

Jay saw her skills and complimented them. "You're pretty good at this."

The doctor chuckled softly. "I've had a lot of practice over the last year." She stepped back and praised him back. "It was really courageous doing what you did today, standing up to the Sand Demon without any powers."

"Ah, Barry did all the work, of course so did your daughter." He gestured to the metahuman on the gurney, the mention of her daughter caused her to smile profoundly. "I just stood there and took a few punches. And Frankie fought against Sand Demon head-on without being scared, I'm impressed."

"It was more than a few." Caitlin said and looked at her child. "And Frankie has been training for the last six months, for a long time. She's still…mourning."

"Her father?" Jay deduced. Caitlin didn't respond, keeping her eyes on her child, the sole reminder of Seth Fury. Seeing the hurtful change in her eyes, the former speedster changed the subject. "This is a lot harder than I thought." The doctor turned to him again. "Losing something that was such a big part of who I was for so long."

Caitlin shifted her gaze away from Jay and placed them on Frankie as she spoke. "I lost something that was a part of me, too…someone, actually." She inhaled deeply, her hand drifting up her front and grabbed her necklace. "It's hard, but it gets easier every day. Hard still, heartbreaking even." She walked over to her daughter's sleeping form, her hand squeezing her hand after intertwining them. "You just have to find a new way to live. Just because it's a different life it doesn't mean it's a worse one. I can say that for sure."

She bent down and kissed her daughter's forehead. In response to that, Frankie let out, "Mom" in her sleep. Her eyes stirred behind her lids and they opened up and saw her mother standing in front of her. "Hey, Mom."

"Hey, sweetie." Caitlin helped her up to her feet again, she saw Barry making his way through the Cortex and she turned back to Jay. "And, speed or no speed, in my book you were still a hero today. Just a rank under this one, of course." she pointed her to her blushing child before continuing. "I'm just sorry we didn't realize it a bit sooner."

Barry reached the room and heard what she said, holding his hand. "Especially me."

Caitlin chuckled. "I'll have to get this one" she rubbed her daughter's shoulders. "to bed, she has to go to school tomorrow."

"I thought being a superhero spared me of that." Frankie whined with a pout.

"No, it doesn't, Miss Thing." Caitlin told her with a one-armed hug. "We'll leave you two speedsters alone." She and Frankie walked away, leaving the men to themselves.

Barry looked to Jay who spoke, "So, I hear they call you "The Scarlet Speedster.""

"Yeah." Barry nodded. "What about you?"

""The Crimson Comet"." Jay said. "What is it with alliteration and nicknames? I even heard of Frankie called the "Rose Demon". And another one called "The Demonic Warrior"."

"He's…" Barry did not know how to speak of Seth now. He inhaled deeply before looking into Jay's eyes. "Hey, look, Jay, um…" he sat down on the gurney. "So, thank you for all your help. And for being patient with me."

"Nah, anytime, kid." Jay told him. "You're a quick study. Took me a lot longer to learn how to toss lightning, believe me."

"Then I suppose I had the right teacher." Barry praised him.

"It's going to be a lot harder to take down Zoom." Jay admitted.

At the mention of that man, the speedster asked seriously. "Who is this guy?"

"No one knows." Jay leant back against a table. "He showed up around the same time as when I got my powers. Killed a lot of people in my world. I spent about two years tracking him down." He felt a darkness of hurt and failure come over his eyes, his past failures of battles returning to mind. "But he was too smart, too quick. He's always one step ahead."

"You really think he's just bringing these guys here to kill me?" Barry asked.

"Zoom is obsessed with destroying me." Jay told him. "Now he wants to destroy you."

"Yeah." Barry said.

"He needs to be the best." Jay told him. "And he will do whatever it takes to ensure he's the only speedster. In any world." Barry was surprised with how much information Jay knew about the evil speedster that had plagued his world and this one too. His information would indeed help them.

"Barry." He and Jay looked to the entrance of the lab and saw Matt leaning against the doorframe. "I'm gonna need a word with this one." he looked to Jay as he spoke.

Barry nodded and bid his farewell to the former speedster before walking away. Jay looked to the nanite mutant. "What is it, Matt?"

"Not much." Matt vaguely said as he walked closer to him. "Just a few words." Jay crossed his arms. "I don't trust you. Not by a long shot." The words caused the former speedster to widen his eyes. "These people, are my people and they've been hurt, burned and suffered a lot because of people who've claimed to be allies before…so let's get something straight."

Matt removed all emotions in his eyes as he said. "You try and hurt them in any way, use them in any way…I will kill you without hesitation. I don't trust anyone, even they're willing to take a bullet for my people. I'm not like Barry and the others here, I don't mind killing anyone. Won't be the first, won't the last. And if you in some way hurt my niece… I will make you beg for Zoom." He leant closer to his face. "I'm a knight, and knights are willing to rise from Hell's flames if it means killing those who hurt their family." Jay was shaking and gulping with fear.

"So tread carefully, Garrick." Matt finished off before walking away, the man left with his hand on his chest. He felt his heart beating like an earthquake underneath all the flesh. Fear soaking it and every beat spreading the growing fear.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco's workshop)**

The next day had started off, Cisco was busy at work, working on the computers and the electrophotography. He was too busy to notice the footsteps emitting from Martin and Matt's feet as they walked into the workshop.

Martin started. "Any progress with the electrophotography?"

"If not, then this is gonna be one annoying roller coaster." Matt said humorlessly as he walked closer to the mechanical engineer with the professor.

Cisco answered their question. "The satellite picture of the city's still rendering." He began typing on his computer.

Matt leant over the table. "Something you wanna say to us, Cisco?"

"Like what?" Cisco looked curiously at him with a lie.

"I believe what Mr. Stark is trying to say is," Martin made eye contact with him. "while we wait, if you care to tell us what's going with you?"

"What? Nothing." Cisco lied, once again.

"Cisco, you're a smart guy, but an awful liar." Matt confessed. "But if you want us to say it, then fine. Martin, if you'd please?" he gestured to the professor.

"Two hunches in one day." Martin began. "Slick's locale, and that he'd be using a concussive bomb to thwart Barry. Do either me or Mr. Stark need to inform you of the odds of such a prediction?"

Cisco knew that he couldn't lie his way out of this one no longer. He had to spill the beans, he had to tell them the truth. "Something's happening to me." Martin and Matt listened closely. "I'm starting to perceive things. Horrible things. It started after Wells killed Seth in the other timeline." The nanite mutant widened his eyes. "It came back when Atom Smasher attacked on Flash Day, and then again when Sand Demon showed up." he put his hands together as he tried to explain. "I get a vibe, and then a vision of something that's already happened…and then it's gone. That's how I knew where Slick was."

"Cisco, this is amazing." Martin let out astonished. "We…we have to study this, figure out just what to do."

"He's right, it's incredible Cisco." Matt let out as well. "It means you're a metahuman as well."

The mechanical engineer shot up from his chair. "No, no, no, we're not doing any of that, and we're certainly not telling anybody, either."

The two other shared a look. Martin looked to him shocked of his decision. "Cisco, I would think you'd be the one most intrigued with knowing exactly what this is and how it works."

Matt narrowed his eyes. "Unless you don't want to. You're scared of this."

Cisco gulped in fear. "I'm seeing things I don't want to see." He spoke with his voice shaking. "And knowing things I don't want to know. I just want it to stop." He shifted his gaze between them. "Professor, Matt, I don't want anyone to know about this. Not yet." He turned his back to them and walked to the other side of the table.

"It's okay to be afraid, you know?" Martin started.

"Especially if this came to be by some madman." Matt said, knowing what was happening to him now, what he feared right now.

"Wells told me this was my future." Cisco shockingly started. "That he gave me this power. But everything he did was evil. That's what scares me, guys. You have to promise me neither of you will tell anyone about this." He practically begged them.

Martin nodded, "I promise."

Matt spoke next. "Cisco. I'm a mutant who was kidnapped by the army. Scientists prod and prodded my body for an entire year, giving me the ability to create nanites from my metallic bone structure which had to be infused with a boiling and melted metal that was like magma entering my body. All of this so I could become a biological weapon for the army, a disposable weapon for them. I know what's it like to fear one's own powers, especially since you don't want them. But believe me, when I say this. Just because powers come from a bad person, a madman even, doesn't mean they automatically are bad."

He put his hands on his friend's shoulders. "You control them and you can make your powers the ones that saves people. They can the very source that saves people's lives, trust me on this. We'll help you. I promise you."

Cisco smiled in happiness, happy that his friend was there to help through this tough and frightening time.

The computer began beeping as the results of a search had completed. Cisco and Matt shot to the computer and looked at it. "Oh, wow." The mechanical engineer let out in shock.

"Shit." Cisco looked to Matt. "It's like what happened on my Earth."

"What do you mean, Mr. Stark?" Martin asked.

"Get the others, we have to loop them in." Matt stated.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Cisco, Matt and Martin Stein had brought the others into the matter. Caitlin, Frankie, Olivia, Barry and Jay had come to hear the announcement.

"It appears that while we were indeed successful in closing the Singularity, there was an unfortunate side effect." Martin began.

"What do you mean?" Frankie asked in fear and worry.

"Using electrophotography, Matt, Cisco and I were able to search Central City for any signs of energy entering our earth from another dimension." Martin said.

"From the breaches that Garrick told us about." Matt pointed a finger to the man from the other universe, seeing him gulp in fear.

"Let us guess, we underestimated the entire thing." Olivia said slowly.

Cisco nodded, "Of course, there isn't just one breach."

"How many are there?" Olivia directed to her husband.

Matt recalled the story he told her of what happened on their origin universe after Seth's jump to this universe. "Remember what I told you a while back, about what happened in our universe after Seth jumped into the portal that brought you guys here?"

Olivia nodded. "Yeah, there was, like, 23 small portals appeared around the area of the portal, right? Because of the portal's aftershock, it left energy spots in random places in the surrounding area of the portal. One of the last portals ended up receiving the strength of the other closed ones, ending up with turning into a small wormhole that sucked you in here."

"Yeah, exactly." Matt nodded to his wife. "Well the same thing happened here."

"Wait, there's twenty-three portals here?" Caitlin asked shockingly.

"Nope." Cisco shook his head. "There's 52 breaches scattered throughout the city." Caitlin, Frankie, Olivia and Barry looked downwards in failure.

Martin then spoke, "If these breaches are anything like the ones Mr. Stark has witnessed, then they are pockets of time and space folded into and upon itself."

"My brain hurts." Frankie put her hands on her head. Caitlin giggled and wrapped her arm around her and pulled her close.

The elderly professor then continued, "But the most significant breach of all appears to be this one." he pointed to Cisco who pressed a button on the remote, zooming in on the biggest breach.

Caitlin narrowed her eyes on that screen. "And where exactly is that located?"

Matt pointed a finger downwards. "Here."

"Inside S.T.A.R. Labs." Martin continued. "And just beyond that breach is an entirely diff… fferent…" he began stammering uncontrollably…before his body grew weak and he fell to the ground with a thud.

Everyone rushed to his side. Cisco tried shaking him awake. "Professor? Professor!"

"Martin!" Frankie tried calling out to him.

All around him, his friends were there to try and help Martin Stein back to the realm of consciousness. But they all feared that it was useless as none of their voices brought him back to them.

They all feared the worst now.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**The dear and elder professor Martin Stein have fallen ill, reasons unknown to those around his fallen body. Hauntingly fear that is akin to a vengeful ghost is now hovering over them all.**

**All of them still feeling pain from Seth's passing. **

**Caitlin's heart absolutely falling down the cliff and into a rift of nothing but heartbreaking spikes that keeps bringing her heart to the breaking point. Repeating it even on a loop. Jay's appearance even making her think of the times that Seth and her have spent times together, their cherished memories resurfacing back to her. **

**But with Frankie beside her, her daughter, she is able to fight on despite all the pain that keeps hitting in massive waves. It's a fight that she has to keep on fighting, no matter what, she has to. For her daughter who was always mourning the loss of her father.**

**Olivia still hurting like the others, now using an item of her past to inhibit her telepathy. Afraid of losing control, which could lead to others around her to experience pain like she had. A choice to limit herself for the better of others.**

**Barry and the other natives of Earth-1 have become willing to trust Jay Garrick, now that his knowledge and his skills, not to mention his heroic sacrifice, have proven himself. But Matt Stark still keeping his eyes on him from afar. A bullet taken for a friend of his, is not enough for him to give his trust. He's gonna have to watch out for himself.**

**And now new threats have been identified by Team Flash as the existences of "breaches" have been brought to their attention. it will prove to be interesting battles to come as Zoom will continue to exploit them.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	7. Chapter 7: Night of An Eclipse

**And another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**Before we get to the story, I would like to state a few things:**

**I would like to thank ArchaicPhenominon for his amazing ideas for signature coffee drinks for the OC heroes. It means a lot and I would like to thank him for that.**

**And to answer a question posted by a reader, one Jason Hunter, I have not decided on a real-life actor to portray as Seth Fury. Greatest tool of humans, their imaginations. Your minds are gonna have to put a face on our troublesome elemental.**

**Furthermore, I realize that there might be some that think that Caitlin will still fall for Jay Garrick in the story, as she does in the canon.**

**Well, spoiler alert, she will not do that. But she is a doctor and a kind-hearted woman in the show. So yeah, there will be scenes between her and Garrick still, but only to display her truly wonderful compassion as the lovely person she is. Not to show that they will feel or grow affection for one another.**

**Hopefully, you guys understand that, for the sake of the story.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 7: Night of An Eclipse**

**(Earth-2)**

"Ahh!" Seth tried to touch Evelyn's unconscious form again but the energy emitting from her arms burned his fingers whenever he tried to touch her. Granted his partner quickly healed his burn marks when it slithered over his fingertips but he still kept his eyes on her.

Ruby saw him shake his hands off from the pain and remembered it, making a mental note of it.

Jesse let out, "Seth, you gotta do something!"

Seth heard her exclaim and looked between her arms that kept oozing radiant light and shadowy darkness. "Gonna to try something… a little more… dense."

"What do you mean?" Barry asked worriedly while his wife returned with towels and blankets in her hands.

Seth didn't respond with his words, instead he turned both arms into adamantium, every inch of flesh on his arms turning into metal. Inhaling deeply again, he let ice grow around his arms, encasing his metallic limbs with ice armor.

"Hope this works." He muttered to himself.

"You're not sure if it's gonna do anything, if it's gonna work?" Iris asked.

"I'm spit balling here." He said back. "But we need to get her on the bed, now." Seth bent down and slid his hand under her head and his other one under her legs. He couldn't feel the energy emitting near his hands' placements.

But the moment he lifted her up from the floor, her arm touched his torso and the energy seared his skin, causing him to groan in pain. "Argh!" he let out in pain as he forced himself to walk over to the bed. Tendrils came out of his back and wrapped themselves around towels and brought them to the bed, spreading them open.

Reaching the bedside, he lowered her down to the middle of it gently. The moment he was sure Evelyn was on the bed, he instantly retracted his arms and melted off the ice and turning his skin back to normal. He looked at his stomach, seeing the hole her left arm. The shadowy darkness able to emit a heat that can burn his clothes.

"Shit. What's happening to her?" Seth looked at Evelyn. Her eyes stirred around behind her eyelids, as though a nightmare was repeating in her mind.

"How did her arms burn you? I thought her powers couldn't do that." Ruby said. "They didn't burn the lobby before, did it?"

"I have no idea." Seth ran his hand through his hair, the others looked scared at her instantly. "I've never seen anything like Evelyn's powers. Darkness that emits out of her left arm that can actually smash through anything like it's made of glass. Light shoots out of her right arm that can pierce through anything like its rubber. I've never seen anything like this power."

"Great, so we're dealing with something none of us have ever seen before." Iris said with defeat in her voice. She then looked to the elemental's clothes. "But that doesn't explain the burn damage on your clothes. We gotta find a way to explain that part."

"I think I might have an idea." Barry got their attention. seeing the eyes on him, he straightened his glasses and said. "We know dark matter is an energy that manifests in some strange ways, and grants affected people powers and turning them into metahumans, right?" they nodded, even Ruby who was unfamiliar with the strange energy. "What if the reason her arms glow and…" he gestured unsurely to her other arm. "…that…is because her powers are concentrated in her arms, and it's giving off this energy in large quantities-"

"So much that both sides are emitting heat that actually burns on touch." Jesse quickly added her statement.

"Whiney's actually a genius? Who knew?" Ruby joked with a mock that caused the girl to cross her arms and gain a somewhat smug expression on her face.

"I got five majors in college." She smugly said.

Seth snapped his head in her direction. "You got five majors?" Jesse nodded.

Ruby raised an eyebrow before rolling her eyes. "Great, so she's an uber nerd, that's not at all better."

"Down, girl." Seth told her, but she didn't seem to care the least. As he looked to Barry, his words repeated themselves in his mind, going on a loop for some reason. His eyes widened when he looked at his own arms and rubbed them slowly. "Concentrated…" he muttered to himself, barely audible to the others.

"Excuse me?" Barry tilted his head.

Seth smiled at him and said, "Barry, you genius." They all drew a blank and watched as he pointed a finger at Evelyn again. "Her powers are concentrated in her arms." The blank looks on their faces ended up with colors of contusion painting over them.

The elemental saw the question marks popping up above their heads and directed them out of the room with a wave of his hand, his other gesturing to the unconscious Evelyn. They nodded in agreement and walked out of the room, Seth following behind them as the last and closed the door to her room.

When they all were stepped out of the room, they couldn't see a mix of shadowy darkness and radiant light emitting from Evelyn's face as she stirred with her head wiping with side from side while wearing a furrowed face from pain.

A black circle forming in the middle of her forehead with the luminous light, its opposite onyx darkness gathering around the lines of the circle. Its darkening brilliance gathering into right and left side, spreading from their and forming something else. Taking the form of two crescent moons on either side of the circle, each one pointing their own way, left and right. A bright white circle with light shining out of it, pair of crescent moons on either side of it, each pointing to their own sides.

That same light formed single dot under her right eye, enlarging a second and forming a crescent moon-like symbol under her ocular organ.

X

"What does "concentrated" have to with anything with Evelyn's arms?" Iris asked as all of them walked down the staircase and reached the ground floor of the West-Allen household.

"More importantly, what does it have to do with hurting her now?" Barry followed up with a question of his own.

Seth waited to answer their rapidly fired questions when he was sure that everyone was brought down to the ground floor, standing in the middle of the living room. "Think Evelyn's out of earshot now." he said unsurely, not knowing their voices would reach her from down here. He looked to the others again. "I know what's happening to her."

"What is it?" Jesse asked while she saw Ruby plumped down in the couch as she waited for the elemental to tell the tale.

Seth took a seat in a chair and put his hands together rubbing them together. "What's happening to Evelyn now," he nodded his head upwards. "I've been through the same before, when I was around her age, a bit older maybe."

Ruby leaned forward with shock on her face. "You went through the same? How? I thought you had complete control of your elements from day one?"

"Not even close, Ruby." Seth shook his head and watched as all waited for him to continue with his thoughts. He inhaled deeply as he spoke, "Of all my elements, only two of them were injected into my body willingly, by my own choice. But the rest were forced into my body, into the environment. A problem with my elements is, that once a new element enters my body, I have to isolate myself from others, like putting myself into a desert or somewhere else that's uninhabited with living forms."

"What exactly are you talking about?" Barry asked curiously.

"The injected element needs time to adapt to my body, and it has to do so through violent…reactions." Seth stated the best way he could. "They have to adapt through time, and the element might end up releasing itself around me, that's why I have to isolate myself. Otherwise, it would end up hurting a lot of innocents and other around me."

"That sounds interesting." Barry said, his inner geek waiting for a more appropriate time to delve deeper into the matter. Though if he prodded too much, he might end up on the receiving end of his elemental strikes.

"Okay," Jesse stepped forward. "all very interesting and all, and honestly I would love to hear more about it in the near future. But what does that have to do with Evelyn's situation right now? She looks in pain."

"Two reasons." Seth held up a finger. "Whatever her powers are, they're concentrated in her arms, and _only_ in her arms." He empathized. "That's why they're shining fucking so much, because they're confined within her arms. And like animals in cages, they're trying to force their way out."

"What happens if it's too much?" Iris asked with a fearful gulp.

Seth mimicked her action, swallowing a gulp as well. "What happens if you put too much water into a balloon?"

"it's gonna pop." Barry reluctantly said, his hands taking off his glasses while wearing a fearful expression on his face.

"You said two reasons, what's the other one?" Jesse quickly asked the elemental, hoping deeply that it couldn't get any worse than this.

He held up another finger, "Second reason, she needs to do what I did in the past, let her powers circle through her entire body and not just specific limbs."

"How's that gonna help?" Ruby asked intrigued.

"What Evelyn is doing now, holding her powers in her arms, I did the same with mine when I was a kid." Seth revealed. "Thought it would be easier to control if the elements were in only parts of my body, seemed like the smartest choice back then. So I concentrated the elements in parts of my body, like fire and ice in each arm, water and earth in her my legs, wind and lightning in my parts of my torso."

"But it was a mistake to think that, because after a less than a week, my limbs began to hurt so much." He held up his hands. "My right hand burned anything and anyone I touched; my left hand caused things around me to freeze. My legs ended up hurting too, crashing the ground with each step I took and I leaked water as well like I was bleeding. A nice little present from the Hell I escaped from back then."

Barry caught on instantly. "Then you must have treated them like animals in an environment, right? Releasing them from their confines and let them adapt to one another in your entire body, allowing them to work together in harmony and live in peace in your body."

"Precisely." Seth nodded, internally surprised that the CSI scientist was able to accept the words that he has uttered throughout the entirety of the conversation. He nodded upwards again and said, "And Evelyn has to do the same, otherwise her arms are never gonna be the same."

"How do we do that?" Iris asked.

"…" Seth didn't answer. It was different than it was his. All of his elements were something totally different than what us coursing through Evelyn's arms. His elements are naturally, most of them anyway. And he had no idea what is even happening within her mind now, which was clearly the source of her painful condition. The problem could range from physical and emotional or even something different.

At the thought of whatever her problem might be, Venom mentally widened his eyes and pitched in his two cents. "**_What if it's because of what happened at her home?_**"

"_What do you mean, Venom?_" Seth asked.

Venom chuckled as he recited a quote of a friend of theirs, "**_The source of the greatest pain ever experienced comes from the place you feel safest at._**" Seth raised an eyebrow and smiled. "**_You have to admit Professor X did come up with the greatest advice when the time called for it._**"

"_Without a doubt._" Seth replied nostalgically with a chuckle. He got a serious look as he turned to the married couple that owns this household. Recalling their individual careers, he asked them while getting up to his full height. "Barry, Iris, I'm gonna need your help."

"What do you need?" Iris asked, her eyes registering his determined look.

"You are the detective on Evelyn's case, I need you to get me to Evelyn's old house. Extreme long shot, but maybe there's something there that can help us out or something." Seth said, Iris looking skeptical but nodded nonetheless before running off to retrieve her gear. As she did so, he looked to Barry, "Barry, please, tell me you were the CSI on her case too?"

"I was, yeah." Barry said with a nod of his head.

Seth smiled, "Great, cause I'm gonna need you to come with me and Iris to Evelyn's old house, share some of your CSI facts that you have from the case. Could really use it."

"I'm with you guys, all the way." Barry said with a determined look and got to his full height.

"Thanks." Seth smiled again and he looked to Jesse and Ruby. "You two gotta stay with Evelyn. She's gonna need all the company she can get, especially with her condition as it is now."

"Great, so we're babysitters." Ruby rolled her eyes.

The elemental tilted his head as though it was weighing on scales as he corrected. "If babysitters mean that you two only check up on the metahuman who was able wreck a lobby on her own, and definitely, absolutely, _not_ touch her, then…yeah." He nodded his head. "Babysitters, without payment."

Jesse looked upwards. "What are you hoping to find? Her house is in ruins, absolutely destroyed. I know it, I used to see her house whenever I pass by their neighborhood, and last time I saw it, it was ruins."

"Even ruins hold something valuable." Seth interjected. "And honestly, I'm hoping that something is there, something underneath the rubble and all. Again, extreme long shot." He quickly added after seeing Jesse's look.

"But what are you trying to find?" Jesse stepped closer to him, still wearing a skeptical expression laced with confusion.

Seth didn't answer right away, but his hand gestured to the living room, his fingers pointing to the tables around them with Ruby and Jesse following the direction of his digits. "Because of these." They saw him referring to the dozens of photos on the tables, displaying various important moments of the married couple's life. "Every home has moments of happiness, their family photographing memorable moments and putting them on stands. I think what's going on with Evelyn is because of trauma, the loss of her parents. I think a memory of her and her family at their happiest might be the key to saving her now."

"You're trying to reach her heart?" Ruby asked shocked, the elemental nodded. "That's gonna be good."

"I'm willing to try whatever it takes for that poor girl. She doesn't deserve this pain, Ruby. Just like you didn't." Seth told her. "To make sure that none of you go through that pain again. Evelyn's hurting, and I might the only one who can help her out now. You two," he pointed two fingers at Jesse and Ruby. "stay put and tend to Evelyn if she gets more pain."

"Ruby's right, we're babysitters, yeah." Jesse said reluctantly while surprisingly agreeing with Ruby.

"Yeah, and Jesse?" Seth got her attention with his serious tone. "No more running away or checking what's happening with me, okay? I don't care if you trust me or not, but the main priority now is Evelyn." Jesse didn't respond, neither with an agreement or refusal, merely giving him a defiant look. "If not, then Ruby has permission to use you as a punching bag."

"Wait what?!" Jesse gasped in fear.

Ruby gained an evil smirk as she cracked her hands together. "I can make do with that."

"No treating each other as punching bags in my house, thank you very much!" Iris exclaimed as she stepped into the living room. Ruby just smirked as though she wasn't going to listen to her commands while Jesse remained in a petrified state of fear.

The detective turned her gaze to the mutant. "You, no more giving orders to…" she was unsure of how to refer to Ruby.

Ruby raised an eyebrow as she pitched in her thoughts, along with her own opinion of her own status. "The cold, ruthless, sadistic, cunning and unpredictable HYDRA assassin who has very, very little respect for authority?"

Barry gulped at her callous words and looked to Seth. "Sure, it's a good idea, leaving her alone her with Jesse?"

"She does need to learn restraint so this is a perfect life lesson." Seth answered…unsurely. Ruby is a HYDRA assassin and if she was really that much of a troublemaker to SHIELD…in the future, then yeah, it would be hard to keep her from divulging in her bad side. But she has to now, for the better of everyone now. And restraint would be the best to learn now, to keep her from cutting off others' limbs like she did in their home universe.

"Ruby, no hurting Jesse or Evelyn or anyone for that matter…as long as we're within this universe, okay?" Seth told her sternly.

"Not making promises." She instantly countered.

"_I really hope Frankie does not get like that._" Seth couldn't help but think, his right hand clutching his dog tags at the thought of his daughter who was most likely alone right now. "_I'm coming back Frankie. Just wait._"

"**_We'll get back to them both, partner._**" Venom added while sending out calming waves of emotions to his partner. Both of them thinking of their daughters right now.

Seth mentally nodded and looked to Iris who was cocking her gun before putting it in her holster. "Ready, Detective?"

"I am." Iris nodded and walked over to the door with Barry and Seth following behind her.

The married couple walked through the door and Seth threw a gaze at the two girls there. "Stay safe, you two." He told them quickly before walking away with the door closing behind them.

Ruby walked over to the couch and dropped down to it, her hand reaching over to the table and took hold of a newspaper and began reading it. Jesse watched her and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Killing time." she immediately replied as she flipped to the next page. "Gonna check on Evie in a while."

"You must really trust Seth, huh?" Jesse asked curiously as she walked over to the couch and took a seat in it.

"Told you once, not gonna tell you again." She answered without making eye contact. Though she didn't look at her, Ruby could imagine her eyes rolling in annoyance. "I do trust him. Heard a lot about him a few years back and wanted to meet him, fight him even. Everything about him is only good, some bad but mostly good."

"What do you mean some bad?" Jesse asked her.

Ruby chuckled, "Wild guess, the only kind of hero you've seen are the ones in red tights and runs around with a saucer on their head?" Jesse widened her eyes in shock when she heard her describing The Flash in her own words. The HYDRA assassin laughed briefly and flipped the newspaper and showed her the front page.

Jesse read the title, "_The Crimson Comet Disappeared?_" along with the photo of The Flash, showing him in his trusted soldier-like suit. Ruby glanced at it again and said, "Why the saucer on his head? It looks ridiculous. And your heroes have absolutely no fashion sense."

"Trust me, it's pretty useful for him." Jesse answered her before returning to her former statement. "You said something about good and bad, right? What does that mean?"

Ruby chuckled as she knew she had to explain this part…and it would definitely take a while for her to get Jesse to understand it.

X

Iris sat in the driver's seat of her car with her husband in the passenger seat. Seth sat in the backseat, fidgeting through the entire ride because of the very little leg room he has been granted.

"For God's sake, why do you two have such a shitty car?" Seth exclaimed, the married couple in the front seats laughing in response to his words. "Seriously, there's no fucking room for my legs here."

"Sorry, Seth but it's gotta be this way now. Just bear with it." Iris said with her eyes looking into rear view mirror, using it to peer into the back and make eye contact with the elemental who kept struggling back there. she chuckled along with her husband. "Gotta admit, the strong and frightening Venom, powerful enough to scare metahumans with a single gaze, now struggling with a mere car seat."

Barry laughed as well, "Pretty golden, actually."

"You two deserve each other." Seth groaned. "The Barry I know would have loved this."

Iris looked out the window and saw that they were nearing their destination, nearing Evelyn Sharp's old house. She heard his words. ""_The Barry I know…"_" she recited his words in her head, each word piquing her interest and mixing with the thoughts of confusion.

She kept her eyes on the road and asked Seth. "Seth? Why do you trust us that much?"

"What do you mean?" Seth asked with a raised eyebrow.

Barry knew what his wife was getting at, and said continuingly, "I think she means why you trust us so easily. It's like you already know us or something? You have heard of "stranger danger", right? Or is that not something on your Earth? Earths, in your case."

"It is a thing, on both Earths, I assure you." Seth chuckled as he revealed. "And the reason I trust you guys is because… I know you." Question marks appeared over their heads. "Not you, but the yous from my Earth, my new home."

"You did?" Barry asked.

"Yeah." Seth nodded. "Because of that, I trust you both. And like the Barry Allen, I know, and the Iris West I know, you're still trustworthy."

"What are we like on that…Earth?" Iris asked, secretly excited and impatient for the answer that he would reply as she turned a corner.

"Iris has a tendency to get into trouble, like it's a disease only known to her. You'd think that's part of being a journalist. Heck, calling her a danger magnet wouldn't be wrong actually." Iris from this world did not know how to react to those words. "But she wants nothing more than to help those around her, even more when one of them is Barry Allen." Barry from this world turned interested and looked back at him. "And Barry…well, he's actually the reason I'm even on this Earth to begin with, something I'm gonna punch him for without a doubt. But he's a good guy, always jumping head-first into danger. If he hears that Iris is in trouble, he rushes into the battle instantly like an attack hound on a mission. Something…bad happened to him when he was a kid, he battles harder and harder to make sure that no one else feels that same pain."

"What happened to him? That Barry?" The CSI scientist asked curiously, his mind trying to prevent itself from concocting dark thoughts.

Seth didn't want to influence their lives with everything that happened to the other universe's counterparts. They're totally different from one another, practically strangers. He inhaled deeply before saying, "Something very bad. But he's CSI scientist like you."

"So, our…" Iris lost track, not knowing what word she was aiming for.

"Doppelgangers." Seth helped her.

"Our doppelgangers, thank you, they're…together as well?" Iris asked somewhat hopefully as she pointed her eyes to her lovely husband, hoping that their doppelgangers were able to find each other in another universe.

But her hopes were dashed when Seth threw his hands up in the air and let out. "Don't know. Been a bit out of the loop ever since I was hurled into another universe, again. Then there's the entire six months without all of my powers while in Zoom's captivity-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it." Iris interrupted him with a chuckle. "Your life is not exactly a picnic."

"Understatement of all eternity." Seth muttered with a chuckle.

"**_Understatement of the entire multiverse._**" Venom chuckled out with a response.

"There." Barry got their attention as he pointed a finger in the direction to the left. Iris nodded and Seth looked in the direction of the finger, finding it and eyes widening in his skull.

Iris has seen this a lot of times before, but it still didn't make it any easier with each sight she placed on the remains of the house. "We're here." She said as she parked the car near the sidewalk.

"What the hell…" he shockingly said as he took it in the sight of the last of the house. It was absolutely nothing more than rubbles. Wooden support beams and pillars, all of them torn in half and laying on top of each other. Brick walls fallen down and broken down into thousand pieces. All of it piled upon one another, enclosed by the police barricades placed them along with the white picket fences enclosing the once happy and prominent household of the Sharp family.

Seth and the others got out of the car and walked closer to inspect the ruins of the household; the elemental rushing quicker than the police colleagues. The two saw him stopping by a police barricade and looking over the entirety of the ruins from afar. As the married couple neared him, they saw his eyes inspecting the property that once belonged to the family of Evelyn Sharp. They saw that not a single hint of emotion resided in his eyes.

However, they saw him place a hand on the wooden barricade. His hand trembling with smoke emitting from the back of his hand while lightning sparked over his fingers. They saw his fingers slowly digging into the wooden surface and cracking through them slowly with each second passing.

"Seth." Iris started, she saw him stopping and the elements around his hand calmed down. "You okay?"

He turned his blue eyes to the detective. "Sorry about it. Seeing this kind of pain…" both of his hands clenched and cracked another part of the police barricade. "No child should go through this. Especially one like Evelyn."

"I get what you mean." Iris breathed out in frustration while her hand intertwined with her husband's.

"**_Weird._**"

The elemental perked up his head at the words his "other" spoke, he heard the strange tone of curiosity and confusion mixing the words, soaking each letter with the emotions. His host also felt the symbiote within his body look around in search as though he was trying to find a reasonable conclusion to his queries.

"_What's wrong, Venom? I feel you looking around for some reason._" Seth inquired of his partner.

Mentally, Venom looked around again and then explained, "**_It's been a long time, a very long time, since Evelyn's parents were murdered here. After the accelerator explosion. A long time ago…means that this place would been on the market as well, right? Then why not? The property would have been cleaned out by now, and sold once in a saleable state._**"

At those words caused the elemental to shift his gaze to the detective, who along with her husband, watched him patiently as though they were expecting a bomb to go off in front of their eyes. "Iris, Evelyn's case…it's not shut, is it?" he hoped that

Iris inclined her head. "It's not. Everything that happened here…assured the captain and the others at the precinct that Evelyn was the suspect. The Captain doesn't like it, but the city thought it would be best to paint Evelyn as the prime suspect and treat her as such, until we can find evidence that proves otherwise."

"But what about the evidence that you found?" Seth asked quickly and he stepped closer to her, Barry looking around the familiar grounds he have inspected as he stepped closer to the damage. "The crushed hearts without a single entry or exit wound on her parents' bodies? A small girl like her shouldn't, couldn't, nor would she ever do that to anyone, let alone her own two parents!" he shouted loudly.

"The moment she became known as a metahuman, that changed everything!" Iris didn't faze at his own enraged words and exclaimed loudly as well. After hearing his wife speaking so enragedly, Barry moved past the barricades and crouched down near a spot. The detective didn't notice and inhaled deeply. "Seth, you've seen metahumans before, you have seen the worst of them and fought against them before…and I know Evelyn's not the bad guy, just another victim of Zoom's chaos, but to everyone else, she's nothing more than a metahuman who's done nothing but damage. For them…it's enough to treat her as a suspect."

Seth inhaled deeply, his partner and himself feeling rage boiling inside them both, as though it was a fiery ocean. Both of them feeling like they were on the verge of entering a realm of unknown wrathful rage, willing to release it all on the civilians of Central City, Evelyn's family that turned their backs on the young girl, the entire police force even.

All of them deserved to witness a fury that was nothing short of an apocalyptic catastrophe…

But it wouldn't be right…he wouldn't do that…despite every single fiber in his body telling him otherwise.

"Guys?"

The tension between the detective and the mutant vanished when Barry's voice got their attention, the two of them seeing the CSI scientist crouching on the ground and wearing examination gloves. His hands touching the ground while moving pieces of wood away from the targeted area, his fingers rubbing against the surface, examining something there.

Seth and Iris saw it and walked closer, walking past the wooden barricades and over to his side. The two saw him examining a small puddle of water with something shining in it. The two shared a look of confusion before his wife asked him, "What are you doing there, Barry?"

"And do you always keep examination gloves on you like this?" Seth had to ask.

"I am a CSI scientist, Seth. I have to be prepared to be on the call, at any time. Thought a doctor would understand that." Barry countered without making eye contact.

The elemental shrugged carefreely. "I'm a bit of an unorthodox doctor, A lot of places in my home world doesn't trust me, actually."

"Wonder why?" Iris sarcastically said out loud, the mutant slapping her shoulder in mock hurt.

Barry held up his fingers and showed that water was on his fingertips, some of it shining upon light hitting his hand. "Iris, you seen this before?"

"You mean, water?" Iris asked with a confused voice.

"No." Barry shook his head and looked to them. "It's water with ice in it."

Seth widened his eyes. "Wait, you mean…"

"Yeah." Barry nodded. "Killer Frost was here."

"_Great, now I have to see the love of my life make out with Ronnie Raymond, again._" Seth thought to himself with his fingers rubbing his eyes, sadness filling the surfaces of his eyeballs.

"**_Not her, just a rip-off._**" Venom said, before teasing. "**_One in tight leather._**"

"_I hate you._" Seth countered with annoyance, but the image did cause him to blush lightly.

"But Barry, it was a long time ago." Iris said with her hands gesturing to the ruins of the Sharp household. "_This_ was a long time. That ice could have been here after what happened here."

Seth narrowed his eyes. "Unless it didn't."

"That's right." Barry stood up. "Her ice, for some reason, takes a while to melt. A long time actually."

"So, she was here during the time of Evelyn's parents' murders." Seth deduced, while also deducing his next course of actions.

Iris ran her hand down her face, "Great so we're gonna have to interrogate the frosty metahuman who no one in the police force have ever managed to get a word out of, because they end up dead or shattered into pieces."

"Well, you have something you didn't have before." The two looked to the elemental who looked with a determined expression on his face. "Me." The married couple widened their eyes. "Where's Killer Frost's usual hunting grounds?"

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"So, he's a hero who doesn't mind killing others?" Jesse asked shocked.

"An anti-hero, yeah." Ruby repeated herself after having told what exactly an anti-hero was. "You guys really aren't used to that, are you?" she laughed shortly. "Wow, your universe…is way too boring."

"Funny." She said back.

"Didn't try to be." Ruby smirked smugly. "But I guess that's kind of why I respect him."

"Because he's a killer?" Jesse wondered.

"No." she shook her head. "Because despite the entire media world seeing him as some kind of a hellish demonic villain, he still kept being the good guy. Good guy with powers and a will to take on enemies without a care, as long as it meant the innocents were safe, he didn't mind killing them."

Jesse worriedly asked, "So he acts like a judge, jury and executioner? How does that make him a hero?"

"He does show restraint. Apparently small-time muggers, thieves, even a few bank robbers, he left frozen to walls or something like that." The HYDRA assassin explained. She humorously said, "Think he actually froze one guy to the Statue of Liberty without his pants on, best thing I ever saw."

"You're sick, you know that, right?" Jesse commented on Ruby's not so subtle sadistic behavior.

"I didn't get out much as a kid. Not enough fun and all that." Ruby said in mock defense. "Speaking of sick," she stood up from the couch and looked up. "think it's about time we check up on our patient of light and darkness." She walked to the staircase.

"Gotta be a better nickname for her." Jesse followed her.

"You're the nerd with five majors, why not use that brain of yours for once?" Ruby mocked her as they walked up the stairs.

X

But as they walked up each step of the staircase, Evelyn kept twisting and turning on her bed. Her face frowning as her mind was haunted by those vicious memories again.

She could still see them as though it was happening to her now. Her left arm unleashing more and more darkness, circulating around her hurting form as the images kept flashing inside her mind.

Those murderous pitch-black claws driving through…through…her father and mother's chests…without a care in the world…the most normal thing for him to have ever done in his life. His dark chuckle echoing within the walls of her former loving home.

The icy and hollow chuckle mixing along with the evil menace's voice…as the blood of her parents' bodies slipped and wettened the floor, darkening it into new and sick colors… that would forever mark the tragedy that befell over Evelyn's once loving home.

Tears fell down through her closed eyelids, rolling down the sides of her head. Evelyn's breath came out in pants. "Mom…Dad!" she screamed out loud in pain while the leaking darkness encased her in a cocoon of true darkness.

The darkness enveloped her completely, no light allowed to pass through its thickness. And like smoke…

…

… it lifted up into the air and dissipated… with Evelyn nowhere to be found… and that was remaining was the leftovers of the smoky darkness that was suspended in the air above the bed…only for a short moment before disappearing.

As the smoke disappeared, the door to the bedroom opened up and Ruby and Jesse walked in. Both of them wearing confused expressions as they looked around the bedroom, trying to find Evelyn.

The HYDRA assassin asked, "Now where did she run off to?"

"In her condition, that's downright impossible." Jesse told her.

Ruby gave her a look, "Like her being a metahuman with powers of light and darkness isn't impossible enough?"

"Yeah, right." Jesse agreed. "But there's a lot of things we don't know about her. Perhaps this is another thing."

"Yeah." Ruby said. "But we gotta call Seth, tell him the good news."

X

Saint and Sinners.

A bar that was mostly known to be a place where criminals of various statuses, be it the high-ranked criminals that run in Zoom's circles or smaller circles, the thieves and criminals that fears Zoom and his henchmen.

And the latter…

_SCREAM_

… screamed with undeniable pain on the other side of the door…white mist sipping out of the small gaps of the entrance door.

The sounds of the dozens of people in the bar dimmed down, decreasing as the front door swung open with big push. With long and clacking steps, the white mist emitted around the vicious form of Killer Frost who walked out the bar. Her right hand clutched around the chilled form of the bottle of whiskey. Her head looking back into the bar, eyes perking up with happiness and mouth smirking when registering the frozen forms of the unfortunate men who were unlucky enough to meet her lips.

A tongue slithered out of her mouth and licked her lips as she saw blood dripping down the ice-cold blades that were sticking out of various criminals' chests. She held up the bottle of whiskey as though she was giving a toast. "Cheers boys." She chuckled hollowly and took a swig of her drink.

She laughed out loud after exhaling deeply, her breath coming out in white mist as she turned around. Killer Frost began walking into an alleyway. Her high heels kept clacking against the ground with each step she took that lead her deeper and deeper into the alleyway.

"Drinking by yourself?"

But the sound of that familiar voice caused her to stop moving. Turning on her heels, she looked upwards and saw a form that evolved her smirk into a smile. Standing on the edge of the top of the wall was none other than Seth Fury. His eyes pointing down at her from high above. "Don't know if it's the same on every Earth, but drinking alone…" he took a step and let gravity pull him down to the ground. He walked closer to her. "…that's pretty lonely. Boyfriend don't got time for you?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." Killer Frost cryptically said as she stepped closer to him, her eyes displaying interest and joy at the sight of him again. "Or maybe, I was waiting for a certain someone to finally show up so he could invite me out for a drink." She empathized with the bottle raised up near his face, shaking it lightly and its liquid contents shaking inside. Her voice spoken through a flirtatious manner, hoping to get a rise out of him.

But once again, the mutant withheld a stoic face as he shifted his eyes to the bottle of whiskey. He reached up to it and grabbed it. Killer Frost saw it and made sure that her cold fingers moved, clutching around his own hand. The two made eye contact, one pair of ice-cold blue eyes that kept running over his form with growing interest, attraction residing the killer's eyes.

And to her surprise, the mutant's eyes were filled with attraction as well. However, unlike hers, his are full of familiar…care…feelings…love. The sight of her eyes, her face…the gentle feeling of her hands…despite the feelings of coldness in them, he saw past them and only saw her.

He missed it…he missed her. Seth missed Caitlin… The woman he loves…his heart aching at the thought of her alone now. And the mere sight of her doppelganger's form, the touch of her fingers, those eyes…her voice…all of it brought back feelings, feelings that he shouldn't have reawaken by being near Killer Frost. But it was damn near impossible for him to not lean closer to her…

… and kiss her…

"**_You do that, we'll strangle you ourselves._**" Venom stated immediately.

"_I won't, lethal demon._" Seth quipped back to the Klyntar in him. He turned his attention back to Killer Frost and drifted his hand to the body of the bottle, and pulled it from out of the metahuman's hand. She watched with interest as he drank from it, swallowing the beverage with big gulps.

A strand of the whiskey ran down a corner of his mouth when he pulled the bottle away from his mouth. He was about to wipe it away with the back of his hand, but Killer Frost beat him to it. She shot to his side and extended her tongue, licking the strand from the corner of his mouth with slow licks.

Seth blushed and pulled away from her with quick movements. The frosty metahuman smirked and ran her index finger over her lips, enticing him slowly with each stroke she made. "Yummy." She said with a lick of her lips.

The mutant shook his head, clearing his head of the thoughts circulating in it. He placed the bottle on the ground and looked to her again. "Funny. But how about we get down to business."

"Why not mix in a little pleasure?" Killer Frost asked teasingly. "Pleasure never hurt anyone."

He raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger to the bar with dozens of men frozen and shattering into pieces. "I think those would disagree."

"They were naughty boys." She mocked innocence. "I didn't like them, so I punished them."

"Interesting." Seth nodded sheepishly. "But down to what matters now. I know you were there that day." Killer Frost looked intrigued. "I know you were there that day, when Evelyn's parents were killed."

Killer Frost smirked, "Now why would you think-"

"I know Zoom killed them in front of their daughter's own eyes." Seth cut her off. "Your ice was there at her old house, don't try to deny it. Science is there to help me, my back up as my proof."

"Now why would I say anything to you?" Killer Frost raised her hands, forming ice spikes at the ends of each fingertip on both hands. "I could just take you back with me to Zoom's lair, keep you all to myself again. I think I like that plan better."

"Nice idea." Seth stepped closer to her, while she flexed her fingers in readiness. "But, here's my counter." Without hesitation on his side, black tendrils shot out of his body and rushed through the air to meet her. Killer Frost moved, trying to slash them away with quick swipes of her icicle blades.

But the tendrils dodged the ice blades and wrapped around her wrists. The ice blades fell away from her fingers when Seth slammed her into the wall. Killer Frost tried to move but the tendrils wrapped around her feet and pinned the metahuman to the wall.

Her eyes widened when finding herself bound by her hands and feet, suspending her to the alley wall by his hold. Her snow-white hands scraping against the hard surface of the wall as the tendrils brought them together over her head, the tendrils intertwining and strengthening the hold on her. It excited her. And her excitement increased as the mutant neared her with what seemed like slow steps.

She smiled, "Could have told me you liked playing rough. Would have given you a list of things I like."

"A girl like you seems to like to be tying up." Seth quipped stoically as he stood in front of her. "Now…tell me what happened at Evelyn's house, so I can help her."

The frosty metahuman ran her eyes up and down his form, seeing and taking in the seriousness that was bleeding out of him like an open wound. "So, the little girl is having trouble with her powers again? Guess I shouldn't be surprised. She had those problems way before you came along, but always kept bringing trouble when Zoom popped up to see her."

"What did Zoom do back then?" Seth asked with him stepping closer to her.

"I might tell you." she leant her head closer to him. "But it's gonna cost you." she said in an echoing voice.

"Not gonna give you those kids back." Seth stated adamantly, thinking that she was gunning for the girls again.

"Thought as much. Figured you'd be their big bad guardian demon." Killer Frost said knowingly with a joke, she knew full well that Venom wouldn't let those three girls be put back in their cages, not under Zoom's rule again. However, she had something else in mind as his payment. "But…what I want is something a little… simpler."

"And what may that be?" Seth worriedly asked.

Killer Frost smiled again, "A kiss."

"W-What?" Seth asked again, blinkingly so.

Caitlin's doppelganger leant closer, this time her mouth near his ear and she huskily repeated. "I said…I want a…kiss." She punctuated her demand with a playful bite to his earlobe.

Seth shook his head, shaking her own head away from his current thoughts while she giggled. "Why?"

"I have my reasons." Killer Frost vaguely explained as she leant back against the wall, while the tendrils kept their hold on her. "So, what do you say, handsome? One kiss and you'll get your story. Not a bad deal."

"_God sake…_" Seth thought absentmindedly as he received her deal. "_What do you think, Venom?_"

"**_…_****_Think you know the answer to that, partner._**" Venom told him.

His partner was right, Seth already knew the answer. This wasn't for him; this was for the young girl with metahuman powers that was now suffering because of what is happening inside her. This was for Evelyn and he swore to protect her against anything…and what is happening to her now?

He will still protect her against anything, even if it was that of an like her powers of light and darkness.

"_Not gonna mean anything._" Seth looked to her again. "_She's not Caitlin. Not my Caitlin._" He steeled his mind and walked closer to her again, standing before her smiling face. Inhaling deeply again, he leant forward slowly.

But Killer Frost was too impatient and lashed her head forward, capturing his lips and pulling him closer to her suspended body. The shock of being pulled closer to her ice-cold body caused Seth's tendrils to lose their grip on her feet, shocking them into retracting back to his body. With her legs free, the frosty metahuman swung her legs to the side before wrapping them around Seth's body and pulled him even closer to her.

She deepened the kiss with a tilt of her head, her tongue shooting into his mouth and latched onto his, forcing the pair of them into a familiar wrestle. Killer Frost expected resistance, retaliation in the form of him forcing her to stop, into revealing the truth of the events that led to Evelyn's powers.

However…none of that happened…as she felt his hands grab hold of her thighs, squeezing them as he strengthened his hold on her. Killer Frost let out a shocked gasp when she felt him pull her closer. The frosty metahuman lost herself in the sensation, her head tilting to the side and deepening the kiss with her eyes closed. She tried to force her hands out of the tendrils holding them in place, but her struggles were not naught.

Despite everything his head telling him to let go immediately and get back on the matter, Seth kept pulling her closer to his body. His lips only removing themselves from hers to draw in quick intakes of breath before initiating another kiss with her. He could feel the ice-cold legs belonging to the ice queen tighten their hold on him again.

His hands began trailing up from her thighs, traveling up her body and all the way till they reached her face. Killer Frost felt them on her face, felt them stroking her cheeks, causing a blush to erupt around her face like a red plague. Her mouth parting and exhaling a surge of hell-freezing cold air into his mouth. The skin on his face paling as the ice affected him, but just like in the past, the coldness dissipated with the elements in him roaring in response to his volcanic feelings.

It was like an old feeling had reawakened…and the key that kept them locked away…was the feeling of those lips…the ones he missed so much.

"**_Seth!_**"

His eyes snapped open in response to the exclaim his "other" let out so violently. His hands letting go of the metahuman and pushing her legs away, his steps staggering backwards as he dislodged himself from her hold. "Oh shit…" he trailed off as he put his hands on his knees and bent forward, his voice full of regret as was his mind and feelings. "_Why did I do that?_"

"**_…_****_Because you miss Caitlin. _****Your****_ Caitlin._**" Venom told him. "**_It's okay to miss your loved one. We do as well. But she's waiting for you, for us. And you can't let yourself lose that feeling. She and Frankie and Magenta and our friends are waiting for us to return._**"

"_And we're going back to them, not matter what. And no one's gonna stop us._" Seth thought determined before looking to Caitlin's doppelganger who was wearing a happy smile and blush that looked to be…lovestruck. The mutant thought his mind was playing tricks on him at the sight. He shook them out of his head and walked closer.

Killer Frost saw him nearing her suspended body again and smirked flirtatiously and praised huskily, "That's hot, and that says a lot coming from someone like me."

He didn't care much about her somewhat praise and got down to the matter at hand again, "You got your price paid, now tell me what you know about what happened to Evelyn and her parents that day."

She smirked with a coy expression, "Did you really pay? I don't seem to remember. Maybe… another one will jog my memory." The smirk on her face widened, interest growing in her eyes. "What do you say, cutie? You up for another round?"

Killer Frost let out a small gasp when she felt the tendrils loosen their grip on her wrists, letting her go with her body falling down on the asphalt. She looked upwards and saw him schooling his expressions before saying. "Guess it's time for plan B, then."

"Oh yeah?" she got up on her feet again while her expression grew curious. "What's that then? Rough me up this time?"

"No. Plan B, means Black Siren." Seth stated, the metahuman's eyes widening exponentially. "I'd imagine that Zoom's right-hand woman, which I heard from good sources, would know about what happened there that day." Killer Frost grew concerned when she saw him turn around. "So, I guess I might as well go find her instead, knowing that the frosty metahuman isn't interested in sharing." He shrugged as he walked with slow steps. "See ya, later Frost."

However, he was unable to take his next step as an ice spike came flying and pierced through the ground in front of his feet. He kept the smirk from forming as he looked back to her. She was twirling around an ice blade in her hand as she stepped closer to him. "What do you want to know?"

"So _now_ you're willing to help?" He said sarcastically with an empathize. "What changed your mind then?"

The metahuman shrugged and said with a half-lie. "Might as well help you a bit, and I was there. Black Siren's not gonna be much use there."

"_Easy._" Seth thought to himself, he knew there was a rivalry between the two powerful metahuman women. Though for some reason, he figured he was part of it. "What do you know about her powers? Evelyn's powers? Or what do you know about Evelyn for that matter?"

"Not much." Killer stood beside him, leaning against the wall and reached down for the bottle of whiskey. "Know she was targeted though."

"By Zoom?" Seth asked in shock.

She nodded after drinking. Exhaling she continued, "Know she got her powers activated after a run-in with my boyfriend."

Seth's eyes lost all life. "If that bastard touched her, then I'll pull his head off his fucking body. And I won't even have to use my powers."

"Would love to see that." She joked. "But he didn't. Ronnie told me he managed to find her somewhere in an alley, trying to get home or something like that. As soon he lit up, she screams with fear and her powers activated, shooting light and darkness out of her hands and sending Ronnie flying and into a wall."

"So, her powers activate out of fear, I know that already." Seth told her. "But why did Zoom go after her and her parents in the first place? What did her Mom and Dad do to the reigning evil speedster?"

"Nothing." Killer Frost revealed to his shock. "But their daughter? She did something. Without even trying, she managed to push away one of Zoom's henchmen without trouble. And Zoom wanted that."

"Zoom wanted her powers? Just like with Ruby's." Seth deduced.

"Yeah. Young or old, if they have powers that can be useful, then Zoom wants them. Even from another universe, or a few universes at that." She told him. "Evelyn got on his hit-list when she managed to take down Deathstorm. He had some people track her down, found her home. Him and me got into her house and Zoom-"

"Killed her parents in front of their own daughter with his fists through their hearts." Seth finished off for her. Killer Frost didn't seem to care and simply nodded. "I'm gonna kill that bastard." He muttered to himself while running a hand down his face. "Let me guess, her powers activated again, much stronger than before, stronger than what you've heard or seen, and she wrecks the entire house."

"Yup. She then began stealing from people. Optimistic girl with a bright future turns notorious thief of Central City. Zoom kills her parents with his claws piercing into their chest and she's on the run ever since. Nice origin story." Killer Frost chuckled. "She even managed to steal enough money to get out of the city. But Zoom caught her and captured her and put her in a cell."

"I'm gonna enjoy tearing that bastard limb from limb." Seth said. He was about to continue his interrogation but his phone rang. It was a phone that Iris handed him for better communication between them. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the phone and pressed the touchscreen after seeing that it was Iris calling him. "Excuse me." He politely told the criminal watched him turn around, her eyes running up and down his back, settling on his ass.

He answered the call and put it to his ear. "Kinda busy, Detective."

"_Think you might wanna hear this._" Iris told him urgently.

"What's wrong?" He asked her worriedly, Killer Frost didn't think much of his worried tone and kept her eyes on what she found interesting.

"_Evelyn's gone._" Iris told him, his eyes shockingly widening. "_Jesse and Ruby just called me and they told me they went up to her room to check on her. But they couldn't find her anywhere in the house. She's just gone._"

"You think Zoom took her?" Seth asked, this time Killer Frost turned her attention to him again.

"_Might be the case. But none of the others heard him passing through, or speeding in._" Iris said.

"I think there's more to her powers then we thought." Seth stated his thoughts. "But I think I know where she is. I'll check it out and call you back."

"_Be careful, Seth. She can't control her powers. So, it's gonna be tough._" Iris told him in concern.

"I know, and I will." He finished off the call before looking to Caitlin's doppelganger who was smiling. "What's with the smile?"

"Didn't think she still does that." Killer Frost said all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?"

"You never asked how that little girl got away from us before, back in her house?" Killer Frost started and the mutant walked closer. "You're a smart guy, so you'll figure this one out. What type of metahuman is the only type that can escape a speedster?"

Seth chuckled at the thoughts he was getting. "A teleporter." It had to be something like that. Shawna Baez, Peek-A-Boo was a teleporter and she was able to get away from The Flash back in their universe. And that was the only way for Evelyn to have escaped. "Evelyn's a teleporter too."

"Bingo." The frosty metahuman revealed. "Somehow that little girl, in all of that chaos that she created, she managed to get away. Her darkness swirling around her and with a…" she smacked her blue lips together to let out an audible popping sound. "… she disappeared into thin air."

"Great. But I think I know where's she's next." Seth was about to walk away. But stopped himself when hearing the echoing hollow laughter that came out of the metahuman's mouth. "Something funny?"

She wiped away a tear before smirking with her back leaning against the wall again. "Just that you think you're getting outta here." Seth widened his eyes. "You didn't really think that a pretty little thing like me would go to a bar filled with bad guys all by herself, now would you?"

"**_Look ou-_**"

_PUNCH_

His partner's warning came a moment too late as a large scaly fist smashed into his side. The impact sent his form rolling on the ground, skipping on the asphalt. Seth managed to slam his hands into the ground, pushing him from it and launching him up and onto the wall. His feet attached to it with a hand touching the surface while remaining in a crouched position. Looking in the direction of the fist's incoming, he saw the metahuman there.

Flexing his gigantic scaling muscles was the same old metahuman that he had traded blows with ever since he got out of Zoom's lair. The metahuman roared at him with his shark head, mouth opening up to reveal the sharp jaw with sharp teeth again. All the while, his pants remained ragged…and still on his body.

Seth rolled his eyes at him. "Nice to see you again, Sharkbait. Thought you would have run away from me a long time again, considering I ripped your arms off last time."

This time, however, the shark-like metahuman did not seem to be in states of numerous kinds of fear, and instead was determined. "Zoom wants you dead!" Lamden roared at the mutant.

"Wonder why?" Seth faked a bemused expression.

Killer Frost waved her hand at them, her eyes making eye contact with Seth and pouting her lips and blowing him a kiss before walking away. "Have fun, boys."

He watched her walk away and raised himself to his full height while on the wall. Seth cracked his neck. "You really wanna do this, for Zoom of all people?" as he spoke, his clothes turned completely black before spreading over his form while morphing.

"Zoom wants you dead!" Lamden roared again, reciting his last sentence to him.

The mutant's form had enlarged and placed his blue eyes on him again. "Thought I had to ask…" the symbiote engulfed his head and revealed his pitch-black demonic face with the white-skull extension on it. His blood-red eyes pointing at him. "**Before we kill you, once and for all.**"

The large shark roared before running forward into a charge. Digging one fist into the wall, he used it as an anchor and jumped up the wall. Venom jumped forward, swinging his fist into his head and embedding the shark into the wall. A scaly right fist slammed into the demon's face, slamming him away from him.

Venom landed on the ground, his mouth opening up and blasting flames into the metahuman's stomach. The fiery blast forced him to let out a scream while being pushed off the wall. The fire attack stopped and the metahuman was left with burn marks that quickly healed. Roaring at the mutant again, he took charge.

Lightning sparked over his large symbiotic body before he took charge as well. The two large beings met each other in the middle, releasing a shockwave that blew around them with their hands locking onto one another. Their heads reeling back before thrusting into one another. both expected the other to flinch of reel back their heads in pain, but neither gave the other the satisfaction. Roaring into the metahuman's face, Venom wrapped tendrils around his foe's throat. The tightness of the tendrils caused the shark to let go of the mutant.

Seth saw a chance, and used it, sending his right foot forward and caused the metahuman to hold his stomach. Wrapping both arms around his head, Venom let out a cry and swung the shark metahuman into the other end of the alleyway and into the open streets of the city.

Dozens if not hundreds of city's inhabitants walking on the sidewalks with friends and families beside them. Cars drove in the lanes, but like the walking inhabitants, they came to a halt at the sight. The form of the flying shark metahuman drove everyone to stop in their paths and watch with worried eyes.

Lamden got back on his feet, shaking his head from the disorientation and the pieces of rock on his head. He looked forward again, but his vision was covered the slam of a large adamantium fist. His back was turned to face the mutant who grabbed onto the large fin.

Reinforcing his limbs with adamantium again, Venom lifted the metahuman into the air. Lamden roared as he found himself suspended in the air while he tried to reach back with his hands, trying to force the demon's hands away but it was no use. The civilians around watched the mutant use his hands to hold the shark being in the air and were impressed beyond their wildest imaginations.

It was as though a battle between kings were raging before their very eyes.

Venom threw the metahuman away, thrusting him away with a blast of wind. His body crashed into the ground, paving through it with debris falling up on his body. Cars were pushed away and into the air and threatened to fall on top of innocent civilians.

But the pitch-black tendrils that wrapped around them prevented such a fate. Venom used them and put them back on the ground and watched as the shark metahuman got onto his feet again. Claws tearing into the hoods of the asphalt before pulling them again, tearing up large pieces of the street in his fists.

Seeing that, Venom formed large ice blades on both arms with water dripping down their cold surfaces. His white spines along his forearms brimming with lightning and coating the ice weaponry. Both beasts roaring at one another before charging again.

Lamden swung with his left hand, the large piece of road still a weapon in his hand, and aimed for the demon's head. Venom dodged with a leap, jumping onto the side of a building before using it as a springboard and landed behind him. With a swing of both hands, he embedded the blades into his back. It's coating of lighting shocking his body violently.

His large shark body was swung while he screamed when thrown into a wall. His grips on his road pieces remained strong and he needed it when he saw the mutant appear in front of him with another swing of his left ice blade. But it only connected with a road piece that Lamden used as a shield.

The shark metahuman used the other one to slam into Seth's head, knocking him to the side and the metahuman grabbed his arm with both hands. Putting all of his strength into his hands, he swung the demon into the air with a throw.

But Seth straightened himself and landed on his feet, making sure that none of the civilians were hurt with a quick gaze. He turned back to the metahuman who glanced at the side. His clawed hands dug into a gray van. Raising it high up in the air above his head, the screams within the vehicle could reach everyone near the two fighting beings.

Venom expanded his senses, with his eyes looking deeply into the vehicle again. He saw a young couple in the front seats, both of them screaming at the top of their lungs with terror. The vehicle was then launched like a boulder launched from a catapult.

"**Bastard!**" Venom and Seth jumped into the air, their hands turning into adamantium and grabbing the van out of the air. Returning to the ground again, he put the van on the lane and the passengers got out of it while holding their chests. The two ran to each other and hugged tightly before embracing in a kiss.

His heart ached at the small reminder of what he could have with Caitlin, but also from what had just happened between him and her evil doppelganger. "_I hate myself…_"

"**_Wait with that._**" Venom chastised him.

The mutant looked back to metahuman, seeing him tear off a signpost from the sidewalk. Like a lance, he launched the signpost at him. Seth jumped in front of the embracing couple and put his arms together, side by side, as ice grew on them to force a large and dense spiked shield.

The force of the throw allowed the signpost to pierce through the corner of the ice shield. Roaring in anger, he used one hand to pull the post out of the shield and used his other to throw the ice shield at the metahuman who dodged the attack with a roll.

Venom gathered wind into the palms of his fists and slammed them together, blasting out a massive wind blast pushed the shark metahuman into the wall behind him. Shooting out tendrils and wrapping them around his wrists, Seth pulled on them like ropes and brought the enemy closer to him.

Within arm's reach, Venom reeled his arm back and swung his adamantium fist into the enemy's face, the wind emitting from knuckles and blowing him away like a wind torrent hitting his face. The force blasted the metahuman into a wall, cracking the surface.

The metahuman felt fear raising again inside of his bones, his very cells quivering uncontrollably. Bones felt like they were cracking and limbs feeling as though they were being torn off from the root. His mouth gaping with fear as he made eye contact with him again. "Monster!" His fearful voice shocking the civilians.

"**Heard it once, not keen on hearing it again.**" Venom bluntly stated his words.

The shark metahuman reached to the side and grabbed onto a wall. His claws piercing into the bricked surface before pulling on it, ripping it from the building before throwing it at Seth. Venom's teeth reddened before opening up and unleashing a flaming blast that burned the wall into pieces, a smokescreen spreading over their heads and falling down on them.

Seth saw the smokescreen descending down on them and crossed his arms over his chest. Circulating wind around them both, he uncrossed them with a mighty swing and blew the smokescreen away. When gone, he looked around and saw that the shark metahuman was gone. The smokescreen providing the shark cover whilst during his escape.

"**Typical.**" Venom muttered with a demonically deep voice. He looked back and saw the couple still in an embrace. "**You okay?**"

The woman nodded, "We're okay."

"Thank you." The man said.

Seth nodded before he looked around and saw that dozens of men and women had gathered around them in a circular formation. The mutant rolled his eyes behind his symbiotic mask at the cameras that were flashing before his eyes. "_Great, might end up with a new nickname now._"

"**_Cool._**" Venom thought, not disliking the thought of a new name for them.

"_Evelyn._" Seth snapped his eyes open and jumped onto the side of a building. With extreme haste, and without care about the hundreds of witnesses, Venom crawled like a beast along the surface of the wall before disappearing into thin air with a disappearing act.

As he was outta sight, a large man in a black trenchcoat pressed stop button on his camera phone, cancelling the recording on his cellular device before putting it back in his pocket.

"So that's him…" he spoke impressed.

X

Nighttime had fallen down on the streets were the tragic event that lead to Evelyn' path to the life of an orphan. And the poor young and terrified metahuman girl stood there, before the white picket fence that once enclosed her beautiful household.

Her arms hurting and bruising with the contrasting energies of light and darkness in the arms hurting her from inside out. Tears of sadness falling down her face and touching the surfaces of both of her arms, evaporating from the immense energy emitting from them. The strange mark of a bright sun and two dark crescents on either side of it still shining on her forehead. Its white crescent mark still under her right eye shining just as brightly.

The tears continued flowing down her face and hitting her limbs that were crossed over her body while looking over the remains of her house. She looked to the open and large front lawn; a smile formed on the memories that resurfaced to the forefront of her mind.

She could still envision the times that she spent on it with her mother, her inspiration to becoming an athlete. Though she was a senior loan officer, she was an aspiring athlete ever since her high school years as a cheerleader that was scouted by various colleges and universities. She passed them up to gain a steady career in finance, which led to her and family's happy life.

But as she was raising her daughter, the mother taught Evelyn everything that was to becoming a star gymnast. Showing how to cartwheel through the grass and jumping into loops before landing on their feet. She was an amazing woman, loving and caring, aspiring and hopeful, teaching her daughter's that life was meant to be embraced and each moment had to be enjoyed to the maximum and giving more than just a single effort.

And she wasn't the only one to tell her that.

Her father was nothing less than undeniably amazing and supportive that people would find it otherworldly. Though being a contractor, her father always made sure he had time for her and made sure everything was up and about, ready and stable for his family to create dozens of memories for them to store. They were a family and he was always there to protect the two most important women in his life.

Evelyn looked to the side and saw a broken woodshop. She remembered that she and her father had been the ones to work on it. He told how like each nail used to build the shop was like life. Each nail is a like a step that was essential for the others that were to follow. All of them together is the very foundation to something more beautiful and magnificent. All it takes is time, nothing could be rushed.

That's not the way life was to be spent.

However, it was exactly that way their lives ended… with a rush of both Zoom's hands that thrusted through their chests…crushing their hearts without even making a scratch on either their backs or fronts…

Tears continued to flow down like waterfalls as Evelyn knew the reason behind their deaths. She couldn't handle the very fact that this happened…because of… her.

"There you are."

Evelyn turned her eyes around and with her teary eyes saw Seth standing there, he was walking towards her with slow steps. He saw the tears rolling down her face and his worry increased his walking.

"Stop." She tearfully told him, her words managing to halt him. "Why are you here, Seth?"

Despite her words, he walked closer and spoke. "Well, I heard you suddenly disappeared, vanished into smoke or something like that, right?" Evelyn widened her eyes. "A teleporter? And here I thought you were already special. Add teleportation into the mix, you're a wonder already."

"I'm not. Just stop it." She said lowly, tears falling down endlessly while the marks on her face continued to shine.

Seth noticed the marks and found them interesting. But her words confused him and he asked, "Stop what, Evie?"

She shook her head, her arms still oozing darkness and shining light with her eyes displaying an ocean of different emotions. Anger, hurt, confusion, mistrust, fear…and worst of all, despair and guilt. "Stop saying that I'm a wonder. I'm a freak. Just like all the other metahumans who have appeared. Like Zoom and all the others under his rule."

"Is that what you really think?" Seth inquired worriedly. "That you're no better than Zoom and his evil corporation? Just another criminal who hurts others? Cause that doesn't sound like you."

"You know it is." She argued.

"No, I don't." Seth persisted.

"I'm the reason my parents are dead!" she screamed and her arms exploded with contrasting energy surges again. Seth saw the darkness shoot out like his tendrils and smashed into the ground with massive strength and light shooting out like arrows again, penetrating the ground. But despite that, he remained calm while dodging some of the arrows coming his way. "Zoom wanted me! And when I said no and tried getting away, he killed my parents. In front of me! And…I couldn't do anything about it! I'm a freak who let her own parents die in front of her!"

"Don't put that on you, Evelyn!" Seth roared, her eyes still leaking tears and locking onto his. While her powers raged around her and affecting the environment, he walked forward. "Zoom was the one responsible for hurting them, for hunting you. You can't control your powers, but Zoom can. He decided to hunt you and he was the one who killed your parents. No one else. It's his fault. You can't blame yourself for what a psychopath did. You're nothing like him or his bastards." As he spoke, he had to sidestep and dodged the onyx tendrils that came for him.

"How are you so sure?" She asked shocked.

"Because you're scared." Seth stood in front of her, the light and darkness surging around her. "I've been where you are right now, so I know what's it like."

"No, you don't." She didn't believe him.

"I almost burned my little sister with my flames." Seth revealed to her shock, such a shock that caused the young girl to lessen her powers with her full attention diverted to him. "All of these powers, my elements, none of them came with an instruction manual, I had to figure it out on my own. I was scared, terrified, because I had to make them adapt to me, otherwise they would have hurt my body and exploded. My fire element did once, and it ended up with my baby sister almost hurt. I hated myself for it for so long, even wanted to get rid of this curse."

Evelyn saw a chain reaction of explosions of emotions going off in his eyes. Anger, self-hate… and guilt. A selected few emotions that seemed to overweigh the ocean of emotions that she was experiencing. And the explosions kept going off as the fire of past mistakes sparked endlessly. Like a match lit to burn down a forest of emotional sensations.

"But I was able to control it." He held up his hand, stretching his fingers and the tips of each digit enveloped with an element. Fire on his thumb. Water on his index finger. Wind on his middle. Lightning on his ring finger. Ice on his little finger. Adamantium in his palm. And he curled them all, cracking the earth under him in response to his command.

Evelyn saw it and turned back to him. "All it takes is guidance and time. the right people are there for you to help you. You can handle this, trust me. I did, so can you." he inclined his head with a tilt and admitted bemusedly. "And you're way cooler than I was at your age."

She chuckled through the tears that continued to fall. But the tears were wiped away when Seth reached her face with his fingers, drying off the tears with his index finger. "I'll help you, Evie. I promise you that." He looked at her forehead again and rubbed his thumb over the strange mark there. "Pretty cool mark here." He ran his thumb down her face to the mark crescent moon under her right eye. "This one too."

"I don't know what they are." Evelyn said, her right hand wiping away the tears with the back of her sleeve. She had calmed down greatly since Seth began talking to her, calming her down. "But they appear when my powers activate."

"Only when your powers appear? Huh? Must be some sort of power indicators. That's really cool." Seth admitted with a smile as he looked between the marks. "It's the start of an eclipse." He raised an eyebrow. "Eclipse."

"What do you mean?" Evelyn asked, her powers now not activating and her marks still shining.

"Eclipse." He repeated with a smile. "Pretty good nickname, wouldn't you say? Metahumans needs an awesome nickname, something a friend of mine is really good at."

"But what if I don't wanna be a hero?" she asked seriously with worry in the mix.

"Then don't be." Seth told her softly. "You can be whoever you want to be, and the past doesn't have to tie you down. Bad things happened, yeah. But you're stronger than that, and you can overcome them. It's gonna be hard, it's gonna be tough, it's gonna be hell." He spoke bluntly. "But everything takes an effort, and you got to give it your all." She widened her eyes at the familiar words. "It's something that has to be done in steps, not to be rushed." She cupped her mouth with both hands with shock. "It's gonna seem impossible with the pain and all, but I'm here and I'll help you."

"M-M-My Mom and Dad used to say something like that." Evelyn spoke. "Every day whenever I would start doing something, a new project or something like that, they would always tell that. I got tired of that and now I just miss it. And now…I'm hearing the same from you…thanks."

"Parents are funny that way." Seth said. "Even though we haven't met, they all have the same exact thoughts. Thinking what to tell your child to make them feel better, to help them, to give the guidance that they need. To be their shield."

"What about your daughter? Frankie?" Evelyn recalled. "She's alone right now. Without you. don't you miss her."

"With all of my heart." It wasn't even worth thinking about, he already knew the answer to that question if inquired. "Most likely, her and my friends and family back on my Earth thinks I'm dead."

"Sorry." She sympathized with him. "What are you gonna do?"

"Save you, save this city, kill Zoom and his merry band of bastards." Seth began. "Find a way back to my Earth, reunite with my daughter, my girlfriend and my friends and family. Cross my fingers and hope that there's not a tombstone with my name on it." Evelyn chuckled again, but was saddened by the thought of the elemental leaving her and this world for some reason. "But that's all after I'm done helping you guys. Not a minute, or even a second later."

"You promise?" she asked hopefully.

Seth smiled and held up his right little finger. "I pinky swear." Evelyn smiled and wrapped her own little finger around his. The two locked their fingers together in a lock of promise and said. "I want to get back to them as soon as possible, but I promised to protect you guys too. And I keep my promises. Plus, my daughter won't let me live it down if I turned my back on a promise."

"Thanks…Seth." She managed to say before exhaust took over and she fell forward, landing in his open arms.

"I got you, Evie." Seth told her assuringly before lifting her up in his arms. "_Let's get her home._" he spoke to himself and his "other" who nodded. His clothes shifted and enlarged into symbiotic mass before spreading into his form as Venom again.

Throwing a last look at the state of Evelyn's old house, he muttered to himself. "**We'll protect her. No harm will near your daughter.**" In their conjoined thoughts, it was as though both host and symbiote were speaking to the late parents of Evelyn Sharp.

A vow had been made, and it shall never be broken by the demon who swore it.

He jumped off the ground and used roofs as springboards and leaped from them as he made his way through to the West-Allen household.

A security camera attached to a pole turned in the direction of the mutant jumping away. Its lens turning, zooming in on him as though it was watching him with the acuity of a hawk.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

Seth looked from the doorframe and watched as Evelyn slept in the bed. This time she had calmed down, and her powers were no longer activating. Or hurting her, at least for now, anyway. But that also made one thing sure in his mind.

"_You're right, Venom._"

"**_About what?_**" Venom mentally raised an eyebrow. As he asked, Evelyn twitched around the bed again, causing the covers to fall off her body again. she began whimpering as though a painful nightmare entered her mind.

He inhaled deeply before walking into the room and pulled the covers over her sleeping form. "We gotta show them the ropes." He muttered under a whisper, making sure that he didn't wake her up. "_Ruby's gotta show us her skills and learn how to control her new powers, Evelyn needs to learn how to control her powers too. And Jesse, needs to… learn. That's gonna be a bitch. But it's the right thing._"

"**_They need to learn to defend themselves._**" Venom reasoned with him.

"_Yeah._" Seth thought back and sat down on the edge of the bed, his hand stroking Evelyn's hair gently. She began to calm down again and he told her calmingly. "It's okay, sweetheart. Nothing's gonna happen to you, or the others here. Not as long as I'm here."

Evelyn shifted a little closer to him in her sleep, seemingly every nerve in her relaxing again. "…Thank you…" she muttered lowly and his smile widened before standing up. he walked over to the door and opened it slowly, creaking a bit. "…Daddy…"

The mutant's movements paused as he was about to close the door again. His hand holding the doorknob and was about to shut it but her words caused him to pause. The word muttered caused him to enter a paralyzed state of shock as only one other person had called him that a long time ago…

It was a word he missed to be called.

He shook his head rapidly, and closed the door and walked into the hallway. Seth smiled and walked to the side, aiming to walk downstairs to join the others.

"Hey."

But he stopped and looked back to find Ruby walking over to him. "What are you doing here, Ruby?"

"Something's been bothering me." Ruby started.

"How a little girl like you is like a HYDRA Black Widow in the making, who might consider actual school than homeschooling, as the latter is nothing but shit?" Seth jokingly stated.

"Nah, I got to beat the crap out of cocky boys. Didn't do much for my temper, but still got to beat them." Ruby said without much care. "But that's not it." she got his full attention. "Back before when you checked on Evelyn, you were burned."

"I was." he nodded his immediate agreement.

Ruby narrowed her eyes as she continued, "But a few months ago, you healed my hands, and after that, you were attacked by Deathstorm's flames. But you don't even flinch from it, you just shrugged it off like it was nothing. So, what's the difference? You're saying Evelyn's stronger than Deathstorm?"

"_Gotta hand it to her, Ruby's an observant girl._" Seth thought to himself, his partner nodding agreeingly. "Since you're from my universe, I assume you heard of the Ghost Rider."

Her eyes widen instantly. "Wait, he's real. Thought he was some scary fairy tale, an urban legend that scared the hell of criminals." She doubted that the so-called rider of hell that punishes those with souls stained with the blood of innocents was real. Especially of the story that the flame-headed demon riding a motorcycle.

"Oh, trust me, he's real alright." Seth assured her with a pained voice from all the memories that was brought back. "The reason I didn't feel, or flinch from Deathstorm's attack, was because the Ghost Rider attacked me a few years ago and hurled his flames at me." He clenched his fists as he continued with a painful voice. "And I was overwhelmed quickly because of his hellfire, and I made the mistake of trying to own that power."

The former HYDRA assassin knew what he was getting at, "You tried to absorb his element, didn't you?"

"Yup, and it was a mistake on my part." Seth admitted truthfully. "He could still control them, even inside of my body and it burned like lava in my veins. I felt like I was going to die. And compared to that, Deathstorm's flames are a single spark."

"What was it like?" Ruby inquired, confusion on the mutant's face. "Fighting that monster, I mean?"

"Incredibly scary." Seth stated honestly and frightenedly, causing further shock to wash over the HYDRA assassin. "That's probably the one bastard in the entire multiverse I do not want to fight again. The scariest I might have fought against." He turned around to walk again with Ruby behind him as he continued. "But he's not the one I wanted to kill."

"What do you mean?"

Ruby's question was left unanswered and the two walked down the stairs and into the living room. In the room Jesse and Barry are sitting on the couch and Iris sitting in a recliner. They had all been gathered in the living room per Seth's request.

The detective saw him and asked, "What's with the gathering, Seth?"

"What are the chances of Evelyn staying clear of CCPD's radar now?" Seth inquired with a gaze shifting between the CCPD workers.

Iris clicked her tongue disappointedly. "It's gonna impossible. They all think she had something to do with the Sharp house falling to pieces and killing her parents."

"Seriously?" Jesse said in disbelief. "Metahuman or not, no one in their right mind would kill their own parents. And Evelyn is still a teenager. Sure, we all think we hate our parents at that age, but we still don't kill them."

"I would have killed my Mom if it came to that." Ruby confessed. "But mine was a tyrant, so there's that."

Barry looked in her direction. "Seriously, you live in a detective's house. Keep your weird and honest truths to, like, a minimum, okay?" Ruby shrugged uncommittedly. He then looked to the elemental. "But in this case, there's only one thing that could help Evelyn: a confession from Zoom. But that's impossible."

"So, a confession from Zoom would help? Wipe her slate clean." they nodded sheepishly to his seemingly unsure statement. "What if it was from an eyewitness? An accomplice at that, someone who was intending to do the same, but didn't manage to do it. But was there and watched every detail of the crime unfolding."

"That would really help, yeah." Iris said. "But that would only work if it came from Killer Frost, the only criminal on Zoom's rule who was there."

Seth smirked as he pulled out a circular device and placed it on the table. They all saw that it wearing an eagle-like symbol on the top of it. Ruby was the only one to recognize it as the SHIELD logo. The mutant smiled at the detective and pressed the head of the eagle, pushing down the head and then a small whirring sound emitted from the device. It lit up with blue colors around the bird before a static sound followed, and then a familiar voice spoke.

"_Optimistic girl with a bright future turns notorious thief of Central City. Zoom kills her parents with his claws piercing into their chest and she's on the run ever since. Nice origin story." _The three people heard and recognized the chillingly cold voice as Killer Frost's. Barry and Iris sharing looks of shock. Jesse withholding her shock and growing mistrust deep inside of her now, worried that it would spark something demonic in the anti-hero_. "She even managed to steal enough money to get out of the city. But Zoom caught her and captured her and put her in a cell._"

Iris looked at him with shock. "You managed to get a confession from her? How?"

"Paid a small but large price." He answered vaguely, leaving them confused. "But is this enough for Evelyn to be kept off the department's wanted list?"

"Yes, it is." Barry assured him and hugged him tightly, surprising the mutant, who after a moment of awkwardness hugged him back. "Thank you."

"Was doing it more for Evie's sake than the rest of y'all, but you're welcome." Seth revealed as he and Barry dislodged from another. "But at least it's gonna be easier in the coming days."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked intrigued.

"You, Evelyn and Jesse are gonna be trained…" He used his thumbs and pointed at himself. "By this guy. And it's gonna be hell."

Jesse's face lost all colors and Ruby smirked happily before saying. "Finally, something interesting happening on this Earth."

Barry looked at the television. "Speaking of interesting, take a look." He pointed at the screen and the others followed the direction of his finger. Their eyes widened at the sight, Seth's more than others.

It was footage of what happened before at the streets, revealing footage of the fight between Venom and the large shark metahuman. The television screen displaying the large demon holding up Zoom's lackey in the air with his bare hands. It was certainly an amazing sight to be revealed on the news, spreading the news of the elemental demon that originated from another world.

But the news title was the one that shocked them all…and caused both Seth and Venom to smile with excitement.

"_Predatorial Shark-Man Tamed by the Demon King._"

"Demon King, huh?" Seth said with a smile, the eyes of the others turning to him with confusion. "Guess that sounds about right."

X

As that was happening, the large man that had recorded the brawl between Lamden and Venom walked through the door he opened up. he walked into a room with a desk in the middle, three computers sitting on the desk with a person sitting in a chair there.

The person looked upwards from behind the rim of the middle computer screen and asked. "You got video for me, Tony?" she spoke with a feminine voice.

Taking off his large trenchcoat and placing it on the table, Tony Woodward smiled and reached into his pocket and pulled up the video before handing it to her. "Got it right here, Boss."

"Thank you, darling." She accepted the phone and watched the video quickly. She placed her dark-blue eyes on him again. "You managed to get anything else? The more we have the better."

"There's something else. Something that happened between him and one of Zoom's lackey." Tony answered vaguely.

"More than what he did to Zoom's Great White Shark?" She waved the phone around, this time her eyes now displaying red colors. "What did he do?"

"Watch the video, and you'll believe me." Tony told her and she watched the video after finding it. "But did you find something Boss? Something that shows this guy is even trustworthy?"

"I did." She looked up again. "And I'm sure he's trustworthy. And we can use him, when the time's right."

"And that's not now?"

"No, not yet." She agreed with him. "Not yet…we have to be ready."

"So, what do we do now?" Her henchman asked.

His boss raised an eyebrow in shock of what she found. "That's…not what I expected." She commented on the video's contents. "Like, at all."

"Boss?" Tony asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, sorry." His boss apologized. "For now, we wait and observe. See what this guy is capable of, before we reach out."

"But we will, right?" Tony asked almost fearfully.

"I promised you and the others, Tony, that we will." She told him honestly. "We'll have Demon King on our side."

Venom's powers were needed for what was to come in the future. The battles that needed to be faced have to be intercepted by more than just soldiers. They needed a king, a demonic king. One that with a mere gaze will tear through the souls of anyone who dares to stand before him.

And that was Venom.

**To be continued…**

**Now Evelyn has returned to a state that allows to be unharmed from further damage caused by her own powers. The damage from her past have left a traumatizing scar on her heart that appears to open up and close shut again with time passing. But Seth was able to help her through it, but only for a moment that lead to the birth of Eclipse. **

**The marks on her forehead is that of The Triple Goddess symbol, along with a crescent moon under her right eye, like that of Dagger in the Marvel Comics. I would like to thank Ryu otsutsuki for his help.**

**Ruby and Jesse's relationship still on what could be described as…rocky on rocky on rockier grounds. And the HYDRA assassin does not appear to have taken a liking to Earth-2's fashion. But who can blame her?**

**Killer Frost managed to get a small but well-worth-it kiss from our favorite elemental. To say she enjoyed it would seem like the understatement. And she wasn't the only one to do experience the joy of kissing Caitlin Snow's lips. But Seth had to be chastised by his partner because he was relishing in the lips that he desired. **

**His heart was beating for the Caitlin Snow he knows and loves. And for his daughter as well. Thoughts of a bizarre nature are brewing in his mind as he heard Evelyn's last word muttered before he exited her bedroom. It would certainly be strange in the coming times.**

**A battle between two raging beasts, Venom and the man would shall be known as King Shark in the future, caused the demon to be given the name "Demon King". And that was not the only thing, it also led to Seth being on the radar of a mysterious person and the familiar face of Tony Woodward.**

**Things are getting more and more interesting.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	8. Chapter 8: Family of Rogues

**And another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**I would like to say I'm sorry for taking so long with updating the story once again. School life's been catching up with me every now and then.**

**And once again I would like to thank ArchaicPhenominon for his help with the coffee drinks for the OC heroes, and thank him for letting make slight changes to them.**

**Now another matter that is without a doubt heart-breaking… Marvel's Cloak and Dagger on Freeform had been cancelled, which one of the world's greatest tragedies to ever happen. But hope might linger with news of Disney+ to pick up the mantle and continue the show, with the same actors but an entirely different plotline.**

**With Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld, being a success, I'm honestly looking forward to it. What about you guys?**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 8: Family of Rogues**

Caitlin holds the teapot in her hands, tilting it downwards and pouring the scalding hot water into the two cups placed before her. She stands in her and her daughter's home, in her kitchen as she prepares tea for her and her guest, as they both wait for Frankie to return from her usual nightly patrol.

The teas were ready to be served and she took hold of them and turned around to face her guest. "Thanks for coming again. It means a lot." She set the tea in front of her.

Her guest smiled politely and took the tea in her hand. The rim of it touching her lips before drinking from it. "Don't worry about that, Caity." Felicia stated as she sat in the couch with her legs crossed over one another. "Thought you would have called me sooner or later." The cat burglar spoke truthfully.

She thought that in following of the last two meetings with Olivia and Matt, that the mother of the young metahuman would request the master thief for a meeting.

"You mean after Olivia and Matt paid you a few visits?" Felicia raised a surprised eyebrow as the doctor took a seat in a recliner. Caitlin smiled. "They told me about their visits to you, their talks about Frankie and you training her and all."

"Let me guess, you don't approve?" Felicia thought of her.

"The opposite, actually." Caitlin revealed to her shock, if her wide eyes were any indication. "I wanted to thank you for looking out for her like this. Training her and helping out on her patrols like you've done. It means a lot that you've been able to help her like this. I can't do what you can do, so it's good to know that Frankie has a mentor like you." she sighed before forming a smile and telling her. "Thank you for everything, Felicia. I can't thank you enough for being there for my daughter when I couldn't."

Felicia chuckled. "Don't worry about that, Caity. I owe Ace that much after everything he's done for me. And helping you? Gives me a new friend, who's not Livy and can actually make proper tea."

The female doctor chortled. "Olivia can't make tea?"

"Not even in the least." Felicia chuckled. "Me and Stefanie joined her for brunch one day, and she made tea that day. But it was incredibly distasteful, like drinking warm water with acid flavor. Don't ever let her make tea again."

"I'll try." Caitlin promised with another chuckle. "But don't let her hear you say that, she might just give you an aneurysm or worse."

"I can imagine that. Now we just have wait for the little Lethal Protector." Felicia jokingly said as she and Caitlin waited for the young metahuman to join them.

As if on cue, a window behind them opened up and a small person with pinkish symbiotic skin jumped through the window. Magenta stood in her full height and craned her neck before the symbiote retracted into her body. Her long brown hair rolled down her back and she smiled to herself.

"Speaking of the devil herself." Caitlin joked.

"EEEIII!" Frankie yelped before leaping from the floor and latched onto the ceiling in a crouched position.

Felicia reeled her head back in shock. "That's a new one."

Frankie looked down and saw her mother and her mentor sitting beside one another. She breathed out in relief and said. "Mom. Felicia. What are you doing up so late?"

Caitlin gave her a dry look. "I'm the parent and you're the child. I'm supposed to be asking you that question, young lady." Frankie giggled and detached herself from the ceiling and dropped down to the floor. She landed on both feet before walking over to them. the mother told her. "About time you got home."

The young daughter smiled and placed her hand on her shoulder. "Sorry, Mom. Iris needed a hand back at Baldwin Tower. She was being shot at by two gangsters." Her expression soured. "The Flash saved her when she jumped out of the building but I took down the gangsters who shot at her."

"You're okay, right?" Caitlin worriedly asked her.

"I am, Mom." Frankie assured her mother. "But the two gangsters with guns on them? They're taking a little nap till the CCPD wakes them."

"So…" Felicia got the natives' attention. "why was Iris skydiving outta of a tower? New hobby?" she hoped it wasn't.

"She got a hot lead on a real estate scam." Frankie began. "Apparently, the guys have been illegally evicting people, essentially breaking up families."

Felicia scoffed, "She does know that no story is worth her life?"

"You can tell her that the next time you see her." Caitlin told her.

"Mom." Caitlin turned to the young metahuman. "You're going to see the breach underneath S.T.A.R. Labs tomorrow, right?"

"We are, sweetie." She ruffled her hair playfully with both hands. "And if you want any hope of joining us, you are gonna have to sleep now!"

"Okay, okay, okay!" Frankie chanted in embarrassment and got up while Felicia laughed at their lovely moment. "I'm going. Night, Mom. Night, Felicia."

"Night, Rose!" Felicia called out to her as the metahuman walks away and up the stairs to her room.

"Goodnight, honey!" Caitlin called out to her before the door closed shut. The doctor smiled again before looking at the master thief. "Frankie Fury, the symbiote bearer with magnekinetic powers and the face of a pink demon, jumping in fear when getting home late and busted by her parent. That's something I did not expect."

"Yeah. But that only proves one thing." Felicia sipped her tea.

"And what's that?" Caitlin wondered.

"That she's your daughter." Felicia winked at her. Those words allowed the doctor's smile to widen to new limits. And it didn't show any signs of stopping.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Basement Level)**

"That thing…is cool." Olivia complimented the sight that she and the others were taking in as they watched it's swirling energy mass.

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" Barry asked rhetorically as he walked around the center of attention.

Jay had to agree with them. "Still can't believe what I'm looking at."

"There's 52 breaches in Central City, and the biggest one just happens to be in our basement." Matt stated surprised by the mass of energy that kept twirling around in front of them. but he couldn't help that it didn't seem to look like the wormholes that he encountered on Earth-616.

"But it's pretty cool, yeah." Frankie admitted as well.

"**_Don't know what I expected but this is not what I expected in the least._**" Magenta commented.

"_What did you expect?_" Her host asked.

"**_Don't know, maybe a smaller singularity look-alike._**" The symbiote joked and Frankie rolling her eyes in response. But they couldn't help but see that its form was indeed strange even unstable.

"We need a name for it." Cisco adamantly said.

Caitlin threw the mechanical engineer a dry look. "It's not a pet, Cisco." She chastised him.

"No," they heard a familiar male voice call out to them with a correction, drawing their attention as they turned to face him. "it's a wormhole." Martin Stein continued.

They all saw him wearing his arm in a sling as he walked closer to join them in their discovery of the magnificent breach. But after his sudden fall that took place in the building, they were all greatly worried for him. Caitlin more so, which made her ask him for his concern. "Professor Stein, what are you doing? Your blood pressure is 147 over 82! You could pass out again."

"Professor, you might want to listen to my Mom, she's better at this than you." Frankie reminded him. "And we seriously don't want you to like drop dead or something like that."

"That is merely a rather dark outcome of a possible situation that your youthful, and at times, dark mind thinks of, Ms. Fury." Stein told the young girl before turning his attention to her mother. "And it's merely a few points above the 140 average for someone my age. Besides, I have some ideas I would like to contribute to this discussion, Dr. Snow."

Matt had to admit, the old man was definitely stubborn and was willing to fight all the way to get his will. "_Respect, old man._" The nanite mutant thought his appraisal and was shocked by the old man who was stubborn enough to fight through pain that was brought forth from the condition that he is suffering from.

"And I want to hear them." Jay Garrick said, garnering their attention. "This isn't just a wormhole. It's my way home." He looked longingly at the blue mass of energy that looked strange.

"Back to Earth-2." Caitlin deduced.

Barry asked the man from the other universe without making eye contact. "Jay, you really think that we can use this as some kind of bridge from your world to ours?" his question was unsure.

"Zoom uses the breaches." Jay reminded. "Why can't we?"

"Yeah, a very big and obvious reason for that." Matt started.

"We don't know how." Cisco finished the nanite mutant's thoughts. "Everything we put through just bounces back."

"Great." Olivia clapped her hands. "Now kids, remember not to hurl things into the big hole of transdimensional energy, unless you want it to ricochet the shit back in your face."

A lightbulb appeared over Barry's head as an idea lit up in his mind. "If Zoom's using these breaches to transport people from Earth-2, maybe it takes a speedster."

Matt perked his head up with surprise. "Wait? Wha-"

_WHOOSH_

The mutant's question was cut short when the Scarlet Speedster sped out of the room, wind blowing up around them and hitting their faces.

Cisco looked at the others with a question mark above his head. "He's not gonna…"

Frankie was the one to answer. "Yeah, he is." Parts of her couldn't help but look forward to this little experiment the speedster had been planning.

_WHOOSH_

Barry returned into the basement level with a lightning charged rush coursing through every vein in his body and he charged into the bluish transdimensional mass of energy. But as Cisco told them before, it merely ricocheted his form backwards, bouncing him back and into the floor with a roll.

The others pointed their eyes to him and he threw his hands up, while on the ground. "Maybe I'm not fast enough."

"That or your brain is not working anymore." Matt muttered.

Martin didn't agree with that. "I don't believe your speed is the entirety of the issue, Barry." The speedster was raised back on his feet via help from the former speedster. "It might be the breach's stability or lack thereof."

"It's not stabile then?" Frankie inquired.

"Martin's right." Jay began. "We need to think of the breach as a door, and on Earth-2, there's another door. In between, we have a hallway, but the hallway's constantly shifting, twisting, collapsing upon itself."

"And the doors keep moving with it." Barry surmised.

"So we stabilize the door, we stabilize the hallway." Cisco presumed.

"And then I can jump through it." Barry excitedly stated and pointed a finger at Cisco.

"Exactly, it would serve as a kind of cannon." Jay's mind clicked. "A speed cannon."

"Mm." Cisco hummed with his head facing the man impressively. "We should hang out more."

Frankie turned to her uncle and aunt. "Uncle, did you and Aunt Liv see something like that when you passed through the portal, a hallway?"

Olivia tilted her head from side to side, like it was switching sides on a weight scale. "Can't speak for your uncle, but I was busy trying to get out of a bloodthirsty psychopath's grip while mid-fall. And of course, telekinetically putting myself into a coma was a bitch."

"And I was sucked into my portal after I did my job and closed the other portals on our Earth." Matt revealed.

At the mention of his old mission, his wife looked curiously at him. "Matt, think you can close that with a repulsor blast? You did it in our world." he gained a curious look and turned his attention to the breach.

Everyone heard her question and watched as he stepped into the center of the room, his hand stretching out with the nanites digging out of his body and forming his white metal gauntlet. The repulsor shined brightly as he quickly gathered the energy in the center of his palm. A blue energy beam blasted from his hand and fired off at the breach.

But like with the objects hurled into its form and the speedster who charged into it, the repulsor blast was rebounded and sent flying into the ceiling. Thankfully, none of them were hit by the ricocheted blast. Matt lowered his weapon. "Guess I should have expected that."

"Yeah, so should I have." Olivia reluctantly said. "It's created from dark matter source, a singularity. The portal that caused those wormholes to appear on our earth had nothing to do with dark matter."

Matt chuckled, "Guess it's gonna take more tests."

"All right." Martin Stein got their attention. "No more tests today. All of you are leaving now, as am I. Cherish the gift of youth as I will go cherish my much needed nap. Clarissa's already on her way to pick me up."

"Good, I didn't want to drag you through the city till I found your house." Frankie said with an evil smile.

Martin gulped.

X

As they were dealing with their situation and the breaches, Detective Joseph West of Central City Police Department, was sitting alone in a bar by himself as he waited for a certain someone to come and speak their mind. He didn't want to, but he had to.

Hoping above all else that once this person had said whatever was needed to be said, it would lead to the person disappearing again. Out of his life, and out of his daughter's life.

Even if she was Iris's mother, that did not give her a pardon of any kind. Not after what she's done. Even if she wanted to see her, she had gall to come back after all these years. There was a reason why he didn't want to meet her.

But he had to now.

"_What would you do in my place, Seth?_" he asked himself in his head. Joe missed his best friend's advice and hoped that if he was still among them, he would have an answer to this predicament. Or at the very least be alive for him to be with his friend again and that his daughter was able to grow up with her father and mother together.

His wait came to an end as the tall dark-skinned woman with short black hair and white clothes walking over to the stoically drinking detective. "Joseph." She greeted him as she took a seat beside him. Joe put down his glass while Francine examined his hand. "You're still wearing your wedding ring."

"Divorced men take them off. Widowers don't." Joe instantly replied, his voice unusually empty of emotion. She looked shocked at his words. Her shock intensified when the detective pulled out an envelope and placed it before her. He diverted his attention from her quickly. "I need you to leave town."

Francine pinched the envelope lightly. "And you thought you could pay me to walk away from my own daughter?" she asked him shockingly after having deduced the envelope's contents.

"Last time, you walked away for free." Joe countered quickly.

She put the envelope in front of him again and said adamantly. "No amount of money is gonna keep me away from Iris."

Joe breathed out shudderingly. "It has been 20 years, Francine. Why did you show up now?"

"Now I'm different." She told him, he didn't know whether or not her words were honest or another lie. "Now I'm ready." She placed a hand on her chest.

"No. Now you're too late." The detective shook his head. "Iris is fine without you."

"You've done-" she went to cup his hands, but he shook them and kept her from touching his hands. Francine reeled them back, "You've done a wonderful job, Joe. Better than I ever could, but right now, she needs her mother. Losing the love of your life isn't something you can just get over in a few months. I would know."

Though she spoke with a longing voice of sincerity, Joe snapped his head at her with skepticism and disbelief on his eyes. Visionally shocking his "wife", which didn't prevent him from speaking further. "Would you?"

Francine was shocked by his tone, nothing like the Detective West she had married all those years ago. He slammed the envelope with money down in front of her again and he ordered her. "You have 48 hours to leave Central City." He got up from his chair.

"I'm not going anywhere." Francine told him defiantly. But he kept walking away without giving her a last glance.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

The long-awaited grand re-opening of the popular coffee shop, CC Jitters was in full swing, and an enormous success. Especially with the three new drinks that have been added to the menu.

And right now, Barry was buying four coffees, some of them are one of the new drinks. Olivia and Frankie were buying the other drinks in three cups.

"This is gonna be interesting." The psychic mutant stated at the sight of the black coffee in the two mugs in her hands.

"Let's hope so. I can't wait." Frankie followed up as she held her unique frapped drink in her hand. She could even hear an elongated tongue mentally licking the surface of her partner's teeth in her head. Hunger following thoroughly.

The three of them turned around and went to walk over to the others waiting for them, but Barry had to stop himself as he was about to walk into someone. Both taking sharp intakes of air with shock as they faced one another. The secret speedster saw that it was Patty who he was about to collide with.

Patty recognized who he was and said with a greeting. "Hey! The Flash!" she exclaimed.

Olivia raised an eyebrow in shock while sipping on her coffee. Frankie had to cup her mouth as she coughed on her drink. Barry's face fell down and he asked. "What?"

"The drinks that they're serving today." She gestured to the drinks in his hands. "They're called The Flash." They all looked up at the menu board. "A brewed coffee with an extra shot of expresso to keep you running all day. But you should maybe just, you know, have one of those."

"Yeah, no, my, my friends, uh ordered these." Barry clarified. "I didn't even realize…" he looked up at the menu board again in shock.

"Not the only drinks on the menu today." Olivia said.

"Yeah you're right." Patty nodded to the secret' psychic's drink. "The Venom." They all saw that she was looking deeply in her mind in search. "Home-brewed pitch-black coffee with so many streaks of milk and sugar that is should be lethal. Not allowed for kids, but meant for demons." She gestured to the magenta-haired woman's hands, holding cups of coffee with streaks of milk and sugar and dashes of the same, looking like the demon's eyes.

Olivia chortled as did her niece. "That is ridiculous." The aunt spoke.

"Yeah, but I'm actually more partial to The Magenta." The officer looked at Frankie's drink. "A purple child-friendly frapped coffee with a special black and white whipped cream. And a white chocolate bar placed on top of the cream in a single row. Enough to make their inner little demons come out and play." She pointed a finger at the frappe in the young girl's hands.

"I like this too." Frankie smiled and drank through the straw.

"Yeah, and there's also one for Angel Fury and Iron Knight. The Angel, or Angelic Frappa of Fury to some…" Olivia looked intrigued as the officer continued. "… A frappe with red peach syrup and whipped cream, that is so fluffy that's they look like clouds." The psychic considered buying a new one instead. "And the Knight, or just Iron Knight, is a cappuccino with rich milk, making you feel like you're wearing iron armor."

"That's sounds lovely." Frankie told herself with a giggle.

Patty looked between the two women and asked, "You're Frankie Fury and Olivia Fury-Stark, right?" the two nodded. "Detective West told me about you two. He speaks highly of you."

"Between us, Uncle Joe has a big mouth." Frankie joked and Patty laughed shortly.

Barry looked at the officer and asked. "Are you sticking around to celebrate?"

She stiffened and looked interested, the mutant and younger metahuman seeing her expression and watched as she and the speedster hold eye contact. "I don't know, should I?" Barry shrugged and Patty stuttered as she explained. "You know, actually, never mind, I can't. I-I have to head into work."

"Okay." Barry said.

"But it was great to see you." Patty admitted with a wide and bright smile. "You guys too." She added at a glance at the two others and they nodded.

"Yeah, good to see you too." Olivia told her.

"Good to see you." Barry told her.

"Okay, bye." She bid her farewells and waved to Frankie.

"Bye Patty." Barry told her before the three of them walked over to their friends who waited for them to join them with their drinks.

Olivia gave her second cup to her husband who accepted with a smile before pecking her on her lips. "One Venom for you."

"Thanks, babe." Matt thanked her before sipping on the drink. He perked his head up with wide eyes and said with a surprised frown. "Wow, that's…sort of sweet and bitter. Like heavily."

"Just like Venom." Frankie quipped and Caitlin agreed with a nod and chuckle. Her mother, feeling cheeky, reached over her daughter's form and took the straw and drank the sweet drink.

"Wow, that's really sweet." Caitlin admitted with a wipe of her mouth.

"Don't steal my drink, Mom." Frankie whined and her mouth gave a mock innocent pout and Caitlin kissed the top of her head.

"All right, four Flashes." Barry said as he handed out the drinks. "Be careful. Apparently, they are super caffeinated. First, I have a day named after me. Now I have a drink."

"Yeah, so have Frankie and Seth now, and now us." Matt stated. "Heck, Seth would hate to so many things about him. Coffees and events named after him. Yeah, he's not happy about it."

Olivia scoffed, "Knowing him, he would have walked into the shop as Venom and order the drink and roar at the barista."

"Can I do that?" Frankie asked hopefully.

"No, you can't." Her mother said immediately.

"Well you guys shouldn't be surprised." Iris got their attention. "With all the things that Barry, Frankie and Seth and you and Matt and Olivia have done, like rebuilding this place, protecting people, everyone's appreciative, right? And it's a good way to remember Seth." she added with her eyes pointing at Frankie and Caitlin, both of them smiling.

"Mm-hmm, I'll drink to that." Cisco agreed with her and clang glasses with her.

"Hear, hear." Matt joined in and clang his mug against theirs. Though he couldn't help but feel a bit insulted when there wasn't a drink dedicated to him or his wife.

Caitlin looked worried and got their attention. "Hey, you guys think Professor Stein is okay, right?" Her daughter gave her a look. "I mean, Clarissa would call if there was anything wrong."

"Yeah." Iris nodded.

"Mom, pretty sure Clarissa is gonna call you if her husband was near Death's door. Or if he began passing out. Bleeding or coughing out blood." Frankie said with a straight face.

Olivia put her mug down and told her, "Frankie you are too much like your Dad. You know that, right?" her niece didn't appear the least bit bothered by those words and only found them as a compliment that brought her a large and wide smile.

Her mother did not find her daughter's words the least bit assuring and told them. "All right. I'm just gonna call and check in. I'll be back." she pulled out her phone and walked away from them to talk alone with the Steins.

Matt glanced at his niece. "Your mother's stubborn."

"I know that." Frankie agreed.

Barry frowned. "I don't see that call going well."

Cisco smiled while the others chuckled. The mechanical engineer then did an impression of the elder professor's reaction to the doctor's call. "Young lady, these repeated intrusions are interrupting what should be a speedy recov-" someone bumped into him and stopped him from continuing. "Oh, I'm so sorry." He apologized to the woman.

"Don't apologize." The woman turned her head to face him, revealing, to their shock, to be none other than Leonard Snart's little sister, Lisa Snart. The beautiful and attractive but deadly wielder of the Golden Gun placed her eyes on Cisco and told him with a flirtatious voice. "You can bump into me any day, Cisco."

Frankie put her drink down and looked shocked. Olivia clenched her fist in shock and let her psychic energy wrap around it. Matt used his nanites to form a gun with a silencer under the table, its barrel pointing at the Snart sister.

"Lisa Snart." Cisco said with shock in his voice. Barry hid his face, as best as he could, behind the rim of his coffee mug. While Iris and the others heard as the mechanical engineer continued speaking with him. "You here to double-cross us again, or are you and your big bro holding up coffee shops now?"

Golden Glider then pleadingly asked. "I need your help."

Olivia couldn't help but scoff. "In your dreams, Sister Cold. You have better chances of getting us to drink bleach."

"Yeah." Cisco agreed. "Kinda." He admitted quickly with a sheepish expression. "You know I could call The Flash and the other superheroes. They'd be here in like two seconds, probably one." the others aside from the Flash wondered if Cisco was even thinking clearly.

"Call them." The criminal dared.

Accepting the challenge, he pulled out the phone. "Oh, okay. I'm gonna call them. mm-hmm." Barry leaned his head to look at the screen when seeing the engineer beginning to dial in the number. Cisco stopped when seeing that the female criminal didn't show any signs of stopping him, or even intending to stop him. "You really want me to call them?" he finally asked.

"I need their help too." Lisa explained and looked in the direction of the three heroes, the ones she knows about. "_Your_ help." They put down their drinks and listened as she said. "My brother's been kidnapped." The natives shared looks of confusion.

While Matt merely said. "Anyone calling bull?" he held up his own hand.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

After that disastrous time at Jitters, the team moved back to the facility to further discuss the ridiculous accusation that Captain Cold was kidnapped. And while the natives were skeptic, the ones from Earth-616 were definitely not believing her. Matt holding out one gauntlet at her and Olivia having her razor whip ready at a moment's notice. Frankie stood near her mother in a protective manner.

Barry had equipped his Flash costume to hide his true identity from the Snart sibling that did not know about his real life. "All right, so you really want us to just believe that Captain Cold was kidnapped?"

Lisa didn't like his tone, but she withheld herself from talking back as the two mutants kept their weapons ready. And given the last time they met; she knew that they were less than kind-hearted to any retaliation. "I saw it happen. Last night, Lenny, me, and Mick were knocking over the cashier's cage at Central City Racetrack."

Caitlin had to ask the criminal. "Does it physically pain your family not to rob people?"

Matt gave her a look. "They're criminals, Caitlin. They don't have anything else in life."

"I never finished the job." Lisa told them.

"Doesn't change the fact that you're a backstabbing criminal like your jackass of a brother." Olivia stated.

"You're surprised, Pinky?" The female criminal countered and got a growl as a response from the mutant. Lisa then continued with the story. "After Mick torched through the side entrance, I looked back for Lenny and saw him getting thrown into the back of a van."

"And you and your hot-headed boyfriend didn't follow why?" Frankie asked with an angry tone.

"He's not my boyfriend, little Miss Sunshine." Lisa quipped her counter. "And I would have. Someone hit me from behind and knocked me out. When I came to, Lenny was gone, and Mick already made off with the cash." She rubbed her sore neck.

"How do we know this isn't some kind of a trap?" Caitlin inquired suspiciously.

Lisa then reminded them, "If Lenny wanted Flash or Pink Hair dead," she nodded to Olivia, "he would have let Mardon, Simmons, and Bivolo take that honor, remember?"

"You do realize I'm a little harder to kill than that?" Olivia asked her.

"That's believable." Lisa had to admit.

"But yeah, I remember that." Flash recalled, the natives throwing him a shocked glance.

"Good." Lisa said. "Then you'll also recall that you owe Lenny a favor for saving your life. Time to make good on that debt, Flash."

"I do not like her." Caitlin said out loud and the others nodded in agreement.

"**_Amen sister._**" Magenta agreed.

"_Magenta, it's my Mom!_" Frankie exclaimed in her thoughts.

"**_What? When she's right, she's right._**" Magenta countered with her argument.

"Yeah, but she makes a point." Cisco got the others' attention with their eyes wide as saucers. Even Lisa was surprised. "What? We should at least hear her out." He looked at her. "Right?"

Matt rolled his eyes. He knew that there was some sort of attraction between Cisco and Lisa Snart in the past. According to him, she was supposed to actually seduce him in the past because of the two elemental gun wielders needing new weapons. But back then he had Bette and now…he didn't.

If Lisa Snart were to take advantage of Cisco's broken heart then he would be there to stop it no matter what.

"Even if we wanted to help," Olivia spoke still in distrust. "how are we supposed to find your old fuckhead of a brother?"

"Not a problem." Cisco got their attention while he walked to the main console, "See, Matt don't know this, but when I rebuilt the cold gun, I didn't have time to place a tracker on it, so I devised a method of locating it by borrowing some military technology."

Matt grew intrigued and asked, "Let me guess, thermal imaging?"

"Actually, the gun works the same _as _thermal imaging." Cisco explained and the nanite mutant walked closer to see the screen pull up the gun's 3D schematics and a map of the city. "It's the same, only instead of infrared heat signatures, it's looking for ultraviolet cold signatures."

"Cisco that's genius." Matt praised.

The mechanical engineer felt proud and pretended to dust off his shoulders. "Well, I do what I do, my friend."

"Nerds." Olivia stated jokingly with a cheeky smile.

"Love you too, babe." Matt winked at her.

Frankie jumped onto the ceiling and crawled above their heads and placed herself above the main console. The computer chimed, "Whoa, look at that." Cisco stated. "The gun's UV thermal reading was last picked up at 5th and Hoyts eight minutes ago."

"All right. Let's see if you're a liar." Frankie said and went to move away.

"Oh no, you're not Frankie." Caitlin told her sternly. The two mutants looked surprised and turned to her. Seeing the eyes on her, the doctor explained. "Unlike the two of you, my daughter can't defend against an ice blast from the Cold Gun. Ergo, no way, Frankie."

"But, Mom." Frankie whined pleadingly.

"Sorry, sweetheart. Not this time." Caitlin shook her head.

Olivia nodded and looked upwards. "She's right, Frankie. Not this time." she pointed her eyes at the speedster. "This time The Flash is gonna be the to handle this."

Barry nodded his acceptance and sped away and left the others alone.

X

After a while now, Barry had returned to tell the what he found…and none of it added up to Lisa Snart's claims.

The Flash had sped into the building on 5th and Hoyt, and he instantly found Leonard Snart, who was peachy. Not a single broken bone or even in what looked like he was in a hostage situation. He was actually alright, despite his little sister's allegations.

And the Scarlet Speedster wondered of the criminal why his baby sister thought that he was kidnapped. But it was a question that went unanswered because of the ice blast that was fired at his body, freezing him to the floor.

Because of his frozen mobility, he was only able to watch as another man, a rather big man with a big stomach walked in to join them. The man revealed himself to be none other than Leonard's father.

All hope was slowly fading as Barry felt his own vitals falling rapidly, and Olivia and Matt considered flying over there to offer their unwilling support. But Cisco was able to bring the heat and saved him thanks to the new white emblem which was equipped with therma-threading capabilities. It heated up his body and melted up the ice.

With his body free of the cold ice, Barry ran back to the facility and told the others of his findings.

The speedster made eye contact with Leonard's sister and told her, "So your brother was not kidnapped. He was pulling a job… with your father." He added at the end with a scoff.

The female criminal looked shocked. "What? No, Lenny would never do that."

Caitlin acted surprised and shared a look with her daughter. "Oh, just like he would never try and kill The Flash, and our other heroes here, with his cold gun."

Matt and Cisco sitting by the main console pressed a few buttons on the computers, typing in a search and bringing something up while Lisa spoke inquiringly. "Are you sure it was my dad?"

Frankie raised an eyebrow. "_She sounds…_"

"**_Hopeful that it's not her father?_**" Magenta followed along the same thoughts of her host.

"_Why?_" She thought again with confusion.

"That depends…" Matt trailed off when their attention turned to him. He pressed a key and gestured to the screen that was whirring. "Is this the guy?"

Mugshots of the man was revealed on the monitor and Barry glanced at it once and agreed, "That's him."

Olivia looked at the female criminal and was surprised to see that the colors on the confident criminal's face were draining like water pouring down a waterfall with the speed of light. The psychic was shocked by what she saw on her face, it was unlike what she had seen before, at least in this universe.

Caitlin noticed the same and examined it quickly before walking over to the screen and read the name. "Lewis Snart." The mere mention of the name caused the girl's colors to return, with only the red of anger painting over her face. More red of enragement splashed over her face while listening to the doctor listing of his track record. "Convicted of larceny, armed robbery, aggravated assault, assault with a deadly weapon."

The female criminal saw the looks of distrust on the others faces again, and they looked completely sure that she had been lying to them. "You have to believe me. Lenny would never work with him." Olivia and Caitlin heard her voice, hearing that it was nothing more than just a pleading voice that she spoke through. "He's a bad guy."

Matt scoffed. "How can we exactly believe that? You and your entire family are criminals. Anything you say might not be trustworthy, like, at all."

Lisa didn't know what to tell them to gain their trust, their belief. But she knew what she had to show to them. But the pain of revealing her weakness, would be nothing like pulling out a bullet out of a wound. It would be worse. And she had no choice but to show it.

Diverting her eyes to the side, not willing nor able to find the strength to look in their eyes, Lisa reached up to the right side of her white shirt. She pulled it to the side, exposing the side of her collarbone. The eyes of the others widening when they saw a healed-up scar on her.

Caitlin got worried and put her hands on her daughter's shoulders and rubbed them comfortingly. Frankie placed a hand on top of her mother's hand and leaned back against her. The sight of the scar caused uncomfortable memories to resurface in the young magnekinetic's mind.

The female criminal looked hurt and spoke with a shaking voice. "I didn't get this scar being a criminal. I got it being a daughter." She didn't want to answer or speak at all and walked out of The Cortex, needing to find a place for herself.

Matt rubbed his hands down his face with regret. "Damn it, I'm an idiot."

"Can't argue with that, honey." Olivia had to say but she reached over the console and cupped his hand. "But it's okay, you didn't know."

"Doesn't make it right." Matt flipped his hand around and grabbed her hand, squeezing it.

Barry went to move as did Matt when he got up from his chair. But Cisco held out both hands, stopping them as he told them. "Let me go. I got this." They nodded and watched as he walked out of the Cortex and went to find the female criminal.

Olivia dislodged her hand from her husband's hand and walked after Cisco. "Where're you going?" Matt asked.

She twirled on her feet and looked at him. "Think I can offer some knowledge of my own to this situation." She answered and continued walking to the exit of the Cortex.

X

Lisa Snart stood alone in Cisco's workshop. She didn't have any idea that this workshop was belonging to anyone. But she had to be alone for now. Had to be by herself and let the shock reel in while sadness from the past followed along the line.

Cisco entered the workshop and stated. "I see you found my hiding spot." Lisa turned her attention to him. "This is usually where I come to, you know, get away."

"First time my father came after me, I was seven." She didn't know why, but she felt comfortable with speaking with Cisco, opening up to him even. "Second time, I was eight." Her voice reached new levels of sadness to speak through. "That's when I learned that a bottle hurts worse than a fist. He used to say he was trying to teach us lessons." she turned her head slightly. "I must have been a slow learner, because the lessons never stopped."

Cisco walked closer to her. "I'm sorry, Lisa."

"Lenny practically raised me." Lisa said. "If it weren't for him, I would have turned out a lot worse." She saw him lightly tilt his head and continued. "I know, how could I be any worse?"

The engineer chuckled. "I didn't say that." He replied.

"You didn't have to." Lisa said. "But believe me, there is worse. And, look, he may be a jerk brother, but he's the only jerk brother I've got." Cisco could understand that, having a jerk brother himself. "He protected me. Now it's my turn." The way she spoke, it was almost like she was pleading of him. "If he's with my dad, he is in serious trouble. Please. You gotta find out what's going on."

"I get that feeling."

The two natives turned their heads and faced the entrance and saw Olivia walking into the workshop. She made eye contact with the mechanical engineer and asked of him. "Cisco, mind giving us girls a few minutes alone?"

"Sure thing." Cisco nodded and shared a glance with Lisa who nodded her acceptance. He walked out and let the two women together.

Lisa gulped lightly and looked at the mutant. "You're not going to, like, kill me, are you?"

"Nah." Olivia shook her head. "You don't deserve that." She made eye contact with the criminal. "You and I have more in common than I thought."

"Like what?" Lisa asked.

"The fact that our elder brothers practically raised us." The psychic mutant stated to her surprise. "My brother, Seth, used to look out for me when I was younger. Heck, he was both my parents ever since we were kids. My brother and I attended a school for others like us, at a young age. But I was alone, because I felt alone and nothing like the other kids. They had parents and all, but me and my brother, we were all we had."

"I know that feeling." Lisa agreed.

The mutant nodded. "Yeah, I know. But my brother did everything for me. When I would get sad, he would use all of his allowance to buy boxes of my favorite ice creams for me. He did everything for me, even becoming a doctor for me, because I was scared to let another doctor come anywhere near me." Lisa was shocked. "I know what it's like when our elder brother is there for us, through everything and willing to do everything to save us from all kinds of trouble."

"Yeah." Lisa walked closer to her. "Sorry to hear about your brother, by the way." Olivia looked at her. "I didn't find him back there, but I did see him jump into that…" she pointed a finger upwards. "…thing in the skies."

"A black hole." She helped the criminal. "Yeah…he sacrificed himself."

"For the entire city." Lisa said in surprise. "He's a hero."

"That he is." Olivia spoke honestly.

"Your niece okay?" Lisa asked worriedly.

"She's fighting every day, trying to be like her dad." Olivia said.

"And Caitlin?"

"Getting better every day and focusing on her daughter now." Olivia answered.

"Glad to hear." Lisa said. "What about Cisco?"

"On the market again." The criminal looked at her with wide eyes of shock. "Yeah, I know you got a thing for our resident mechanical engineer."

"Not denying anything. But he is very cute." Lisa stated adamantly. "Can't believe someone broke up with him."

X

**(Central City Picture News)**

Joe walked into the local newspaper station, Central City Picture News, with a heavy heart. He had to talk to his daughter about Francine and talk about something that not even she or Barry knew anything about.

The detective saw his daughter working hard on her desk and walked over to her. He was proud to see her so devoted and committed to her work, to something she is so passionate about. "Hey, baby." He got her attention.

"Dad!" Iris was shocked to see her father there. "What are you doing here?" she got up from her chair.

"Came to check in on my favorite crime-fighting reporter." Joe quipped.

"Dad!" Iris exclaimed excitedly before embracing her father in a hug.

The weight on his heart increased and Joe had to pull out of the hug as he told her. "Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about."

Before Iris could even begin express her interest into the matter, Linda Park rushed to them and said. "Hey, Iris." The two Wests looked to the sports journalist. "Editorial needs your photos and story ASAP. Congratulations, Detective. Your daughter's expos just made the front page."

Iris had wait for a moment before the shock finally washed over her like a tidal wave. "What?"

Joe merely gave a surprised look before high-fiving his daughter. As the father and daughter was reeling in the surprise, Linda told Iris honestly. "I am so happy for you. A little bit jealous, but I'll get over it."

"Thanks, Linda. I got lucky." Iris told her.

"No," Linda didn't accept that and turned to the detective. "she's being modest. Your daughter's a serious badass."

"You don't have to tell me." Joe commented. Linda smiled one last time before walking off. The detective then told her. "Well, better let you get back to work."

Iris then stopped him when he was about to walk away. "Wait, there was something that you wanted to talk to me about, right?"

While it was only a few seconds in the real world, in the detective's mind it lasted went like an agonizingly slow eternity. He wanted so desperately to tell her of Francine but he didn't want to ruin her good mood now. It wouldn't be right of him to do this to his own baby girl.

"Later, it can wait." He made his decision. "Go be fabulous." He jokingly said with a finger pointing in the direction of the editorial as he walked backwards to the exit.

"Okay." Iris accepted with a laughter.

Joe felt ashamed to not finding the will to tell his daughter the truth. But as he told himself before, he couldn't ruin her good mood. Not now.

X

**(West Household)**

Joe had to bring someone in the situation. He had to tell someone of what he had done, and there was one person he could tell. But he sacrificed his life for the city when the Singularity took place above their heads. The detective had to tell someone. But in this case, one person wasn't enough.

And those two were still reeling in the shock.

"Iris' mom is alive." Barry stated still in shock as he watched through the old baby pictures of Iris and her mother.

"And here I thought things couldn't get any crazier in this city." Matt thought out loud, still confused as to why he was brought in on this.

The detective was pacing around in the living room as the two powered men were letting the shock sink in. "I lied to Iris, Barry, Seth, everybody."

Though the two powered beings weren't exactly on the best of terms, the mutant were able to set it aside for now. For Joe. "_Seth would have wanted that._" He thought to himself.

"Why?" the speedster asked.

Joe looked flabbergasted as he took a seat beside his son. "I felt like I didn't have a choice."

"What do you mean by that, Joe?" Matt asked curiously.

"Francine did so many things wrong." Joe answered the mutant. "Just about everything. I don't know. Now I feel like my one wrong might be worse."

Barry felt the hurt emitting from his adoptive father and closed the book and put it on the table. "Look, Joe." He looked him directly in the eyes, while the nanite mutant leant up against a wall. "I've known you for, you know, most of my life, and I know that you always have a good reason for the decisions you make."

Matt nodded before adding. "And clearly, you worried that Iris would follow down the same wrong path if Francine raised her."

Barry agreed with a nod of his head. "Look at Snart." Matt looked surprised at the example as did Joe. "He's a criminal because he had Lewis for a father. That could have been me."

Joe rolled his eyes in disbelief. "Oh, come on. Never."

"You'd be surprised Joe." The natives looked to the nanite mutant. "All it takes is one wrong thing that can turn a person's life down the wrong path. Even a wrong person like Lewis Snart. A single bad event can even cause the same results to happen." He pointed a finger at the speedster. "And believe it or not, our speedster he is no exception. He could have easily turned out to be a killer like Snart. But he didn't, because he had you."

"And so, did Iris." Barry continued with a smile, happy that the nanite mutant was willing to set aside his anger for his adoptive father who was struggling with what choice had to be mad. "You just gotta trust in that and tell her the truth."

"Yeah, how do I do that without hurting her?" Joe further asked of them.

"Sure, she's your daughter, Joe. But she's not a kid anymore." Matt told him while leaning off the wall and walked over to the couch from behind. "She's a grown woman who is willing to sneak into a building which is filled with gun-wielding criminals. She's willing to put her neck on the line for a story, even if that means jumping out of a building. Wouldn't be surprised if she didn't faze from anything that came her way."

Joe rubbed his face with one hand. "I just lied to her for so long, I'm scared she's not gonna understand or forgive me. I could lose her."

"No, she's gonna forgive you." Barry said surely. "You just gotta give her a chance."

The detective still seemed unsure of what to do. The nanite mutant chuckled and got his attention. "You know what Seth would have told you if he was here?" Somehow Joe looked hopefully. "He would tell you to let your dynamite of a daughter make that choice. If not then I would have to blast some sense into your ass."

"Sounds like him." Joe smiled.

Matt finally knew the reason behind him being here. He was there to use some blunt words to speak some sense into the detective's head. Words similar to those Seth Fury would speak was what Detective West wanted to hear.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Horrible and terrifying news have now fallen into the laps of everyone of Team Flash.

Barry and the rest of the police had arrived at a cargo truck where the cargo trailer was holding a headless corpse. The ID of the body was taking a longer than usual as the parts of it were scattered around the area. Because of the jagged area of the head, a theory was that a metahuman had the powers to explode heads.

However, the CSI scientist had other theories and they checked the body via devices of theirs. Traces of thermite, bomb residue, were still lingering in the area of the blown body's head. While they were trying to determine the reason behind the rest of the body not blown up, the officers found out that the victim was David Rutenberg. The victim was a security systems expert and a former associate of Lewis Snart.

Barry brought a theory of how Rutenberg had a bomb in his head, and Joe thought Lewis was maniac enough to have put a bomb in his own son's head to force him into aiding him into a heist. But the speedster knew better, knowing that nothing of such a low caliber would force Leonard into doing a heist with someone he despises above all else. Snart would have just dug the bomb out of his own skull. Then it only left the only solution.

Something Snart cares about.

And there was only one thing he cares about more….or rather someone.

Matt twisted the arc reactor on his chest and let the nanites swarmed over his form as he stood in front of the female criminal who sat on the chair there. He formed his Iron Knight armor, but more nanites swarmed over his back before making a way over his right shoulder. Lisa watched closely as the nanites adapted and formed what looked like a barrel cannon.

The nanite mutant saw the criminal gulp in fear. "Don't worry, it's not a cannon." He assured her while the nanites formed a lens on the end of it. The lens then lit up with light shining down on her. "It's a lamp."

"Honey?" he looked to his wife who pointed above their heads. "There's a lamp right there." he saw that there was indeed a lamp there above their heads.

"Uncle Matt?" He looked to his niece who was giggling. "That's pretty embarrassing."

"Funny." Matt rolled his eyes.

"But why exactly are you pointing an over-the-top big flashlight in my head?" Lisa asked in shock and confusion.

The nanite mutant tilted his head from side to side as he answered embarrassedly. "Wanted to see if I can turn a cannon into a flashlight. And it…" he gestured to the cannon itself. "works. Plus, it's also scanning your body while lighting you up."

"And…" they heard Cisco trail off as he formed a goofy smile. "it's pretty badass."

Caitlin chuckled while she and Olivia turned their eyes to the large monitor which was receiving the data from his suit as it was linked to the monitor. Their eyes worriedly and shockingly widened when seeing the results appearing and flashing on the screen.

"_THERMITE DETECTED. LEVELS HIGH._"

All of them read what was on the screen, and they all paled at the thoughts growing in their minds.

"Oh, boy." Cisco breathed out in fear. Frankie put a hand over her mouth. Olivia wrapped her arms around her niece from behind and pulled her into a hug.

Lisa's head snapped between them all and saw their faces losing all color, she asked. "What is it?"

Caitlin rubbed her child's shoulder and then said, still reeling in the shock. "Lisa, there are traces of thermite on your skin."

The light from the cannon on Matt's shoulder shut off while Lisa spoke disturbed. "Thermite? Like an explosive?"

The female doctor gulped in a disturbed manner and held her daughter's child as she had to reveal. "Not like an explosive."

"It's a bomb." Cisco had to confess. The others giving him "why did you say that?"- looks. And though the mechanical engineer understood his mistakes in telling the truth so abruptly, he couldn't take it back. "When you were knocked out, your dad must have injected with it."

"God." Olivia let out in hopelessness. "Lewis Snart takes bad parenting to a whole new level."

"More like a whole new universe." Matt followed up.

Frankie walked into her mother's private lab and rubbed her bracelets. Her fingers ran over the surfaces of her pink crystal bracelet that her father had gotten her. They grazed the surface of her other bracelet, touching the black crystals and the blue crystals with snowflakes engravings.

The young girl thought back to the times when she got these two gifts. Christmas seemed like a foreign event for her to partake when she was under Karen and John James' care. But Venom was there and offered her Christmas presents and chocolate cookies that brightened up her entire night that started out as a waste of wonderful yearly tradition. The other one she got from her mother, before the vicious final battle with Grodd and Reverse-Flash. The moment Caitlin revealed the sparkling black and blue crystals to her, Frankie thought it was the beginning for her to be finally accepted as Caitlin Snow's daughter. And it was truly a generous gift that the young metahuman adores with all of her heart.

"**_Why are you thinking about this now, Frankie?_**" the symbiote asked when feeling her host's growing sadness.

Frankie inhaled deeply before glancing at the female criminal. "_Hearing about her father treating her so terrible…reminded me off John._"

"**_Don't you dare think of that monster again, Frankie!_**" Magenta chastised loudly. "**_He was nothing more than a waste of space that thought his pathetic excuse of a life is better than everyone around him!_**"

The metahuman felt her eyes shift in color shining like magenta crystals again from her partner's spiking anger. Memories of living under that piece of dirt's rule was fresh on their minds despite them now living much better lives now. Scars received at a young age take more than time to heal.

"_Can't believe that more monsters like John still live in this world._" Frankie thought with clenched hands.

"You okay there, sweetie?"

She turned to the side and saw her uncle Matt walking into the private lab, his feet clanging against the ground with his feet touching the ground with his steps. "You're looking a little pale there, honey?"

"I'm fine, Uncle Matt." Frankie told him.

But it was an obvious lie that the mutant saw through as he formed a smile and wrapped an arm around her. "Is that really the best you got? You're gonna have to try harder than that to lie to me, my dear niece."

"Sorry, Uncle." Frankie apologized as she nodded to the female criminal. "But what Lisa said before…reminded me of John."

"I thought you promised us to never ever think of that bastard again." Matt playfully elbowed her shoulder and she giggled. "You can't think of that bastard again, he's not coming back no matter what, I promise you that."

"Just don't like that there's monsters like him and Lewis Snart in this world." Frankie admitted.

"You're not the only one." Matt assured her. "But best thing about worlds, even if they're dozens of monsters in it, there's at least hundreds more of good guys. Don't worry about that."

"Your parents didn't like you being a mutant, did they Uncle?" she looked up with slightly unsure eyes, worried that she might cross into some unwelcome territories.

However, the nanite mutant didn't look offended and stroked her hair as he said. "Yeah, they didn't, but they were old fashioned in that way. It doesn't bother me that much anymore; I was young back then. And now I have a Dad that loves me and thinks my powers are cool as hell and a wife that is beautiful and amazing in every single sense of the word." He wrapped his other arm around his niece and pulled her closer. "Not to mention a little badass niece that our friendly elemental adopted."

"Love you too, Uncle Matt." She placed her head on the side of his chest. "I miss Dad."

"So do I." he rubbed her back. "But remember to be strong, not just for you but also for your mom's sake."

"Mom's still sad, she misses Dad a lot." Frankie revealed. "I don't know how to help her with that."

"She might not have powers like you, but your mother's pretty strong on her own, honey. you gotta admit that." Matt told her.

"No argument there, guys." Cisco announced his presence as he walked in. His words obviously indicating that he had heard their words. "But trust me when I say, if Seth hadn't fallen through the universes like he did at that time, she would have ended up much worse. She was cold, and nothing like herself."

"Yeah, I get that. When Seth lost Stefanie and Bucky, he completely lost sight of himself and was nothing like his usual self. He was downright lifeless. It scared the living hell out of everyone at SHIELD, not to mention me and Olivia." Matt told them. "But Frankie and Caitlin changed that thankfully."

"What about Caitlin now?" Cisco asked worriedly.

"She's got Frankie." Matt assured the native. "And hopefully, that's enough for her."

"I hope so too." Cisco ran a hand through his long hair.

Frankie looked between the two and wondered curiously. "Ah, if you two geniuses are in here, what they doing in the Cortex?"

The two men shared worried looks that spoke volumes.

X

Lisa was worriedly and uncomfortably sitting on the chair, even fidgeting and twisting on her seat, as The Flash held the small handheld machine near her head. Caitlin and Olivia looking worriedly at one another, their uncertainty in both women matching one another while the small device kept whirring as its scanning the criminal's head.

The Flash then informed, "The micro-bomb casing must be made of some kind of a ferromagnetic material."

"And how this thing going to help us here?" Olivia asked out loud, Lisa thankful that the mutant was stating that inquiry.

Caitlin walked closer, making sure that the speedster didn't make a mistake while answering, "Once you hold it steady with the magnet, I can surgically excise it."

Olivia thought that would work for them, but others did not think the same.

"Put the magnet down!" Cisco shouted as he entered the Cortex.

Matt went overboard and raised a repulsor and pointing it at the Flash. "Drop the magnet, now!" he shouted his warning.

Barry raised the magnet away from Lisa's throat. Olivia and Caitlin looked shocked and turned to the two men who rushed to them. The native engineer then revealed to them. "This is a really concentrated bomb."

The nanite mutant then continued, "Chances are it's gonna combust if it's exposed to magnetic friction and an oxidant." At those words, Caitlin walked to her daughter's side and pulled her away with a tug of her shoulders. Barry stepped backwards as well as did the psychic mutant who turned to her husband.

Lisa turned her eyes around between them all and asked, "What's he talking about?"

"Anyone wanna dumb it down for our resident criminal?" Olivia bluntly asked. "Please, anyone?"

"Air." The speedster was willing to say, gathering their attention on him. "Uh, the bomb will explode if it comes in contact with air."

Cisco saw the panic spreading on Lisa's face and he comforted her with his words. "Don't worry, Lisa. We're gonna find another way to get it out. Scientific minds. Can we confer, please."

They nodded and walked into the private lab again. While they did, Frankie offered her suggestion. "Can't we just speed extract it from her head?"

"Too risky." Matt stated. "The moment he stops phasing, it'll be exposed to air and blow up."

Caitlin looked at Olivia. "What if Liv forms a box of psychic energy around the bomb?"

The psychic frowned and shot down that idea. "My powers don't give me X-ray vision; the bomb would have to be out of her body for me to even form something around it. And even then, it would still be in contact with air, ergo go boom in our faces."

"They're right. It's too risky." Cisco faced them with his hands rubbing against each other. "We're gonna find a way to get it out. We just need a little time."

Barry understood their point but the other criminals were also worth important. "Well, we need to keep track of Lewis until you guys figure out how to disarm the bomb."

Caitlin rubbed her temples as she thought out loud. "I wish we knew what he was gonna steal next and when."

The speedster then got an idea. "Maybe I can get them to tell me."

"Do not say what I think you're gonna say." Matt instantly groaned, feeling like it was gonna be a terrible plan in brew.

But the Flash persisted. "Think about it. Their tech guy is dead, so I'm betting they're gonna need a new one." the others looked to being drawing blank looks because they could not believe what they were hearing. Barry explained, "I'm saying I'm gonna infiltrate Lewis' crew."

"You're gonna pretend to be a criminal?" Olivia stated with a laugh. "That's ridiculous."

"Got any better ideas?" Barry asked the psychic.

"I do." Matt got their attention. "Instead of The Flash trying to be a bad guy, how about I infiltrate their crew and be their tech guy, while Barry phase into a wall and watch in secret. If something goes wrong, then I can take a hit or a shot. And if I have to appear dead, then Barry can take over or something."

"That's a much better plan." His wife agreed. "With your mutation, you'll be able to survive a gunshot pretty easily."

"Yup. So I guess I'll go and get ready for this." He finished off before walking away to prepare himself for this latest mission.

Frankie looked to her aunt with a confused expression. "Auntie, about Uncle Matt's powers, how is able to survive things like that? And has he always been able to do that."

"Only after the army's experiments on him. He was just as important to them as my brother was back then." Olivia told them. "And his body has a healing factor that's almost like another powerful mutant from our world."

"Wolverine, right?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah. Seth told you, didn't he?" the doctor nodded at the psychic's question. "Well, Logan had this power that allowed him to survive any time of physical damage to his body. Gunshots, stabbing, even explosions. The guy was able to survive it all."

"And Matt has a power similar to that?" Cisco asked.

"Similar, yeah, but only to the degree that he can survive most types of physical damage. He can still feel all the pain, of course, but all of the experiments done to him, was so that he could make metallic and technologic nanites in the middle of a firefight on the battlefield. He was to make weapons in the field so human soldiers didn't find themselves with their pants down and unarmed at any point in time." Olivia told them.

"And now he's no longer a one-man arsenal, but just a badass knight in shining armor." Cisco jokingly stated.

"Careful, he's _my_ knight in shining armor." Olivia feigned a warning.

X

Leonard was getting busy as he polished his gun. He had to be sure his Cold Gun was in optimal condition when he was going pull the heist with his father. But with their tech guy losing his head, they had to find someone else to aid them during the heist. Otherwise they would have to find a way that might involve more bodies falling by the Snarts' hands.

And unlike Leonard, Lewis would have no problem with that.

But what could you expect from a man who is willing to put a bomb in his own daughter's head?

As he continued to polish the elemental gun in his hands, Leonard felt a presence walking into the room. The wielder of the gun had a feeling about who this was, and stated. "These visits are getting old."

"Pretty sure you're thinking of your friend in red."

Snart widened his eyes in shock and snapped around and saw to his surprise, that it was Matt. "Well, well, well, if it's not the famous Iron Knight, coming all the way to meet little old me. What did I do to deserve this honor?" he rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me that your friend Barry told you to watch over me because I need saving."

"He's your friend, not mine." Matt corrected him.

"Bad blood between you two?" Snart wondered.

"Suppose that's for you to figure out, Cold." Matt said. "But right now, I'm here to save you."

Leonard emotionlessly stated, "I told Barry before, I don't need saving."

The nanite mutant didn't respond immediately but walked closer to him. "Think you can say the same for your baby sister?" Snart kept his feelings from affecting his expressions, but Matt could see it was affecting him inwardly. "We know your old man put a bomb in Lisa's head. Lewis told you he'd kill her if you didn't help him, right?"

Snart didn't comment on anything as Matt continued explaining. "Thankfully, there's a group of very smart people working their asses off to find a way to remove that bomb without anyone losing their heads."

"You care about my sister all of a sudden? Last time, you two met, you pointed a weapon at her and threatened to kill her?" Snart spoke enragedly.

"Well you and your sister did screw up our plan of moving criminals to a remote black site, so I guess we're even Steven." Matt countered.

"I hope you got that gun of yours ready to blast cause…" Lewis trailed off his announcement when he noticed Matt standing in front of his son. The nanite mutant noticed in the corner of his eye that Barry's hand was slowly phasing out of the wall, indicating that he was ready to appear at moment's notice.

But Matt placed left hand on his left side, letting his hand gang on the side as he waved his hand back, telling him to move back into the wall. Thankfully Barry understood it and phased back into the wall.

"Who the hell's this?" Lewis asked gruffly with his eyes pointing at the mutant.

Matt shifted his eyes to the elder Snart and replied with a smile. "You see my old friend, Lenny here," the wielder of the Cold Gun shifted his eyes with surprise to him. "said you're in a bit of a bind, in need of new tech." he raised his hand and raised to fingers into a peace sign. "Pleasure, sir. The name's Connor."

Lewis didn't look the least bit convinced and walked closer to his son with slow steps. With suspicious eyes, he looked to his son. "You tellin' me you think this kid can crack a Draycon keypad?"

"A Draycon keypad, you say?" Matt had done his research. "Oh yeah. I helped Snart with something like that when he went to steal the Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond from Central City Museum last year." The elder Snart looked intrigued. "That beauty was locked up behind an AmerTek Industries Phase Three Suppression Door with a Draycon XL-1218 keypad."

Leonard knew that the knight wouldn't leave him alone, nor would he let him and his father go without him. For now, it would be better to have him on their side, and it could prove to help him to uphold his deal with The Flash. "Couldn't have done it without him."

"What can I say?" Matt shrugged his shoulders. "Draycon's my bitch."

Lewis showed a toothy grin and walked forward, his face right in front of the new tech guy. His mouth opening up and breathing out a disgusting amount of air into "Connor"s face, who didn't even show the slightest motion resembling a flinch. "Okay, Connor. Let's go."

"Right now?" He asked with mock surprise, remembering to keep up appearances for the sake of the mission.

The elder Snart moved but turned back to face the new tech guy. "You got a problem with that?"

Matt smirked, "Not at all. Can't wait." He answered and Lewis walked out.

Snart saw that the mutant was keeping up appearances and said, "Not bad. I'm impressed. You'd make a good criminal."

"I know that." Matt smiled. "But I'm better at being a good guy, who can be just as bad as criminals." He continued before walking backwards with Captain Cold beside him.

X

Posing as three janitors with a janitor cart, carrying additional equipment. Matt was the one pushing the cart while the Snarts were on either side of the cart. The nanite mutant saw that the Scarlet Speedster was still residing within the walls.

Matt placed one hand behind his back and without words, faced his palm at him. Telling him to stop and watch from afar, but be ready for anything and ready to rush into action at a moment's notice.

Lewis Snart straightened his sleeves and told them in an ordering fashion. "Keep quiet and follow my lead."

"Just like old times." Leonard Snart quipped sarcastically.

"_Great, what's a better place than a heist for a family squabble?_" the nanite mutant thought to himself.

The three of them reached the front desk and watched as two security guards are watching the football game. The two guards looked at the three janitors and Lewis asked them. "You watching the Diamonds' game?"

The bigger guard nodded. "Yeah, the Salamanders are killing 'em." He then asked them. "IDs." All three men reached into their pockets and pulled out their ID cards and gave them to the guards. The other guard checked them over while his larger colleague asked. "What floor are you going to?"

"27th." Lewis answered with a fake smile. That same smile faded when seeing the other guard struggling to check the cards' authenticity via the scanner. When seeing that, he gently and slowly reached into a compartment of cart.

He opened it up and Matt saw the gun hidden within the compartment. He had to take a course of action that would not require the elder Snart to use that firearm. Matt walked forward to the desk and asked, "Hey, what's the hold up, guys?" The two Snarts looked at him with raised eyebrows while seeing him converse with the guards. "Don't tell me, you wanna go through the hassle of calling management and explain why the toilets are still overflowing?" the guards grimaced in disgust at the thought of overflowing toilets. "We're all on the clock, right?"

The two guards nodded in agreement before the bigger one informed them. "Yeah, you guys are good to go."

"Thank you, gentlemen." Matt gave a mock bow as he expressed his gratitude.

They were all given their identification cards back and Lewis told them kindly, "You enjoy the game, guys."

The other guard fell back down in his chair and said confidently. "Diamonds don't stand a chance."

"Not tonight they don't." Lewis continued faking his kindness while his son and the tech guy continued walking to the lift with the cart. They got into the elevator and closed the doors. Before they closed, Matt nodded to the opposite wall when seeing a familiar red blur appearing in its surface wall.

Barry nodded back and sped up the stairs and continued to phase through the walls and placed himself into it.

The elevators opened up and the three men walked onto the 27th floor and walked before reaching the hallway. "Hold on." Lewis stopped them. "Did you hear that?" he asked them.

"_Might as well be the tech guy._" Matt thought to himself as he had to sell his appearance. "Got it." he walked in front of them, he pulled out a phone and got down in a crouch. Starting up his camera, he pointed the lens down the hallway while making sure his body and the rest of the phone were out of sight.

Looking at the screen on his phone, he registered two guards walking down the hall. Zooming on their belts, he also registered guns and tasers attached to their belt. He frowned at what this would mean and told the Snarts. "It's two armed guards." He informed them.

Leonard gritted his teeth and snarled at his father. "Guess your timing didn't work out after all."

"Yeah, that's why I got a Plan B." Lewis told him without much care.

"Because you always needed one." Leonard got closer to his evil father.

"Yeah, but…" Lewis reached into the hidden compartment again and pulled out the gun. "your sister turned out to be a disappointment also."

Matt knew where this was going and whispered, only able for a certain someone to hear. "Get them out of here." Not a single answer was needed as both the nanite mutant and Leonard registered a flash of yellow lightning pull the two guards away.

The nanite mutant chuckled and got the Snarts' attention. "You guys ready to get on with the job?" they looked at him. "The guards are gone. Must have taken a break, hopefully not a bathroom break."

"Yeah, let's hope not." Leonard said with a small growl before pulling out his Cold Gun.

Lewis scoffed and told them to follow him. The three of them walked down the hallway and reached the end of it and stood before the door. "Okay, Connor." The elder Snart stepped to the side and made way for the tech guy. "Show us what you got."

Matt chuckled and cracked his hands together as though he was readying for a brawl. "Time to work." He stood in front of the keypad and reached into his pocket. The Snarts saw him pull out his phone, and before they could question his choice of equipment, he told them. "You guys keep a lookout and I'll… do my stuff." Reluctantly, they looked away to let him work.

Feeling their eyes shifting their attention away from him, Matt pressed the button on the side of the device. A blue light emitted a line in the middle of the cellphone and opened up. In the middle of the opened area, was a small chip. He took hold of the chip and put it on the keypad, right in the middle of the screen. Upon contact with it, small hooks detached and attached onto the surface of it.

The nanite mutant made sure he stood in front of it, his form shielding the screen as the chip did its job and typed in thousands of random codes in a matter of seconds. It was an old codebreaker device that him and his dad had made for SHIELD. Easy to break through various systems. Though the chip had to be modified to adapt to a Draycon keypad, but it was possible.

And after what felt like forever now, the words that he waited for finally appeared on the keypad.

"_ACCESS GRANTED_"

Once seeing that, he quickly took off the chip from the keypad and turned to face the Snarts again while the door opened behind him. "And that's how you do it, gentlemen."

The father and son walked to the door and through it, but Lewis stayed on the other side of it and told "Connor". "Nice job, Connor." He agreed with a nod. "It's good to go out on a high note." He raised his gun.

_GUNSHOT_

Pulling the trigger, a bullet fired off and hit the nanite mutant's right side of his chest. The elder Snart criminal aiming for his heart and watched as his tech guy fell down to the ground with a thud. He smiled sickly when witnessing the hole in his chest and grinned.

Leonard gulped with a heavy swallow and muttered, "I'm sorry, Barry. Sorry, Matt." The doors closed shut in front of him.

Barry sped into the front of the door, and looked down at the ground, seeing Matt's unconscious body on the floor. He saw the hole in his chest and pressed the side of his cowl, activating his comms device and called his team. "Guys, Matt's not waking up. He was just shot. What do I do?"

"_Wait._" Came the calm response from Olivia.

He waited and then saw it. It was as though the hole was narrowing down and pushed the bullet out of his chest before healing it shut. Matt gasped and shot up to a sitting. "God damn, I hate getting shot."

"You okay?" Barry asked and held out his hand for him.

"I'm fine." But Matt didn't accept the gesture and got up on his own, his feelings for the speedster not changing. "But now, we have to…" he put his Arc Reactor on his chest and twisted it, the nanites releasing over his form and forming his Frost-Flame armor. "…take care of the Snarts."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Lisa watched worriedly as the monitor kept flashing the same words, telling everyone in the Cortex that that the level of thermite on her skin is high. She then saw that Cisco was walking over to her. Reaching her side, he held up what looks like a gun-like device.

At the sight of it, she asked him. "What are you gonna do to me with that thing?"

Cisco put the barrel of the gun in his other hand. "Operating pressure on this is over 1,000 PSI. This will easily suck the micro-bomb out of her neck and into the barrel of this with one high-powered shot." He attached the cable to the gun.

"You might wanna loop her in on everything, Cisco." Olivia told her with her hands shining with psychic energy.

"What are you talking about, Auntie?" Frankie asked while she stood beside Caitlin.

"You know?" Cisco shockingly asked the psychic.

"Yup. I know a lot about Matt's machines to know there's always something else." Olivia revealed.

"There is one slight risk." Cisco confessed when Lisa looked at him worriedly.

"Besides shooting a high-powered weapon directly against my neck?" she sarcastically quipped.

Cisco didn't respond to the joke, though parts of him did want to. "The gun does use compressed air."

"So, in case of this going sideways…" Caitlin gestured to the psychic who held up her hands with her energy enveloping them. "…Olivia will be here and form barriers around you to shield us from the blast."

Lisa nodded before turning her head to Cisco. She grabbed his forearm and squeezed it comfortingly. "I trust you, Cisco." She told him honestly.

"We're gonna make sure you and your brother get out safely." Olivia told her.

Cisco nodded in agreement before holding the gun ready for use. "How do you feel?"

"Like we should have put down some plastic." Lisa quipped.

Caitlin widened her eyes. "Language, there's children in the building!" she exclaimed and put her hands over her daughter's ears.

Olivia chuckled at her reaction, "_Bro, you'd be so proud to hear your girlfriend become such a defensive lioness._" She thought to herself in pride of the woman who would have become her sister-in-law in the future.

"**_What is with your mother thinking you're still a baby?_**" Magenta asked curiously of her host.

"_She's my mom, what do you expect of her?_" Frankie thought back her response. "_I'm always gonna be her little girl, Magenta. Don't blame her._"

"**_Too late._**" The symbiote joked and her host rolled her eyes.

"It's not funny." Cisco told her with a smile forming on his face.

Lisa smiled gently. "Yeah…" she looked at him with a caring expression on her face. "…but I like it when you smile."

His smile faltered when he turned seriously with care and concern on his face. "Okay, ready?"

She looked ahead again and told him. "Shoot me, Cisco." She continued with the jokes.

And Cisco pressed the barrel of the gun-like instrument to her neck. His finger ready to pull the trigger, ready to extract the micro-bomb embedded in Lisa's neck, and the tension in the room increased with every inhale and exhale of air. They all waited for the trigger to be pulled, Olivia raised her hands and forming psychic walls around them. Frankie and Caitlin held hands together, cupping them tightly and waited for the gun to be pulled.

_BEEP_

A series of beeping from the computer broke the tension and caused everyone to gasp in shock. Caitlin and Frankie rushed to the computers on the main console. The young metahuman then said revealingly. "It's- the- Flash and Iron Knight!" she exclaimed with a stuttering voice.

"_Guys, how's it going with Lisa?_" Matt asked through the comms device.

"Uh, kind of in the middle of it right now, buddy!" Cisco exclaimed his reply.

"_All right, we need that bomb out._" Barry started. "_The heist is going down right now._"

X

Lewis, having opened the safe, dropped the diamonds down in the bag. But he didn't care about the sirens that are blaring above their heads.

His son, however, did care about them, "Time's up."

His father didn't appear worried and turned to him with fake look of concern. "Let's get out of here." The two criminals went to walk away with their score.

_WHOOSH_

But they came to a stop when seeing the familiar form of the Scarlet Speedster appearing before them in a flash of yellow lightning. The sound of thrusters blazing following behind him as the Iron Knight appeared before beside him with his elemental guns pointing at the Snarts.

"Only place you're going is back to Iron Heights, Lewis." The Flash told the criminal while Leonard pointed his gun at them.

"And trust me, you deserve that and so much more." Iron Knight followed up while his hands clenching in readiness.

"Ah, you wanna bet?" Lewis dared.

"Do I wanna bet?" Barry asked the mutant.

"Do not bet!" Matt said back. "Give the others a minute."

Barry knew what he had to do and asked the elder criminal. "Tell me this, what kind of man puts a bomb in his own daughter?"

"A very rich man." Lewis answered.

"More like a coward." Matt said and got the elder Snart's attention. "You knew that there was no other way to control your son than threatening his baby sister, your own child. Money is nothing compared to having a child. Not that you'd know anything about that, Lewis. Your son is a better man than you'd ever be." Leonard widened his eyes at the compliment. "He's a man, while you're just a small, pathetic, waste of space, a poor excuse of man…heck you're not even a man. Just a poor coward."

"Is that so?" Lewis felt his anger boil and he raised the controller in front of his son's face. "Shoot them, son."

Despite his father's order, Leonard didn't move his finger and merely kept his eyes raised on them with the Cold Gun. His eyes showing defiant natures and saw the two heroes' eyes watching his every move, and telling him wordlessly to not take the wrong course of action. The Flash hoping for that outcome as does Iron Knight.

Lewis saw the unresponsiveness from his son and gave the ultimatum. "Kill him or you'll never see your sister alive." Leonard turned apologetically at them as he was about to fire off a cold stream at the two heroes.

"_I got the bomb out!_"

The two heard Cisco exclaim through the communications device. The two heroes shared a look before they turned to Leonard. "Lisa's safe." Matt told him.

Leonard relaxed while Lewis paled with horror. The father turned to face his son. His ears barely able to register the whirring sound emitting from the Cold Gun before it unleashed a blast of white flames at him. His body freezing and the heroes stepped back in shock when seeing Lewis fall down on his knees, a large icicle pierced into his chest and freezing his innards as he spoke.

"You're working with those heroes?" Lewis asked stutteringly from the chilling sensations creeping over his internals. Leonard didn't reply. "I thought you hated the Flash?"

"Not as much as I…hate you." Leonard snarled through gritted teeth.

Lewis let out a one last groan before falling down on the ground. Leonard got down in a crouch beside his fallen father. The criminal didn't wear a single expression or feeling on his face as the speedster pulled the Cold Gun out of his hands. "Lisa was safe. Why did you do that?"

"Pretty obvious, isn't it?" Matt said with his arms reeling back and dematerializing his elemental guns into nanites as he said. "He did the vilest thing a parent can ever do to their child."

"He broke my sister's heart." Leonard told them. "Only fair I break his."

"Not hearing any complaints from me." Matt admitted.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco's workshop)**

Matt walked into the workshop and took out his Arc Reactor and put it on the table beside him. He dropped down in the chair and put his feet on the edge of the table. Without looking at the screen, he pressed a key on the keyboard and activated a function.

A small whirring sound came from the speakers and the nanite mutant put his hands together over his stomach, interlocking his fingers together as he leaned back against the chair. "It's been some time, Jarvis."

"**It has indeed, sir.**" The AI agreed with the mutant. "**Is everything alright, sir? It has been 203 days since we have last spoken with one another.**"

"Yeah, I know, Jarvis. I'm sorry." He apologized. "Just…hard you know. I didn't want to put you on standby for so long now, but…time flew, I guess."

"**You have nothing to apologize for, sir. You were merely considered and focused all your priorities on young Ms. Fury. For that, I cannot blame you in any possible way.**"

"Thanks, Jarvis." Matt smiled as he called out. "Don't take this the wrong way, but stealth isn't one of your skills, Caitlin." He turned his head to face the entrance to the room and saw the female doctor walking into the workshop.

"Sorry, I just heard you talking and speaking with someone. But I couldn't figure out, until…" She pointed upwards. "…I heard Jarvis. Hi, Jarvis!" she greeted the AI.

"**Greetings, Dr. Snow. Pleasure to meet you again, and my condolences to you and Ms. Fury.**"

"Thank you, Jarvis." She walked over to stand before the nanite mutant. "You put him on standby for over six months now? Why?"

"Remember when Seth was poisoned by Carnage?" he started.

"And he never told any of us till that monster showed his face? Yeah I do." She narrowed her eyes and kicked his feet. "Still don't like you guys kept that from us, not cool."

"Pretty sure, we already explained that that was all Seth's fault." He defended himself. "But…when he was poisoned, he was pretty much out to touch with everyone and everything, and just kept to himself. And after he died in the Singularity, I thought he might have left something in case of his death."

"Like a will, or something?" Caitlin wondered.

"Yeah." He nodded with a response. "Thought it would be good for you, Frankie and Liv to hear his voice again."

"You too, right?" Caitlin deduced.

Matt scoffed, "Thing I hate most of all about me and Seth…" Caitlin listened closely. "He always saves me, no matter what situation it was. A SHIELD mission or even a relationship with his sister, he's always there to save me. I feel like I could never make up for it, no matter how much I try, I could never be able to save him." he reached over the desk and took hold of a framed photo and held it in his hands. "And now, I can't even hope to make it up to him."

"You're watching over his friends and his family, trust me, you're making it up to him, Matt." Caitlin assured him confidently and reached the photograph and looked at it. She remembered the photo; it was back when they took a photo before Pied Piper appeared.

Harrison Wells…Eobard Thawne impersonating as Harrison Wells in the middle of his friends. Barry standing behind with a goofy smile. Cisco and Matt standing beside one another, the latter has one arm around the native's neck. But it was the sight of the other two that brought a wife smile on Caitlin's face.

Standing beside one another was Caitlin and Seth. The elemental has his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer to his form, her head falling down on his shoulder with a loving expression and a wide smile.

She knew that the smile was not just for the camera's sake, nor for the sake of memories. She did it because she was near the man she loves. Neither of them had uttered those words back then, but they did not show any signs of the contrary being proven. Her finger graced the surface of the photo, touching the face of the man she loves longingly.

Caitlin then spoke with a saddened tone, "You know, all the breachers that have come over from Earth-2 have been doppelgangers of people that exist on this world."

"Yeah, what about it?" Matt asked and gave his full attention.

She knew that he had more experience with this and asked, "Do you think everyone has a doppel?"

"Caitlin…" he hated doing this to the woman his brother-in-law loves, but he had to. "…I already answered this." He knew what she was aiming for.

"I know." Caitlin's eyes swelled with tears as she hopefully asked. "But I can't help but think that there's a universe out there, where Seth is alive, he meets me, adopts another version of Frankie…and we get married and live happily ever after with maybe an even bigger family."

"More kids?" Matt asked.

"Maybe." Caitlin said as she rubbed her necklace longingly with a dreamy expression on her face. "I'll probably never know for sure…but…it makes me feel better." Matt kept his eyes on her, not making a smile or any other kinds of expression. She drew her own conclusions and asked with a click of her tongue, "And you think that's dumb?"

"No. No, not at all." Matt assured her. "When I thought about getting down on a knee to propose to Liv in the past, I used to think the exact same. That there was a universe out there, where I was braver and strong enough to finally propose to her. And heck, Seth did the same."

"He did?" She asked with shock.

"Yeah. He did it a lot with Stefanie…" she looked down in sadness. "But he did it even more when he saw the name that you would have in the future."

Caitlin snapped her head up so fast; she was surprised that there wasn't a crack. "Snow-Fury."

"Yeah, that." Matt agreed. "But he said that was just going to wait and enjoy the time he has with the woman and child he loves."

"Sounds like Seth." She agreed with blushed cheeks. Her blush disappeared when seeing his face looking curiously at the ground.

"What's wrong, Matt?" she asked in worry at his face.

Matt looked at her and revealed his thoughts, "There's a chance that you might change your last name to Snow Fury in the future, that part I get." He took his feet off the table and leant forward with his elbows touching his knees and hands intertwining. "But what about that picture we found on the article?"

"The one showing Venom as that thing, right?" Caitlin wanted confirmation of his thoughts.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Seth's not here anymore…so who the hell is that one in the future?"

"You don't think it's Frankie, do you?" She asked.

"Maybe, maybe not." He got up from the chair. "She's a symbiote bearer, and one thing I learned about them, is that they can change their appearance, shape and form, if they will."

"I hope not." Caitlin said.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Breach Room)**

After their conversation with one another, Matt and Caitlin moved downstairs with Olivia and Frankie and Cisco, who seemed extremely chipper after a goodbye meeting with Lisa Snart. The nanite mutant knew that was going to be an interesting conversation, to say the least.

But for now, it was time to witness what Jay Garrick had been working on since working on the breach. And they were surprised to see it, as was Martin Stein who had arrived. They saw four large metal rings around the large breach, and it that those four rings are stabilizing the worm hole.

Frankie jumped onto the railing and gestured to it with jazz hands. "Ta-Da! The Speed Cannon."

"It's amazing." Matt commented at the sight of the rejuvenated breach.

Caitlin wrapped an arm around her daughter's neck and ruffled her hair with her free hand. "Sweetie, you didn't do anything. So why the over-the-top jazz hands?" she put her handbag down on the floor.

"They're cool." Frankie said with a childish whine.

"**_No, they're not._**" Magenta countered with an opinion of her own.

"_Jerk._" Frankie thought back and Magenta mentally poked out her tongue.

"Wow." Cisco took off his jacket while impressively watching the wormhole. "Look at that."

"You guys actually built the thing." Olivia stated in awe.

Martin examined the machines around it with impressiveness and stated in further shock. "Mr. Garrick, I am quite impressed by what you've accomplished during my recent wellness hiatus."

Cisco looked at the man from the other world. "Have you tested it out yet?"

"Not yet." Jay informed them. "You wanna do the honors?"

The mechanical engineer looked excited and acted accordingly. Rushing over to the grab an object, Cisco looked for an object. But Martin stopped him with a chanting. "No, no, no, no. Now that I, uh-" he grabbed hold of a handbag on the platform floor. "now that I am back to optimum health, please allow me."

"Oh, would you-" Caitlin had to stop herself when seeing that it was losing fight.

"Stein, wait…" Frankie asked, but trailed off when seeing that it indeed a losing battle.

"Uh argh!" Stein groaned as he hurled the handbag into the breach. A small light and pulsating were all that was made when it entered the worm hole. Seeing that everyone smiled and laughed. "Excelsior!" the professor exclaimed in triumph.

Matt leant over to his wife's ear, "Wasn't that Caitlin's handbag?"

She leant to his ear and said, "Yeah, it was. And Stein didn't care."

The nanite mutant shrugged and examined the rings around it. "Stabilizer rings." He stated out loud, and the man from the other universe nodding.

Barry then asked. "How did you stabilize it?"

"CFL Quark Matter." The former speedster answered.

Matt's eyes widening in realization. "Negative energy density with positive surface pressure. Smart."

"Not smart, Matt." Cisco said. "It's absolutely genius!"

"Wait, so you created CFL Quark Matter?" Barry asked of the former speedster.

"It's something we perfected on my Earth." Jay told them. "I'll show you sometime."

Martin narrowed his eyes. "You mean, sometime in the next few minutes?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess this is it?" Jay spoke in surprise.

Matt narrowed his eyes at that in suspicion. He wasn't sure if it would be good or bad thing if the former speedster were to return home now. Parts of him did trust him after everything he's done for them, but other parts of him remained true with his training as a SHIELD agent. Remain skeptical and not believe a single thing coming out of the man's mouth despite his actions.

"Time for me to go back home." Jay seemed determined.

"Hold your horses." Matt stopped him, everyone around them looking surprisingly at him. "You know your Earth is still a pain in our asses here."

Olivia realized what her husband was doing. "And we could still use your help with the breachers."

"My first priority is Zoom." Jay told them defiantly. "I need to find out what's he's up to. How he stole my speed."

Caitlin found it weird that the two mutants were trying to keep the man from leaving. But having known them and Seth, she knew that they don't trust Jay Garrick right now.

Frankie wasn't thinking the same as her uncle and aunt, she then told him. "Dude, you can do that here." They looked at the young metahuman. "And I don't think my uncle Matt and Cisco are willing to work on a device that can communicate through time and space, so we can get in touch with you if we need your help. Or if this Zoom story is even legit and shows up here."

Caitlin tilted her head and said, "I think what my daughter is trying to say, is that we could use your help in the future."

Barry then added, "It would be nice to be able to pick your brain every once in a while, get some more speedster tips."

"Besides…" Matt got their attention again while pointing a finger at the breach. "…your entrance is right there and it doesn't appear to be going anywhere, does it?"

Jay inhaled deeply and chuckled with a longing look at the breach. He then made his decision. "Okay… once we take care of Zoom, I'm going home."

"Sounds fair." Caitlin told him before moving over to her daughter again.

"Good cause I could use a shower, a shave, and some sunlight." Jay quipped and told them. "I'll, uh, see you later." He finished off and walked away.

Caitlin then turned to Martin Stein. "So, Professor Stein, how are you feeling?"

"Yeah, how's it hanging, old man?" Frankie followed up with a grin.

"Well, it appears that a little rest heals all maladies." Martin fold them confidently, confident now that a nothing more than sleep was all that he needed. "I-I-I couldn't feel-" he stopped himself with a sharp intake of air…and his eyes…paled into whiteness.

"Professor?" Caitlin tried to move forward as did Cisco.

"No, no, no, no, no get back." Barry pulled Cisco back.

"Mom, no!" Frankie pulled her mother back.

"Come here." Matt jumped in front of them.

And… it was the right thing for them to do when they saw his head burst into flames and his hands doing the same. Blazing red flames flaring up like crazy. They all saw Martin Stein stuttering with a painfully stiff expression on his face.

His mouth still agape and eyes white and open before blinking. The moment they opened again… his eyes were no longer white… but revealing a pure pitch-black darkness in them. And his flames shedding their yellow and red colors by bursting into blue and white flames.

They watched with horrified eyes as his expression worsened, his body not even moving and only twitching in pain. The flames quickly dissipated and he fell down to the ground with a thud.

All six of them rushed to his side. "Professor Stein! Professor Stein!" Caitlin exclaimed with worry. "Can you hear me, Professor Stein?"

"Stein, wake up!" Matt shouted at him while trying to shake him awake.

Olivia then shouted as well, "Wake up! Wake up, Stein!"

"What happened to him?" Frankie exclaimed.

"He went up like Firestorm, but the flame, why was it blue?" Barry asked with his head shifting between them all.

"I don't know. This isn't good." Caitlin was the one to answer. "We need to stabilize him fast."

"And faster than fast." Cisco followed up quickly.

"Let's hope so…" Matt nodded to the professor's shaking form. "…for his sake."

Once again, something has happened to the elderly professor. And by the looks of things…they have worsened than ever before.

X

Time have passed now, and everyone had left the breach room to take care of the elderly professor. The now stabilized breach have been left alone and now swirling around in its place. Nothing passing through it from either side and left alone.

But that was only the case for a single moment as the breach's transdimensional energy unleashed a smoke-like substance that hit the platform. The breach retracted the energy again… and revealed a man in a crouched position.

The man was slowly getting up to his full height… his dark clothes…light up with the bluish light emitting from the breach behind him…shining up his features…and revealing the face of the man who not only scorned this earth…. but also, his own.

Harrison Wells…took his first steps…on this new universe.

**To be continued…**

**And now more troublesome news has come over Team Flash. Martin Stein bursting into flames with unusual colors, blue and white like a reverse Firestorm. As well as a familiar face appearing out of the massive breach under S.T.A.R. Labs. **

**Wonder what madness Harrison Wells from Earth-2 have brought to the neighborhood. Cause, like Joe said in the latest and newest Flash episode, anyone with his face usually brings trouble wherever he walks. The CW superhero shows are incredible and you guys should watch them!**

**Caitlin and Frankie still miss the elemental that they love. The mother missing and hoping there's a universe out in the world, where their love still prevails and they meet one another again, the two of them married and living happily with one another with a larger family. Hopefully that's possible for them in the future.**

**Matt still feeling like he failed his best friend, his brother-in-law. He's never been able to make up for the times he was saved by Seth so many times. And though he was feeling pain and more, and despite what the others wanted from him, he couldn't get himself to forgive the Scarlet Speedster. It was an impossible task for him to do, not after everything that's happened between them.**

**And it looks like Caitlin have shown her appreciation to the infamous thief, Black Cat. Pretty sure it's gonna be interesting to see what happens with Seth finds out that the love of his life and his late fiancée's childhood friend are actually friends now.**

**But now, the focus has shifted to the elderly professor's condition.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	9. Chapter 9: Powers and Revelations

**And another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**Sorry for the long wait again, people. I know it's been happening a few times, but school's been erratic as well as some stuff in home.**

**Now I just found out that something incredible have happened to a lovely member of The Flash cast.**

**The lovely Danielle Panabaker is pregnant with her first child. All the best to her and her family!**

**BTW, I made the mistake of thinking that Apple+ is associated with Disney+ in the last chapter. My apologies.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 9: Powers and Revelations**

"You wanna train us?" Jesse asked in shock, her mind repeating his words.

"Yup." Seth simply answered with a quick nod.

Iris looked confused and asked, "Why Seth? They have you." she pointed a hand at him. "So why do they need to train?"

"Good point." Ruby agreed, though she was inwardly happy by the prospect of being trained under the wings of Weapon X Hades. And she was hoping that he would go all out against her, unlike the rest she had experience with fighting.

"Because of three reasons." Seth pointed a finger at Ruby. "I want to see where Ruby stands in terms of her fighting abilities and those gravitational powers needs to be under her control, so I'm gonna need an estimation of her current powers." He shifted it to point upwards, to the upper floor. "Evelyn has to as well; her powers end up hurting her too much and I won't let that continue." He then pointed it at Jesse. "And Jesse has to learn how to defend herself, if she is to run off again like a crazy paranoid person."

"It happened once, don't hold it against me like this. I'm not gonna run off again." Jesse assured him.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I can't take the chance that you wanna run off again like a runaway, and I'm not there to watch your back." Seth explained his reasoning. "Sorry, but at the very least, I can give you some defensive techniques so you can actually fight if you're in trouble."

"That's gonna be fun." Jesse plumped down in the couch and ran her hands over her temples.

"Where do you exactly want to train them?" Barry asked. "Can't imagine that taking them to a gym would be the smartest place."

"True, but the Woodlands will definitely be the best place to train them." Seth revealed, shock and panic coming over them all, except for Ruby who looked even more intrigued. Before they could object, he held up his hands and stopped them from speaking. "It's the best place for them to be trained. It's open fielded, nowhere near innocent people, and many inmate targets for them to smash, so they don't end up hurting each other."

Ruby tilted her head. "I feel like that was aimed at me."

Jesse looked at her. "What did you expect, Ms. Blonde Assassin?"

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "I'm gonna kill you out there." the way she spoke so calmly, Jesse paled with fear on her face.

"No, she's not. No, you're not." Seth assured Jesse and ordered Ruby quickly. Neither of them looked convinced or obedient in the least…which worried him. "Detective West, can you bring us to the Woodlands tomorrow noon then?"

"Tomorrow?" Iris asked in confusion.

"Yeah, too dark now." He gestured to the open windows, seeing that their surroundings were cloaked with darkness. "And as much fun as it was, it would be a real pain in the ass to train them in the dark. It'd be like running after attack dogs in the wild."

"Might not be a bad thing, you know." Ruby joked with a straight face, devoid of the need to wear emotions on it.

Seth chuckled and told them, "Well, now that we have a plan for tomorrow, get some rest people. It's gonna be a hard day."

"Yeah, it's a good idea." The detective agreed and got up from her seat. "All to be bed now, kids." Jesse and Barry nodded and walked towards the staircase while Iris looked at the mutant and Ruby. "Goodnight, you two."

"Night, Detective West." Ruby said.

"Goodnight, Iris." Seth followed up and watched as she walked up the stairs and followed her husband. When they were left alone, the elemental looked at Ruby. "Ready for some training?"

"Let me guess, you want me to ease it down a level or two?" she expected that of him to tell her, to hold back her full fighting prowess.

"Nope, I want you to go use your full strength." Her eyes widened with the speed of light and looked at him as though she was searching for a reason behind his words. Recognizing the confused search, he explained. "From the first time I saw you Ruby, I knew you were a skilled fighter. But I don't know how skilled, so I'm gonna need you to fight me at full strength. I need to assess you and figure how out much you need to be trained when it comes to getting a handle on your powers."

"You think I'm gonna need them to fight?" she raised her hands and clenched them tightly, the bones inside cracking. "I'm strong enough without them."

"Against metahumans, metahuman criminals at that, enough isn't good enough." Seth bluntly told her and she looked shocked before intrigue took over. "You saw metahumans in action before, you have to use your powers to fight against them. If not, it's gonna end bad for you." he pointed a finger at her hands. "With your powers, you can attack from a distance as well. And your powers are powerful. Incredibly powerful, and you can use it for good."

"What if I just want to use them to survive?" She quickly asked.

"Well, we all gotta start somewhere." Seth conceded and sat beside her. "And don't worry, I'll be there to help you through it all."

Ruby chuckled and stood up. she walked over to the staircase, and as she took the first step, she said. "I'm not worried." She continued walking all the way to the upper floor.

Seth smiled and laid down on the couch. While he looked up at the ceiling, he thought in curiosity. "_You've been quiet the entire time._"

"**_Thinking is all._**" Venom told his host. "**_But do you believe it's a good idea to return to the Woodlands again? It wasn't far from Zoom's lair._**"

"_If Zoom is smart, he might have more than one lair. And I would go and take care of him now so I could get that iron masked guy out of there, but it's too risky to let the girls be alone._" Seth thought back. "_And yeah, it is a risk, but we have to ready them somewhere and the city's too crowded to do that._"

"**_And like you told Iris and the others, it's a wider field for us to use._**" Venom said. "**_But we have to be ready soon, and tell Iris and the others of our plan after helping them._**"

"_Yeah. So far, they don't know about us trying to find a way back, only one who does is Evelyn. But yeah, they deserve to know as well._" Seth agreed with his partner.

"**_What about that sound from before?_**"

Seth looked around and with his ears, listened closely for the slightest sound. "_You hear it again? I don't._"

Venom mentally shook his head, and Seth felt it. "**_No, we don't. But we thought, if we had the time, we could perhaps investigate it thoroughly._**"

"_Yeah, it's good idea. Especially, since we were the only ones who could hear it before._" Seth added. "_Wonder why…_" he sighed. "_Mystery for another day. Let's sleep, partner._"

"**_Sure thing. But if you start snoring again, we'll strangle you in your sleep._**"

"_Game on, Slither._" Seth playfully challenged.

X

**(Zoom's lair)**

"**ARGH!**"

Zoom's rageful screams echoed in the lair that was hiding with the massive cliffs as he slammed his fist into the wall. The blue lightning following his fist, increased the velocity and hurled into the wall and crackling against the rock-solid surface.

His anger reached new spikes as he heard that the elemental had defeated another one of his metahumans again. And now Lamden was hiding. Not from him, but from Venom. With the news footage of him defeating the large humanoid shark, now most of his henchmen fears the Demon King.

Another fistful of blue lapis lightning smashed into the wall. This time, his hand phased through it and released currents of lightning inside the wall. His anger and rage climbing up the stairs of new levels of enragement. He growled in anger, hissing at the rock-solid barricade in front of him.

"Calm down, would you?"

He snapped his head to the side and saw Black Siren walking confidently over to him, her high heels clacking against the rocky ground and her arms crossing over her chest. Narrowing his pure black eyes on her smirking face, he sped in front of her.

Raising his black claws high in the air with the blue lightning running over it, he snarled at her. "**Remember who you're talking to, Black Siren. Your humor does not work as well on me as it does with others.**"

Black Siren rolled her eyes at the threat and said, "You know your threats are starting to get really pointless. They're the same, over and over again. You'd give a broken record a run for its money."

He snapped his arm back down to his side and growled in her face. "**Do not…anger me more than I already am.**" Zoom saw that she merely raised her eyebrow like his threatening words did not reach her ears.

Zoom perked his head up and looked behind the sonic cryer. He saw that Deathstorm and Reverb were standing there. Killer Frost was among them as well, but she was leaning against the wall of a cell while another woman was standing beside her.

Following the direction of his eyes, the sonic cryer informed him. "Yeah, Frost brought her here. After Lamden's last fight with Venom, this one might be able to do a bit better."

"**She better.**" Zoom stated with a sneer and a glare connecting with the woman beside the Frosty metahuman. "**Otherwise, her fate will be placed in the hands of the other Earth, like the others.**"

"Sure thing." Black Siren said agreeingly with a nod of her head.

_WHOOSH_

Without even bothering to speak any more words, the pitch-black demonic speedster rushed out of the lair and took care of other business. The moment he disappeared in a flash of azure lightning, Killer Frost walked forward and directed at the sonic cryer. "You really think _she_ can do better than us?" As she stated her question her thumb was pointed backwards and pointing at the woman, she brought with her.

The woman gulped at the question inquired about her. Black Siren shrugged. "Well, she can do something that neither of us can do."

"So it is her abilities you two are referring to?" Reverb asked and stepped closer to pitch in on their conversation.

"What else would it be, Reverb?" Killer Frost sarcastically stated.

"Nothing much." He played coy. "But it does appear that this…elemental has proven himself worthy of your interests. Both of yours." He quickly added with a glance at the sonic cryer.

At the quick glance, Black Siren smirked. "Don't tell me you're getting jealous, Reverb?"

"Not worth my time." Reverb stated adamantly but then nodded to Deathstorm who was walking slowly towards his girlfriend. "But I can't say the same for him."

"Shut it." Deathstorm told the vibing metahuman. he looked at Killer Frost and asked suspiciously. "Frost, didn't you see him not long ago?"

"Yeah, he wanted to know about the Sharp girl's powers." She revealed. "Think he's trying to help her out somehow."

"With her powers?" Deathstorm asked curiously and his response was a nodding of her head. "Great, if that little girl gets hold of her powers, then she's gonna be trouble dealing with in the future. Real trouble." He formed a sick and menacing smile. "Might have to take her out."

"Wouldn't hold high hopes for that, babe." Killer Frost stated and everyone in the lair looked at her with quiring eyes. At her thoughts, she began smiling happily. "You see, our little elemental friend knows that you tried to attack the Sharp girl before." Deathstorm widened his eyes. "Think the little girl told her about it before he found me and telling him about her powers."

"Why is that a problem?"

Killer Frost recognized the voice and saw that it came from the woman that she had brought along. "What do you mean?"

"That this...Venom knows of her encounter with your boyfriend. Why is that a problem?"

"Because he threatened to find him and tear his head off of his body without using his powers." Killer Frost smirked and stood in front of the woman. She cupped her chin with one hand and further stated. "And that's the guy you're going to meet."

The frosty metahuman rubbed her chin in a caring and loving manner, "Let's hope you can do better, Light. If not, then it's bye-bye to your home." The way Killer Frost spoke so casual about her life, if she were to fail, made the woman gulp in fear.

X

The trip to the Woodlands was quick and everyone were able to get out of the car and began walking deeper into the forestry area. Seth walked ahead of them all and saw that they were nearing a hill. He looked back to his group. Seeing Ruby and Evelyn walking ahead of the other natives who were trailing behind them. Iris was right behind them with her husband and Jesse beside them. Barry was for some reason, watching his every step, literally. His eyes never left the grassy grounds.

"Barry, what the hell are you looking at the ground for? There's not any snails or anything here, you know." Seth called out to the CSI scientist.

"You try walking around in a forest…" he started before holding up a single foot and pointing at it. "… with wingtips."

"Only ever worn those when the mission calls for it." Seth commented to it. "But why the fuck are you wearing wingtips for a hike through the forest? We're here to train a couple of powered girls, not camping and making s'mores over a campfire."

Evelyn walked forward and stated. "I wouldn't say no to s'mores." She smiled.

The elemental chuckled with a look at her. "If you would say that you would, I would have been surprised." He joked and she laughed in response. He found it weird and a bit strange to talk to Evelyn now. Ever since she accidently called him…that word. It was not what he expected and the word, he longed for it again. But it was from his daughter that he expected to hear it from again, not Evelyn Sharp.

While he may not have kept his distance from, out of worry that her condition might worsen and her powers might retrigger and hurt her arms, parts of him did wonder if he should do the opposite of his current actions. Not out of spite, but because of…

He didn't even know why.

"_What do you think Venom? What do you think I should do?_" he asked his partner when he felt his body relax from the calming and soothing waves of emotions entering his body.

"**_We both know, that we can't answer that for you, partner._**" Venom told him honestly. "**_But that girl seems to have taken a liking to you now, and she cares about you, as you do her. But whatever you choose, we'll be there and help you._**"

"_Thanks, brother._" He told his partner in honesty, their relationship not unlike that of brothers.

Seth stopped at the top of the hill and looked back to the others who were walking towards him. Once there, he told them. "Guys, this looks good enough."

At his words, Barry felt his exhaust overwhelm him and he fell down to the ground. His breathing coming out in series of pants of tire. "_Pant…pant…pant…_Thank…_pant_…God…We're here."

Iris chuckled and put her bags down and patted her husband's back. "Take a little break, honey. You deserve it."

Ruby cracked her hands after putting her bags on the ground. "So who's the first to start?"

"Funny you should ask." Seth started before crossing his arms over his chest. "You are, Ruby."

"You're serious?" She asked for clarity with an excited look on her face. Ruby didn't notice the hair strands around her head floating upwards.

"Yeah, time for you to let loose." Seth quickly pointed a finger behind the HYDRA assassin. "Just wait on that part, though." They all looked back and saw that the elemental was pointing at a levitating tree branch near Ruby.

"Oh yeah." She inhaled deeply and calmed herself with closed eyes, in response to that the branch landed back down on the grassy ground again. "It could be fun to break your arm again, but I think I'll hold off on that till I'm ready to do it on my own."

"High hopes!" he called out while walking down the hill and stood there on the lower ground. Looking back to the top of the hill, he told them. "The rest of you stay there and watch. Should be safe for you to spectate without being in harm's way!" they nodded while Ruby was walking down the hill.

She walked till she stood in front of him. When she got into position, the elemental saw her take a fighting stance. "Just so we're clear, Ruby. I won't use my powers, just plain old hand-to-hand fighting." He told her.

"Think I can handle that." She replied with a smug expression. "I'm not that weak."

"Never said you were." Seth readied himself. "When you're ready."

"Ready!" she instantly exclaimed and charged for him. The others watching from the top of the hill were surprised to see her shot into action like a bullet. Ruby saw him raise both hands, and she anticipated a frontal strike. Diving down to the ground, she performed a somersault and quickly launched her fist into his stomach.

But Seth grabbed it with one hand, and with a spin, he put twisted her arm behind her back. "Argh!" she winced and glanced over her shoulder to see him. "Not bad, for a fossil."

"Fossil? I'm not that old, kiddo." Seth told her in hurt.

Ruby smirked and slammed her free hand into the ground. Twisting her hand on the ground, she flipped her body around and landed in crouch before sending her fist forward. Her clenched fist slammed into Seth's hand and he let go of her other fist.

With both limbs free of his constraints, Ruby flipped backwards and landed on her feet before charging again. Spinning around on her feet, she lashed out her right leg and aimed for his head. Her foot connected with the mutant's jaw and he reeled back.

The HYDRA assassin returned to her former position and saw the elemental rub his jaw and twitching it from side to side. "Decent. But not sure if I can say it's good enough." Seth taunted her before clenching his own hands and Ruby saw it too, as well as the smirk widening on his face. "Guess I shouldn't mess around then."

He made his good on his words as he swung his arm for her. She dodged it, but realized it was nothing more than a faint when she felt his foot slam in her stomach and pushed her on the ground, into a roll. Getting back on her feet, she had to move quickly as the mutant appeared before her again with a series of quickly thrown fists.

She grabbed one of his fists and were met with his other fist, hitting the side of her jaw. Ruby were surprised and held the side of her jaw. "Argh!" she exclaimed in pain when Seth swept her feet off the ground with a sweep of his foot.

Her body landed down on the ground with a thud and she looked up at the elemental. "Not bad for a fossil, huh? Or maybe, you're too young to fight on my level."

Ruby clenched her hands on the ground, straws of grass slipping into her clenched fists when she felt her mind rerun those same words. Letting out a cry of anger, she swiped one leg to the left and kicked his legs to the side, causing him to lose his balance. Using the momentum of her spin, she spun around into a crouch and swung her left leg for his face.

Blocking the kick with his right forearm, he grabbed her leg by the calf. With his grip secured on her limb, Seth spun around and hurled the HYDRA assassin on the ground. She got up on the ground again, panting heavily from the pain that she was experiencing now. But despite the pain that she was feeling, she couldn't help but smile.

Seth saw the smile broadening on her face and looked confused. From the corner of his eye, he could see that the natives on the hill were also wearing wide eyes of shock. Turning them back to Ruby, he asked. "What's the smile, Rubs?"

"Can't believe that I'm fighting against you." She continued to smile and reached down on the ground with one hand. Her fingers wrapping themselves around a long tree branch. Twirling it around in her hands like a bo staff, she continued. "Lot of people I wanted to fight against. But you're the one of the guys I really wanted to fight against. Still think this is some sort of a dream."

The mutant laughed briefly. "Why can't you be like a normal teenage girl and just think of, I don't know, boys and Barbie dolls and prom and stuff?"

"Normal's overrated." She charged for him again and swung her weapon for him.

But it only met his hand and he grabbed it tightly. Raising his right knee up, he slammed it into the middle of the branch and broke it into two pieces. Using his own branch, he swung for her. However, Ruby dodged left and then dodged right, avoiding the incoming strikes of the wooden limb.

Aiming for his stomach, she swung the branch again. He jumped backwards and dodged it. Swinging his own branch again, he connected it with Ruby's. They held it like that for a few moments, Ruby smiling in happiness while Seth grew a smirk that confused her. Their parrying weapons were only held like that for a moment before the mutant directed her weapon down and up again with a circular movement.

Ruby lost her grip on her weapon and gave a way to an opening that Seth used and directed her weapon into the air and he kicked her in the stomach. She was pushed back a few feet and quickly got back up on her feet again. Her eyes widened at the sight of him catching the branch that she used as it fell down in his hand.

X

"Damn, he's tough." Jesse stated in shock as she looked at them from the top of the hill.

"Can't believe that Ruby's that good." Evelyn said in equal shock.

Iris saw and heard what the girls said and had to agree with them. Despite Ruby's young age, she was without an exceptional close-range fighter. "They are both really incredible."

"And that's…" Barry got their attention. "…_without_ their powers. With them, I think even Zoom wouldn't go anywhere near them."

"Yeah." Iris nodded in agreement. But the display that she was watching right now…assured her that soon in the near future, Seth would be needed for what she and the mass of the police force were facing. Threats other than Zoom are raging on, and some of them feared so much that even moving a single muscle…

…seemed suicidal…

X

Seth smiled and swung the two branches around. "Nice job, Ruby. Think you can handle more?"

Ruby clenched her hands again, this time… the trees around her began shaking violently. A tremor awakening and shaking the entire ground even. The branches on the trees breaking off and falling down to the ground and joining the other tree branches. The natives on the hill gasping and walking backwards in fear. Iris reaching for her holster and unholstering her gun.

The detective was about to take the gun out of her holster, but she then saw the mutant looking confidant despite the shakiness that was taking place. Deciding to trust him, she retracted her hand from the gun and watched as they continued to stare off.

"Trust me," she tightens her clenched hands and the tremors running through the ground continued to rage on uncontrollably. "I can."

Her mind not thinking clearly and she lashed her hands out quickly. The moment her hands thrusted outwards, a gravitational force catapulted from them in a burst that led the tree branches to follow it. It's massive force was splitting the ground between the two, cracking it open like a walnut.

Seth saw the force coming his way and thought. "_Aw, shit._"

"Seth look out!" Iris called out.

"Ruby, don't!" Evelyn called out.

Jesse covered her eyes and Barry covered his mouth.

They all saw it. His body was hit by the gargantuan gravitational force and it blew up the area around him, leaving a massive dust screen in its wake.

Realizing what she did, Ruby stepped back in fear and looked down at her hands. "Not again. No." she spoke in fear that washed over her with the strength of a tidal wave. While the dust screen was cloaking the area of attack, she looked to the natives on the hilltop. "I didn't mean to." Thoughts of hurt entering her mind and she staggered backwards.

"**W**e **wou**ld **ho**pe **s**o."

Everyone snapped their heads to the dust screen again, seeing that the dust was settling and disappearing from the blowing winds. They saw him walk out of it, but his form was different than what they expected. His right arm lashing out and blowing away the dust with a wind blast. They saw that his arm was enveloped with the black mass and paired with black claws. His left leg touching the ground, his claws digging into the ground. The right half of his face enveloped by the symbiote, showing half of Venom's face. The other side of his face remaining as Seth Fury. Tendrils flailing around behind him as they shot out of his back.

Ruby didn't see it until, but she saw that parts of his skin were turning back to his normal skin. Her eyes widened and she looked at the mutant again. "You turned your body to adamantium before the blast?"

While being partially bonded with his "other", Seth nodded and said. "**We**ll, **w**e **di**dn't **wan**na **lo**se **a**n **ar**m." He smiled with a half-smile of his face and his partner's face. The symbiotic half-face on his face retracted and he spoke. "But I'm fine, and I'm impressed with what you did."

He looked back and saw that the damage around his former standing. The ground cracking and tree branches smashed into the dirt, even piercing through it. "But I guess I should have expected that from riling you like that."

"You were trying to get me to use my powers, even though you told me to not to use them?" Ruby asked intrigued.

"Yeah." Seth nodded, "My Dad used the same trick on me when I was around your age. It's the best way to get an estimation of both your combat skills and your newly given powers." He gestured to the area of her attack. "Granted, I was a little more destructive when I was your age."

"Oh yeah, how was the old ages?" she joked.

"Not that old." Seth couldn't help but feel hurt. But he then smiled and told her seriously. "But it's time for your real training now." he reached into his pocket.

"That wasn't my real training?" she asked in shock.

"Yes and no. it was training for your physical powers and get an estimation of your powers." He clarified and everyone else watched confusedly when he pulled out a yellow tennis ball and held it in front of Ruby. "This is your real training."

"We're gonna play catch?"

"Yes." Seth answered her and walked back a few steps, putting a few meters between them. "Here, catch!" He stated and launched the ball with a throw.

Ruby caught the ball with one hand. She boringly threw it in the air before letting it fall back in her palm and said. "Fine, I'll play along." She conceded and threw the ball back with a throw. Along with the natives on the hill she expected the elemental to catch with his hands.

But instead he lashed out a tendril and wrapped it around the ball. The mutant smiled and used his tendril to throw the ball up in the air before it fell into his hand. It never touched his palm because a small wind emitted from his hand and kept the ball from touching his hand, suspending it in the air above his hand.

"Nice throw. But here's the real training." Seth said. "You have to use your powers only to catch the ball, not your hands."

"I can't control them." She immediately reminded him.

"Which is why you're doing this." Seth told her. "It's an easy way to learn control, and of course, have fun." Swinging his arm lower, he threw the ball to her. Much to his expectations, she caught it again with her hands. "And when you have fun, it's much easier to learn."

"Okay, I went to school before, I already heard that kind of sales pitch." Ruby walked closer and said. "Doesn't work on me. And my powers, they've only done harm."

"You sure about that?" Seth knowingly said. "What about that time we fell down from Zoom's cliff and you were the one to save all of us from ending up as ground pizza? You saved us _from_ harm."

"Just happened, a reflex or something like that." Ruby told him.

"Wrong. You did it, because you wanted to. Because people you care about were about to be harmed. It's why your powers activated and kept us from going splat." Seth said. "If you have a good reason than that's enough for powers to activate." He walked over to the hill and turned halfway and said. "Now, you have to remember that reason and work your powers."

"Wait, alone?"

"Yup. You need to do this one by yourself. And I have to help Evelyn now." Seth told her. "Use the gravitational powers in your body to play around with that ball of yours, and without crushing the ball, of course." Ruby chuckled. "Good luck, Ruby. I believe in you."

Ruby smiled happily at his words. It was nice for her to hear that the mutant that she idolized when she was younger was believing in her. Her mother wasn't here and Seth was here, and somehow, he seemed more… trusting and willing to show his trust to her than she was.

Her mother though was a high-ranking HYDRA general that always wanted her to reach her full potential. To be the Destroyer of Worlds, the one super soldier that would fulfill Daniel Whitehall's wishes. But she rarely used caring words to help her through her childhood. Merely giving her training, an assignment, a mission to fulfill. And most of the times, she didn't even use such caring words.

Seth wasn't like that. He really displayed caring and loving intentions to her. It was a new experience for her. Considering that she had a bit of a checkered past…future with S.H.I.E.L.D. "Thanks…Seth."

He nodded.

X

"So Ruby's going to be playing with a ball, and what am I supposed to do? Throw a bolt of light?" Evelyn asked of the elemental.

Seth had brought Evelyn down the hill, down the adjacent side that Ruby was standing there and training. They walked a bit further into the forest, nearing the trees. They stopped after having found a good place and the mutant looked at her. "Think this is a good spot."

"It's pretty far from the others." Evelyn said. "Why?"

"I know why your powers hurt you before, Evie." The young metahuman looked shocked. "Right now, your powers, these light and darkness elements, they're contained in your arms only. That's why they hurt you before. Your arms can only handle so much."

"You're telling that…" she gulped. "…that my arms might burst if they stay the way they are?" fear began sparking in her eyes. and darkness and light began slowly simmering in her arms.

"They will. But it won't happen." Seth told her calmly, his words somehow able to decrease the elements in her arms. "I know how to help you thankfully."

"How?" Evelyn asked curiously.

Looking around them for a few seconds, Seth dropped down on the ground and landed in a sitting. Wordlessly pointing at the ground before him, he told her to take a seat as well. Evelyn looked confused for a second and dropped to the ground as well.

"Nature's a wonderful thing, don't you think?" Seth surprisingly began while he admired the nature around them. Evelyn saw the same and admired it too, enjoying it with each gaze that she put into it. "There's a natural way for everything. The animals for example are like that." He nodded upwards to a couple of birds in the trees above their heads. They flew around in the air.

Evelyn noticed bigger birds attending to smaller ones. She instantly deduced that it was parents that were tending to their children. She smiled happily at the sight, memories of her happiest time with her parents returning to her mind. "It's beautiful."

"You know," she turned to him again. "animals are like elements in nature. They all have to do their own things; they can't be in cages. They can't be contained; they have to be set free. Otherwise, they're gonna be grumpy as hell."

"So what do I do?" Evelyn asked.

"You have to set them free and let them course through your entire body, not just your arms." Seth raised his arms. He let flames run over his limbs, slowly running back and forth over them. "You have to circle them around your entire body. If not, then what happened before could happen again."

"How?"

"With these two elements in your arms, can you still put your hands together?" He asked with an examining look on his face. Light and darkness have always been opposites of one another, which could lead to them not being able to co-exist. But for the sake of Evelyn Sharp, they had to.

"I don't know, but I can try." She said and inhaled deeply. Evelyn raised her hands and slowly put them together, she didn't know what this would do. But she was worried and tried doing it. Her palms neared each other and then, after what felt like eternity, they touched each other.

Seth didn't know what to expect. Whether it would be a shockwave of light and darkness blasting them both away or a full-blown explosion. Thankfully, none of those scenarios appeared in front of their faces. The only thing that was happening is that both hands are shining with their respective energies. Her right hand shining with bright white light and her left hand darkening with the dark onyx darkness.

"…Pretty…" Evelyn said admiringly at the energies emitting from her hands.

"Yeah." Seth nodded agreeingly. "Now, I know you don't want to hear it, but bear with me okay?" she nodded slowly. "Your powers only manifest themselves through fear, when you're in danger or when you're scared. So now I want you to calm yourself and let your light and darkness run through your interlocked hands. Then you have let them course through the rest of your body."

"I don't know if I can." Evelyn said, her hands shaking and her powers tremoring in response. "It seems hard."

"I know it does." Seth told her.

"**_Do it._**" Venom said suddenly. "**_We both know that's what she needs now. it might be the only way for us to help her._**"

Giving his mental agreement to his partner, Seth asked her with a heavy heart. "Tell me about your life before the Particle Accelerator explosion that caused metahumans to appear. Must have been exciting."

"What do you want to know?" she asked while her hands were kept together.

"Anything, really." Seth assured her. "Heard you like gymnastics and parkour? That's pretty cool."

Evelyn chuckled. "Yeah." She smiled happily. "My mother was a cheerleader in her high school years. I think she was a head cheerleader. She was really good. Some of her old friends showed me videos of her jumping in the air like a kid flying sky high. She loved it. I think I got the same love for gymnastics from her. I began liking it so much that I took up parkour. Cheerleading got a lot more interesting after that."

"I can imagine. Heard you ever considered a genuine 16-years-old badass to be." Seth chuckled.

"Yeah. Lots of my friends used to say that a lot. My Dad said that a lot more." She revealed. The mutant smiled but inwardly he was feeling a bit worried about hearing this after her last words. "He was a bit of a geek for a contractor. He used to say that I got my talent from my mom and my muscles came from him. They always were such geeks."

"Sure you're their kid? Cause you're not a geek. You're more of a little ninja without the long sword, the throwing stars and black clothes of course." Seth quipped. "You're pretty amazing for such a young girl. Scouted by dozens of universities at such a young age. It's really impressive."

"Thanks." Evelyn spoke with a genuine smile.

"Evie." Seth held a wider smile and gestured to her body. "Look around you."

Evelyn nervously looked down at her body. Her eyes widening at the sight. The darkness and light on her arms have somehow changed. Using her intertwined hands as a bridge, the contrasting energies have now managed to shine and darken over her entire arms. The onyx darkness and pure light have somehow mixed together and shining over her arms now, showing the powers with colorful combinations.

And the most amazing thing that was happening to her? The energies didn't seem to be stopping either.

She instantly shot up to her feet again. Returning her attention to her arms again, she saw the light and darkness travel up her appendages and reaching her shoulders. It appeared to continue on and ran down her shoulders and down her torso. She felt the energy surges run over her face and glow and darken over each inch of her face. The darkening and lightening energies touched her hair, coating them with the energy. They also reached down her legs and down to her feet. It seemed as though her body was shining with the opposing energies.

The darkness and light felt more freer now, no longer hurting her arms and they felt like a burden have been lessened. And she hasn't felt this good in a very long time. Evelyn didn't see them, nor could she, but the marks on her forehead and under right eye formed instantly.

"How do you feel, sweetheart?" Seth got up on his feet and dusted off the grass straws sticking to his clothes.

Her eyes were closed for a while. "I feel…better. Better than I have in a long time." Evelyn smiled happily and jumped into the air. She even performed a backwards somersault and followed up with a cartwheel. She then flipped into the air again with a flip. Landing back on her feet she stretched her arms out to either side. "Ta-da!"

"Marvelous." Seth clapped in awe of her skills. "You're no joke, Evie."

"Thanks." She ran back to him, very quickly at that and stopped in front of him. Evelyn gestured to her arms and the rest of her body. She even lifted up hair strands on either side of her head, "My entire body is…glowing?"

"Pretty sure, there's not a word for shining both light and darkness." Seth quipped.

"But why am I feeling…better?" Evelyn asked slowly. "It's been so long since I've felt so…free."

"That's your light and darkness spreading to every inch of your body." Seth explained. "They're free right now and running through your body right now, and working together to harmonize with one another."

"Still feels weird, how it suddenly happened like this." She spun around and left the energies continuing to run through her.

"That's because you weren't trying or even thinking of doing it. Sometimes when you're face with a problem, all you have to do to solve it, is not to try to solve it." Seth stated.

"So that's why you asked about my parents." She deduced. "You were trying to take my mind off my training."

"And it worked." Seth said. "But I'm sorry I walked into some unwanted territories."

"It's okay. It's helped a lot." She assured him. "But what else am I going to do now?"

"While I don't think you want to, you're gonna need to learn how to use your powers to defend yourself somehow." The mutant told her and he saw her flinching in fear. "Nothing too extreme like what you did back at the precinct, but you need some small ones to help you outta of a jam."

"Like what?" she asked.

"Remember when you send out black shadowy tendril-like things out before? Plus, those sharp-as-hell bright light arrows?" Evelyn nodded; the memory of her powers' manifestation not able to escape her mind anytime soon. "Well, I was thinking that you can now use them without being in fear."

"How?" Evelyn asked.

Seth looked behind him and saw a large and tall tree rooted into the ground. "_Should work._" He thought.

"**_Depends how strong her powers are now._**" Venom quickly added with his own thoughts.

He mentally agreed while pointing a finger at the tree. "See that tree? I want you to strike it with a light blast."

"How do I do that?" she asked again, her confusion aimed at the large tree with the thick bark.

"Think only of the light in your body." He started. "Breathe." She followed the mutant's instructions and breathed, her eyes closing shut as she continued to hear the words he spoke. "Feel the air…Feel the wind touching your arm." He watched as she raised her right hand and a light emitted in the palm of her hand, its brilliance slowly increasing as more of her focus was being diverted to it. "Feel the light…Feel the darkness…Feel them…your elements touching every single vein in your body. The darkness and the light…Feel them both."

The middle of her right palm was slowly being mixed with a darkening shadowy energy. It's onyx embrace enveloping the brilliant light before entering a whirlpooling twirl. The two energies mixing with one another in a beautiful twirl of colors. "Feel their power… Your nerves increasing and affected by the two powers. Light shining them with a sharpness like an arrow…" Evelyn envisioned an arrow travelling through the air. "Darkness with strength unlike anything you've ever seen before." She could imagine the darkness spiraling around the arrow, in her mind it was giving it more strength. "Do you see it?"

"See what?" She asked confusedly while concentrating her powers.

"The attack that you're seeing in your mind. You see it, don't you?" she nodded with a smile. "Then it's within your reach, Evie." For his own sake, he stepped back a few feet. "Now…take it!"

Her eyes snapped open and she flexed her outstretched hand. The moment she did, a blast of light and darkness shot out like a bullet. It caused a blast to blow her back and fall on the ground. Seth and Evelyn watched with wide eyes as the fired energies changed form while being firing through the air.

The light had somehow changed its form from an orb into…an arrow. An arrow of pure white light shooting through the air. The onyx black darkness followed and spiraled around the light arrow. Its dark embrace spiraling around both ends of the arrow before wrapping around the shaft.

It's trip through the air was short lived.

_PIERCE_

Their individual pairs of eyes widened to new limits at the sight of the arrow of light and darkness piercing through the thick trunk of the tall tree. But what surprised them even more were the cracks that quickly followed the arrow's penetration, cracking the dense bark along the middle of it.

_PIERCE_

The sound of a second piercing of a tree made the two turn to each other before looking behind the firstly-penetrated tree. They saw another hole in the large tree behind the tree that Evelyn shot through first.

Seth looked at Evelyn and said. "Damn! That's some shot, Evie."

"Thank you!" she exclaimed with a wide smile and put her hands over her mouth and began jumping up and down frantically. "I can't believe I did that! Wow!" Evelyn looked at him again. "Did you know I could do that? That I could fire off those…arrows?" she stopped jumping and placed her hands on her knees while bending down and panting heavily from exhaust.

He shrugged, "After what I saw that little outburst at the precinct before, I kinda figured that your power is somewhat based on the arrow weapon. But I think I can come with an assessment now."

"What kind?" she asked while panting again, her body losing its glow of light and darkness.

"When your entire body is circulating the light and darkness, you can release both elements simultaneously. Even from one body part." He noticed her panting and saw exhaust coming over her. "But looks like, just as when your elements are spread throughout your body or contained in two body parts, you still get exhausted from using your powers too much."

"**_Maybe it's because the shapes of her powers?_**" Venom suggested.

Seth perked up his head up and looked the holes through the two trees. He recalled various telepaths and telekinetics and other elementals who generate their powers and shape and form them. "_Forming energy and giving them a shape does take a lot._"

"**_Not just that. She takes a long time in doing so._**" Venom further added. "**_If she were to use that too many times against an enemy, then she'd be an open target._**"

"_Only for emergencies then._" Seth agreed with his partner and looked at her again. He saw her panting and breathing. "Evelyn." She managed to look at him. "You can't use your powers like this again, unless it's emergencies. Your powers take too much toll on you and it's gonna leave you defenseless in a fight. You can't risk that."

"But what do I do in…_pant_… a fight then?" Evelyn asked through short gaps. "You said…I had to fight…to protect myself."

"I know I said that, honey." he spoke softly. "But it would be too much of a risk to take. It's not worth your life. I'll find another way for you to use your powers safely in a fight. I promise."

Evelyn smiled happily and walked over to him. "I trust you." she hugged him warmly in an embrace. "Thanks… Seth."

"…You're welcome, sweetheart." He told her after a short pause. Seth half-expected her to call him…that word again. The same word she called him before. Parts of him wanted to hear that word again, but he didn't understand why. Only his daughter was calling him that, and he misses her beyond any measures.

Unwrapping his arms from her, he patted her back comfortingly. "Go and rest by the hill."

"Sure. Thanks. You're gonna train Jesse now?" Evelyn asked.

"Yeah, I am." Seth told her and watched her walking back to the hilltop to join the others. He saw from the lower ground, that Jesse giving a wide-eyed expression that was aimed at him. She then began walking down the hillside and made her way to him.

He chuckled when seeing her gulping and nervously walking to him. "You okay there, Jesse?"

"I'm fine." Jesse said with what looked like an adamant expression on her face. But the mutant recognized it as a lie. Something was bothering her again.

Before, Seth wouldn't have paid any mind to it but this time, he's gonna have to. If he's gonna be successful in protecting them.

"You sure about that, Jesse? You look like something is weighing on your head." He told her.

"I said I'm fine." She stated defiantly and kept her walls up. "You said, I need training, right? Then let's go."

"Okay." Seth conceded, he knew that her distrust of him was not one of his priorities now. Her safety was. The elemental took a fighting stance.

Jesse saw his action and worriedly asked. "Shouldn't I be using a weapon or something?" Seth raised an eyebrow at her question. "I'm not like Ruby or Evelyn, I don't have powers. Wouldn't a weapon be a better choice for me then?"

Seth didn't answer her right away. But instead he bent down on the ground and picked up a large tree branch. He threw it to her. Jesse caught it and held it at one end with both hands. "You want me to use this?" she wanted clarity.

"I want you to _try_ and use it." Seth corrected her.

Jesse didn't know why he spoke that way and swung it for him. She expected him to dodge it. But instead she got the unexpected and watched him grab the incoming branch with one hand. His fingers tightened their hold on the wooden tree limb and then a freezing wave of ice came over the tree branch.

The native girl gasped and backed away. She watched as the ice wave continued to freeze the tree branch. Seth held it one hand and waved it in Jesse's face and told her. "That's why you don't use a weapon against the metahumans under Zoom's rule. Metahumans have the advantage of being a lot more than just a powered being, they're weapons. And with just a single touch, they can take out any weapon you have." He threw the branch on the ground. "A weapon that can easily take care of anything in your hands. that's why it's better for you to train your entire body, and turn it into a weapon."

"Black Siren can blast it with a single cry. Reverb can shoot a blast of whatever the hell comes out of his hands. Sand Demon can let physical attacks go through his body. Sharkbait and the other metahuman that can grow, they wouldn't feel anything from such a little twig. Deathstorm can burn it to ashes in seconds. And-"

"Killer Frost can freeze it to pieces. Yeah, I got that." Jesse continued for him with a gruff tone. "You know, that wouldn't have happened if you actually took the shot back then."

"What's that's supposed to mean?" He suspiciously asked.

"Seth, you had multiple chances to actually stop and kill Killer Frost." Jesse started. "But you didn't. Instead, you act like you care about her, flirt with her and leave her so she's ready for the next day's killing. You act like you actually care about her, and let her go _after_ making out with her. Despite the very fact that she's a criminal and have killed dozens of people, innocent people." she told him.

"Jesse!" he snapped at her, Jesse's eyes widening to new limits from pure shock. "I have my reasons for not hurting Killer Frost, for not killing her. And those reasons…they're my own. Not yours. So don't test me. And for the record… I'm not going to hurt her any time soon. So drop it."

"Fine." Jesse dropped the matter. The defiant and determination he was using to sharpen his words with, was enough for her to realize that no matter what she did, she wouldn't get an explanation. Unless it was of his own volition. "Wanna get to training then?"

Seth nodded, "Let's go then." He took a fighting stance again and then reeled his hand back. He was about to thrust it forward, intending to deliver a blow to the native girl.

"**_Seth._**"

But the mutant stopped at his partner's single-word statement. His hand lowering to his side again and he looked around in worry. Jesse looked confused and watched as he looked in search. Iris and Barry walked down the hill with Evelyn to join the two. The detective took out her gun while Ruby walked over to them. "_We're not alone, are we?_"

"**_No. We're not._**" Venom growled his response.

"Seth, what's wrong?" Iris asked the mutant while slowly raising her firearm.

"We're not alone." He informed the detective with his head turned to the side to face her. "Stay there." She and her husband nodded. The HYDRA assassin smirked and clenched her fists. "Ruby." Ruby looked at him. "Don't do anything. Stay with them and make sure that you don't do anything stupid."

"Me or them?" Despite saying "them" she had a finger pointing at Jesse, who gasped in shock.

"All of you." he clarified before walking ahead and calling out. "You mind showing yourself?! Gonna make for a pretty strange conversation if we can't at least look at each other!"

"Think you're right."

Barry widened his eyes in shock at the voice that called out. "Oh God, it's her."

Seth heard his voice and asked. "What's wrong, Barry? You know who it is?"

"Yeah, I do. And she's a bit… blinding." Barry vaguely answered.

"Not much of an answer, Barry." Seth said and looked forward again. This time, he had to cross his arms over his chest and turned them into adamantium. "Argh!" but that didn't prevent him from screaming as a pair of white light blasts pushed him off the ground. Using his partner's help, he landed on his feet and looked at his forearms. Burned areas on his arms clearly visible.

"What the hell?" he asked himself.

"Zoom said you'd be troublesome." They all looked back forward and saw the person who spoke. A woman in black and white clothes revealed herself. A long black trenchcoat on her body. The shoulders and down to the back of her arms and hands are patted with white. In the middle of her waist, attached to her belt is a silver metallic piece. Her white heeled boots touching the ground with step she took when walking to them. Black and white gloves shining with bright light coming out of her palms.

Her eyes shielded behind the large black glass on her visor-like mask. And her jet-black hair flowing down her back and shining with sunlight hitting it through the gaps between the leaves above their heads. She raised her palms at them, looking to prepare another fire off another blast. "Thought a little sneak attack might be the best strategy."

"Guess you were wrong." Seth said and walked forward.

"Guess so." she said.

"Oh my God, that's Dr. Light." Barry gasped in shock.

"Dr. Light?" Seth asked. "That's a new one." The mutant stated before turning to the woman in black and white. "Dr. Light, huh? So what's your deal? Zoom sent you after me like the others that have tried, and just like them, you'll fail."

"We'll see about that, handsome." She said in confident. "But I was only to take you back to Zoom. Not kill you."

"Thanks?" he said unsurely, he let his partner envelope his arms. Pairing his hands with black claws and white veins, he growled. "But how about a little dance, first? Ladies first."

"What a gentleman." She joked and lashed her hands out, firing off another pair of light blasts. Seth lashed out and an arm, shooting out tendrils and wrapped them around a tree before pulling on them. He yanked himself out of the way and dodged the blasts.

The natives and Ruby got out of the way as well. Seth's legs and feet enveloped with symbiotic mass before he attached to the surface of a tree. Growling his readiness, the symbiote expanded over his form and enlarged to the form of Venom. His red eyes pointing at the metahuman criminal and his white skull extension spread over his face. The bone-like spirals of spine pierced into the back of his clawed hands.

"**Good luck trying get us back!**" he roared before leaping from the tree with an arm stretched to the side. Adamantium coming over his claws and swinging them down after her.

Dr. Light saw the attacks coming her way and crossed her arms before firing two blasts of light. Her blasts were timed and pushed the adamantium claws to the sides, effectively changing their trajectory and they hit the ground.

Venom looked up and saw that the female metahuman had appeared before him. She stretched out her right hand again and blasted him away with a light blast in his stomach. Another one came flying and hit under his jaw, its force flipping his boy around on the ground.

He held his jaw and twitched it. "**Those blasts are a bitch.**" White mist spread around his arms and dissipated before revealing ice scythes on his arms. "**Think these will do.**" He charged again. Dr. Light jumped away and dodged the ice blades that swung down for her.

Getting back on her feet again, the metahuman charged light in her hands again. Seeing the light gathering in her palms, Venom tried a different strategy and shot out dozens of tendrils from his body. Their tips enhanced with ice and lightning before shooting after her from various sides.

The metahuman shifted her gaze around and saw them attacking her from different directions. She lashed her hands out to the sides after swinging them and unleashed a blast of light around her. Her circular blast managed to push the tendrils away with a shockwave.

The elemental shielded his eyes with his arms and quickly formed ice shields on his other tendrils to keep the light from touching the others' eyes. Feeling the light dimmer, he lowered his arms and saw that the others are safe and sound. "_Thankfully, they're safe._"

Venom mentally agreed before Seth looked to the front again. He was too slow to move away from the two shining gloved hands that appeared before his face. "It's not the only reason, Zoom asked for me." Dr. Light told her before blasting massive blasts of light in his face. Both host and symbiote screamed in shock of the blinding strike.

"Seth!" Evelyn called out.

"Look out!" Ruby called out as well.

The light that the metahuman unleashed was so strong that it covered the elemental's entire body. Nothing more than a shadowy silhouette least behind within the bright light. The light dissipated and revealed that Seth was back in his human form again and Dr. Light was nowhere to be found.

Iris and Barry got worried and ran down the hill with the three girls. Reaching the mutant's side, they all saw him holding his eyes. The detective looked around in search of the metahuman criminal. When she couldn't find him, she holstered her gun and asked Seth. "Seth, are you okay? What happened?"

He didn't respond and grit his teeth while holding his eyes. Evelyn and Ruby and Jesse got down by his side. "What's wrong?" The HYDRA assassin asked.

"Seth?" Evelyn tried getting his attention with her hand shaking his arm.

The mutant lowered his arm and looked around before stating loudly. "Guys… I can't see. I can't see." He repeated, shock coming over his companions in tidal waves.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

The light that Barry was shining in Seth's eyes did not appear to be doing much for his inspection of the mutant's eyes. The flashlight pen kept shining in his eyes. But no matter how much the CSI scientist kept flashing them in his eyes, neither of his eyeballs appeared to respond to the light with nothing more than rapid and painful blinking through narrowed slits.

Ruby looked between them and asked out loud. "Shouldn't a doctor do this? Your hubby's a CSI, what can he do for it, Iris?" she director her question to the detective.

"It's better he does it than a real doctor." Seth stated while groaning through eye slits. "My identity and biometrics are nothing of this world. The moment I go through those doors they're gonna want to test me and check me through their databases and get bupkis."

"And your body is mutated because of that gene in your body, which is nothing like metahumans." Iris said. "But babe, you think he's getting better?" she asked her husband.

Barry put the flashlight down and informed the mutant. "I think you're suffering from….Solar retin…."

"_Hopefully, their terms are the same as the Earths I've been to._" He hoped to himself before aiding the CSI scientist. "Solar retinopathy."

"Yes that, I think. But we just call it solar eye disease." Barry told him, the mutant looking shocked despite fighting through his eye pain. "Your retinas appear to be severely damaged."

"I can confirm that." Seth joked. "They are damaged."

"Who was that chick before?" Ruby asked the natives. "Another one of Zoom's henchmen?"

Iris then began. "Her name is Doctor Light."

"She was a small-time thief in our city before an exposure to dark matter turned her into a metahuman with the ability to derive power from starlight." Barry informed.

Evelyn joked, "Cool." She spoke with an impressed tone.

Barry frowned, "Yeah, except that stars have a temperature of 5,300-degree kelvin and a blinding luminosity, so wouldn't think it's very cool."

"Actually, it's pretty cool still." Seth countered.

"Yeah, but how long will your eyes be like that?" Jesse asked.

"No idea. Think my partner's healing it now. but it's the first time my eyes been damaged this badly. So no telling what's about to happen." Seth told them.

"So it's a Hail Mary at this point." Ruby stated.

"Yup." Seth nodded.

"For now, Seth," the detective started. "you're gonna need to rest now. Maybe a nap is what you need to gain your eyes back."

Despite knowing differently, he plumbed down on the couch and lied there and said, "You do realize that I'm the doctor and knows that it's gonna take a lot more than that? But honestly, shutting my eyes does sound good."

"Good, we're gonna take a break as well." Iris informed the mutant before walking up the stairs with her husband and Jesse.

Evelyn took a seat in one of the recliners beside the couch. Ruby did the same with the other one. "You think you're gonna get your sight back?" the HYDRA assassin asked.

"I fucking hope so." he shrugged his shoulders. Seth then surprised the girls when he turned his head to them. "If not, you two are gonna have to double down on your training, and be combat ready."

Ruby leaned forward with a surprised look on her face and waved her hand in front of the mutant's face. She expected a response from him with her hand waving in his face. However, not a single came from him. The HYDRA shared a look of confusion with the metahuman girl beside her. "How can you look at us?" Ruby had to ask.

"Can you actually see us right now? I thought you had lost your eyesight?" Evelyn followed up with her question.

"I can't see you, but my partner can see you." Seth rolled up his sleeve and revealed black symbiotic mass enveloped around his arm. It was attached to his body like a second skin. "Venom's controlling me right now while my sight is out of whack."

"More like out of commission." Ruby corrected with a joke.

"You really don't care about what you say, do ya?" Evelyn wondered of the assassin, ironically asking if she had restraint. Ruby gave a manic smile and the metahuman shivered before looking at the mutant again. "He can just take control of you like that?"

"He usually asks for permission or I tell him to do it, but yeah, he can do it. Pretty annoying when he does it all of a sudden." Seth explained. "So Ruby how was it to be trained by Venom himself?"

"Coolest thing I've done since getting to this world." Ruby chortled and the others laughed. "Bit offended that you didn't use your powers. Make it a real fight."

"Did that to prove a point, Rubs." He told her.

"What point is that?" Ruby asked intrigued.

"Without powers, you can still be a formidable weapon. Something both you and I proved in our spar before." Seth began. "But with powers in the mix, you can create a whole new fighting style that's unique to yourself, making yourself into a force of nature that's gonna scare the living hell out of anyone in your way."

"Is that what you do?" The assassin asked, her intrigue increased greatly. "Create a fighting style of your own? A force of nature and all?"

"Yeah I did." He held up his hand and water sipped out of his skin and formed a ring while touching his fingertips. "My Dad and my sister call it elemental combat: A way for me to use all my elements to bring a sharp edge of my sword, which is my fists and claws when I'm Venom. Then again, it was the entire point with me being chosen as the vessel to become Weapon X Hades."

"That's pretty cool." Evelyn told him. "Think we can do the same."

"Yeah, you can." He smiled warmly. "And I'll help you guys. Through it all. But for now," he stretched out his arms and put them behind his head while leaning further back against the couch arm. "let's rest for a while."

"Fine." Ruby got up from her chair. "Could use a break from playing with a tennis ball." She snidely told the mutant with a smile as she walked to the staircase.

"Sleep tight Rubs." He called out with a smile on his face while she walked up the stairs. What he didn't see, was the growing smile on Ruby's face. Seth felt his head turn to the young metahuman still in the room. "What about you Evie? You're not tired or anything?"

"Actually, I am." Evelyn got up. She was about walk away but she stopped and walked over to the elemental again. Her next action surprised both her and him when she leant down to him and hugged him warmly. Seth wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. "Thanks again, Seth." She said with a smiling face before getting up.

Evelyn smiled and walked up the stairs and left the elemental to recover.

"_No body snatching, all right, Venom?_" Seth thought to his partner.

"**_We aren't promising anything._**" Venom cheekily said.

X

**(Zoom's Lair)**

Doctor Light walked into the evil speedster's lair. Scaling the metallic rusty bridge connecting to the entrance of the lair was no easy task. She had to bent down and her hands pushed against her kneecaps. "I hate… _pant_… that bridge." She panted out the words to herself.

The small-time thief didn't like travelling the long way through the Woodlands and all the way to Ascensions Cliffs and up to his lair. She straightened her back again and walked into deeper into the lair again. She had to swallow a gulp when she saw Zoom and his group standing there in wait.

The evil speedster wasn't looking in her direction. Instead his eyes were solely focused on the male prisoner he was still holding. Through the eye slits in his iron mask, the prisoner displayed anger and hopelessness. Captivity was not something he liked and he dreaded being kept in the speedster's clutches.

Dr. Light shivered when feeling a cold shiver run down her spine and she turned around and saw Killer Frost looking at her with interested eyes. "Light. Good of you to join us, finally." She spoke with a mock sincere voice.

Zoom snapped his head to her direction.

_WHOOSH_

He sped in front of her and narrowed his eyes menacingly on her form. Dr. Light felt herself shrink under his frightening gaze. "**Did you end him?**" he asked, his question raising massive question marks over his henchmen's heads. Thinking that the small-time thief with starlight powers could actually take out Venom was a joke to them.

And kind of an insult.

Deathstorm chuckled and pointed at her. "You think she could actually take him out? That's a-"

The fiery metahuman was stopped from saying anymore when the pitch-black speedster pierced his soul with his obsidian-like eyes. "**What you think…is nothing of importance to me.**"

He gulped, "Sorry. Understood."

Killer Frost walked closer to Dr. Light from behind and put her ice-cold hands on her shoulders. She smirked when feeling the metahuman thief shudder at her touch. "So Light," she put a pout on her face and placed her head on the thief's shoulder, causing further shuddering to run through her. "what did you do to little old Venom?"

"Stronger than me, that's for sure." She said. "He was no joke."

"Why would we joke about a guy who's an absolute pain in our asses?" Black Siren sarcastically said with mock offend.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She apologized to the sonic cryer before getting to the matter. "I couldn't do much damage to him but I did do something that could slow him down."

Killer Frost tilted her head, "Now what did you do to him?"

"Blinded him." She revealed to them.

Reverb chuckled. "Forgot you also possess the ability to blind your prey."

"Yeah, well, going up against a demon like that, would take something more than just a few blasts." The thief admitted. "His eyes is gonna be out for a while, if not forever. He's not a speedster, so that's a bonus."

The pitch-black speedster narrowed his eyes. "**What do you mean?**"

She gulped again and explained. "Used the same trick on The Flash a while back. He got his sight back after a few hours. But Venom isn't a speedster, he couldn't heal as fast as him. Chances are he might not have his sight anymore."

_WHOOSH_

Zoom's hand wrapped around her throat before slamming her into the wall with lightning fast speed. He pulled her higher up the wall while tightening his grasp on her throat. Dr. Light put her hands on his arm, trying to force it off but to no avail. His grasp was too strong. "**For your sake, I hope so. If not, then you'll have to prove yourself worthy…**"

He leant closer to her face, through his mask he exhaled heavily in her face. "**… on another Earth. Your fate and life will be nothing and mean nothing while there. And you will not return home until you've proved yourself useful. For now, you're going to find Venom again, and bring him here!**" Dr. Light nodded frantically, fully understanding the speedster's threatening statement.

He released his grip and let the woman fall down to the ground while coughing uncontrollably. Zoom sped away and left his group alone. The small-time thief breathed heavily and looked up at the smirking faces of the male metahuman criminals. The girls looked… more intrigued.

Deathstorm chuckled manically, "This one, bringing him back here? That's a joke."

"Wanna hear a bigger joke?" Reverb smirked smugly and looked at the fiery metahuman. "If Zoom sent _you_ to retrieve Venom and the three girls."

"Beat it, Reverb! Or I'll do it for you." He ignited his hands with flames.

"You're welcome to try." Reverb challenged confidently.

"Boys, fangs down or whatever the hell you have." Black Siren told them sternly, and they seemed to obey. She turned her attention to the small-time thief again. "Now, I guess it's time for you to skedaddle and find our missing demon. For your sake, of course."

"Fine." Getting up on her feet again, the thief rubbed her throat calmly and soothingly. "Guess, I'll get going then." She walked away and made her way to the exit.

Caitlin Snow's doppelganger smiled and shared a look with the sonic cryer. "You know, maybe I should take care of Seth again. He didn't seem to mind it last time."

"Just cause you two had a small and _short_" she quickly added before continuing, "make out session with him, does not mean you have him fall head over heels for you."

Killer Frost flipped her hair and stated, "Who wouldn't?"

"Someone's feeling confident." Black Siren walked closer to her frosty friend. "Wonder if I go to him instead, maybe give him a little goodbye kiss before throwing him in the cell again?"

"You can try," Killer Frost walked away and quickly followed up. "but he's just gonna be bored."

Black Siren's eyes twitched in anger at her tone. She considered blasting her away with a sonic cry and into the rock-solid wall. But it would prove disadvantageous in the long game. Her frosty powers would be needed to take down Venom if he were to show himself in his full might again.

Plus, it wouldn't be a bad thing for her to rub it in her face… when she wraps the elemental mutant around her little finger like a small thread.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"_Think you're doing any better with my eyes, Venom? Think you can heal them?_" he asked of his partner when he felt the symbiotic mass swim over his blinded eyes. His body still laying on the couch with his head pointing upwards at the ceiling.

"**_We don't know. First time, you've been blinded like this._**" Venom told him.

"_Yeah, this universe definitely deserves more credit than I thought._" Seth thought back and his ears perked up at the sound of footsteps entering the living room of the West-Allen house. "_Who is that?_"

"**_Santa Claus._**" Seth snapped up from his seat and heard his partner laughing obnoxiously in his head. "**_Never gets old._**"

"_Yeah, who doesn't like an old man who breaks into your house and gives your children present before running off after eating your milk and cookies through your chimney?_" he sarcastically thought. "_But who is it?_"

"So the useful one is still blind?" he heard her voice joking.

He chuckled himself and knew instantly who it was. "Glad to hear you find it funny Ruby." The mutant felt the couch sink when she took a seat beside him. "What's on your mind, Rubs?"

"You sure you're not a mind-reader too?" Ruby asked.

"Nope, that's my little sis' shtick." He quickly added.

"Would love to meet her." she admitted.

"Trust me, you two would be best friends of all time."

"**_She has something in her hands._**" Venom pointed out to his blind host.

He raised an intrigued eyebrow and asked the HYDRA assassin. "What's in your hands, Ruby?"

Ruby blinked a few times before looking down at the object in her hands. "Guess, having a co-pilot is bound to be useful with those extra senses." She held up the object and told the blind mutant. "It's a hair brush. Been fighting a few knots in my hair for a while now. Wanted to ask Iris for help, Evelyn's resting a bit."

"So General Hale's own little daughter, Ruby Hale, The Would-Be Destroyer of Worlds, can't handle a few hair knots? That's gotta sting." He mocked the assassin in a joking voice. She responded with her elbow hitting his arm. He couldn't help himself from laughing and then held out his hand for her. "Here. I'll take care of it."

"You know how to do this?" she asked while handing him the hair brush. Ruby turned around and her back faced him.

"That I do." Seth ran his palm over her hair and dripped water through it, to soothe it out. He used his other hand and brushed her hair gently with the brush. "My sister and I were alone our whole lives, until she was thirteen at the time. I was fifteen back then. Our dad adopted us back then. Before that, I was kind of like my sister's father and mother. When she needed help with homework, I was there for her. When she wanted extra money, I was there to give it."

He met one of Ruby's knots and used water and the brush to smoothen it out, his action surprising her greatly. "When she had to deal with troublesome hair, I was there to help out too." Seth chuckled as did Ruby. "But what about you? No siblings?"

"Only child." She told him. "And before you ask, no. I never knew my father. Just my mom, and she was a tyrant."

"Nice way to describe your own mother." He pitched in and continued to run the brush over her hair. "But she can't have been all that bad. You two must have had some great moments, right? Just some normal mother daughter bonding, that doesn't involve turning the child into the future leader of HYDRA and a person who can level planets."

Ruby smiled warmly from nostalgia. "We used to have breakfasts together. Just the two of us. Kinda grew outta it with age. Got bored maybe."

"You can never grow outta a family tradition." He countered.

At the mention of family, she remembered back to the times he was plagued with nightmares when he was under Zoom's rule and in his captivity. She focused on the names he called out in his sleep. Turning to him, she locked eyes with him and asked. "Who's Frankie and Caitlin?" Seth stopped brushing. "I remember you calling out their names back in Zoom's lair. Who are they?"

He formed a genuine smile of happiness and explained. "Frankie's my daughter. She's not much older than you and Evelyn actually." He continued to brush her hair, and while doing that he knew that she was wearing a confused expression because of his last words. "She's adopted, btw." Ruby nodded her understanding. "She's a metahuman and she's…amazing. I miss her a lot."

"You'd do anything for her?"

"It's because of her and my friends and family, that I'm even here." He revealed adamant with hints of surprise. "To make sure that they're all safe and sound. And now, they probably think I'm dead now."

"Guess it's good thing, you didn't." Ruby honestly said. "If you hadn't been hurled into this world, things could have turned out much worse. Especially since they don't have a… Flash here."

"They have a Flash here, too?" Seth stated surprised. "Hope he's not a fucker like the one I know."

"He wears a saucer on his head while running in red and blue spandex, so I think he's more of a crazy person than fucker." Ruby smiled. "But what about that other one? Caitlin. Who's she?" she turned to face him again, her intrigue peaking new heights.

The smile on his face widened and he continued, "She's someone very, very important to me. And she-"

"Argh!" he dropped the hairbrush to the ground and had to hold his head with both hands. Ruby turned around and saw him grit his teeth while screaming. Iris and Barry rushed into the room as well while Jesse and Evelyn ran down the stairs.

"Seth, what's wrong?" Ruby asked him.

"What's going on?" Iris asked them out loud, hoping for a response and an answer to the mutant's condition.

"Seth!" Evelyn shot down to his side and grabbed his arms, shaking him in worry.

Ruby mimicked her action and jumped down to the ground on the other side of the mutant and shook him out of concern.

What they didn't know what was Seth was experiencing a new type of pain, but from a familiar source. "_How are we hearing it here?!_"

"**_We don't know!_**" Venom shouted back as they heard that strange high-pitched ringing going through their heads, echoing even on a much higher level than the previous time. Through the pain, the Klyntar was able to see that the others were unaffected by the strange sound. "**_How are they able to not hear anything?!_**"

"_They don't hear it?_" Seth tightened his hands on his head. "_But why and how do we hear it now, and here?! It's too far away from the last place we heard it from!_"

Both of them felt their thoughts unite with a click. "_The police station!/__**The police station!**_"

Using his partner's help, Seth pointed his eyes to the detective who was shocked to see the elemental's unfocused and blind eyes on her form. "Iris, get me to the precinct! Please."

"Why?" Iris asked shocked and confused by his request.

"Because whatever is ringing in my skull right now, happened at the precinct before, and only back then!" he screamed in his answer from the painful ringing that, once again, sounded like a tormenting combination of something infernal from the pits of Hell and something heavenly from the blessed skies of Heaven. "And this thing needs to stop somehow."

"Why is it only affecting you?" Barry asked the mutant.

"I don't know!" he screamed. "But I'm gonna find out, and figure it out." His eyes spoke volumes of determination that was unlike they've seen in this world. Like the eyes of demonic king facing them…and he decreed an order that was to be obeyed.

X

**(CCPD)**

_DING_

With a chime from the elevator, the doors opened up and the detective and Seth walked into the lobby area of the precinct. Once again, the officers in the lobby watched the mutant like a flock of hawks with intents to converge one a single prey.

A prey that is the elemental right now.

In the past, the mutant would have noticed their glares and ignored them a second later. But now, the ringing in his head intensified as though he and the detective were closing in on its point of origin. "It's stronger now." he told Iris through gritted teeth.

"You can hear it?" She asked the elemental who nodded instantly. "Where did you hear it before?"

He couldn't forget it even if he wanted to. The location near its pinpoint is fresh on his mind. "Near the file room. When we went to check on Evelyn's files, remember I stopped suddenly because of something I heard?"

"Yeah I do." She would have nodded, but his vision was still locked away.

"Great. What room is near the file room?" he asked while walking with his partner's help, making sure he stepped to the sides when he was about to walk into someone.

Iris searched through her mind, mentally constructing a map of the entire police department. "The only room near the file room, would be…" her mind clicked with realization. "The evidence room. It's filled with dozens of material, evidence and even weapons. Something in there might be the cause of this."

"I fucking hope so, cause if this ringing is happening because of pieces of debris, then I'll fucking go ballistic." Seth told her before they continued their path. Once setting foot in the corridors, he felt the sound grinding against his ears again, drilling through his skull and fighting its way into his brain.

He had to place his hand on the wall and held his head with one hand and breathed in pain. "_Fucking hell! You doing alright, partner?_"

"**_Been better, to be honest._**" Venom stated his thoughts.

"Seth." the mutant felt his partner direct his head to look up, possibly pointing it at Iris who was opening the door to a room. "This here is the evidence room. Let's go." Seth nodded and rushed after her with Venom's aid. He slammed the door shut. It's been a while since Iris had been here, so she began examining their surroundings.

Shelves stocked with various pieces of important evidence; pieces that were jet to be presented in the court, given their current residence being in bags. The bags holding pieces of shattered remains like asphalt remains from different crime scenes. Judging by their colors and damaged and charcoaled condition, it was clear that they are remains of a vicious and ravaged battlefield. Mostly likely, done by the metahumans in Zoom's group.

Examining the evidence room further, she also noticed dozens of large cases with big and sturdy locks. She remembered that it was because of confiscated weaponry. Upon further visual inspection, she saw that they were military-grade cases for containing dangerous items. Similar cases in a longer form are also found, as well as smaller cases, storing long-range weapons and close-range weapons, respectively.

Some of them were had emblems of an ascending bird and three lines under it, each line bended in the middle with their ends pointing upwards.

"God, I hate these guys." The detective muttered to herself with clenched hands at the sight of the emblem and what symbolizes.

"Something wrong, Iris?" Seth asked again with anger from the growing pain.

"Nothing important now." Iris assured him before looking around. Her eyes widening at the sight of a familiar open crate. She narrowed her eyes on the edges of it, seeing that they had been seared before and now had cooled off. "Why is that open…"

"What's open?" Seth asked in concern while his partner used his body to make their way to the detective's side.

Knowing that his time on this Earth hasn't been long, she explained. "It's a crate with a weapon that was used by a metahuman once. A long time ago. Someone on Zoom's level, or at least that's what they say or think." She clenched her hands at the reminder of what that weapon brought. Her eyes returning to the weapon inside the open crate. The moment they did so, they widened in surprise and shock. "But it's changed now."

"Where is it?" Seth asked, his teeth threatening to break with the amount of pressure he was putting into them.

"Right in front of us, but it's not important right now. We have to figure out what's happening to you." She told him and began looking around.

"**_Seth. You feel it too?_**" Venom asked his partner. Both host and symbiote felt a pulsating sensation emitting in their body, like their heart was beating for price of two. It was a strange sensation, but it also made the pitched sound in his ears more…pleasant.

"_…__Go to it._" Seth told his partner and let the Klyntar walk his body forward with slow steps. Iris was about to stop him out of concern if he were to fall again. But he appeared to be walking steadily and without walking into the other crates.

His body stopped in front of the crate; the sound stronger than ever now from the close proximity. But before it was a mix of a high-pitched infernal sound and a heavenly sound. However, now it was nothing like the former, now it was the latter, a heavenly sound that was soothing now.

"It's this." He reached into the crate and let his partner and his instincts take control of his action. His right hand passing through the threshold of the crate and touching the first thing that he reached.

The flesh on his hand touched it and then… a strange feeling ran over his arm… travelling up his body… nothing short of a bolt of lightning that travelled up his veins… his hand clutched around the object in the crate, but not by choice… the feeling of a lightning bolt travelling up his system reached his head and…his eyes. The feeling of it caused both host and symbiote to freeze as though they were hit by a frost bolt.

"Seth?!" Iris screamed in worry when she saw him just standing there like a statue. She didn't see his eyes being riddled with lightning running their surface. She looked around and considered calling for an ambulance. But it was not wise. "Seth?! Wake up!"

...

…

The elemental didn't do anything for a few moments, merely standing petrified on the ground. Blinking rapidly a few times, he spun around and faced the detective who was wearing a gaped and shocked mouth. Seeing that, he asked. "Iris, what's with the face?"

"You stood there like a frigging statue-" Iris stopped herself as she realized what he just said and what it meant. "Seth, your eyes?! You can see again!"

Seth widened his eyes and held up his left hand in front of his face. They continued to widen when he could actually see again. "I can see again. Fuck yeah!" he exclaimed happily.

"You can see again, it's amazing! But how?" Iris asked, her mouth gaped again when she turned her eyes to his right hand.

"I don't know how, but it happened." Seth said with a happy expression. "And I'm not complaining." "_Thanks for taking care of my body this time, partner._"

"**_You die, we die. We're a package deal. Not like we care about your sorry ass._**" Venom obviously lied with a quip.

"_Yeah, I don't like you either, you stupid wuss._" Seth joked.

"Seth, you're holding the weapon." Iris said with shocked eyes.

Seth gave her a confused look before drifting his eyes down to his hands. He focused them on his right hand…and his eyes widening at the weapon he was holding. Its handle was changing, black cloth remaining strong while it reformed the guard, turning it into a massively open mouth with sharp teeth touching the blade. Colorful light emitted from it after he touched it. But they slowly dimmed down, pouring their shine inward of the blade.

Iris recalled the sword to be a blank and colorless sword the last time she saw it. Its crystal blade was nothing short of empty when it was used before. But now it was no longer any of those. Now every inch of the sword's massive crystal blade was colorized. Yellow as the bright morning sun. Red as blazing flames. Dark blue as the world under the roaring waters. White as holy light. Green as the grass that people walk on. Brown as earth underneath the grassy surface. Black as the starless night. Purple like violets. Pink as the pink sand. Blue like ice taking the form of diamonds.

Seth held up the sword and put it on his other hand. "Didn't realize that I was holding this. Or that I even grabbed hold of it."

"Can't believe it…it changed?" Iris spoke unsurely, not able to come up with a different word to explain her confusion.

"It changed?" Seth stated her own words as his question.

"Yeah, before it didn't look like that. It was just a giant sword with a crystal blade and didn't have a single color on it. It just blank." She explained before looking to the right and took hold of a book. She opened it and flipped through the pages before settling on single page. Flipping it around, she showed the sword in its previous state.

"That's this sword?" he held up the sword in confusion. "I wanna say I don't believe it, but at this point, I really shouldn't be surprised by anything. Even if I saw a flying monkey crash through the window."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Which of your universes has flying monkeys?"

"Neither and both at the same time." Seth answered vaguely. "But we do have Wizard of Oz, so there's that."

"What the hell is Wizard of Oz?" She surprisingly asked.

"I hate this universe." Seth instantly stated after smacking his face.

_KNOCK KNOCK_

_KNOCK KNOCK_

A series of rapid knocking got their attention to shift to the door. Iris opened the door and saw that it was her partner, Floyd Lawton who was there. He was looking frantic and looking at his partner. "Hey, partner, we got bit of a situation here."

"What now?" she asked in worry.

"It's Doctor Light, she's attacking Central City Bank now." Lawton informed them before leaving them alone.

"Of course, she's doing this." Seth rubbed his eyes in annoyance.

"What do you mean?" Iris asked while checking her firearm's ammunition.

"She's gonna want to check for Zoom to see that I'm still blind and then she's gonna try and take me back." Seth craned his neck. "Well, I am looking forward to give her a shock that I'm not blind and I now have a big-ass sword that I can use."

"You're gonna use that? It's evidence for a case." Iris said while the mutant walked over to the window in the back.

"Yeah, and now, I'm gonna use it…" Seth smiled and opened the window. "And cut off that thief's head."

"Wait what?!" she exclaimed.

But her answer went unanswered because the elemental had already jumped out of the open window, like a crazy person, again. she ran a hand through her hair. "Why is the only available hero in Central City a nutjob who looks a something spat outta Hell? And what the hell is the Wizard of Oz?!"

X

**(Central City Bank)**

_SCREAM_

Screams from dozens of innocent civilians echoed in the walls of Central City Bank when they saw the blinding light shooting out of Dr. Light's hands. The blasts of light hit the walls and pillars of the building. The metahuman thief kept firing off blasts, scaring off the civilians away with each fired light blast.

"How this gets his attention." The thief told herself hopefully and then fired off a pair of light blasts at a couch. Combination of both blasts pushed the furniture into a wall. "If not…maybe I should blast a few streets or something."

"**Would not do that.**"

That demonic and vile voice brought a tundra of shivers down the metahuman thief's spine and she turned around. A horrifying demon met her sights. One that slammed his foot down on the ground with a booming step. One that licked the saliva of his teeth with a long swipe of his serpent-like tongue. One whose hand clutched tightly around the massive sword and twirled it around.

"_He has that sword…_" Dr. Light thought to herself in fear and shock. She looked upwards and met his blood-red eyes. "You're not blind anymore…" she trailed off with a fearful gulp.

"**No, we're not. And you…**" Venom reeled his sword back. "**are going to die now.**"

"I'm sorry, but I had to." She pleaded, surprisingly the demon was halted with a tilt of his head and he lowered his sword. "Zoom told me I had to. If not, then he would throw into another universe and leave me there till I've done what I'm supposed to."

"**Another universe?**" Both Seth and Venom said with a shocked tone. "_You don't think she means…_"

"**_Our home._**" Venom finished once he managed to follow his host's thoughts. "**_Zoom has more plans than we thought._**"

"_And Light knows more than we know._" Seth thought with a plan brewing up in his mind. Pointing the sharp end of the blade at her, he told her. "**Come with us peacefully, and we'll protect you from Zoom. We need to know more of his plans.**"

"I don't doubt that you're willing to fight him." the metahuman admitted, her hands raising with her palms shining with light. "I know you won't even ask twice about fighting that man, I really do. But I'm sorry, I have to do this, otherwise I might end up dead."

He could hear her distress, her distraught amplifying with the seconds passing through their tense standoff. "**We can protect you.**" Venom told her and put down his sword.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry. But I have to do this…for my sake." She finished off before firing off a light blast. The elemental demon jumped away and spun in the air. Digging his sword into the ceiling he used it as an anchor before twirling his body into standing on the surface above their heads.

Sensing her reluctance from attacking him, Seth decided to use less than lethal measures. For now, at least. Reeling his other arm back, he thrusted it forward and split it into dozens of tendrils.

Light saw them coming her way from above, and she spun her arms around, charging her light, before slamming them into the ground and unleashed a shockwave of light. Just like back in the Woodlands, the shockwave was able to push the tendrils away and changed their trajectory, forcing them into walls and other surfaces around. Jumping backwards into a backflip, the metahuman thief blasted two light blasts at the mutant again.

"_Time to take this one for a spin._" He thought and tore his sword out of the ceiling and detached from the ceiling. Cloaking his massive form with lightning, he leapt out of the way and avoided the two blasts before shooting forward. Another light blast came his way, but he cut through the blast with his new sword when he neared the metahuman. Raising his blade high up, he brought it down, aiming for her left hand.

But Dr. Light dodged it by diving to the right. While the massive crystal sword didn't touch her hand, it did come into contact with her mask. And the sword forced her visor-like mask off her face. As the sound of the mask clattering on the floor bounced around in the building, Seth took a wide-eyed look at the face revealed. One that he recognized from his past in his new home universe.

He staggered backwards and asked the metahuman for clarity. "**Linda?**" the evil doppelganger of the sports reporter widened her eyes. "**Linda Park?**"

"How do you know my name?" She asked while staggering backwards in fear. Linda bent down and grabbed hold of her mask again and quickly put it on again. Dr. Light shifted her gaze between the demon's face which was still reeling in the confusion and shock, and to the massive sword with the multi-colored crystal blade.

She had seen what that blade can do in the past. The destruction and mayhem, the chaos and havoc, the disaster and the catastrophe, the calamity caused by each cleaving slash of that powerful blade…when it was wielded in _his_ hands. That monster was a horrifying nightmare to witness, much less fight against.

In the hands of the demon before her…she would rather face a whole third nightmare.

"This was a mistake!" she exclaimed in fear and charged light in her hands before slamming them together, unleashing an orb of blinding light that is taking over the entire lobby of the bank. Venom used his tendrils to form ice shields on them and made sure they shielded his own eyes as well as the eyes of the civilians behind.

When it dimmed down again, the demon and the civilians retracted their shields and watched the empty space that was once occupied by the metahuman thief. Venom sneered in anger. "**How come all of them have a Houdini trick?**" both host and symbiote had to ask while he placed the sword on his back, with his tendrils wrapping around it and holding it close like a sheath.

"Excuse me?" the anti-hero looked backwards and saw an elderly man walking closer to him. "Who is this, Houdini, you speak of?"

"… _This universe is so wrong…_"

X

**(Zoom's lair)**

_WHOOSH_

Once again, the pitch-black speedster sped with lapis blue lightning with his hand wrapped around Dr. Light's throat and forced her body against the rocky wall of his lair. "**Explain why you're here, ****_alone_****, and NOT with Venom?!**" he screamed into the thief's face.

The others of his metahuman group walked closer to them. Black Siren and Killer Frost walked closer, both of them feeling smirks widening over their mouths. Deathstorm formed a sadistic smile on his face. Reverb watched beside the fiery metahuman with a stoic expression.

Dr. Light tried to fight her way out of the speedster's grip, but once again she found herself at the mercy of his black claws that were digging against her skin. "I-I-I… tried!" She spoke through the pain. "But h-h-he healed some-how!"

"**That is…NOT an excuse!**" Zoom roared at the thief. "**Why isn't he here?! How did he get away?!**"

"Because you didn't tell me he could use…_that_ sword!" Light screamed her response in anger.

"What do you mean?" Deathstorm asked.

"**What sword?**" Zoom asked with confusion.

"Blackfire's sword!" Dr. Light let out.

The moment she did, Zoom released his grip on the thief and let her fall down on the ground. His black eyes, usually not wearing a single emotion, now holding shock that was soaking over his form. Dr. Light got up on her feet again and she managed to make eye contact with the speedster and the others as well. She saw the shock continuing to fall down on them like raindrops on a stormy day.

It was truly a shocking sight to witness the shock falling over them like that. Zoom and his cold-blooded metahuman henchmen…actually shocked and looking to be on the verge of falling into the pits of fears.

Killer Frost snapped her eyes at the thief before walking forward with slow menacing steps. White mist emitting around her right hand, and with a following cracking sound, created an ice blade in her palm. She put the blade on Linda's throat, slowly applying pressure. "You sure it was his sword?"

"Yeah, it was." Linda nodded. "It was different, but it was definitely his."

"I thought those stupid birds had that sword." Ronnie Raymond stated his confused thoughts.

"So did I." Reverb said.

"And that was their plan." Black Siren said with a chuckle. "They tell the lowest of lowest that they throw that bastard's sword in the deepest pits of the Antarctic ocean, and of course, that's what they are going to believe. And if the higher ups thinks the same too, then it's no wonder all of us fell for it."

"A fake." Killer Frost chortled and released her blade from Linda's throat. "And the blade was different now in Seth's hands. That's gonna be fun."

Reverb walked closer to her, "How did you escape from him?"

"He knew my name." she revealed and their eyes widened. "My real name, he knew it somehow."

"How?" Deathstorm asked.

"**The other Earth.**" Zoom instantly said, garnering his henchmen's attention. "**They have a Flash there. They have doppelgangers of us on that Earth as well.**" He turned his face to face Deathstorm, Reverb and Killer Frost. "**That's why he looked at you two before.**"

Caitlin Snow's doppelganger narrowed her eyes with interest while thinking. "_Must have something to do with Seth liking me. Another version of me, wonder what she was like?_" she couldn't help but wonder if there was some sort of a connection between her doppelganger and the elemental mutant. It would explain a lot if that were to be the case, explain his behavior and his familiarity that he was showing her when they first met.

Or rather when they first kissed. A kiss that she does not regret, nor does she have any intent to forget it.

_WHOOSH_

The speedster crackled with blue lightning again before appearing in front of Linda again. "**Bring me Shay Lamden. It's time for him to prove his usefulness.**" And with a slow and menacing motion of his body leaning down to look in her eyes, he continued. "**And then it's your turn, Light.**"

Linda knew she had no choice in the matter, her fate was under lock and key. And the one holding the key, her only hope of ever escaping Zoom's clutches…

… was Zoom himself.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"You got your sight back?!" Evelyn exclaimed her pure shock when seeing the mutant and detective walking through the front door. Her happiness broke through new limits the moment Seth turned his eyes to her again.

"I did, Evie. Somehow, I did, yeah." Seth explained and was surprised to see her rush over to him and hug him with his arms around his waist. He smiled warmly while wrapping his left arm around her. "I'm okay, sweetie, I promise."

"Good." Ruby got his attention. "Because it would really suck if we actually lost the one and only hero that's useful and available."

"Missed you too, Ruby." Seth chuckled. Ruby smiled as well, and then surprised both Evelyn and the elemental when she walked to him and hugged him as well, joining the metahuman in the hug. He smiled. "Glad to see you're both okay." He glanced at Jesse. "You too, Jesse."

She nodded her agreement before pointing at his right hand, "Nice sword you have there."

Seth held up the blade. "Yeah, for some reason, this blade was able heal my eyesight when I grabbed hold of it."

"And you don't feel pain anymore?" Barry gestured to the mutant's ears. "No high-pitched sound ringing in your noggin now?"

"No more ringing, all good now." Seth revealed to them before taking a seat on the couch. He watched Barry and Iris embrace each other in a warming hug. They shared a kiss a moment later. The mutant smiled and quipped. "Get a room, you two. There are children in the house."

Barry dislodged his lips from his wife, and shot the elemental a glare. "You live in our house, mister. And don't you think it's time for our elemental friend to pay rent, dear wife?" he asked his wife.

"I suppose you're right, dear husband." Iris answered with the same joking tone he used. The detective turned her eyes to Seth. "When can we expect first payment? Do you pay in cash or credit? Or do your money even work on this Earth?"

"I was hoping that the entire "being the local anti-hero" was enough for me stay here?" He sarcastically said. Seth saw them smiling and he looked Ruby while the married couple walked up to their bedroom. "You asked about Caitlin, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. Before we were interrupted by you screaming your head off like a banshee." Ruby stated with a quip.

"Caitlin's… the mother of my child, Frankie." He started, the three girls giving him their full attention. "She's the woman I love. When I came to that new universe, I was only on a single mission to find my baby sister who was possibly in the clutches of the same murderous and bloodthirsty psychopath that…killed my fiancée and my son."

"Wait, you lost your son and your fiancée?" Jesse asked in shock, trying to get confirmation of what she just heard from him.

"Yeah because of a monster that is unlike anything I faced before." He continued before glancing at Ruby. "Carnage."

Ruby widened her eyes with shock. "He's real?! I thought he was some nightmare-like story to scare kids or something like that."

"No, he was real." He had to admit.

"**_Are you sure you want tell them this, Seth? it's quite disheartening to hear for them, they're still young._**"

"_They've seen a lot already, Venom. I don't like to tell them all of this myself, I really don't, but it's gonna be the best thing for them. Learn of the worst, then be ready to expect the worst out there in the world._" He really didn't like to dump this massive pool of information from his past down in their laps. He hated himself for doing this. But this would also serve as a way to ready them, and he would gain their trust again.

Seth turned back to the HYDRA assassin. "But yeah, he was. My sister, my best friend and I were sent to intercept him when he attacked one of SHIELD's bases back in my home universe. A fight started between me and Carnage, it got out of hand, and a machine started out. It opened up a portal that sucked me, my sister and Carnage to that other world, one with a Flash of its own."

"Who's Carnage?" Jesse asked.

"A serial killer who was ten times worse than Zoom." Ruby stated, her words making the natives' mouths gape with shock. "He was a serial killer who was serving several life sentences from killing thousands of innocents. Heard he happily bragged about killing more of them without a care of them like their lives were a joke. I think there was something else about him, something that only his father knew."

"He was a mutant as well." Seth helped her and she widened her eyes with further shock. "One that was able to generate a poison. The poison was like a living parasite, incredibly strong and potent, it was strong enough to overcome most if not all medicines made by humans. It left red veins that eat the flesh like magma, melting through their bodies. That's how…he killed my 3-year-old son and my fiancée, his mother."

"I…." Just as quickly she found it, Ruby even quicker lost the will to speak. She had heard about the psychopathic murderer's attack on a house from her mother in the past, her past. Her mother and herself thought the house seemingly and randomly targeted. But she had seen the chaos left behind by the killer, and she was surprised that monster was left alive for so long.

Evelyn placed her hands over her mouth with shock and fear increasing her distress. She grew worried for the mutant now, hearing that this monster had taken out the most important people of his life…just like Zoom had done to her. "Seth, I'm sorry…"

"We didn't know that had happened to you." Jesse said, a tear opened up in the bottom of her stomach. She regretted saying that she didn't trust the elemental now and she hated herself for it. The pain of losing someone so dear to one by the hands of a nemesis was something that she wouldn't even dare to think about.

Fighting through the painful sensations following the horrific memories, he smiled at the three girls warmly and told them assuringly. "Thanks for it girls, and don't worry. I got my revenge and killed him."

"You did?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah." The smile on his face widened with genuine love as he continued. "And, though I was in a foreign world with people I've never met before, honestly it … was the best thing that happened to me."

"Why?" Jesse asked.

"Because I met the young girl that would be my daughter…and I met the woman that I love." Seth answered.

"Caitlin, right?" Evelyn asked.

He nodded before continuing. "Caitlin gave the will to fight again. She gave a reason to fight again, to come home again. When I came to that universe, I was heartbroken and lifeless, still dealing with the losses of my son and my fiancée. I just thought, once I had found my sister and killed Carnage, I would find a way back home. But instead… I found so much more. I found a woman who caused me to lose any and all words forming in my mouth. I thought I would never be able to tear my eyes away from her when I would see her, even if it wasn't the first time, I couldn't stop myself from just looking at her. My heart would beat like a stampeding rhino in my chest. And I thought it was uncontrollable before, but it was nothing compared to the moment I spoke to her and told her that I love her."

"Sounds like an awesome girl." Ruby admitted. "But who is she?"

"Well, you met her doppelganger." Seth glanced at Jesse who curiously tilted her head. "Killer Frost."

"Wait, what?!" Jesse shot up from her seat. "Killer Frost's the doppelganger of your girlfriend?!"

"Yeah." Seth nodded. "I didn't kill her because she looks exactly like my girlfriend, without the powers and the white hair and everything of course. But yeah, she's my girlfriend's doppelganger. Which is why I didn't take a shot at the times I did. It would feel wrong for me to kill her, when she looks like the one that I love."

"Wait," Evelyn got his attention while forming a cheeky smile. "it didn't feel weird when you made out with your girlfriend's doppelganger, but it would have felt wrong if you had killed her?"

Seth blushed with embarrassment splashed over his face. "That's not what…" he trailed off as all three girls smirked knowingly at him. "_SHIT!_"

"**_This got embarrassing, real quick._**" Venom teased.

X

_SLASH_

The audible sound of a blade cutting through a light blast echoed in the room as the video footage from Central City Bank was being played one of the three computer screens in front of Tony Woodward's chief. She paused the video and zoomed in on the displayed elemental's right hand, she shifted the focus along the massive weapon.

"How can he use that weapon…" she asked with shock on her face while she ran a finger along the surface of her bottom lip. Rubbing her eyes, she said to herself. "Gotta get a drink." She turned around and faced her wall. Placing her hand on the wall, a faint red light shone underneath her hand with an almost inaudible whirring sound following.

Like nanites over the surface of it, the wall opened up and revealed shelves with dozens of bottles of alcohol. A platform under the shelves was holding various types of glasses, ranging from champagne glasses to tumbler glasses. Most would think that the wall was that of a high-class, highly advanced and high-tech bar. And that bar was belonging to the woman in front of it.

She reached for the bottle in front of her and took hold of a bottle of tequila. Placing a tumbler on the platform, she let the alcohol pour into it. Once it sufficient enough, she held it up to her mouth and sipped on it lightly, letting the alcohol touch the tip of her tongue before swirling her tongue around in her mouth. "Good."

"Hope you're sharing, Boss."

The woman turned around and saw a man stepping into the room. It was dark-skinned man with black hair and goatee who walked, wearing black tactical suit gear on his body. Most of it looked to have been damaged, torn pieces of the suit around. He walked closer to her, walking around the table and leaned against the wall.

The woman chuckled, "Marcus, I thought you were still on a recon mission? When did you get back?"

"Just now, Boss." Marcus Bishop answered. "Had a run in with a couple of thugs who bragged about working for one of that creep's men. I confronted them, and found out they're nothing but hot air spewing shit and only shit. But they were no joke." He gestured to his damaged suit.

"Random people like them, willing to brag about that monster's work like it was normal? What's wrong with our world." She asked herself sadly while pouring a glass of tequila for her worker. With a push of her fingers, she slid the glass to him. "Here."

"Thanks." He accepted the glass and watched as his boss walked back to her computers. "That the guy you and Tony be talking about?" he watched her start her second screen, a video of Venom fighting against Lamden displaying.

"Yeah, it's him." she nodded. "He fought against Shay Lamden before and won. Well, would have won, anyway, if he hadn't been using innocents as a shield. And that's not all." She pressed a key on her board and resumed the middle screen's display. "He's able to use Blackfire's sword too."

Marcus' eyes soaked with darkness of hate at the mention of that name again. "How? I thought the birds had it thrown in the middle of The China Sea? Or didn't they have the Atlanteans take care of it?" he vibrated with anger, shaking the room lightly.

"Calm down." She told her soothingly with her hand placing on top of his. "It's not worth you losing control again, Shakedown."

The room stopped shaking as Shakedown took a few deep breaths. Inhaling and exhaling a last time, he looked at her with a smile. "Thanks, Boss. Means a lot." Marcus nodded to her screens again. "But what about that guy? Think he's on our side or another one like Blackfire?"

"He's not like Blackfire, I'm sure of that." She told him. "You know Blackfire and what he's like. And we both know…" pressing a button, she showed the sight of Venom speaking with Dr. Light. "…he would never speak with someone who's supposed to be his enemy."

Marcus nodded in agreement. He would never do that to anyone, innocent or otherwise. "Yeah, you're right about that. So, we about to make contact with the guy or you wanna wait a while?"

"We wait, for now." She quickly added. "With him no using that sword, more questions have only just appeared now, especially with how the sword have changed to so much in his hands. We have to answer them first before reaching the conclusion, which is the meeting with the Demon King."

"Demon King? Right, that's his name now." Shakedown chuckled. "But what's his real name?"

"Venom." she instantly stated the demon's name, shock coming over the metahuman's form at the mention of his name. That name would be used and would mean that people on the wrong side of criminality will be petrified.

Such was the demonic king's name.

**To be continued….**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**Our favorite elemental have now taken up a sword that seems have called out to him like a calling. The Demon King have taken up arms now. Pretty cool, especially since it also got his sight back. **

**Now for any visual help, I got the idea for Venom to use a sword is from a video I saw on Youtube. A Youtube video done by Shin Art, an amazing artist. The video's name is: "All Eeveelution Fusion as One Legendary Sword – Pokemon as Weapons Request #35." **

**All credits goes to this amazing artist.**

**And now like the others of Zoom's rule, Dr. Light's fate is marked by the demon and now put in the hands of another Earth. Wonder how that's gonna go for her. **

**But like her, the metahumans under Zoom's rule are shocked and frightened by the knowledge that the sword belonging to Blackfire has somehow been found in the hands of Venom now. **

**Now the three girls under Venom's protection knows more of the elemental's past, knowing of Carnage and the loss of his 3-year-old son and his fiancée. Perhaps leading them to more trusting relationships in the near future. And both Evelyn and Ruby have slowly grown accustomed to their powers, full control of them is in the near future and within their grasp.**

**Killer Frost and Black Siren have both set their sights on the mutant who have peaked their interest.**

**Though, it does appear that Venom have been put on the radar of another group, one lead by a woman and her right hands of men being Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop. Things are going to be interesting in the future.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	10. Chapter 10: The Fury of Firestorm

A**nd another bedtime story for you wonderful guys out there.**

**It's come to my attention that some think that "Blackfire" in the story is thought to be Starfire's villainous sister…. Sorry, that woman is not in the story.**

**The Blackfire that I have used in this story is a character of my design. More about him will be revealed in the coming chapters, besides who wants to hear about him right now and spoil all the fun? ;)**

**This one's a bit more… Marvel-inspired, is all you guys are gonna get.**

**Once again, I realise that I have taken too long to update the story, something I am deeply apologize for.**

**But hopefully the new cover image is enough for me to earn your forgiveness.**

**But enough of that now!**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**P.S. Brought back an old friend as an apology.**

**Chapter 10: The Fury of Firestorm**

**(Earth-616)**

The fireplace in living room was blazing brightly in dancing colors of redness while the red and black suited man hummed happily in his seat in his recliner. He leaned forward and used the fire poker in his hand to move around the burning wood pieces in the blaze.

Muzzling sounds came from the other recliner that was placed adjacent to his seat. The person sitting inside it was struggling, twisting and turning for some reason.

The suited man let out an exaggerated sigh and reached for the remote on the table on his left side. Pointing it upwards at the lamps on the ceiling. Pressing a button on it, the lights turned on and the light fell over the two men.

Light shined over his skin-tight red suit with black stripes over his body. Leaning against the recliner's side arm were a pair of long swords in their sheaths. In the suited man's lap laid a pair of grenades and a revolver. On the other side of the recliner, a shotgun was leaning against the chair.

The masked man turned his white masked eyes to his companion in the adjacent chair. "My muted friend, could you for the love of DC Comics just try being mute?!" He screamed his words to the man, who kept struggling in his massive and colored chains.

Letting out another sigh… Wade Wilson turned his head to the other side, facing seemingly at nothing. "Why hallo to you guys, too, you story loving dwarfs. It's me again, you know, the guy in red suit who can actually pull it off, no offense to Barry Allen, but my tight ass is better in red. But just to confuse you guys further, I'm Deadpool. The author thought it would be cool for me to appear again. I'm like Ryan Reynolds, always there to surprise you, your kids, your wife, your grandma, your herpes, your rabbit with a pair of balls." He held up the grenades and shook them. "Well, my balls have more firepower. And yeah, I'm talking about my actual balls. The author happened to drop these on me."

More muffles came from the chained man. Wade pointed at the man. "Oh yeah, I bet you're wondering who this guy is, right? Hint, he's not Dwayne Johnson. The author tried to get him onboard, but that's because the guy is high as a kite flying sky high before taking a crash course in skydiving. But how about I let the writer come with a strange description on this tall glass of acid-like water that's looks ready to be used to bleach an old man's asshole."

The man in the chair was a man that appeared to have the same exact physique as Wade Wilson. While chained to the chair, his cloth-less body was exposed with black lines on his pale-white skin. Strangely enough, his mouth appeared to be nowhere on his face, seemingly sewed completely shut through the skills of a surgeon. Like the rest of his body, his head was devoid of any and all hair. His eyes looking crazed and hallow while twitching his head like a nutjob from Arkham Asylum.

"Hahaha!" Deadpool laughed while holding a giant stack of paper in his hands. He covered his laughing mouth with both hands. "Well he does look like a serious nutjob! And yeah, Arkham didn't want him." he pretended to wipe away a tear for fun and pointed a finger at the man again. "And for those of you, who are confused, this rip-off is, wait for it…." he made drumming motions with his fingers. "Deadpool."

"Deadpool" twirled his head around and faced the same direction as the other Deadpool.

"Well, he's the old one, actually." Wade Wilson quickly added for his explanation, clarifying for all the readers. "You all know the story, right? He's the one who fought against Wolverine back in the days. And yes, I am talking about Bambi's sexy, sexy, caveman stepbrother. But I gotta ask what the heck is with the lines that looks nothing like stitches."

The Merc With A Mouth poked the other Deadpool with his fire poker. When the old Deadpool did not respond with anything, Wade poked his cheek with the poker. "And your mouth looks like Mama June after a hot yoga session with her elderly therapist, which is so not worth describing to the readers, unless you want to give them daymares and nightmares, and sexmares."

He looked back upwards. "That reminds me of something, writer." Deadpool held up the stack of papers. "I have one side note about the story: Not enough nudity! Like there's nothing at all." His masked eyes widened with realization and he looked at his original counterpart. "He doesn't count!"

Deadpool used his right hand and took out his sword, drawing it out of the sheath. Slipping it through a small gap between the chains, he revealed a small spot… near his groin. "Besides, the scientists left him a nice landing strip."

Removing his sword from the counterpart's binds, he tapped it against the side of his head. "Glad to see that young Sethy and Olivia has found each other again. They are the Fury Twins after all. All the fun chaos in tight black clothes. I love those children so much…but what can you expect, I taught them everything they know about butchering a unicorn and grilling it over a piss-stained frying pan."

"But now, I'm confused with something. I feel like there's no oil in my brains now, cause I can't remember something, like something important." He let out an annoyed sigh with a dramatic twist of him lashing his arms out in the air. "And for the love of Kevin Feige, I can't figure out what!"

He looked with a surprised look. "Here's an idea that we know from Dora The Little Explorer, we'll ask our friends. Or whatever the hell my much naked and much less handsome lookalike thinks." Deadpool looked in that direction and widened his eyes at his thoughts.

"Or lack thereof." Deadpool creepily finished off the author's thoughts. "Did the guy just describe me as creepily? While I was lubing myself with shock from seeing my lookalike gone from his restraints." Well… he was right. The counterpart version of him was gone and the chains were just lying on the seat of the chair.

"Of course, I'm right, author. What, did you think this red suit was just for looks?" the author remained silence and let the mutant mercenary question drift around in the air. "Okay, I think it's time for me to find my double and let you DC-loving weirdos continue with the story. Once again, it's Wade Wilson here, approving the story. Now…" he got up from his chair and stretched his body, his balls falling down on the wooden floor.

A normal and _sane_ person would be worried, but that category did not hold a spot with Wade Wilson's name on it.

"What's fun about being sane and normal?" He asked out loud. "But it's time to find him again, because I have a meeting with Benedict Cumberbatch. I am going to bargain with him." Deadpool joked-

_CRASH_

_SCREAM_

Deadpool had to unleash an overly dramatic and shockingly girlish scream when he felt a pair of red lasers blast through the wall and pushing the wall into his back and off the ground.

_CRASH_

With another crash, he was slammed into the ground with wooden wall breaking into pieces on top of him. Deadpool coughed a bit before looking backwards and saw his counterpart walking through the hole he just made.

The stranger and much unwelcomed Deadpool's eyes were glowing redness, brimming with laser energy. His hands clenched and long ninjatō adamantium blades slowly shot out. Almost reaching the ground actually.

The suited Deadpool slapped himself in the face, his hand slowly sliding down his face with annoyance and regret before admitting. "Oh yeah. He's Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds' child, with a dash of Cyclops and a teaspoon of John Fucking Wraith." He got up on his feet and grabbed his swords again. Twirling them around in his hands he said excitedly.

"This shit's gonna have nuts in it."

The two Deadpools charged for one another, ready to cut each other to pieces… and regenerate. A classic, hack, slash, regenerate, repeat.

A story for another time.

"Merry Christmas!" Deadpool shouted while repeatedly stabbing Deadpool's groin.

X

**(Earth-1, S.T.A.R. Labs, MedBay)**

Things on Earth-1… were not looking so hot, in a matter of speaking.

Matt had to rush through the facility's corridors with the spasming and flaming form of Martin Stein on his shoulder. The others followed behind him quickly.

"Put him on the bed! Gently!" He heard the order coming from the female doctor.

Focusing on the task rather than responding, the nanite mutant reached the gurney and put the blazing professor on the bed. He grunted in pain from the pain he felt his touch sizzle at the skin contact between them. "God that's a bitch!"

"Hold him steady!" Cisco roared at the mutant and the others while holding a device that he placed over the elderly man's chest.

Olivia shot to the other side of the gurney, her hands riddling with psychic energy before slamming down on the professor's form. Along with her husband, the two mutants used their strength to hold him steady.

Frankie got hold of a tablet and gave to Caitlin. "Here Mom."

"Thanks, sweetie." She quickly expressed before looking at the results, her face paling with fear. "He's dropping out."

"That's reassuring." Matt let out.

"Not now, Matt!" Cisco had to say when he felt the gravity of the situation come over them. Barry helped keeping the professor's legs from shooting up and kicking someone. "Come on, come on, come on, come on." The mechanical engineer chanted hopefully when calibrating the device on Martin's chest.

"Cisco, hurry, we're losing him!" Frankie spoke urgently.

"Got it!" Cisco made eye contact with Matt.

Matt nodded. "Jarvis!"

The AI heard his words and after a few whirring sounds emitting from the computers and then the device on Martin's chest emitted a few sounds before shining. The moment its shine lightly brightened up medical bay, the bursting blue flames on the professor's head extinguished and he stopped seizing.

The mutants shared a look before retracting their hands from the man. Cisco put his hands over his face. "Ah, Dios Mio. Thank God." He spoke between two languages.

"He's getting worse." Barry deduced.

Olivia scoffed and gave him a look. "What gave that away? His blue flames or his black eyes, you moron?"

Matt looked over the device and recognized it. "This looks like the thing that you've been working on for a while, isn't it, Cisco?"

"Yeah it is. I asked if you could come and make some parts for it." he answered before explaining. "Look, I did what I could to re-engineer Doctor Wells's original stabilizer to quell the reaction, but I don't know what he used as a power source."

"What about the Time Vault? Nothing there?" Matt asked him.

Cisco shook his head. "Best I could find was the one from his wheelchair." He gestured to the Cortex and the others followed.

"And how long will that last?" Caitlin worriedly asked while she wrapped her hand around her daughter's.

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Matt knew what Cisco was going for. "You guys had used up most of the core's energy trying to dampen the metahuman's powers that Barry so idiotically thought of, that Weather Wizard and company took complete advantage of."

"We all know having bad ideas is the one thing he's good at," Barry looked down at the psychic mutant's words. "but, onto important matters. How long do you think we have before that thing" she pointed at the cane-like device behind Cisco, "runs out on us?"

He shrugged before answering unsurely. "I think we got a few days tops."

"And he's stuck in bed?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, when he wakes up, Matt and I are gonna transfer the stabilizer to this," Cisco was tapping the cane-like device. "give him a power cane, get him moving."

"That's a good idea, Cisco." Frankie frowned before saying. "But we have to figure out a way to save him."

Caitlin rubbed her daughter's shoulders calmly before stating. "I think I might know how to do that." They all looked at her expectantly and watched as she walked over to the main console. "Jarvis, please bring up my latest research files on Firestorm."

"**As you wish, Dr. Snow.**" The AI obliged.

Olivia turned to her husband. "He responds to her commands now?"

"Yeah, put in Caitlin's and Frankie's voice recognition a few days ago, when I started Jarvis back up." he explained.

"And it is a wonder to have his help." Caitlin praised the AI's capabilities before revealing the scans of a person infected by both dark matter and housing the FIRESTORM matrix. "When the Particle Accelerator exploded, the dark matter that collided with Professor Stein fused with the Firestorm Matrix and alerted the normal molecular processes that occurs within his body. Those highly reactive molecules needed something to bond with in order to stabilize." She smiled warmly and cupped her daughter's cheek. "Kinda like the bond between a symbiote and their host. Symbiosis and all." Frankie giggled.

"And that's where Ronnie came in. He was the host in this equation." Matt stated.

"Yes, and now that Ronnie is no longer a part of Professor Stein…" Caitlin trailed off.

"Then the molecules don't have anything to bond to." Frankie continued after her mother's words.

"And the longer he goes without merging, the more unstable he becomes." Caitlin continued.

"That's not good." Barry said with a saddened tone.

"All right, so, what do we do?" Cisco asked while clapping his hands in search and confusion.

"We find another…participant." Caitlin said for the lack of a better word.

"That does sound like the best idea." Olivia agreed and leant up against the console's railing.

Cisco nodded, "Okay, cool, so, how do we do that? Are we just gonna make a Tinder app for potential metahumans?" they all gave him a look.

"Hate to say this," they looked to Matt. "but he's right. Merging with a nagging old man and randomly bursting into flames sounds like the biggest "swipe left" of all the universes."

Barry nodded with a frown, "I mean, even if we could find someone willing, Stein can't just merge with whoever he wants."

"Yeah, they need to be compatible with each other, they have to be able to achieve symbiosis." Frankie said, while inwardly hating herself for agreeing with the speedster.

"No, he can't, but I have done some research," Caitlin began moving to the console again. "and found two potential candidates that might be compatible with him." she brought up two images of two dark-skinned men, not looking much older than them. "They both were affected by the dark matter, and they were both admitted to the hospital showing symptoms of gene rearrangement mutation. And they both share the same blood type as Professor Stein and Ronnie."

They all looked surprised and impressed by her findings and looked at the two images and the names of the men. One looking to be a formally man with the name as, "_Henry Hewitt._" The other one appearing to be the same age or younger with the name, "_Jefferson Jackson._"

"It's impressive, Caity." Olivia praised before curiously asking. "But did Jarvis help you get these files from the hospital? Cause if he had, then he would have alerted Matt or me, per his programming."

Caitlin looked sheepishly and stated just as sheepishly, "He didn't. But Felicia was more than happy to help me get these files."

"You asked The Black Cat for help?" Matt asked in shock.

"Yeah." Caitlin simply answered with a smile.

"**_Your Mom is crazy asking a thief for help. That hasn't help us a lot in the past._**" Magenta told her host with a surprised tone, while also remembering their past of working with criminals.

"_Felicia's not like Snart. She can be trusted. Dad trusted her just as much as he did Uncle Matt and Aunt Liv. She's a good person._"

"**_Who always looks for the five-finger discount._**" Magenta cheekily added.

"_Love you too, partner._" Frankie said back and her partner mentally poked out her tongue.

"All right." Barry started. "I mean, this is more than organ donation. We'll need more than tissue typing to see if their bodies are compatible."

"If I can isolate the genetic locus of the two candidates and cross-reference it with the mutations in Professor Stein, I might be able to find a match and save his life." Caitlin explained.

Everyone looked unsure of her plan but they knew that they weren't any other good options for them right now. None that would without a doubt ensure the well-being of the elder metahuman with the Firestorm matrix fused with his cells. They had no choice right now.

Barry asked the doctor. "What do you need to do that?"

For some reason, Caitlin formed a smirk that resembled Seth's…showing strange and unorthodox intentions.

X

In his auto-shop in Central City, Jefferson Jackson rolled out from underneath the car he was working on. Most of his body covered in grease and what not from working on the car's internals from beneath it.

His right hand clutched around the handle of one of his tools before straightening up his back and putting it down to retrieve another tool.

_WHOOSH_

A flash of yellow lightning ran past him, stinging his neck like a bee and forced Jefferson to hold the stung area. He thought he felt blood oozing out of the area but he looked at his fingers and didn't find a single drop of blood on them.

He shook his head and returned to his work under the car again.

X

In his highly advanced laboratory, Henry Hewitt straightened his lab coat before putting his samples inside the fume hood. He was careful to not accidently break the vials of samples, knowing the importance of his work.

His right hand holding the lid open and his left hand placing the samples along with the others. Sure, that it was firmly placed in the fume hood, he closed the lid on the hood.

_WHOOSH_

He didn't notice the flash of yellow lightning that ran past him, a stinging and annoying sensation met the side of his neck. Forcing Henry to hold the strung area. He felt as though blood was leaking from his neck, but he thought wrong when he looked at his fingers and didn't find blood on them.

He looked around for a source but found none. Deciding to not pay further attention to it, he walked back to his work on the table.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

_WHOOSH_

A gust of wind followed the aftermath of Barry speeding into the Cortex again. Natives and mutants alike watched him hold up two small vials of blood. "All right, blood samples from both potential candidates." He gave them to Caitlin and Cisco.

The mechanical engineer looked surprised. "Damn, that was fast even for you."

He then sheepishly informed them. "I may have skipped the asking-for-permission part."

Matt scoffed. "Great, you can add blood thief to your resume now." Barry shrugged, mainly because he didn't know how to respond to that.

Caitlin reached for Cisco's vial. "Let's see if we can't find a match." She went to work and her daughter followed her closely.

X

**(West Household)**

Iris was dealing with the biggest news that she has ever received. She was sitting on her couch and looking through the old photos of her and her mother together…. She was looking at the photos of her and her drug addict mother.

Her mother, Francine West, was put in rehabilitation by her husband, Joseph West. Another rehab to be exact. And when Joe went to check on her while in rehab a days later after admission…she was gone. Disappeared into thin air.

Joe had informed Iris that he looked for her everywhere…but it was a losing fight. Francine was…is the wife of a cop, she knew how to disappear and cover her tracks. Her father made the hardest decision he had ever made back then.

The mere thought of Iris growing up thinking that she was abandoned…. Going to sleep at night…thinking that her own mother left because she wasn't enough to make her stay… that she wasn't loved like other children beloved by their mother…

He loved her too much… loves her with everything he's got. And his decision back then…felt justified because of what happened to Barry and after they took him in. Not giving Iris that burden. But Iris was still disbelief and was struggling to let the news of her mother still being alive sink in.

Her mother, Francine West, was alive and in Central City…and wanted to see her…. to reconnect with the daughter that she failed for so many years. Iris thought her mother was dead all these years…her father told her of that.

But Joe knew that Francine was nothing like the mother that Iris deserved. She wasn't the perfect mother in any way, not like the stories that her father had come up with for his daughter's sake. Francine would only shatter her heart into million pieces…and those pieces would never be able to be put together again.

However, Iris understood her father's decision. It was only for the sake of his child, to keep her safe and protected again. That was the sole purpose of a parent…to be the unbreakable shield that protects them from harm.

Iris was still in a deep trance of reeling everything, too deep to notice her father coming up behind her from behind the couch. Joe smiled and told his daughter. "You were two in that picture." The detective saw that it was the photo of Francine holding Iris as a baby with an ice cream cone to her face. he clearly remembered the story and told her, "You'd just got some shots. You were so mad at the nurse." He chortled. "You kept saying, "She pinched me"."

Iris put the photo back in the photo album and continued. "So, we took you to the park afterwards to cheer you up, gave you your first ice cream cone… which was a mistake, because all we heard the next month was," he mimicked his daughter's reaction and words from back then. ""Mint-chocplat chip, mint-choplat chip.""

Laughing briefly, Iris said with a chuckling voice. "That's where the obsession started." She continued to run her eyes over the photos in the album.

Joe had a feeling of what was going through her mind and assured her calmly. "Babe, you don't have to do this." Iris looked at him. "If you don't want to meet your mother tomorrow, I get it."

She didn't answer for a few moments. But when she did, she said. "No, it's okay. I want to meet her. I need to meet her." Iris spoke determinedly before looking at her father calmly again. "It's gonna be fine."

Her father smiled warmly before leaning closer to her. He pressed his lips to the side of her head and kissed her. Dislodging from her, he praised her proudly. "My brave baby girl."

"Take after you." she quickly stated while Joe took his blazer on again.

Joe moved to the door and opened it up and told his daughter. "Love you."

"Love you more." Iris said back in a low voice when he walked out of the house. Leaving his daughter to continue to go through the photos that was sitting in her lap. And each photo continued to increase the weight of her already heavy heart.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Matt handed the cane-like power source to the elderly professor. Stein accepted it and put it down on the ground after inspecting its strange form. It was like an arc reactor with a handle attached to it. Those two conjoined parts were connected to a metallic cane. Frankie inspected it from the ceiling that she was sitting on in a crouched position upside-down.

"Well, I must admit, I never imagined the Sphinx's riddle about a man requiring three legs would ever apply to me," Martin gestured to the cane again. "but if this device keeps me mobile, then I will gratefully oblige."

Caitlin patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Hopefully, you won't need it for much longer." She walked over to the computer and brought up a few files. "There was no agglutination in the blood samples, and cross-matching was negative for both, and it appears that the dark matter from the Particle Accelerator explosion mutated their genes in a very similar way it did to yours." She informed them.

Frankie dropped down and landed beside her mother's side. "Would that mean they're both potential matches?"

"Yeah, that's what I think." Caitlin confirmed her daughter's thoughts.

"So, who's gonna be the unlucky guy to have Stein inside them?" Matt joked, the professor giving the nanite mutant a glare from the crude joke.

"Well, my first choice is Henry Hewitt." Caitlin gestured to the top wall monitor. "He graduated summa cum laude from Hudson University with a double major in Applied Physics and Bioengineering."

Martin appeared to be surprised. "A Hudson boy, I like him already."

Olivia then said, "Smarts might not be what's needed for Stein."

"Yeah." Barry agreed before moving closer to the wall monitors. "Now, what about this other guy Jefferson Jackson?" he read the information on the bottom monitor out loud. "High school quarterback, 4.0 student. He's got the physical attributes." He turned back to the screen. "And it looks like more of his alleles match than Hewitt's. Doesn't mean that he's more compatible?"

"It would make sense, yeah." Matt had to agree with the speedster. "It would be like what happened with Ronnie and Stein before. A brand-new organism would choose the stronger genes to increase the chances of survival and all that."

"On paper, perhaps, but Hewitt is a scientist." Caitlin argued. "Clearly, he's trying to make something of his life. I think he'd be open to something like this."

"Yeah, but wouldn't their two minds end up clashing against one another, keeping them from bonding?" Frankie asked of them.

"Chances of that happening is very small, sweetie." Caitlin assured her daughter.

Barry then came with his own solution. "I think we should meet with both of them before we make a decision."

"That's an excellent idea." Martin Stein agreed.

"I'll see if I can get Hewitt here." Caitlin informed them.

"All right, I'd like to come along, but I promised to meet with Detective Spivot. Apparently, she wants something from me. So, you guys are gonna have to meet up with Jefferson Jackson." Barry told them.

Olivia smiled at the professor. "Mind if I be your plus one, Professor?"

"Of course not, Mrs. Fury-Stark." Martin nodded to her husband. "But your husband might feel the need to aim one of his weapons at me."

Matt threw his hands up. "The heck? I'm not a guy who just shoots whenever he wants to."

"Yes, you are, honey. I know that better than anyone here." Olivia countered. "But I'll go with Stein and check on Jefferson Jackson."

Cisco walked to the computers again. "And I will try to find something else to help keep you stable. Matt, you up for giving me a hand?"

"Sure thing, man." He obliged and followed him into the corridors. The two engineers were busy talking with one another…

… so busy that they didn't notice that a presence with a familiar face was watching them from the shadows.

Matt felt like they were being watched but he quickly shook it off. Blaming it on nothing more than his instincts as a SHIELD agent.

X

The car stopped and its doors opened up on both sides of the vehicle. Martin Stein stepped out of the passenger seat and Olivia Fury-Stark stepped out of the driver seat. They closed the doors and walked to the auto shop.

Before they reached the threshold of the shop, Martin looked at Olivia. "Mrs. Fury-Stark, may I ask you something?"

"Sure thing, Stein. But you can just call me Olivia. It's alright." Olivia told him. "We've known each other for a while now, you don't have to be so formal with me."

"My apologies, but old habits are hard to let go of." Martin chuckled. "But may I ask why you and your husband haven't gone on your honeymoon? It's been six months since your wedding, and yet you remain here in Central City."

"You know what happened six months ago, Professor." Olivia reminded him with a sad voice. "It didn't feel right to just up and leave all of a sudden for a happy trip and return home to… not all of our loved ones. It wasn't right for Frankie. She needed to be with her family now more than ever." She chuckled. "And honestly, she and Caitlin are the closest things that remind me of my brother now…and I still want to remember him."

"I understand." Martin nodded. "What your brother did that day, was truly the actions of a hero. No. A true protector. And his young daughter is on the same path as her father. And if he were here with us, then he'd be nothing but proud."

Olivia smiled. "Thanks, Stein. Means a lot to hear this." She narrowed her eyes and teased. "Especially, since it's coming from the guy who almost burned me."

The professor briefly laughed. "You are never gonna let me forget that, are you?"

"Nope." She instantly said and the two of them passed the threshold of the auto shop. It was holding the dozens of things expected. Tools for repairing on disorganized piles of wheels, pipes and engines. Carts holding even more items needed for the restoration of an automobile.

Martin inspected the shop before asking the psychic. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Yup. According to what I got from Caitlin, Jefferson's a mechanic." Olivia told Stein. Not finding anyone there, she reached over to the counter and pressed the service bell a few times, ringing a sound to indicate the need of an employee.

"Could indicate a strong technical aptitude. That's a positive." Martin skeptically complimented. He noticed a back on a cart with prescribed medication. "Oh, prone to allergies." He and Olivia looked around while the professor continued with his thoughts. "That's definitely a negative, not to mention his taste in music."

"I kinda like it." Olivia admitted.

"Guess the lady's the one with the good taste." They turned to the other side of the shop and saw their target getting up on his feet. Jefferson Jackson looked at Stein while wearing a jumpsuit. "Would you prefer Celine Dion instead?" he mockingly pointed a thumb backwards while telling to the professor. "I got the "Titanic" soundtrack in the back there."

"No, thank you." Martin assured him.

Olivia walked forward and stretched out her hand for the mechanic. "Jefferson Jackson, correct?"

The mechanic shook hands with the psychic, "People call me Jax."

"Catchy." Martin complimented.

The mutant gestured to herself and then to the professor as she introduced them. "My name's Olivia Fury-Stark, and this is Martin Stein. We're with the Department of Safety. We know sound new, which we are. It's a small agency at the moment."

"Very new, we probably don't even have a website yet, do we?" Martin directed at Olivia.

Jax gestured to the shop. "You need to see our licenses? I mean, we're all up to code here."

"Don't worry. It's nothing like that." Olivia said in an assuring tone. "We are compiling data on people who were affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion two years ago."

Jackson scoffed with annoyance of the reminder. "Look, guys, I lost enough time in my life cause of that stupid thing going wrong. Now, you don't got a car I can fix, I can't help you."

Martin had to persist. "If you would consider coming back to S.T.A.R. Labs with us, I believe we can help you."

He looked confused. "Help me how?"

"Well, you see, we know what the Particle Accelerator did…" Olivia trailed off.

And Jefferson caught on before she could continue. "Look, I already told you, I don't talk about that night."

"Why is that?" Martin pried.

"Because that's when everything changed." Jefferson said. "I got hit hard. When I woke up, I was in the hospital. Busted up leg, torn ACL. The look on my mom's face, I knew any dreams I had of playing pro ball were over."

"Sorry to hear that." Olivia told him.

"Yeah, well…look, I gotta get back to work." He turned to get his tools again.

"Understandable." Olivia said and took out a card. "Our number's on the card. Just think about it, all right?" She and Martin Stein turned around and walked to exit. Jackson took the card and read the number in his head. Thoughts forming in his head of what to do next.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

Things are busy as always in CC Jitters. The coffee shop's popularity shooting through the roof and all the way through the stratosphere thanks to the numerous of popular coffee drinks to honor the various heroes in their city. But while others were enjoying their signature hero drinks, Joe and Francine West were not doing that.

The two of them had come to wait for Iris who was going to meet her mother for the first time in two decades of lying. Francine was excited and anxious to meet her daughter again. She turned to her husband? "Thank you for putting this together, Joseph."

"Iris's idea, not mine." Joe told her.

Francine looked around and saw that Iris hadn't arrived yet, so she asked him another question. "Joseph, can I ask you a question?"

"Shot." He replied instantly.

"Remember when I saw you in precinct before? I found you at your desk. I saw you looking at a photo of you and another man. A young man, around the same age as the CSI scientist. Who is that?" Francine asked.

"Seth Fury. My friend." Joe started. "He died from the black hole that appeared above the city six months ago."

"Oh." She was shocked by his heartfelt tone. "I'm sorry to hear, Joseph. I really am."

Joe opened his mouth to speak but stopped when seeing Iris slowly walking towards them. Francine followed the direction of his eyes and laid her eyes on her daughter again for the first time in two decades.

The detective got up from his seat. "Hey, baby." He greeted his daughter.

"Hi, Dad." She greeted back and hugged him. Her father gave her a quick peck on the side of her head.

Pulling away from his daughter, Joe looked at her mother. "Iris…this is Francine." He turned her around and gestured to Francine.

Iris looked her up and down before greeting. "Hello."

"Hi." Francine cupped her daughter's hands. "Hello, Iris."

Their entangled hands slipped out of each other's holds with slight awkwardness. Joe looked between them before asking his daughter. "Can I get you a coffee or something?"

She shook her head. "Um, no, thanks. Let's just sit." She told them both.

As Francine was returning back to her seat, she stated with shock. "I can't get over what a beautiful young woman you've become. And a journalist? I'm so proud of you."

Despite the compliments coming her way from her absentee mother, Iris didn't seem to accept them with any positive emotions. She instead asked emotionlessly. "Why are you here? Why now, after two decades?"

Francine looked surprised by her question. But inwardly, she expected it to appear. After all, she's done she didn't to get off the hook so easily. "I want to make this right with you."

"How about you start by apologizing for walking out on us?" Iris said without any emotion.

"I am sorry, so very, very sorry." Francine inhaled deeply. "There's so much you don't know."

"I'm sure that you've been through a great deal," Iris began. "… and I can appreciate you feeling this is suddenly the right time for you to want me in your life… but that doesn't mean that it's the right time for me."

"Iris…"

Iris snapped her head to her father. "No, Dad, it's okay. I've thought about this a lot, and it wasn't fair for me to make you the bad guy." She turned her head back to Francine. "So, I want you to hear this from me." Francine expected the worst. "I don't hate you, Francine. I do wish you well… but we have lived separate lives for over 20 years. Let's keep it that way." She finalized and got up from her seat.

She turned away from her parents and walked away from them, leaving through the back exit.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs…things were not so stellar… at least in the minds of Matt and his young niece. The nanite mutant holding his hand against his face while Frankie shifted her eyes around in the Cortex, shifting between her mother and Henry Hewitt.

"**_Why didn't Caitlin see the need to hide The Flash suit?!_**" Magenta screamed in her host's head.

"_I don't know._" Frankie said back. "_But why exactly did Mom just straight up invite the dude to our base?!_" she thought.

Frankie looked to her uncle who kept trying to force his hand deeper and deeper into his face. "Uncle Matt, did Mom finally do something stupid?"

"Considering, her choice of current ideas, then yeah." Matt admitted through a muffling voice before removing his hand. "But seriously what is wrong with people not wanting to keep their superhero identity a secret in this city? God, it's like a CW show in here."

Frankie raised an eyebrow. "Uncle Matt, I have no idea what you're talking about right now."

"Never mind, let's go meet the inspiring Firestorm part." Matt joked and walked into the Cortex with his niece. He saw Caitlin and Cisco watching the man with careful eyes, as though they were still examining him.

Henry Hewitt chuckled after inspecting the Flash suit on the mannequin. "I've always thought my destiny was for greater things. And people, of course." he quickly added.

"Well, when it's all said and done, flying will be the least impressive of your new abilities." Caitlin fanned the flames of interest that was burning in Hewitt.

Cisco and Matt shared a look of confusion and Frankie watched as Henry's face lit up with more intrigue. "Man finally achieves the promise of Atomic Age."

"The heck's going on here?" Olivia asked out loud in shock when walking into the Cortex with Professor Stein. Her surprised eyes glued to the Flash suit that was on display while a stranger was in the room.

Barry came through the door next and asked. "Caitlin, what's going on?" the secret speedster directed at the female doctor.

"Hi, I'm glad you're back." Caitlin told all three of them. "This is Dr. Henry Hewitt." She said with a gesture to the scientist with a double major in Applied Physics and Bioengineering. She then introduced the three people. "This is Olivia Fury-Stark." The psychic waved her hand. "Barry Allen." The speedster stretched out his hand. "And Professor Martin Stein."

Henry didn't give Barry a single thought and immediately went to the professor who greeted with a hand shake. "How do you do?"

The two men shook hands while Henry said admiringly. "The illustrious Martin Stein. I've read all your papers back at Hudson, especially on transmutation. Fascinating." He leant closer to the professor. "You're a legend."

"Oh, please." Martin waved him off. "I think you're overestimating my contribution to the field. I-I appreciate your enthusiasm."

"Isn't he great?" Caitlin asked Olivia and Barry when they walked closer to her and Cisco. Matt and Frankie joined their conversation.

Cisco twitched his head, "He's got an ego the size of Texas, but, yeah, he's all right."

"Actually, the guy gives me the creeps. He's too nice." Matt admitted.

"Yeah, that's never a good sign." Olivia followed up after her husband.

"That's just what you agents think, your natural skepticism of everyone." Frankie told them before looking around. "So, where's the second candidate? Jefferson Jackson?"

The psychic scratched the back of her head sheepishly, "Think we're gonna need some more time with that one."

"That's gonna be a problem." Matt told her. "We don't have more time."

Cisco nodded unfortunately. "Me and Matt couldn't find another power source for the cane and that thing's running out."

"Okay, then let's do the merge. Hewitt's in." Caitlin suggested.

Barry gave her a look. "What do you mean? You told him the details of the FIRESTORM Matrix?"

"That a good idea?" Olivia wondered of the doctor, her eyes giving her a strange look.

"Absolutely, becoming Firestorm is a huge life change. He needs to know what he's getting himself into." Caitlin told them.

"That might be true, Caity. But you really think that the appeal of superpowers is all it took for the guy to be on board?" Olivia asked in shock.

Caitlin didn't answer but she gestured to the conversing scientists, where Martin started. "If I remember correctly, vector, variance, hypotenuse…"

Henry then continued. "Protonneutron, go H.U.!"

"Yes!" Martin exclaimed.

"That's scary." Frankie said shakily.

"That's so cute." Cisco said through gritted teeth. "We'll have two Professor Steins if this works."

"God no, one is enough. I hope it's not gonna work now." Matt crudely joked.

Caitlin shot him a cold glare at his words. "It's gonna work."

Olivia rubbed her eyes. "Well, we got one guy who's a willing volunteer here, so it's worth a try at least." But she was inwardly taking in every aspect of the doctor's behavior.

"Yeah." Cisco nodded gleefully, so much that it seemed unconvincing.

"Okay." Barry said, clearly his disagreement lacing his every word.

"Matt, think you can get the splicer for me?" Matt nodded and accepted Cisco's request. He walked into the private lab on the right side of the Cortex. Coming back in, he handed the splicer to the native engineer.

Cisco thanked him with a nod of his head and waved Henry over to him. While the Hudson alumni took off his jacket, he got the explanation from the S.T.A.R. Labs engineer. "When I put this splicer on your chest, you're gonna feel a rush. That's a molecular primer being released into your body." He gestured to the nanite mutant to continue.

Matt nodded, "Then you can make physical contact with Professor Stein, and…" he mimicked a small explosion with his hands. "Firestorm Matrix will take over and you'll be the center of attention at the Burning Man."

Henry chuckled. "Easy enough."

Frankie walked over to the professor. "Ready, old man?"

"No time like the present. Thank you, my dear child." Martin told her when he handed her the cane.

Cisco walked closer to Henry once he was sure that Frankie and the others were safely out of harm's way, should this go wrong. He placed the circular device on his chest and pressed the middle of it. Its latches shot out and attached onto his body. He chuckled when feeling the molecular primer being released into his body, his excitement rising to new limits along with his expectations.

With the quantum splicer attached and ready on his chest, Martin and Henry raised their hands at the same time. Their two hands neared each other… and a small flash of orangey energy blazed from their touching hands. hope filled them all in the Cortex…

… but none more than Martin Stein and Henry Hewitt.

However…just as quickly the flash of orangey energy appeared… it quickly vanished again…

The hope on everyone's faces faltered, drowning into seas of confusion.

"What just happened?" Olivia whispered her query to her husband. Caitlin looked between Cisco and Matt, feeling as though the device might have malfunctioned or somehow.

"I have no idea." Matt surprisingly stated.

Martin directed his next words at Henry. "Try again." Henry nodded and raised his hand to meet Martin Stein's hand. But unlike before, nothing that resembled energy appeared. Just the sound of their hands touching one another. "This is unexpected." The professor stuttered.

"Something's supposed to be happening, right?" Henry asked the other scientists. "Why isn't it working?" he raised his tone.

After a series of confused looks between them, Caitlin answered. "I don't know."

"Well…" Cisco walked to Henry. "looks like you two aren't compatible after all. I'm just gonna…" he took off the splicer.

"So, all this was for nothing?" Henry asked annoyedly.

"Believe me, no one is more disappointed than I am." Martin hurtfully said.

"Yeah, don't be so sure about that." Henry countered. He turned his attention to Caitlin who gave an apologetic look to Martin. "Next time, try to get you act together before you get someone's hopes up."

Frankie's eyes flashed with magenta from her spiking anger. "Don't talk like that to my Mom!" she said enraged.

"Well then your Mothe-"

Olivia slammed her palm on Henry's chest, stopping him saying anymore. She placed her cold blue eyes on him and stated. "You better walk out of here before you say anything that you might regret. And trust me, you say anything to my niece, you're gonna need an ambulance to get out of here."

Henry huffed in anger and backed away before walking to get his jacket. He put it on and walked into the corridors.

"Thanks, Aunt Liv." Frankie expressed her gratitude.

"Don't worry about it, sweetie." Olivia turned her attention to Caitlin. "Caity, we still have another option. Don't look so down."

X

**(The Next Day, Mercury Labs)**

Even though, he's going through a lot of different times as his life as a parent and as husband, it didn't put a stop to Joe's life as a detective of the CCPD. Which led to him being called to Mercury Labs, personally by their CEO, Christina McGee.

Apparently, a break-in had taken place in the facility, which required the aid of the police department.

Christina met the detective and his partner, Detective Patty Spivot and led them to the targeted floor. "Detective West, thank you for coming."

While walking to the room, Joe gestured to his partner. "Doctor McGee, this is my new partner, Detective Spivot."

"It's nice to meet you." Patty told her politely.

"I was saddened by Detective Thawne's passing." Christina told him. "Please extend my condolences to your daughter."

"Thank you. On the phone," Joe got back to the matter. "you mentioned this was a sensitive matter."

The CEO of Mercury Labs nodded, "It is, and I called you directly because I've always appreciated your discretion in the past."

"Of course, can you tell me what was stolen?" The senior detective asked while his partner wrote down notes.

She then vaguely answered. "It's not so much what was stolen, but who stole it." The two detectives gave her their full attention. "The person who broke into my facility last night…was Harrison Wells."

Joe momentarily gasped with shock before confusion fell over him. Patty then kicked into the conversation. "Harrison Wells is dead."

"I seem to recall the circumstances around his passing were a bit inconclusive." Christina stated her thoughts. "Is there any possibility he could be alive?"

"Zero possibility." Joe adamantly stated, he was there when he saw Eddie Thawne penetrate his own heart with his own gun. He saw what domino effect it caused, leading to Eobard Thawne being erased before his very eyes. The chances of a dead man to return from that… was nigh impossible, even by Central City standards.

Christina shudderingly spoke. "I knew the man for over 20 years. I know who I saw." She turned back to face the direction of where she found him. It was though she could see him there again. "The only thing distinctively different was…he's walking again." She said with shock. The two detectives shared looks of confusion from her words. "Like I said, I trust your discretion. You have full access to the facility. Thank you again, Detective."

Joe nodded as the CEO of Mercury Labs walked away. While her partner was reeling in the shocking words spoken to him, Patty said. "First a shark-man, now a dead man walking. We need to call Barry, get him in here first."

"Barry can't hear about any of this." Joe immediately told his younger partner before walking closer to the area that Harrison supposedly escaped through.

"What…why?" Patty's confusion reached the limits of the sky before following her senior partner.

"Because he's got a lot on his plate. He's got a friend who's sick who he needs his help, and Harrison Wells is the man who murdered his mother. Once he hears that…" Joe stopped and let his partner continue.

"Is he okay?" Patty worriedly asked.

"He's fine, but…not a word to him or anyone, okay?" Joe practically begged of Patty.

"Okay." She nodded her acceptance. "Yeah, it's just, I'm not really good at lying."

Joe knew that had to change. "Well, you better learn, quick."

"Yeah, definitely." Patty finalized before her partner walked away.

The senior detective was on his way to walk back to the station but then he saw Christina McGee returning to them. "Anything you forgot to mention, Dr. McGee?"

"No, only something I'm curious about." The detective gave her his full attention. "I believe you were close friends with Dr. Seth Rogers, correct?"

"Yes, I am." Joe answered. "What about him?"

"I was wondering what has happened to him?" she asked.

"He's…" Joe wanted to say that he wasn't amongst the living now. But he promised Frankie that he wouldn't say anything about this to anyone. At least not that he's dead. He made an exception with Francine, but that's the only one to receive such a gesture. "He's away on some business trip. It's been that way ever since the black hole that appeared above the city six months ago."

"I am sorry to hear. I heard that he had a child, yes?"

"Yes. She's currently under the guardianship of his girlfriend, Dr. Caitlin Snow." Joe explained.

Christina nodded. "Alright, I know them both. Please give them my regards and if they need help in any way, they are always welcome to me."

"Of course. Thank you, Dr. McGee." Joe expressed his gratitude and walked away.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

It was time for the next volunteer to show himself and hopefully offer his assistance to help Professor Martin Stein. Jefferson Jackson appeared at S.T.A.R. Labs with the intentions to listen to their offer.

Olivia was happy to see him again, to see him come and willing to aide them. "Really glad you decided to come, Jax."

Jax walked into the private lab on the left side of the Cortex. "I thought S.T.A.R. Labs had to shut down."

"Under new management." Matt told him.

Jefferson stopped himself at the sight of the modified treadmill in the other room behind the glass panel. "What kind of treadmill is that?"

"Cosmic." Cisco proudly answered with Frankie and her mother giggling. Martin couldn't help but chuckle himself.

"Cool." Jax said in awe of the machine before walking into the Cortex again. "So, let's get started. You got some kind of "Billion Dollar Man" technology that's gonna fix my knee?" he asked them hopefully, the impressive technology around them was enough for him to birth that question.

Barry was then the one to break the news. "Actually, Jax, this isn't about fixing your knee."

"It's about something more…conjoining." Olivia strangely added.

"What are you talking about?" Jefferson asked confused, his gaze shifting between them all in the Cortex.

While remaining seated in his seat beside the console, Martin explained. "When the Particle Accelerator exploded, the energy wave that collided with you is known as "dark matter"."

"And it didn't just hurt your knee." Caitlin followed up.

"It… it changed the molecular structure of your body." Martin told the former quarterback.

The damaged football player waved his hands around frantically, wordlessly telling the professor to stop. "Hold on, Grey. So, you're saying I'm like one of those metahumans I keep on hearing about on the news?"

Martin nodded. "Yes, I am. Please, call me Professor."

"The deal is we think you have some potential capabilities." Frankie stated.

Jefferson was slight shocked…and dismayed that a young girl such as Frankie seemed to be so… tuned to the world of metahumans. "What kind of capabilities?"

Caitlin gestured to the professor. "The same as Professor Stein: the ability for your body to process fission and fusion."

"And you can access excess energy and convert it into powerful nuclear blasts." Matt tried pouring fuel over the embers of interest that was expected to grow in Jefferson's mind. The nanite mutant looked at Cisco, hoping that he didn't forget anything.

Cisco smiled gleefully and then said. "And you can fly. There's also that."

With a skeptic look on his face, Jax turned to the elderly professor. "So, you're saying you can do all this?"

The professor then explained in details. "Only during times of convergence with a willing partner."

"Convergence? You and me?" The former football player asked for clarity, though it was spoken through a chuckle of disbelief.

Only the mutants and their niece seemed to notice the disbelief in his voice. Martin and the others didn't seem to notice the same and the professor nodded his agreement. And they all looked very hopeful.

But it was all went down the drain the instant Jefferson threw his hands up in the air with a disbelieving laugh. "No, this is crazy." He made his decision and walked away.

Barry then stopped him, or tried to at least. "No, Jax, this is the chance to right the wrong that was done to you."

"Yeah, sorry, you got the wrong guy." Jax said. "I don't want nothing to do with this." He went to walk away again.

But this time, Caitlin stopped him before the mutants could get a word in. "Wait a second, we are giving you the chance to be a superhero, and you're gonna say no that quickly?"

"Mom…" Frankie tried to get her mother's attention.

"Caitlin, easy." Olivia said warningly.

"Yeah, not my kind of thing." Jax told the doctor who didn't let the words of her family reach her ears.

Martin then pitched in, sympathizing with the younger man. "If the man isn't willing to participate…"

Caitlin didn't see affected by their words and then continued adamantly, adamant enough to try and convince him in her own way. "Look, I saw your test scores, Jax. Your grades were good enough to get into college, but you didn't go. Why?" Jefferson gave her his attention. "Is this the type of guy you are? One setback and you fold? Well, then maybe you're not the guy for you anyway."

"Mom!" Frankie grabbed her mother's arm, feeling like she was going too far.

"Well, maybe I'm not." Jefferson finished off before running off in anger.

"Jackson, wait." Matt's words went unanswered when the football player walked away.

"Maybe this just wasn't meant to be." Martin regretfully admitted before walking away.

"Caity, what was that?" Olivia asked as she walked closer to the doctor. "I mean, Jackson could be our last chance at saving Stein."

"He's saying no to being a superhero. Who does that?" Caitlin asked in shock. "I mean, you, Matt, Barry, Seth or even Frankie didn't say no when you had the chance. Cisco, would you?" she directed at the mechanical engineer.

"Chance to have superpowers? Sign me up." Cisco sheepishly said.

"Caity, it's not exactly like buying yourself a new furniture here." Olivia started. "We're asking Jefferson to change his entire life, to sacrifice what he does have. Not an easy decision to make. It's like a life-changing decision that means life and death every time you use them, or even for having them. It's a lifetime to figure out the heroing thing. Heck there's a chance that he could be hunted because of them."

"Exactly, which is why we need someone who wants to do this." Caitlin walked away and around the console.

"Mom, where are you going?" Frankie asked her.

"Don't worry sweetie, I just have to get Hewitt back. We have to try again." she walked out of the Cortex.

Frankie worriedly turned to her uncle and aunt. "What's wrong with Mom?"

"Don't know, honey. but I'm gonna figure out what." Olivia stated determinedly. Something was wrong with Caitlin, or at the very least, she was hiding something. Turning to face her niece, she told her. "Frankie, mind checking up on your Uncle Joe? Don't worry about your Mom, I'll talk with her."

"Okay." She accepted. "Think he's having a tough day too." Her form was enveloped by the pink symbiotic mass before a tendril shot out of her hand and wrapped around her black trenchcoat. She yanked it to her form and put it on before leaping out of the skylight.

With Frankie on her own now, Matt directed his question to his wife. "What do you think is wrong with Caitlin?"

"She's super determined, at least that's what I thought at first." Olivia bit the nail of her right thumb. "But now, I know it's so much deeper than what I thought."

X

**(CCPD)**

_DING _

The elevators to precinct's lobby opened up and Frankie walked into the precinct. She used her partner's powers to form a pair of jeans and a black sweater with a hoodie. All of that concealed under the leathery fabric of her father's black trenchcoat.

But as she walked deeper into the police department, she couldn't help but feel the weight of her thoughts increase. Her mother's strange behavior was unlike anything she's ever seen before. She was used to see her determined, but this was different. Truly, she was like a woman on a holy quest to find the Holy Grail.

However, this level of dedication to this matter…seemed deeper. Like it was rooted to something.

"_You know what's wrong with Mom, Magenta?_" Frankie asked her partner, hoping that her eyes from within had seen something she didn't.

"**_I have no idea, Frankie. But this is really deep for your mother._**" Magenta pointed.

"_I'm worried about her._"

"**_Trust your aunt, Frankie. She's smart, she'll figure out what the deal is with your Mom. That and…_**" Frankie heard Magenta whimper. "**_… she's scary. She can just scare the truth out of her._**"

Frankie chuckled her consent. "_Yeah, Aunt Liv's pretty scary._" She perked her head up and saw Detective Joe West standing by a window with a heavy expression on his face. Barry was walking over to him and she followed suit. As she walked closer, she saw the speedster call out to his adoptive father, but no response came.

She then tried. "Uncle Joe?"

This time the detective reacted and looked at her and Barry as both came his way. Joe knew that they came separately because the younger metahuman still harbors spite towards his adoptive son. Barry then asked. "You good? Everything all right?"

"Yeah." He answered, but both Barry and Frankie gave him suspicious looks as neither of them fell for his obvious lie. "No, I'm…just had hell of a day."

"What's on your mind, Uncle Joe?" Frankie asked in concern.

He inhaled deeply; he didn't want to burden a young girl he sees as his niece with his saddening news. But he also knew that she wouldn't allow him to escape it, a trait she's obviously gotten from her father. Joe inhaled deeply again before confessing. "Iris's mother… she told me she was dying." The two metahumans widened their eyes. "Yeah, and I know Francine. She's telling the truth about this."

"You sure about that, Uncle Joe? I can figure out if she's lying or not." Frankie offered.

"Thanks, sweetie. But Francine's not the type to lie about this. Especially since it can only happen to former addicts. And besides, I can't go around and use my niece as a walking lie detector whenever I want or need to." Joe smiled. "Your father might just haunt me in my dreams."

Barry and Frankie laughed at his joke. A serious expression then came over the speedster's face and he asked the detective. "Does Iris know?"

"Not yet." Joe revealed sadly. He then shifted his gaze between the two and asked. "Did…did you guys need something?"

"No, not really. Just something strange going with Mom." Frankie said and Joe made a mental note of it, worth digging deeper into the matter with his niece.

"No, no. I just…" Barry scratched the back of his neck. "Patty said you that you don't want me on some case that she's on with you."

"No." Joe took his coffee cup off the window stand. "I was checking out a lead. I'll let you know."

"All right, cool." Barry accepted.

Frankie narrowed her eyes on the detective. "What's up with your children and your partners, anyway?"

"I was thinking the same earlier today." Joe admitted with a chortle.

"Come on, I…" Barry didn't know what to say.

"You can't take your eyes off that girl. It's like she's fire and you are a moth." Frankie angrily compared with

flashing eyes of anger.

Barry didn't pay any mind to the young girl's anger, knowing he had no right to defend himself, and said. "I don't know what you want me to tell you. I mean, she's great, you know. She's adorable and funny and we have a lot in common, but…"

""But, um."" Joe mocked his child's choice of words.

"I don't know. She's not Iris, I guess." Barry said.

"Right." Joe leant back against the wall before he opened his mouth.

"You've known Iris since you were ten." Frankie surprisingly said, Joe widening his eyes as his intended words came out of the young girl's mouth. "And like a fool, you've been in love with her since forever. Now, you're friends, friend-zoning each other, but she's still your first love."

Joe decided to jump in and patted the young metahuman's head. "Nice try, Frankie." He turned to face Barry. "What I think she's trying to say is, you're never gonna feel the same about anybody else, but you can't let that stop you from exploring something new."

"Yeah." Barry nodded before walking off without saying anything else. He left Frankie and Joe alone.

"So, what's this about your Mom, Frankie?" Joe finally asked.

"Oh that." Frankie scratched her head. "Don't know why, but she seems to be fully dedicated to helping Professor Stein on this mission. She's a doctor and all that, I know, but this seems to be so much more than that. And I'm scared for her."

"I think I have an idea."

Frankie knew what he was getting at. "You think this is about Dad too?"

"Yeah." He instantly replied with a nod. "Your Mom's still healing from his death. She might just put all her focus on this one mission to distract herself." He raised his cup to his lips. Before the cup's contents were poured into his mouth, he tilted his head. "But it might not just be that and might be something else."

"What else could it be, Uncle Joe?" Frankie asked.

"Something I'm sure your Aunt has figured out by now."

X

**(The Next Day, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

"_Another Metahuman Strikes Eikmeier Technologies_" the news headline read on the monitor's screen while the reporter reported the attack on the technological facility. The team watched and listened as she spoke. "_What's being described as a "spontaneous energy malfunction" erupted last night at Eikmeier Technologies._" The two mutants shared looks before turning their gaze to Frankie's mother who looked regretful at the news footage. Both of them didn't want to think it, but they were glad that Frankie wasn't here.

Olivia is going to have a one on one chat with the woman her brother loved above all else. She clenched one of her hands while her other one drifted up to her inhibitor and clutched it tightly. "_Bro… hope you're going to okay with me going to be a little harsh on your girl._"

As she was deep in thoughts, the others listened on as the news footage continued. "_Wanted for questioning is scientist Henry Hewitt._"

When that last piece of information came out, Caitlin immediately said. "Hewitt's dormant abilities must have been triggered when we attempted the merger."

Matt gritted his teeth. "So, we basically armed this bomb and it's still a prototype, meaning it can go off in an instant."

Martin gulped. "This could be catastrophic. If his powers are anything like mine, he requires a grounding mechanism to stabilize his volatility. Otherwise…" he struggled to find the words.

"Yeah, he's gonna pop his top," Cisco helped him. "and he's got a long history of violence, according to his police record."

"Did you just say police record?" Olivia asked, though she heard it right the first time.

"I didn't find a police record." Caitlin said while walking around the console to check her colleague's findings. Matt followed her and walked to Cisco's side.

"Yeah, of course not, it was sealed, but guess what ya boy-"

"**And me.**"

Everyone in the room briefly laughed when they saw Cisco's face fall from the AI's interruption. The mechanical engineer leant his head back against the chair back. "And Jarvis…together we hacked in and…" he began typing on the keyboard. "Hold on, wait for it." he found it.

Matt looked at the list with his wife beside him. "One count battery, two counts aggravated assault, court-ordered anger management therapy. Damn, the guy's a psycho with rage issues and powers now."

"So, this is his "rage quit"- moment or an old fashion temper tantrum?" Olivia asked.

"He seemed like such a nice guy." Caitlin said with hurt and gestured to the professor. "He even knew your Hudson nerd song."

The professor then grunted and got the attention of the others, they all saw him about to fall but the cane held him standing. "Stein you okay?" Olivia asked him in worry while her husband and Cisco shot up to his side.

Seeing the worried faces on him, Martin broke the ice with a joke. "It appears Mr. Hewitt's stability isn't the only one in question." That didn't seem to break the ice at all. It only increased its worry-filled density. "I think I need to lie down."

"Yeah, I'll come with you." Cisco told the professor.

The nanite mutant turned his head to his wife who nodded. "I'll help you as well."

"Thank you, both of you." Martin expressed appreciation before using the two men as crutches while they led him to the bed.

Olivia turned to Barry. "Give them a hand, will you?" the speedster looked at her confused. He then saw her eyes not showing a willingness to divulge her reasons, at least not to him. he knew that it wouldn't be worth fighting her on it. He nodded and walked after the others.

Not that the women were alone, they turned to each other. But it was Caitlin who had to take a seat while she said. "Professor Stein is getting worse. And Hewitt's like this because of me. And now Jefferson Jackson will never come back because of what I said."

"Yeah, you went from "snow" to "frosty" in a heartbeat." Olivia admitted. "I never thought you had that kind of side in you, Caity. I'm both impressed and a little frightened even."

"I'm sorry for going off like that, especially in front of Frankie. I must have frightened her." Caitlin bit her lip.

"Yeah, you might have given Carnage a run for his money. And yeah, I'm speaking ill of the dead right now." The psychic admitted carefreely.

Caitlin rubbed her forehead before confessing. "I just didn't believe that he has what it takes."

"You sure it's about you not believing in him? And not about something else? Or someone else?" Olivia wondered out loud, practically laying it on thick for her friend. Caitlin looked at her unsurely while she bit her lower lip. "Caitlin, tell me what's really going on here? Because this is so much more than just what's happening to Stein."

"You know it better than me, actually." The psychic looked confused. "Because you and Matt kept it a secret from us all ever since Seth fell into this universe."

"What? That we're part-time teachers?" Olivia wondered.

Caitlin's eyes snapped open with shock. "You're teachers?"

"Yeah. Wait, you and the others didn't know?" Olivia received a shaking of her head. "God, how much did Seth and Matt _not_ tell you guys. Okay, if that's not it, then what is the thing we've been keeping under wraps?"

"Seth's poisoning."

This time Olivia was the one to snap her eyes open. "What has that to do with this, Caitlin?"

Tears began to swell in her eyes and fall down on the desk, quickly forming a puddle that was increasing in size. Her sadness increasing the sizes of her tears and then they increased the puddle to what could only resemble a small river of true heartbreak. Olivia quickly took a seat on the chair in front of Caitlin. "I wasn't able to save Seth when he was poisoned by Cletus. I was…powerless to help him in anyway. And I had to watch him go through unimaginable pain without knowing how to help him. I was useless to do anything." The tears fell down her face like small tsunamis of crashing heartache. "And I was pathetic. I hate myself for that. Cause I couldn't even help him when he jumped into the Singularity and sacrificed himself. I was useless and I'm angry at myself."

"That's why you've been so "woman on mission" ever since Stein began losing control like he is." Olivia connected the dots. "You think by helping Stein right now, you might be able to make it up to my brother, for all the good he's done for this team… for this city… for you, don't you?"

"He gave a chance to feel like myself again." She continued heartbreakingly. "I was cold back then…he made me feel again. And Seth gave me so much to live for me. He gave me Frankie, a new life, a new experience, knowledge…he gave me a new way to live again. He gave me a reason to live again and a love that is like an earthquake that keeps shaking my heart by the memory of him, the feeling of him near me again. I just miss him…and I feel like I've failed him."

For a while Olivia didn't speak. Merely listening to the woman before her confessing her heart out to her. She was surprised because Caitlin had been feeling like this the entire time. Pieces of her and the love of her life's own private world were still trying to come back together…

…But they were still pieces that kept themselves from reattaching to each other. As though the pain of not being with the man she loves was the only thing that stopped them from connecting. It was a pain that was like a tidal wave and came as such…flooding the pieces away from each other in a violent manner, like a they were torn from each other in a vortex of pain and sadness… and heartbreak.

This type of pain… this level that seemed inhumanly impossible to reach… it was like the pain that Seth experienced when he lost Stefanie and Bucky… like the pain that Caitlin must have felt when she lost Ronnie… but only so much worse.

Olivia chuckled, curiously getting a curious look from Caitlin. "Don't know whether to hug you to make you feel better… or slap you for being stupid."

Caitlin blinked rapidly from confusion. "Wait what? Slap me, for what?"

The psychic smiled sheepishly before revealing. "You remember that time I slipped into your mind after you and my Bro quote unquote "broke up"?" Caitlin didn't like the reminder of that trying time but had to nod anyway. "Yeah, well I may have done more than just use your memories to create a safe space for us to talk in private. I also took a peek at your other memories. Especially at the ones between you and Seth."

"Feels like an invasion of my privacy." The doctor stated while wiping away her tears.

"That rule does not count to a psychic who respects others' privacy as much she respects her husband's technological breakthroughs." Olivia casually joked before getting serious again. "What I saw in your mind… was my brother's smiling face again. He was smiling again, happy…not lifeless again. And I could only see a couple of reasons for that to happen… a little young girl who was going to his daughter… and…" she pointed a finger at Caitlin. "The woman that caused his heart to beat like a rampaging bull on the run from a volcanic eruption." She blushed. "Frankie wasn't his daughter back then, but she was one of the reasons that led him to finally regain his former self. The doctor that was willing to take risks for the good of the innocents, the one that me and my husband loves. The guy who adopted Bucky after rescuing him from a burning hospital. The one Stephanie fell in love with and was going to marry. You brought him back, Caity."

The psychic cupped the doctor's hands. "_You_ were the reason for Seth to continue to fight. So, you think you were useless the entire time he was here? When he was poisoned or decided to jump into a black hole and blow himself up… he did for you. So, you might be the smartest woman in this building, but if you think you were useless the entire time… then you are stupid and deserves a quick slap."

Caitlin smiled warmly with happiness. "Thanks, Liv. It means a lot. And guess, I didn't think of it like that. But I'm sorry for how I acted this entire time. I just miss Seth."

"Not the only one on that, Caity." Olivia told her. "However, I think you need to say that to someone else."

"Yeah." The doctor chuckled. "Wanna go with me?"

"Let's reel in a football player, shall we, sister?" The psychic joked with a wink. With a swipe of her hand, she used her psychic powers to launch the red rectangular box into her hand. She clutched it tightly and said. "Can never be too careful, right?"

X

The former quarterback slid the slide door open and walked through it and entered his auto repair shop. After the hateful and hurtful words spoken to him by Dr. Caitlin Snow, he wanted to get his thoughts in order again. And the only thing that came to mind was working his frustrations off.

"Hiya sailor!"

Jefferson Jackson scoffed and turned around and saw Olivia and Caitlin walking into the shop. Both women waving their hands at him. "Let me guess, neither of you got car troubles."

"Well, no." Olivia frowned and shrugged.

Caitlin chuckled lightly before making eye contact with the mechanic. "I came to apologize. I'm sorry for what I said." She and the psychic walked closer to him.

"It's fine. Apology accepted." The former football player said easily.

"Look, we could really use your help to save Professor Stein." Caitlin pleadingly said.

"We don't like to say it, but…he doesn't have long now. You're the last resort, man." Olivia added, hoping her words would be able to stir him on the right path.

He scoffed again in disbelief. "That desperate, huh?"

"Yes!" Caitlin let out loudly. She had to fight back tears that threatened to flood out of her eyes. "The man I love…Seth Fury, he was with Ronnie Raymond…Professor Stein's other half. Ronnie actually helped build the Particle Accelerator, and when it exploded, he was affected by it too. Ironically, that's how he got the chance to show the world what he was truly capable of. And like the man I love…he died saving this city."

"Wait," Jax stopped her. "he was the guy that flew into the black hole? Before Venom jumped into it? That was him?"

"Both of them were heroes." Caitlin genuinely said. "You can be one too."

He laughed again. "I never wanted to be a hero. What I wanted was to go to college, but we couldn't afford it. Football was my way in, until that got taken from me."

"Life has this annoying thing of always dealing you a bad hand, yeah." Olivia said sympathetically. "Trust me I know it better than anyone, and I wasn't even here when the accelerator blew up." Jax looked confused. "It took something from you, but it also gave you something in return, something that some could see as spectacular, the chance to be part of something bigger, to be part of a team that's working to protect people from losing what you lost."

"We believe you were meant to be a hero." Caitlin continued.

"What about that guy, Venom? I thought he survived. I mean, he's the one jumping around in the city, right?" Jefferson asked.

"No, that's my daughter. Frankie." Caitlin revealed to his shock. "She's Seth's daughter. She's been taking on the mantle of Venom as Magenta. That's how she griefs…to fight. We both miss him…the hero that we all miss. He sacrificed a lot for us, for the entire city. His own life." The doctor continued. "The chance to watch his little girl grow up, go to college…" she chuckled. "probably meet a boy that he's gonna scare the living hell of out just for being near Frankie. He's gonna miss the chance to," she grabbed her necklace. "get down on a knee to propose to me… and marry me even though that's what we both wanted and dreamed off." She wiped a tear away. "He gave all that up to save his home… his friends and family,"

"I didn't know." Jax said. "I'm sorry to hear."

"Remember what I said about life dealing you a bad hand?" Olivia took over. The quarterback nodded. "Yeah, well, he was dealt the worse hand, but he chose to not let that hand define him. He played the cards to his own advantage, chose not to let them keep him from continuing. He became Venom despite the bad things that had happened to him. Seth Fury, my big brother, became the Lethal Protector. The hero who was willing to do the wrong things for the right reasons. So, the question is," she walked closer to the football player. "are you going to fold, Jefferson Jackson, or are you going to play with the hand you've been given? Because the dealer is ready to close for this game, soon. And with it, goes Stein's life."

Jackson was about to open his mouth, about to come with his final response. But it came to a halt when he saw the lights above their heads flickering. It started out a few times, but then it grew uncontrollably. Flickering as though there was a shortage of power in them and the rest of the facility. "Hold on." He told the women before going to inspect the damage.

Olivia and Caitlin turned around to face the direction and widened their eyes at the sight. Dr. Henry Hewitt walked out from behind the corner. The scientist looked at the doctor with crazed eyes. The psychic jumped in front of Caitlin while Henry spoke. "I've been looking for you, Dr. Snow."

"Hey, look, man, we're-" Jax was cut off when Henry blasted a surge of orangey energy at the quarterback, blowing in the air and hurling into a pile of tires.

Caitlin looked shocked while the psychic took out her box. Henry turned to them and lashed out his hands to the sides. A veil of orangey light emitted around his body. The bulbs in the lambs burst and their energy shot out and were siphoned off by the scientist. "You did this to me! But it's not what you promised, is it? Is it?"

"Caity, stay behind me." Olivia told her.

Henry lashed out both hands, launching a blast of orangey energy at the magenta-haired woman. It came so fast that the mutant was knocked off the ground and hurled into the air. The force forced her out of the workshop and on the ground, sending her into a roll.

She perked her head up and wiped away the blood sipping from the corner of her mouth. "Okay, now I'm pissed." Her psychic energy wrapped around her box and yanked it off her belt. Her hand wrapping around it and clutched it. Placing it on her chest she pressed the button on the middle, she let the nanites from within it and swarm over her body.

The skin-tight black suit that was the foundation of her suit formed, clinging to her body. As she raised up on her feet, the nanites adapted on top of her suit. Her metallic crimson-red boots with white overtone formed and dug into the ground, cracking it with the power she put into them. The knee-caps reformed into blood-red flame emblems. The nanites kept adapting to her body, following up the length of her body like a gathering of vipers running up. They reached her chest and covered her in a dark-red thin but protective armor. A small sphere of nanites formed again in the middle of her chest, forming a SHIELD emblem with blood red flames surrounding it. White shoulder pats with blood-red spikes. Her hands scraped the asphalt, her dark-red gauntlets with white overtone formed and the black claws cut the ground.

Swinging her head around, her long magenta-colored hair swung around before she threw her head back, and the nanites swum over her face. Her menacing dark-silver mask formed and her completely white eyes shined, as though her body was devoid of a soul. Swinging her hair again, the nanites grabbed onto each and every strand of hair attached to her head, spreading over them. Magenta changed colors, changing into crimson-red. Her hair remained airborne, holding itself up in the air and making an ethereal appearance.

She stepped back with a foot and shot forward with her muscles enhanced by her psychic powers. Caitlin saw the blur of red and saw Olivia standing before her. "Angel Fury."

"In the flesh." She stated her words.

"You think a suit of armor is enough for me to stop?" Henry challenged. "It's a joke."

"Wanna bet on that?" she challenged back. Her hands shining with psychic energy before she thrusted her hands forward. Her energy shot out and took the form of a spiraling sphere before colliding against Henry's body and throwing him against a couple of carts.

She saw his form sprawled on the ground before looking at Caitlin. "Do I get to kill him or do we focus on Stein?"

"Stein, first!" Caitlin prioritized and saw Jefferson waking up and getting to his feet. He looked shocked to see Angel Fury standing there. "Not now, Jax. Come on!" she and the quarterback ran to the car with Olivia rushing after them.

Before they got into the car, Angel Fury asked. "Where to?"

"S.T.A.R. Labs." She instantly replied before getting into the car with Jax.

"Alrighty." The mutant agreed before using her powers to slam the doors shut…right after Henry woke up and siphoned off more energy from the objects around. "Let's go!" she hardly patted the top of Caitlin's car before jumping into the air and flying with the car following her.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Right around the time, Caitlin and Jax walked into the Cortex, Olivia jumped down the skylight and removed her mask. But it was right around the time where things were really starting to look grim. Barry came out of the right side with a disheartening expression. "Guys…"

"What's wrong?" Caitlin asked in concern.

"Come here." He directed them into the lab. The three of them rushed into the lab and heard the machines beeping as his heart kept beating weakly.

"Tell me this isn't bad." Olivia asked her husband in worry.

Matt shifted his head. "Okay. It's much worse."

"Really, Uncle Matt?" His niece asked Matt in confusion and shock of his tone at this urgent situation.

"Sorry honey, bad habits." He apologized.

Cisco then held up the device that kept Stein going before. "Oh, good, you're here. This thing, it ran out, like, 30 minutes ago."

Barry then added, "His temperature is 142 degrees and rising fast."

"Hopefully, I listened well enough when my brother went all doctor, but that sounds a lot like rapid oxidation." Olivia pitched in.

Caitlin nodded. "Yeah, you're right. We need to find a coolant."

"I think we're too late for that." Cisco regretfully said.

Jefferson felt his eyes shift over to the monitors that kept track of the professor's condition. His ears registering every word uttering from the mouths of the scientists before him. His mind repeating the words in a loop. He then turned to the professor himself who truly looked to be on Death's door.

Turning his head to face Olivia and Caitlin one last time, the former football player announced his final decision. "I'll do it." His words got everyone's attention. "I'll merge with him." he looked at Caitlin and Olivia. "You said this is a chance for me to be a part of something bigger than myself, to use the cards life's given me, whether they're bad or not, to not let them define me… to help people. That's what I want."

"You're sure?" Barry asked for his sake.

"Once you merge, there's no going back on this. It's now or never." Matt further added.

Jax nodded his agreement still. "And you said I could fly, right?" he directed at Cisco.

"Damn right." Cisco assured him.

"Okay. So, what do I do?" Jefferson asked them all.

"Okay, well, here's the abridged version." Cisco had Jax and Matt follow him into the Cortex.

Caitlin leant over Stein's form from the right side while her daughter did the same from the left side. "Professor Stein?" the mother tried walking up the man.

"Stein, wake up." Frankie shook him awake.

"Clarissa, five more minutes." He responded in his sleep in a pleading tone.

"Not this time, Professor." Olivia didn't grant his wishes and shook a bit harder. "You have to get up."

Barry took his glasses and put them over the professor's eyes. "Jax is here."

"What?"

"Jax is here." The speedster repeated for the professor's sake. "Here, grab onto me." He told the professor while he, Frankie and Caitlin helped him to his feet.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, the Cortex)**

Cisco grabbed the quantum splicer he and Matt had made before walking to Jefferson. "This is it." he held up the device. Matt nodded his consent when the native engineer looked at him before placing it on the football player's chest.

Its latches shot out and attached to his body at the same time, Jax noticed the staggering form of Professor Martin Stein being led to him with Frankie and Caitlin's aids. Barry and Olivia stood near in case of further assistance. "You came back, Jefferson, thank you." the Professor voiced his appreciation.

Jax smiled. "Well, like my coach always said, "Out of yourself and into the team"." They all smiled. "So, how's this work?" he asked the nanite mutant.

"Not much." Matt said. "Just touch Stein."

"And then what happens?" he asked again.

"You become Firestorm." Caitlin answered.

"Okay." Jefferson said, thinking that it was simple enough for him to do.

Martin smiled and turned to the ones around him, giving them a series of nods. Wordlessly, telling them to step back from him in case they might be hurt from any unfortunate results that were unwanted. Matt turned to his wife who was still in her suit. she nodded and with flicks of her fists, she raised psychic walls that would protect them in case the worst were to happen.

They then watched with undivided attention…as Professor Martin Stein…and…Jefferson Jackson…walked closer to one another…Once they were close to each other…

… it happened.

Their bodies both turned into fiery orangey energy and collided with one another…no, fused together in a bright flare of light. The light dimmed down and then the only thing that remained in their place were… the flame-headed form of Jefferson Jackson. His head bursting with flames. His eyes white as snow. His hands blazing with wild flames.

Olivia smiled and put her barriers down and let everyone walk forward. "Jax?" Caitlin worriedly asked. The new Firestorm turned to her. "Is Professor Stein-"

"How will I know?" Jax asked.

"_Hello, Jefferson. Now you know._"

At the sound of the echoing voice in his head, the fiery metahuman widened his eyes before realization dawned on him. "Oh, so I get Grey as my co-pilot."

"_Did no one ever inform you of that fringe benefit?_" Martin asked his host.

Frankie smiled and then said, "It's like a bond." She got the others attention. "You two are now bonded on a mental level as well. It's like you have eyes in the back of your head, covering your blind spots and all. A pair of extra senses, like my and Magenta inside me."

Firestorm smiled with impressiveness. "So, when do we get to take this for a test spin?"

The computers on the main console began blaring. Cisco and Matt rushed to them and saw what was happening. "How about now?" the native engineer suggested urgently.

"What's happening, guys?" Frankie asked.

"It looks like Hewitt's recharging at Central City High School's football stadium." Matt told them of their findings.

_WHOOSH_

Barry disappeared in a flash of yellow lightning and put on his suit. "Wait, that was where I got hurt." Jackson stated.

Olivia put a hand on both her niece's shoulder and her husband's shoulder. "Mind letting me handle this bastard?"

"Knock him out, sweetie." He said and she smiled.

"Good luck, Auntie." Frankie called and her aunt formed her mask again. Angel Fury then shot out of the skylight with Firestorm following her.

X

**(Central City High School, Football Stadium)**

Football players and cheerleaders were running away at full speed at the sight of the metahuman standing in the middle of the stadium who was deriving the energy from all the massive lights that began flickering from the drainage of power.

Henry Hewitt didn't pay the running students a single part of his mind. His focus was devoted to the draining of the power sources he was surrounded by. He unleashed two blasts of energy that joined together to form a barrier-like wall that halted two football players from running away.

_WHOOSH_

However, a flash of yellow lightning pulled them away and into safety.

Another blast came from him and were about to hit a group of cheerleaders. But a pinkish psychic energy wall stopped it from hitting them, blocking the attack. Angel Fury dropped down on the ground and looked at them. "You girls, get outta here and get to safety. We'll take care of this."

"Alright, thanks ma'am." One of them thanked before running away with the rest of them.

"_Cisco, cut the power to the field so he can't draw any more energy._" She heard Barry call through the communication devices.

"_I'm on it. Stand by._" Cisco told them before letting out an excited cry. The lights in the stadium lights shut off and the entire stadium was plunged into darkness.

Angel Fury flew into the air before landing down on the ground in behind Henry. Flash appeared beside her. "Hewitt! You need to stop! This is not who you are!"

"Stop it now! otherwise this is gonna turn ugly really fast!" Angel Fury roared at him. but neither hers or Flash's threats appeared to work on him, he merely smirked as though their presences just fueled his desire to let loose.

However, a gallon of fuel was then poured over his fire when Henry saw a familiar blazing form descending to the grounds with his hands and head erupting with flames. The moment the energy drainer saw him, his face paled with anger. "Stein? You chose him over me? That's' who I'm supposed to be!" None of them paid his words or attitude any mind. "I deserve the Firestorm Matrix!"

"You deserve a good ol' fashion beating, you jackass!" Olivia exclaimed.

Henry didn't want to hear anymore and lashed out his hands, blasting off two energy blasts. One of them came at Olivia who jumped into the air and dodged it with a spin following her leap. But Jackson was the one to receive the blast coming at him despite Stein's warning. "Move, now!"

Jackson registered the warning but it was useless now as their conjoined metahuman body was sent into a spin. "_Calm down, Jefferson, focus._" He heard Martin Stein tell him. "_Use your natural athleticism to gain control._" This time the quarterback heard his words and used his blasting flames to steady himself into a hovering.

Olivia saw the fiery metahuman back in good stance and used this chance to concentrate psychic energy between her hands. Her energy bounced against the walls of flesh that were her hands, jumping off back and forth into a sphere.

Her eyes shined brightly with energy before she compressed her hands together, and the energy slipped through the gaps of her fingers, and gathered into two spheres orbiting at the backs of her hands. Crossing her arms over one another, she forced the spheres of energy to flicker against one another with friction.

Clenching both hands, the energy spheres circulated their energy within more violently. With a brutal motion, she uncrossed her arms and the spheres collided with one another and exploded. The small explosion gave way to psychic constructs in the shapes of spikes that blasted forward with the speed of harpoons launched by warship cannons.

Henry saw the energy spikes coming his way and thrusted his hands forward, firing off two blasts of energy. Their two separate attacks clashed with one another and blew up a large smokescreen over them.

Firestorm managed to get his bearings and landed down on the audience seats and watched the fight between Angel Fury and Henry Hewitt. "Damn! Don't wanna mess with that lady."

"_I would advise against that, yes._" Martin Stein agreed with his other half, knowing full well…a small extent of the psychic's powers when fueled by anger and vengeance.

Barry sped to his side. "Hey, you okay?"

"I was a quarterback. I know how to take a hit." Jackson told him. The two then watched as the dust screen dissipated and the two powered beings on the field stared off.

Angel Fury took out her bladed razor whip and pushed the button on the handle. The whip lashed out and she twirled it around in a spin before lashing out her hand. She wrapped the bladed whip around Henry's right arm. Though his struggles to get out of it were annoying, they were useless.

With a pull of her hand, she yanked the metahuman into the air and used her psychic powers to bring him down on the ground. His head looked up and anger washed over him. Using his right hand, he blasted the whip off his arm with an energy blast. He managed to get back to see his feet. But it was not quick enough as the psychic appeared before him.

Her hand reeled back before thrusted forward with a psychic veil of energy wrapped around her fist. She hit the man's stomach and upon impact, her fist unleashed a psychic shockwave that blew the metahuman back with a grunt as he skipped on the ground like a skipping stone.

But as he did so, he rolled back to his feet and fired off energy blasts. "Not this time!" Olivia screamed and used her blade to cut into the energy blasts, and deflected them.

Barry saw his energy attacks and said, "Hey, guys, cutting the power didn't work. It's like the more we anger him, the stronger he gets."

"_That's it, it's like one of those…controlled fusion devices._" They heard Caitlin call out back at the facility.

"_Don't tell me this universe has Tokamaks?_" Matt said next in the facility.

"_Yes, exactly, and the more powerful they become, the more unstable they become._" Caitlin said.

"_Sounds right. Metahumans, mutants and humans as well, lose their shit if they become angry._" Matt followed up.

"_So, they just have to make him angry, and he'll blow his fuse._" Frankie stated.

"How angry is he gonna get if he loses to a girl?" Angel Fury mused while cracking her fists, the armored parts of her knuckles creaking as well.

"_Pretty pissed, I'd guess._" Matt guessed.

Barry put his hand on his comms device and said to both Firestorm and Angel Fury, "You guys up for a little game of "catch me if you can"?"

"Let's go for it." Firestorm agreed.

"Don't give me orders!" Angel Fury screamed her words and watched as Barry sped around Henry.

"Hey, Hewitt, over here!" he taunted him while disappearing every time he paused in his words or when an energy blast was fired. "Paging Dr. Hewitt."

Angel Fury chuckled and raised a single finger on her right hand. Psychic energy wrapped around her fingertip before she fired it off in a small miniscule ball. The ball popped against the metahuman's face, making him slap himself by accident as though he was trying to swat a fly. "Why you slapping yourself? I thought you were a doctor. You're not that smart, are you?"

Henry fired off more energy blasts but all of them either hit nothing at all or were missed due to the pains of energy balls popping off on his face along with the fact that a speedster was becoming a growing pain. "Man, you are not good at this." Barry taunted.

Henry cried in anger and he fired off energy blasts again, but once again they were missed. Five more energy balls popped off against his right side and he saw Angel Fury pointing her fingers at him like she was wielding guns. "Do you need a hug, Doctor?" The metahuman blasted off more energy blasts but Olivia leaped out of the way and continued firing off energy balls that popped against his skin.

Barry then increased his sped and sped around him like a vortex with him in the eye of it. Firestorm then added his own taunts. "Come on, Hewitt, give me your best shot!" Henry turned his attention to the fiery metahuman in the air.

"_Now!_" Martin announced.

Firestorm fired off a fire blast. At the same time, the energy drainer fired off an energy blast. The two attacks cancelled out one another. Henry felt his blood boil from his heating anger and the energy inside of him boiled as well. "Is that all you got, Hewitt?" He heard Flash ask him.

"Ah, what else can you expect from a piss-poor asshole who just throws a tantrum when he doesn't get his way? Just like a three-year-old brat, if you ask me." Angel Fury let out her words with her hands to the sides and acting as scales on a weight.

Jackson laughed tauntingly, "Man, no wonder you didn't make the cut if that's how you fight."

Henry concentrated the energy inside him and let out a cry before lashing out his hands again. this time firing off two energy blasts that elongated and aimed for Firestorm and Flash. Angel Fury saw one coming her way as well and blocked it with a psychic wall.

Barry dodged the blast aimed at him and Firestorm flew away from his before charging for Henry. He had his arm lashed out and before Hewitt could see him, Jefferson slams his fist into the side of his face. The added force of him flying through the air was enough for his impact to send the energy drainer spinning in the air and knocking him out.

Jefferson put himself down on the ground while Barry sped to his side and Olivia walked. "Not bad for your first go at this." The speedster praised.

"Well, I had a great coach to help me through it." Jackson said before looking into his mind. "Isn't that right, Grey?"

"_Despite my initial reservations, we make a pretty fantastic team._" Martin agreed and praised the teamwork between the two of them.

"But you're still a rookie and could use help." Olivia had to say and the fiery metahuman chucked. She patted his shoulder. "You did good, pal. Welcome aboard…Firestorm." Firestorm smiled.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

The next day, Iris had to go to Jitters once again. Once again, she had to face her mother, Francine again. But this time it was to face her again with the knowledge that she's…dying. Iris didn't know what to think of that. She didn't believe it at first when she heard it from her father.

Francine showed up out of nowhere and only reveals that she's dying after Iris told her to stay away. It was suspicious.

But Francine was still his mother, and she only came to Central City for Iris herself. And this time, she had time to do some research of her own.

She had made her decision, and set a meeting with her absentee mother now. Iris saw her sitting by herself at table and walked over to her. "Hi." Francine greeted her with a smile. The young reporter took a seat on the table while her mother expressed her gratitude. "Thank you for coming. You have no idea what this means to me."

Iris went right down to business. "My dad told me you were sick." Francine nodded with a sorrow expression. "You know, I wasn't sure that I could believe you, so I did some checking." Her mother awaited the findings. "Turns out you're telling the truth."

"I would never lie to you about something so big." Francine told her honestly.

"Really?" Iris asked skeptically. "cause I was actually thinking that I could give you another chance after hearing that news." Francine was unable to decide whether or not she should form a happy expression. "But you're still lying, still keeping secrets." Her mother paled with fear. "I'm an investigative reporter, Francine. I uncover things that people want to keep hidden…like having a son."

Francine was at a loss for words. "Iris-" she managed to get out.

But then Iris interrupted her. "He was born eight months after you left Central City."

"Let me explain."

"Who's the father, Francine?" Iris didn't give Francine a chance to divulge. "Is it my dad?" she didn't respond. "Do I have a brother?" this time, Francine chose not to open her mouth to talk. But Iris waved her hands in the air, not giving her the chance to speak again. "Wait, you know, I don't even want… I don't want to know. I mean, I wouldn't be able to tell if you were telling the truth or if it was another one of your lies, anyway."

Francine sadly put her hand on the side of her head. "I want you to leave. You stay away from me, and you stay away from my father." She spoke her mind, telling her of what she was feeling and her ultimatum. "If he finds out that he might have a son that grew up without even knowing him, it would crush him. Just…" she sighed heavily. "Leave us alone."

With a heavy heart, Iris got off her chair and turned around to walk away. "Iris, I was…" Francine tried to stop her. but it was for naught as Iris had quickly disappeared through the door.

X

"And how is Mr. Hewitt?" Martin Stein asked the group as they all walked out of his house after a quick call to his wife.

"Seems like that last burst of energy has burnt him out." Caitlin replied while she and her daughter helped the professor down the stairs.

"Our Tokamak's gone dark." Cisco added, pitching in the nickname for the energy drainer.

"Nice name." Matt praised and he fist bumped the native engineer.

"Yeah, we're just gonna keep him…safe and sound in the Pipeline till he decides to keep quiet about all this." Barry sheepishly said.

Frankie looked to her aunt. "Aunt Liv, can't you take care of that?"

"With my fists, yeah. But my mind, not so much not honey." she responded with a shaking of her head.

Joe then nodded to the professor and got his attention. "So, you're gonna meet up with Clarissa?"

"We're meeting in Pittsburg in three days." Martin informed them.

"Why Pittsburgh?" Jax asked.

"A colleague of mine was monumental in helping train Ronald and me." He informed his other half of Firestorm. "She's graciously offered to help the two of us as well."

"How's she gonna help us?" the quarterback asked in confusion.

Martin tilted his head from side to side as he revealed. "Well, there were many aspects of our abilities that we never quite achieved. Hopefully now, we can fully realize that potential." Martin looked to Caitlin who smiled cutely while hugging her daughter tightly. "Oh, my dearest Dr. Snow."

Caitlin unwrapped her arms from her child and hugged the professor. Martin wasn't about to go yet and opened his other arm further to let Frankie join the hug. He unwrapped both hands from the two but kept them on a shoulder on each. "Seth and Ronald may be lost to us, but they will never be forgotten." Martin looked at Frankie. "And your father would so proud of you, young lady. As he should be. A true protector."

"Thanks Stein, means a lot." Frankie smiled warmly.

The doctor walked over to Jax and reached into her purse, her new one, seeing as her old one was currently a resident on another Earth. "Speaking of…this was Ronnie's. He always used it to find his way back home." she revealed a compass that she held out for him. "I want you to have it."

Jax accepted it and opened it up to check it over. "Thank you." he thanked the doctor. "You know, this whole thing is strange, being 50% of someone."

"Yeah, but you're 100% a hero." Caitlin instantly said before hugging Jefferson.

Jefferson dislodged from her and then said. "Not to open up old wounds, but honestly, I wish could have met this Seth guy. Sounds like a crazy guy, and I'd would have liked to thank him for saving my home."

"I know. And so, would I." Caitlin said through a forced smile, because she would do so much more than just thank him for his sacrifice that led to the salvation of their home.

Matt and Cisco walked to the professor. The nanite mutant held up the splicer. "Me and Cisco went ahead and recalibrated the splicer so the merging should be even smoother for you two weirdos."

"Yeah, should be much easier in the future for you two." Cisco nodded to the professor and the quarterback.

"Thank you, both of you." Martin expressed his thankfulness before getting to a somewhat sore subject. "If I may offer a bit of parting advice." He directed at Cisco and saw that Matt was giving his full attention. "Cisco, I know you're scared…but this ability you have is a gift, not a curse. It's natural to be apprehensive about the unknown, but look at Jefferson." The professor gestured to the quarterback.

"He's right, Cisco." Matt knew where the man was going. "The guy took a leap of faith, and it completely changed his life, for the better." He put a hand on the engineer's shoulder. "The very thing that makes you different is exactly what makes you special. Take it from me, I know all about that feeling."

Martin nodded. "Tell your friends." Cisco looked unsure but assuring looks from both Martin and the mutant made him feel a bit better. The professor hugged the native engineer. Unwrapping he hugged the nanite mutant.

Dislodging from him, the professor turned to gain everyone's attention. "And now I believe it's time to take this show on the road, or to the sky, if I am to be literal." Everyone around them laughed.

"Stein, you should become a comedian!" Frankie called out to the man who continued to laugh.

Caitlin wrapped one arm around her daughter's shoulder. "Sweetie, I'm sorry with how I've been acting lately. Just been a bit on edge, I guess."

"I miss him too, Mom." Frankie looked up to her. "I miss Dad too. And we're both still healing. It takes time for us to get over it." She hugged her bracelets with one hand. "And it's gonna take a long time. And I don't wanna forget Dad."

"We won't." Caitlin rubbed her shoulders. "We won't ever forget your Dad, honey, not ever. Trust me," she rubs her necklace. "it's not possible for us to ever forget the man we love."

"I know, Mom." Frankie put her head on her mother's arm, leaning against it. "Mom? Mind if I go swinging later on? When it's dark? Felicia tells me to keep get better at moving in the night."

"Sure thing, honey. And when you're done, bring Felicia home and then we can have a big dinner." Caitlin offered and kissed her daughter's head. Frankie smiled and turned her attention to the front again.

Watching with happiness as the quarterback took the quantum splicer and placed it over his chest. Watching it attach to his body with a determined expression of readiness. "Are you ready, Jefferson?" Martin asked him. his other half nodded his consent and then the two neared one another. In a bright light, they merged into Firestorm. The others smiled happily before he blasted down his arms and shot into the air.

"I am so challenging them to a race." Matt joked.

"Me first, babe." Olivia quipped and walked away with him.

"Okay, I'm gonna go shopping now. Frankie, you make sure you're back in time, okay?" Caitlin told her while walking. "And no hitting birds, alright?" she quickly added.

"Alright, Mom!" Frankie shouted her answer before her form was enveloped by the symbiote and she jumped into the air and shot out tendrils as she began to swing away.

X

Just as quickly as the daily events had passed, as did the day itself. Nightly skies now appeared over the heads of Central City. And the dark lights kept shining over the buildings that were standing high and tall in the city.

One of the tallest buildings with glass surfaces were occupied by the small form of a symbiote-enhanced metahuman who ran over the surface of it. She leapt from the wall and thrusted out a tendril. It attached to the top of a building. Yanking on it, she swung before releasing it and launched herself into the air.

Looking to the left, she saw a metal plate hanging off the corner of a building. Clenching her hand, she had the plate flying her way and she spun around. Placing her feet on it, she let it fly through the skies before passing through the threshold of an alley.

Magenta used her hands to shift her plate and let if glide against the alleyway. Sparks from the friction ran all over the place. "Woohoo!" Frankie exclaimed her excitement as she surfed against the wall. Her feet attached to the plate that she used a board before slamming her hands into the wall under her.

She flipped her body around with move akin to that of a somersault. Releasing her hold on the wall, she fired off tendrils that connected to the top edge of the building, attaching them to the rooftop before pulling on them. With the force of her pull, she shot herself up the wall before spinning around and landing on the roof with a loud clanging sound.

"Wow! That's how you work out!" Frankie exclaimed with her blood pumping like crazy. "I needed that!"

"**_By the maker, could you not just stop talking about your workout?!_**" Magenta screamed and Frankie laughed. "**_It's not chocolate, not worth our time!_**"

"Believe it or not, we don't' all have to eat chocolate, partner!" Frankie shouted as she jumped up and down.

"**_Well, yeah _****we****_ do! Don't wanna have to feast on your liver, now do I?_**" Magenta said.

"Yeah, that's right." Frankie twitched her head and then said. "I'm in the mood for coffee."

"**_Yes! One Magenta is just what the doctor ordered._**" Frankie heard her "other" excitedly speak.

"Sounds like a good idea, could actually go for a donut or two. Let's go." The metahuman ran to the edge of the rooftop and jumped off of it. a tendril fired off in a spiraling manner and attached to a pillar and pulled on it. Her body catapulting forward and she landed on the side of a building with metallic downward railings.

She placed both feet on it and let gravity glide her down on it before leaping from it. Attaching another tendril to the side of a building, she swung around the building and let go of it. The force sent her flying and she landed on a large and tall tree.

Frankie looked down and widened her eyes at the sight she found near CC Jitters. "What the…" she couldn't believe her eyes.

Magenta was wearing an equally confused and shocked expression. "**_Are we going crazy or is that a big-ass fish on two legs with his hand around Flash's throat?_**"

"With pants…" Frankie nodded in agreement while adding the last detail…as she took in the details of the large beast on two legs.

It was large humanoid white shark with shockingly huge muscles. Large hands with fines and claws at the fingertips. One of them wrapped around the throat of the Scarlet Speedster who tried to struggle his way out of the grip. Gills opening up and inhaling air on either side of its large and elongated head. Its dark blue eyes solely focused on Barry. Shark teeth revealed at the opening of his huge mouth. Legs clad in…ragged torn brown pants.

The beastly metahuman roared at The Flash. "Zoom wants you dead." The shark metahuman roared again and brought the speedster closer to his maw.

"Chances are he's gonna get a stomachache if he eats him." Frankie mused and Magenta laughed.

"Put him down!" The young metahuman snapped her head to the side and saw Detective Patty Spivot rushing towards the two metahumans with a raised firearm. "Put your hands…your fins in the air!" she corrected her warning…embarrassingly.

The shark metahuman turned to Patty and chuckled darkly and let go of Barry, dropping him on the ground like yesterday's trash. With booming steps, he neared the detective who fired off her gun but all of her bullets were for naught and they never even fazed the metahuman.

"Time t**o work.**" Magenta spoke with the lower half of her face ripping open to reveal her mouth with sharp teeth and a long rose tongue. With additional strength pushed into her legs, she jumped off the tree that she used as a platform. Spinning around, she swung her leg into the side of the shark's head and it pushed him back.

Shaking off the disorientation that the large metahuman felt from the attack, he turned to the origin of the assault…and felt his entire being shaken with petrifying terror at the sight. His body automatically staggering backwards as he took in the frightening form again.

He felt as though it wasn't Magenta before his eyes…but it did nothing to halt the waterfall of sweat that oozed down his long head. Tremors caused his limbs to shake like an earthquake rocking his entire autonomy. Fear forced his heart to beat frantically like an overloading machine.

Blinking his eyes, the shark metahuman didn't see the young girl…but instead saw a familiar blurry vision of that demonic hellion again looking down on him with a murderous expression. The memory of him standing before him with his hands soaked with the blood that belonged to him rushed to his mind. The painful reminder of his arms being torn off his limbs returned to him…as though they were being torn off again.

"Monster!" the shark metahuman roared in fear at the sight of Magenta.

"**Close enough. Name's Magenta, Nemo!**" Frankie formed a sword on her right hand before shooting after the metahuman. Fear dictated his actions and he jumped away, dodging the attack from her sword. He staggered back to his feet and tore off a bench from the asphalt.

Using it, he swung for the other metahuman. But Frankie dodged all of the swings before performing a backflip into the air. Her hands firing off tendrils that attached to the grounds around him. Magenta yanked herself forward with both feet pressed together and forming spikes on both, before slamming into the shark's stomach.

The force of the attack pushed him back and up the stairs. He got on his feet again and took hold of a streetlamp. Magenta saw the shark launch the lamp like a lance and coming her way. Lashing out both arms, she connected tendrils to the hurled lance.

"**I think this is yours!**" she quipped before rotating her entire and swinging the lamp back to the shark metahuman's face. Leaving the side of his mouth with a large scar. Frankie grimaced. "**Sorry went a bit overboard with that.**"

"**_Why are you apologizing to your enemy?!_**" Magenta chastised her host.

Frankie was about to answer but then saw the scar on the metahuman's body restoring itself. "**Oh, that's neat.**" She said impressed before clenching her hands. Using her metahuman powers, she tore off two long metal stands spiraled them around her body.

"**Time to skewer this fish!**" With another flex of her hands, she broke the stands into two pieces, making four in total. With a cry, she launched them all forward with the speed of rockets. The shark metahuman was able to dodge one, then another one, then the third one. But the fourth one had the strength to penetrate and bury into the left side of his back, forcing him to scream in pain.

Magenta charged again, crossing her arms and reformed both hands into long swords. Jumping in the middle of her rush, she uncrossed them and cut the shark metahuman's stomach again.

The shark metahuman swung his head around in pain before pointing them back at the smaller metahuman. "Monster! Monst-" The shark humanoid was cut off as a flash of blue light emitted around his back before he fell down from loss of consciousness.

Barry sped up to the confused magnekinetic metahuman who looked up at the top of the staircase. A man stood there…cloaked by dark clothes…and a black hoodie that concealed his face…his hands holding his large rifle-like energy weapon that was pointing their way.

The man moved away from them and walked to a small area under a decorated structure.

_WHOOSH_

But a gust of air and a pair of feet touching the ground with a sharp clang stopped him.

"Who the hell are you?" The Flash asked him instantly.

"Turn around!" Magenta demanded.

The mand didn't speak, but instead he slowly took off his hoodie and turned around to face the two metahumans. He pulled if over his head and showed them his face...the face of the man responsible for all the metahumans and their chaos…showing the familiar face of that one man…

… Harrison Wells…the sight of his face was enough for them to shake with shock…but Frankie's eyes shined brightly with magenta…her anger and pain…erupting inside of her like lava spewing out of a volcano.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**Once again, our favorite Merc with A Mouth is on our side and approving the story. Also, the image took a while to make and I hope you guys love it too. Once again, all credit goes to Shin Art who made the sword on his YouTube channel.**

**And now, Professor Stein's life has been saved and thanks to Jefferson Jackson, Firestorm is once again bursting into the light of day. Thwarting the evil Tokamak with Angel Fury, the newly conjoined metahuman flew to Pittsburgh to once again train himself as he once promised to do so with Ronnie Raymond.**

**Caitlin still in pain of the loss of her mate, feeling her pain overwhelming her and needing to distract herself with anything that's thrown in front of her. She distracted herself as best as she could and directed it to the mission to save Firestorm again. But thankfully, Olivia was able to help her through her trying time as best as she could. Even though she was still fighting through her own pain of the loss of her brother.**

**Iris now had to deal with a massive secret herself, now she is like Barry and Joe a year ago. Now holding the secret that Francine, her mother, never told her father… that she has a brother out there in the world, that Joe has a son that he's never had the chance to meet or raise. A devasting result is to be expected when this is gonna unfold.**

**Cisco felt himself encouraged by the words spoken by the elderly professor and the nanite mutant. But feelings of what he heard from Eobard Thawne makes him feel like he should keep the secret under wrap still. And it appears to be strong.**

**Frankie was forced to watch her mother still pain of the loss of Seth, and it was painful for both her and the young daughter. But they were still there for each other through it all, being the rock that the other leans on through trying times.**

**However, the young girl was forced to help the speedster that ruined her life and the lives of many others in Central City when she saw him at the grasp of a large humanoid shark walking on land. While fighting against him, she learnt more about him and saw his limbs regrow. But he was put down by a blast of a familiar face…**

**… ****by Harrison Wells…**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	11. Chapter 11:Splash of A Lost World

**And now another bedtime story for you wonder readers out there.**

**Want to thank you all for numerous PMs and reviews again, they give me fuel and I can't thank you guys enough for them. As well as enjoying the story.**

**Before we begin, I want to say thanks to my friend, Ryu otsutsuki for helping me write this chapters. He's an amazing friend to have on your side.**

**Once again, sorry to taking to long to update the story. Project at school and other stuff interfering at every corner… forgive me!**

**But without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 11: Splash of A Lost World**

Jumping down on the ground and performing a quick roll, he swung the large sword before reeling it back and holding it with both hands around the handle. He panted lightly before relaxing his body and put the blade into the ground and looked around.

He was grateful for Iris and Barry to let him use their back garden as a temporary training ground for him to use sharpen his swordsmanship. Seth and Venom had to think back to their younger days when they used to watch Matt swing one of his swords around to perform his own swordsmanship.

Seth held up the crystal sword in front of his eyes. "Wonder what he'd think of us now?" he chuckled at the thought of his best friend to see him now wield a sword like he has done numerous times. "Wonder what he and Liv are doing now actually?"

"**_Probably on a honeymoon, don't you think?_**" Venom guessed.

"I don't know, maybe." Seth replied with a saddened expression before looking up at the sky. His sadness increased as he thought. "Think they're all looking at the same skies…and moved on?" his grip on the sword handle tightened.

"**_We hope not, old friend._**" Venom sympathized with his host. "**_You are worried about Caitlin and Frankie, aren't you?_**"

"Of course. Frankie's without her father now…" Seth felt the bones in his hands crack from the pressure he was putting into them. "And right now, Cait's without me."

"**_We both know that Zoom is somehow able to transport villains from his inner circle to another world, we just have to figure out how and where._**" Venom said.

"Easier said than done, partner." He reminded his partner. "But at least, we've had a few days without trouble, which is good I guess."

It's been few days since Seth got his sight back and now was in possession of a massive crystal sword. He's been holding himself at the West-Allen Household to train himself and to train the three girls. Jesse has now learned simple defensive techniques, which would hopefully aid her if she finds herself in a bind. Evelyn's been teaching herself mostly, experimenting with her different sets of powers and combining them. the elemental hasn't witnessed her newfound techniques yet, but he has high hopes for her now.

Though he did find it annoying when she would steal some of his things. She could give a Magpie a run for its money.

Ruby's the one who's been training herself nonstop. She's been asking him for advice when she's to train herself with her gravitational powers. She's been teaching herself, putting all her training since she was young into her self-given assignment: Achieving mastery of her new powers.

And if the elemental had to be honest with himself, she's progressing faster than he expected.

Apparently, she's been holding herself in her appointed guest bedroom and training herself in there. How and what she's doing as training, he did not know. But he knows that whatever she's doing is helping her and its amazing work.

He glanced behind him, pointing his eyes upwards to the window to Ruby's bedroom. "Never thought I'd ever take care of a HYDRA assassin." He stated his thoughts.

"**_Shows character, partner._**" Venom praised him.

"Thanks, Venom." Seth said and swung his blade around. With his other hand free and devoid of any objects, he sparked lightning around his limb while the symbiotic mass morphed it into a clawed hand. His eyes narrowing on the tree in front of him.

Wind blowing around his feet before Seth jumped into a sprint. Within half a minute, he was in front of the tree and he drove his clawed lightning-coated hand into the trunk before using his sword and slashed through the bark.

Dislodging his arm from the trunk, he examined the damage of both his claws and his sword. The elemental held a stoic expression when seeing that the sword was strong enough to cut a chunk of the tree off, but not fully cut through it. The damage of his clawed hand had done more damage, it was smashed deeper into the trunk, through the bark and deeply into its core.

Both of his attacks had the added momentum of his wind element catapulting his body, but his hands were still more effective to achieve more destruction. "_Should have expected this._"

"So, how's the woodchopping going?"

Seth perked his head up and looked back. He chuckled when seeing Barry walking over to him, his hands were holding onto two bottles with brown liquid in them.

"Hiya, Bar. And as you can see, it's going steady and bit less destructive than I had hoped, if I have to be honest." Seth told him while glancing at the tree he attacked before.

Barry stood beside the mutant and bent down to check the damage himself. He steadied his glasses as he looked at it. "It looks like your hand did more damage than your blade did."

"It did." He confirmed while holding up the blade. "I have used swords before, but that was back during my SHIELD training at the academy. But it's been such a long time, I honestly don't know if I'm doing it right. Back then, I devoted myself to hand-to-hand close combat than weapon combat. Right now, I'm just recalling how my best friend did it when he trained with a sword."

The CSI scientist straightened up to his full height and looked at him. "If you're struggling to use it the right way, then perhaps you shouldn't use the sword." He suggested to him.

The mutant struck the sword into the ground before answering. "I thought the same. But for some reason, this sword was emitting a sound that only my partner and I could hear. Like it was calling out to us. I could only hear it clearlly when I lost my eyesight." He made eye contact with him. "Maybe I have to use it, and maybe I'm the only one to use it."

"Doubt that." Barry muttered barely above a whisper.

Seth caught the sight of his mouth whispering and asked. "What did you say?"

Barry shook his head frantically, "Oh, nothing at all. Just me blabbering my mouth around." He held out one bottle to the elemental. "My wife tells me you are a bit of a chocolate addict, and I thought you'd be thirsty."

"Sounds about right. Thanks, Bar." He accepted the bottle and saw that it was chocolate milk. "Chocolate milk, nice." Seth unscrewed the lid and drank from it. Sighing in relief, he said after removing the bottle from his lips. "It's good. Thank you, Bar."

"Bar, huh?" Barry asked in shock. "The only person who calls me that is my Dad. My Mom calls me it sometimes too."

"Is it weird to hear me call you that too?" he made a mental note about the words about his parents.

"Not weird, just not used to, I guess. But it's nice to hear it, like you're an old friend or something like that." Barry said.

"I knew your doppelganger pretty well, that's why. I kept calling him Bar back home. He's a friend…somewhat." Seth sheepishly added at the end with uncertainty.

"Not anymore?" Barry wondered.

"Well, he's the reason I'm blasted into this universe to begin with, so I don't know where he and I stand now actually." Seth unsurely explained.

"Huh, sounds interesting." Barry said before looking around. He saw that there are lots of chopped off wood pieces, big enough to fit in a fireplace actually. "Maybe me and Iris should have a fireplace built in the living room. We need to use all these wood in some way."

"Sounds like a shitload of work. Why not just start a fire outdoors? Then we can make s'mores over a flame." Seth suggested. "I can help with that. A friend of mine used to take me and my best friend out for hunting trips in the forest behind the school I grew up in." he smiled at the nostalgia that was surfacing to his mind at the memories of his trips with Logan, the Wolverine.

"Taking kids out for a hunting trip? That doesn't sound safe." Barry noted with a half-smile.

"Well, we didn't have weapons on us, just tents. Plus, we are all mutants. So, it was also a lesson in trying to manage our powers in the nature, where everything around us were flammable and delicate and easily damageable." The mutant revealed.

"You had to train like that? Why?" Barry didn't understand the reasoning.

Seth took a seat on the ground and scratched the back of his head. "Well, it was for more my sake than it was for my best friend, Matt."

"What do you mean?" Barry asked while dusting the ground off, strangely enough, before sitting on the ground as well, sitting before the mutant.

"Emotions plays a big part in controlling powers." Seth started. "It's more dangerous for a person who has more than one power, like me. All my elements can cause unimaginable damage if I lose my temper. Rage can affect all my powers and can force them to expose themselves in bursts that I can't control. Guess, you can call them it a power flare."

"How do you control them then?" Barry wondered.

"I have to remember the bad things that my powers have caused when I have lost control in the past. Remember the bad and then it forces myself to keep my elements at bay and under control. That's how I had to control them in the past." He held up his hand with his palm facing upwards. Turning his palm into adamantium he sparked lightning over it, and it crackled over it. "But now, I have a different method."

"What's that?"

"I remember the people I have to protect. I remember all the good my powers have done. I remember that I'm not Hades. That I'm an agent of SHIELD, tasked with defending my homes till my very last breath." Seth closed his hand. "Kinda the same way you and your wife does it, when you put on your badges as CSI and Detective of the CCPD. We all do it for the innocents."

"You're just more willing to do the wrong things for the right reasons." Barry added.

"I am." Seth truthfully said. "It's either that or innocents will pay the price. And I have the powers to prevent that, and that's what I'll do. But Barry remember this:" the CSI looked at him with undivided attention. "I'm nothing like The Flash. I don't try to be the good guy, I'm the guy who can end others' nightmares, permanently at that."

"I guess I understand that." He shivered lightly. "But hearing you talk about it so casually like it's an everyday subject, at a detective's house, is…unsettling."

"Been there, done that, friend." Seth smiled before getting on his feet again. Shooting out a tendril from his side, he wrapped it around the handle of the large sword and dragged the weapon into his hand. "Right back to training, then."

"Before that…" he looked to Barry who pointed his finger down at the ground. The CSI was pointing at a long line drawn deep into the ground and through it. "Less property damage, thank you."

"No promises." Seth smirked like a manic hyena.

X

With her hands on her sides, Ruby was seated in the middle of her bed with closed eyes while concentrating intensely. Her concentration was devoted to what was levitating in front of her. A drop of sweat was rolling down her forehead as she remained focused on keeping the yellow tennis ball suspended in the air.

Whenever she had time she began experimenting more and more with her newfound powers. Ruby was determined to control her powers no matter what. And ever since Seth gave her a tennis ball to work with it's been somewhat easier to her to work with. Because now, she had a target that wouldn't break or be crushed when she would accidently apply too much pressure on it.

Not like she had done in the past.

Her eyes twitched behind her eyelids and the ball lowered a bit. But she regained her focus again and it was brought back up again. Ruby recalled all of her training ever since she was young and put it all into the new training with her new powers.

"_Remember your training!_"

Her eyes snapped open at the memory that entered her mind and it broke her concentration, accidently causing her to apply gravitational pressure on the ball around. Its crushed form fell on the bed before her. "Damn it. Not again!" Ruby hissed in anger and disappointment as she hit the mattress.

_KNOCK KNOCK_

Ruby turned her attention to the door when she heard the knocking. "Who's there?"

"It's me, Evelyn." The metahuman replied through the door. "Can I come in?"

Ruby took the crushed ball in her hand and sighed. "Sure. Come in."

The door opened and Evelyn walked in. She saw the HYDRA assassin holding a crushed tennis ball. "Your training going well?"

"If you can say losing my focus and crushing a ball, is training, then yeah. It's going well." Ruby sarcastically joked. She threw the ball on the bedside table and asked the metahuman thief curiously. "What about you? You piercing more holes in your room and breaking things with yours?"

"Not really, but I've tried doing something else." Evelyn took a seat in front of Ruby and put her hands together. "_Remember the good times, only._" She told herself. Inhaling deeply, she exhaled a moment later with her focus devoted to her powers that were spreading from her arms to the rest of her body.

Ruby shielded her eyes from the blinding light of both light and darkness. "Gotta admit it's a bit annoying with you shining like that."

"Sorry." Evelyn giggled and opened her eyes again. The marks formed on her forehead and the crescent under her eye. She inhaled again and it dimmed the shine from her contrasting elements coursing through her veins and bones right now. "But check this out." Pulling her hands away from each other, she made a small space between them. The HYDRA assassin looked at the space and widened her eyes.

Between her hands were a small light orb forming in the middle of it, it's light began swirling and twirling like it was a small vortex that was taking on a solid state. The twirling light adapted to the small orb and grew larger. The space between her hands were widening because the orb was growing bigger as well.

"It's…pretty." Ruby was unsure of what to call it, so she stated the first word that came to mind.

"Thanks. But that's not all." Evelyn smiled. "I threw this in the forest before with Seth two days ago. When it hit a tree it's like exploded like a bomb and blasted light. Kinda like Doctor Light's…light." She giggled embarrassedly.

"Like a flashbang. That's cool. Might be usual." Ruby was impressed. "But what about your other power, the darkness inside you? Shouldn't you work to use that one as well?"

"I have." Evelyn's smile widened. And she concentrated again. This time, she had to stand up while her hands kept the light orb intact. Exhaling, darkness spewed out of her palms and wrapped around the light. The onyx darkness compressed the light, shaping it with massive strength that only pure darkness could wield.

Ruby saw the pressure from the darkness's strength flattening the light and then shaping it further. She saw the light elongate while Evelyn's hands closed in on the light. A second later, she put both hands together and opened her eyes.

The HYDRA assassin gaped her mouth in shock when see the light taking the form of a long shining light sword. The darkness retracted back into Evelyn who held the sword with both hands and swung it around in front of Ruby's eyes. "What do you think?" Drops of sweat rolled down her face and landed on the floor.

"Pretty cool." Ruby admitted and stood in front of the metahuman who held a wide smile. "But…" she frowned her face. "It did take a while for you to form it, don't seem like something you'd bring to a fight."

"Yeah, I know." Evelyn agreed with a sorrow expression while lowering the light sword. "It's really annoying. But…" she smirked and looked at the bed headboard. Walking past the Earth-616 native, she swung the light sword for the headboard. The corner of it was cut clean off. It hit the floor with hollow clanging sound.

"That's very cool." Ruby clapped with a praise.

Evelyn smiled and bowed before letting go of her handle, the light sword dissipating. She then looked at Ruby and asked her slowly. "Hey, mind if ask you something?" The assassin nodded slowly. "Who's… Werner?"

Ruby snapped her head at her with surprise. "How do you know that name?" the only person in this universe to even know of that name is Seth who heard mutter the name back in Zoom's lair when she would cry herself to sleep.

"Since I began parkour and gymnastics for cheerleading back in school, I've had trouble sleeping and kept waking up in the middle of the night. I would have to walk through the house to get a glass of water before going back to bed." she revealed while pointing to the left wall. "And my room is right beside yours, so I had to go past it to get some water. I heard you… say his name in your sleep through the open door. Who is he?"

"He's someone I cared about." Ruby chuckled. "Ironically, my mother wanted me to do whatever it took to get him on our side. I did, and then I began to care for him."

"You met through your mother?" Evelyn asked and took a seat on the bed.

The other girl took a seat on the bed again. "Yeah, she told to play with his mind first. Get his attention by ignoring him, letting him touch me, taking me hostage, making him think that he was in control… it was all planed. All just to get into his head. Gain his trust…by any means necessary." She chuckled. "The grand seduction of Werner Von Strucker."

"Mother of the year?"

"Not really." Ruby said. "She worked me to the bone, and deeper than that. Training me to reach my potential. The boys that I fought against couldn't keep up with me." She smirked. "She said she had the chance to become an astronaut, but she didn't do it, despite she would have been ten times cooler than an Air Force general… but then she wouldn't have had me."

Evelyn smiled. "Sounds like she wasn't all that bad."

"She had her moments. But she did have me play mind games with the director of SHIELD and a Brigadier General too." Ruby said.

"Okay Squid Preparatory Academy is not worth recommending to friends and family." Evelyn quipped. "Cause learning to stand on eight legs with them does not sound like the safest career choice in the world… or multiverse."

Ruby laughed before poking the metahuman's cheek. "Actually, squids don't have legs. They have tentacles. They're cephalopods."

Evelyn slapped the girl's fingers away. "But back to Werner, I know you hurt him… and I'm sorry."

"I didn't hurt him. I killed him." Ruby clarified and the girl of this world gasped. "I didn't mean to, but it happened. I tried to touch him…and I accidently crushed his skull with my powers." She looked down at the bed with a saddened expression. Evelyn looked at her sadly and watched as she wiped away a tear. "What about you, any boys in your life?"

"No. All my friends and family turned their backs on me when they found out I was a meta and thought I had killed my own parents. So, I'm basically alone." The metahuman said. "But things changed, I guess, after Seth got us out of Zoom's lair." She turned eyes to the assassin again. "You said you looked up to the three Weapon X Projects, right? Was there someone else?"

"I only looked up to two of them, Weapon X Hades and another one, a female mutant." She revealed. "But they disappeared a while back so I started putting my interest in other places, one person. An Inhuman woman, Daisy Johnson… Quake. She had the powers to manipulate vibrations."

"So, someone you admire can use vibrations and you can use gravitational powers, that's pretty cool." Evelyn admitted.

"Yeah, when I don't start crushing tennis balls of course." Ruby joked with a gesture to the crushed ball on the floor.

"On the bright side: you'd be an amazing tennis player." Evelyn joked and laughed. Her laughter contagious enough to cause Ruby you join in and laugh along with her.

_KNOCK KNOCK_

Another knocking sound came from the bedroom door and opened up to reveal Jesse who was wiping sweat off with a towel. "Hey, thought I heard laughing, must have been Evelyn. Ruby couldn't have possibly be laughing." She joked.

"I still have some surprises up my sleeves." Ruby quipped. "Your training going well?"

"Yeah, somehow." Jesse said with a surprised tone, surprising herself with how much she was putting into her own training. She took a seat on the end of the bed. "You guys doing good as well?"

"So far so good." Evelyn nodded.

"But it's gonna be harder to use them in a fight." Jesse admitted, her eyes drifted to the assassin who looked at her curiously. "What's wrong, Ruby?"

"Curious about something, is all." She started. "We know why Zoom kidnapped us, because of our powers and all that. But why did he take you?"

"Don't know." Jesse said, but when she turned her head away from them, it was an indication that it was a lie. She knew exactly why she was kidnapped by the metahuman group that's been reigning terror on her home. But she feared that if the mutant knew about it, then he might turn his back on her now and leave her to fend for herself.

And against the great forces of Zoom and his group, she'd stand no chance. She might as well have surrendered to them and become their prisoner again.

X

The back door opened and both Barry and Seth walked back inside the West-Allen household. The two men were laughing as they took a seat on the couch again.

The CSI scientist gestured to the couch, the mutant's make-shift bed, before asking him. "Are you sure that you're okay with staying on this bed? We can see if we can get Evelyn and Jesse to move into one room, then you can have the room upstairs."

The mutant waved his hand, sloughing off his concern. "Appreciate the thought, Bar, but I'm okay down here. Besides those three had been in Zoom's captivity so long that they need to feel comfortable again."

"You mentioned you have a daughter, right?" Seth nodded to his question. "You got any pictures of her?" he asked curiously, wondering how the child of the mutant would be.

"I do." He reached into his pocket. Or rather, that's what it looks like. But in actuality, he reached into the pocket dimension of his partner's body. Pulling out his hand again, he pulled out a small photo and showed it to him. "This is my daughter, Frankie Fury."

Barry took the photo in his hand and looked at it. He widened his eyes at the sight of the elemental wrapping an arm around the young girl with short brown hair with pink streaks in it. Both have blue eyes but neither of them looked like each other. The CSI scientist gulped as he asked uncertainly. "Not to walk into any unwanted territories, but you and your daughter look nothing alike. And she's not much older than the girls upstairs."

"She's adopted. I adopted her around nine or ten months ago." Seth revealed to him and he widened his eyes with shock. "She's from my new home, the universe that I was shot into by accident. So yeah I have a daughter from another universe. She's the apple of my eye and I can't stop worrying about her."

"Understandable." He handed the photo back to him. "And she has powers too?"

"Yeah, she's a metahuman with magnekinetic powers and, like me, has a symbiote too. That symbiote is actually my partner's daughter." Seth then explained. "Symbiotes have the power to produce asexually."

"Reproduce?" Barry perked his head up. "You mean they can give birth to a new symbiote?"

"Yeah." Seth answered while feeling a serious case of déjà vu from this conversation. "At the time, I had no idea that a piece of Venom had detached and fell on Frankie at the time. But with time, she grew stronger and stronger, till the day Frankie and her partner, Magenta, became one."

"Magenta? Nice name for your daughter." Barry complimented.

"Thanks." He reached under his T-shirt and pulled out his dog tags. Seth revealed them to his friend from this universe. The mutant looked at them with a warm look and read them out loud. "Frankie Fury, the Magenta of our hearts." Barry looked with a smile at the words. Confusion then took place on his face when seeing him look at the two other tags. "Caitlin Snow, the Cure to the Venom. Seth Fury the Venom that protects the Cure." He looked to him. "My girlfriend had these made for us a while back. Symbolizing the love we have for each other and keeping them close."

"It's amazing." Barry smiled again. "I'm happy for you two."

"Thank you." He put the dog tags back under his shirt and leant back against the couch. "What about you and Iris? No kids yet?"

"Lot of people ask us about that." Barry sighed.

The elemental looked intrigued. "Like who?"

Before the CSI scientist could continue, the front door opened and Iris walked in. "Hello boys." She greeted them and took off her holster. "Hey boys, are you doing anything tonight?"

"Well I'm not doing anything and I can't speak for our anti-social mutant who's from two universes and only acquaints himself with metahuman criminals." Barry joked with a gesture to Seth who glared at him with anger.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Iris chuckled in agreement and the mutant pouted. "But I was thinking that we could all go out tonight." The two men looked at her intriguingly. "We'll bring the girls and we can maybe have one night that doesn't involve with us being attacked by metahumans. What do you guys say?"

Barry looked sorrow at the thought of going out, he instantly knew where she was referring to. It was a favorite place of hers and he would love it as well… had it not been because of that one _man._

"I'm game." Seth said and got up. "Think I'm gonna go freshen up, which is not going to involve breaking your bathroom. Promise." He joked and walked up the stairs to freshen up and inform the girls of their decision.

"You sure about this, Iris? You know, Joseph does not like me in the least." Barry asked her when he was back to his full height and took her by her shoulders, rubbing them comfortably.

"Nor do you like him, baby." Iris reminded her husband before cupping her face. "But I can still love you both, even if you two don't love each other."

"I guess…but you sure about bringing the girls and Seth there, still?"

"Yes. And they deserve to have some fun that doesn't involve a fight with metahumans or anything like that. Plus, Pop's gonna love them." Iris said before taking her husband's hand and walking up the stairs with him behind her, basically dragging him up the staircase to get ready.

X

"Wait he can use that sword?!"

The woman had to raise from her seat and cover her ears when hearing the screaming voice of shock coming from Tony Woodward. Once she saw him close his gaped mouth again, she removed her hands from the sides of her head again. "Yeah, he can." She informed her right-hand man calmly.

"How is that possible?" Tony swung his head to Marcus who was sipping on his tumbler full of scotch. The man didn't respond with anything but a shrug. He turned his head back to his boss who was clearing her ear canals out with her long fingers. "Boss, what do you think? How did he use it?"

She blinked and her eyes shined with a clear blue color. "I have no idea how." She informed honestly while blinking again, this time her eyes taking on a dark-green color. "But that's now what worries me right now, actually."

Marcus Bishop looked shocked and put down his drink on the table. "What do you mean, Chief? Everything about this guy is worrisome, but you're talking about something specific, aren't you?"

"I am." She placed her hand on a scanner on her desk. A light emitted under her palm as it was scanned. The wall behind her swarmed with nanites before retracting back to the wall and revealing a very large screen that filled the entire surface of the wall.

Both Tony and Marcus shared confused looks before turning back to their boss who began typing on the computer. She pressed a key and the screen on the wall shined before revealing a photo. It was a photo a young man with spiked brown hair and blue eyes. He was the one wielding the sword that belonged…to Blackfire.

"Who's the guy?" Marcus asked while checking the face of the man through his memory bank but to no success.

"Exactly." His boss stated vaguely to his confusion. "Tony filmed him a while back…negotiating with one of Zoom's metas."

"Yeah, that's one way to put it." Tony chuckled as he recalled the video of him and Killer Frost…negotiating.

His boss gave him a dry look before continuing her explanation. "And it's the first time he's ever been seen and he still went toe-on-toe against Shay Lamden. But the problem is, we don't know anything about him, not even his name."

"So he's a ghost or something?" he wondered.

"No." Tony got Marcus's attention. "It's that he's a nobody with powers that lets him use elements and turn into something straight out of Hell…and he showed up out of nowhere and an image search did not find his face anywhere on this planet. Not a single country has ever seen him."

"Not even our contacts in Atlantis has ever seen this guy before, and their tech is more advanced than what we have here." She gestured around her. "But I have a plan, one that might be able get us a better read on the guy and get more information."

"Who're are you gonna do that?" Tony asked with a tilted head.

"Easy. We know from his negotiation with Zoom's meta, that's he a sucker for a pretty face." She smirked with a flicker of her long red hair that changed to long blonde hair. "Then we just give him another." both men looked intrigued.

X

After having changed their clothes in something more appropriate for going out, the group pushed the doors open to the coffee lounge. Iris and Barry were the first ones to walk through. The CSI scientist was wearing one of his usual brown suits for the occasion. His wife was wearing a black feathery top and a long loose black skirt, her midsection was left exposed and her hair was straightened with curls at the ends.

Seth had used his powers of camouflage to form a black suit with a white shirt underneath and a grey tie around his collar. He usual wore this for infiltration missions but he figured he could use it for a break just tonight.

The three girls had gotten some of Iris's older clothes to wear for tonight.

Evelyn was wearing a sparkling red dress that reached down to her calves. Jesse was wearing the same type of dress, just with blue color and shining whenever light would hit her. Ruby was wearing bright white dress as well.

Iris looked back with a glance at the girls and stepped back to whisper to the mutant. "You gotta admit the girls do look like they're having fun and they look gorgeous."

Seth chuckled in agreement. "Yeah, they do, on both. But if any of the old fucks in here try anything, I wil-"

"I will cuff them and take them to downtown to the station." She interrupted him sternly. "I'm still a detective. If you go off and kill everyone that pisses you off, I'm gonna lose my job." Iris joked while whispering the part about his homicidal tendencies.

"Pretty sure you're the only one who's worth a damn on the force. So gonna try to keep that part of me on the DL for tonight." Seth said with a praise. He curiously turned back and looked upwards, above the entrance and saw the sign.

"_Jitterbugs, huh?_" he thought to himself as he examined the piano-like sign with the name of the establishment in the middle of it. Seth shifted his gaze around and inspected the building. Lots of the chairs looked like lounge chairs and couches, most of them occupied by various guests. Waiters and waitresses carrying trays walked to the guests and handed them drinks and snacks to make sure they enjoy their time in the lounge. At the other end of the lounge was a bar with glass shelves on the other side of the counter, holding massive varieties of alcoholic bottles. Several chairs were unoccupied but a few of them were occupied by either men and women.

He then listened to the song being sung right now. A piano was playing jazzily and then a familiar man's voice sung a sung.

"_Some things that happened. For the first time._"

He widened his eyes and looked to the center of the lounge. Looking right at the stage. In the corner of his eye, he saw Barry straightening his clothes.

"_Seem to be happening. Again. And so it seems that we have. Met before._" They heard the singer continue.

"_What in the name of the entire multiverse is going on now?_" Seth couldn't help but think as he heard that familiar voice continuing to sing. He saw Iris smiling… and Evelyn paling with shock.

_"And laughed before. And loved before._" The singer continued to sing. And the man singing his heart out…was none other than Iris West's father… Joe West. He was wearing a dark white suit with a colorful tie around his color and his head was occupied by a black fedora hat. Even on another Earth, he has a nice goatee.

Iris walked to the elemental who was still in shock. "Seth Fury meet-"

"Joseph "Joe" West." Iris looked shocked as the mutant cut her off with his answer, one that should have escaped through her mouth. "He…can sing. Whoa."

"Yeah, and he's the best." Iris said proudly before asking him. "How did you know his name?"

"I know his doppelganger." He answered while he and the others continued to listen to the man sing his heart out. "One of my best friends actually. He doesn't sing though, the one I know, I mean."

Joe smiled and held his drink in his hand and continued to sing. "_Who knows? Yeah, who knows? Where or...When?_" he continued to sing, high-pitched on the last word, and Seth was very impressed by what the doppelganger of his best friend is capable of. He stopped with an exhale echoing when it hit the microphone. Everyone began applauding frantically as the singer took a bow of appreciation.

"Thank you. Thank you very much." He thanked the audience and pointed his eyes to the side, seeing his daughter and, annoyingly, also her husband. Joe walked away from the microphone and went to Iris. "Hiya, baby."

"Hi." Iris said back before hugging her father. The two pecked the other's cheek before dislodging.

Barry looked at Joe. "Joseph." He greeted with a single word, surprising the elemental who raised an eyebrow.

"Bartholomew." Joe greeted back, causing the elemental's other eyebrow raise as well with further surprise. He then registered the level of emotionless there were in both men's voices, almost like it was animosity.

"_What the hell is going on here?_" Seth thought and his partner thought the same. He felt something grab his sleeve and he looked down and saw Evelyn trying to get his attention. "What's wrong, Evelyn?"

"Don't think it's a good idea I'm here." Seth looked confused and she elaborated distressfully. "I… used to steal from the people here. Like a lot." The elemental widened his eyes. "It was full of rich people in fancy clothes, it was an easy spot to steal. And there's like no security here."

"You're worried that you might be recognized?"

"Kinda. Because I used to steal from Joseph." She revealed sheepishly. "A lot."

"You gotta get a new hobby." Seth quipped… but it was seriously meant as it would lessen the times she would steal from him.

Ruby then pitched in. "Why would she do that? It's the most interesting thing around here, actually."

"You need a personality tuning." Seth told her.

"I'm engineered this way." Ruby skeptically said.

"You are so weird." Jesse admitted and Ruby gave a manic smile which sent shivers down the native's spine.

Joe then noticed the four others with his daughter and asked. "Who're are these guys, Iris?"

Iris then gestured to them. "These are…my friends. Seth Fury." She gestured to the mutant. "And the three girls here are some of his friends' kids." She lied before introducing them. "Evelyn, Jesse and Ruby." She kept their last names out of it because she couldn't risk it.

"Pleasure to meet you all. I'm Joseph West." Joseph introduced himself and glanced at Evelyn who held her head high. "Haven't I seen you before?"

"No sir, I don't think so." Evelyn lied. "It's my first time here in Jitterbug."

"Huh, well hope you guys enjoy your time here." Joseph leant to his daughter's ear. "Tell me, is this another one of your husband's stupid-ass ideas, cause bringing children here? Sounds like something right up his alleyway."

Barry heard his comment, as he made absolutely no effort to hide it, and he gritted his teeth in anger and straightened his tie, again. Iris saw the wheels in her husband's head spinning with anger and told her father, coming to Barry's defense. "Pop be nice. And it's not his idea, it was mine. Seth and the girls have been helping me and Barry at CCPD and are staying with us for a while now. And we thought we could show them more of the city, they needed a break."

"If you say so, baby. I can take the kids to a table. Follow me, girls." Joseph waved them to follow him.

The CSI scientist huffed, "I'm gonna go to the bathroom, real quick. Need to wash out my…frustration." He excused himself and walked to the bathroom.

Set then looked to the detective again. "What the hell's going on between them?"

Iris scoffed before explaining. "My dad thinks that it's because of Barry that I'm a detective, that I'm on the front lines fighting against Zoom and his metas. You see, I worked at the CCPN before, Central City Picture News. I was an intern at the station."

"What's that gotta do with anything here?" Seth confusedly asked.

"My Dad thinks because Barry wanted to get his PhD to further his career, I had to become a police officer to help pay his tuition. My Dad's been howling at me about being safer if I stayed at the newspaper station. But all I did back then, was get coffee for real writers." Iris then smiled. "But being a cop like my grandpa… is what I love."

Seth smiled. "Let me guess, your old man taught you to be tough, and you proved him, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

"For what it's worth, you're an amazing detective. If you hadn't become one, this city would definitely have ended in a hell basket." Seth told her. "And from what I saw before, during my time here on this Earth, you're the best cop of them all. It's good you got out of CCPN, and whatever your reasons were, they are undoubtedly the best ones."

"Thank you, Seth." She smiled and hugged him tightly. "It means a lot. And you're a pretty good friend, just so you know."

"Thanks." He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. Seth glanced up and saw both Barry and Joseph giving him suspicious looks. "_Déjà vu?_"

"**_Seems like a common factor around here, Seth._**" Venom told him.

Unwrapping his arms from her, he looked at her wrist. She had a strange watch on it. Looking like some sort of smart watch concealed by a metal lid with three lines. He looked to her. "What's that on your wrist? A watch?" Looking around curiously, he saw that more people had the same type of watches.

"It's a next-gen watch." She turned it on. "It has dozens of apps that can help people on the daily basis. It even has metahuman awareness capabilities, it goes off when metahumans are around. Want me to turn it on?"

"No." he put his hand over the watch and gently pushed her arm down. "Evie's a meta, it's gonna go off because of her and scare everyone into thinking she's a criminal or something like that. Plus, why aren't the others going off? They're shut off too?"

"Yeah, some of them usual turn them off when they're in the lounge. Doesn't disturb my dad's singing." Iris quipped before looking to the table with her father, her husband and the three girls. "Wanna go down to them?"

"Sure." He agreed and walked down to them. Letting the detective pass by first, he took a seat beside Ruby and in front of Joseph. "Nice singing, Jo-seph." He quickly added, correcting himself in thinking that this was the Joe West he knew.

"So you heard." He scoffed out his response before pointing his finger at the three girls. "So you taking care of these girls for your friends?"

"Yeah, I am." He decided to continue with Iris's lie. "They are currently on business trips far away and they decided to drop them off at my care for the moment. Barry and Iris were kind enough to offer us accommodation for as long as we want to." He showed the two in question a smile. "It's an amazing daughter you raised, Mr. West."

Joseph narrowed his eyes on the man. "Yeah, I did." He spoke with a fading smile. "But her taste in men is not her best quality." Barry kept his words inside him, not wanting to speak badly about his father-in-law…despite him not showing him the same courtesy.

"I don't know about that." Seth smirked. "He's a nice guy willing to allow others to seek help in his home. So he's not that bad."

"If you say so, Mr. Fury." Joseph spoke in disbelief before leaning forward with both hands on his tumbler. "So tell me about yourself. What's your career?"

"Doctor and bioengineer." Seth instantly replied.

"Sounds steady." He leant back in his chair and sipped on his drink. "Any kids?" Seth's turned with a shade of sadness, one that didn't go unnoticed by the lounge singer. "Sorry, didn't mean to pry."

"Sounds like you did." Ruby commented and the singer gave her a strange look.

"Forgive her, she's a bit of swamp mouth." Seth patted Ruby's head.

"Can see that." Joseph said before glancing at the three girls again. Ruby didn't seem to care much about the surroundings, but she did seem to enjoy the piano playing. Clearly finding it much more pleasant than anything else here. Jesse and Evelyn were the ones that he looked more interested in. The latter looked familiar but the former looked familiar as well for some reason. But he couldn't place his finger on it. "I feel like I have seen you two somewhere before."

"We must have those faces." Jesse answered strangely, doing nothing to dull the searching mind the singer possesses.

"Yeah, just that." Evelyn said.

"Well, I'm getting a bit thirsty, so I'm gonna go to the bar and get a drink." Seth got up from his chair. "Any of you need anything?" they all shook their heads, not wanting anything apparently. "Alright. I'm gonna go." He walked over to the other end of the lounge and walked to the bar.

Walking closer to it, he saw that the all the seats were free except for one that was occupied by a long red-haired woman. Dressed to the nines didn't seem to do her justice, she was wearing a champagne satin sleeveless dress. Looking down at her chair, he also saw there was a slit, allowing her long pale as ghost legs to be seen.

She seemed to mind her own business and he didn't have any reason to bother her, so he took a seat on a barstool. But he was surprised with how much people, mostly men were trying to get her attention but no success and walked away in defeat. Seth saw the bartender walking over him, a female bartender with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Like the waiters, she too was wearing a black and white suit, classically looking like a waiter. As she walked closer, he saw her name tag, the name. "_Joan Celia._"

"_Guess even they have a doppelganger here._" He thought to himself. "_Wonder what they're doing even now?_" Seth couldn't help but think, but he also began feeling nostalgia from seeing the doppelganger of his co-worker again. Feelings of working at the bar resurfaced back to the front of his mind. He missed it. The colleagues, Stan, JC, Rooster…heck even the vultures… the old ladies.

"**_Now there's something wrong with you._**" Venom pitched in his two cents.

"_Screw you._"

The bartender reached him. "What'd you'll have, mate?" she spoke with a British accent.

The accent caught him off guard for a moment before he schooled himself and gave his order. "Cheapest whiskey in the nearest glass, thank you." JC's doppelganger nodded and went to fix him his drink.

"Now that's a drink."

He turned his head to the side and saw the same woman before. She was still seated in her seat, but the long fingers on her right hand were gently running over the rim of her full martini glass. Her smoothed red hair with curls at the end covering her face before she used her other hand to whip it away, exposing her blue eyes and rose lipstick covered lips. Noticing her dress, he saw that the was a deep V-neck as well on the front, exposing a bit of her assets.

A shine emitted from her right hand, one that did not go unnoticed by the mutant.

The woman turned in her chair, crossing one leg over the other as she turned to face him. "Normally, people go for a beer around here. Only the singers and musicians seem to buy any of the good stuff here." She smiled, showing pearly white teeth.

Seth smiled. "So you're saying I have the same taste as a musician? Thank you, I guess."

"I guess I am." She said coyly. "Or maybe I'm just saying that you have good taste, unlike other men in here."

"Now that sounds an awfully lot like a compliment." Seth quipped while the bartender handed him his drink.

"Guess that's for you to decide." She smirked flirtatiously. "So, what does it take for a guy like you to offer his name to a woman like me?"

"Not much." He held out his hand for her. "Name's Seth Fury. What's yours?"

She smiled and shook hands while speaking her own name. "Y'Mera Xebella Challa-Curry." Seth widened his eyes in shock and Y'Mera laughed at his reaction to her name. "But my friends call me Mera Curry, if that helps."

"It does, your name is a bit of a mouthful, I have to be honest." He stated earnestly and Mera chuckled. Pulling her hand closer while it was still in his grasp, he placed his lips on it and kissed her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mera Curry."

"Thank you, and the feeling's mutual, Seth Fury." She spoke back and withdrew her hand. Mera grabbed her glass and held it in front of Seth. "To new friends."

He grabbed his own glass and held it up. "To new friends." He toasted himself and the two clanged their glasses together.

Mera drank from her martini and Seth drank from his whiskey. "So what brings you to Central City? Business or pleasure?" the woman asked him.

"Who said I was here for either?" Seth answered. "What about you? Business or pleasure?"

Mera smiled. "Lot of business…" she let her eyes drift up and down his form. "and a bit pleasure."

"Sure, you have time for that? Sounds like business should be your priority, shouldn't it?" he wondered with hints of interest.

"Maybe, maybe not. But I'm good at multitasking." Mera said with a flirtatious smile. "So where are you from? You never said that."

"I never did." He corrected her. "But I come from here and there, never really found a place I could settle down at or something like that."

"Sounds lonely." Mera said.

"Not really, get to meet a lot of interesting people. Present company included." He nodded to her, causing her to smile. "But what about you, where you from?" He brought his glass up to his mouth again.

"Atlantis." Seth coughed on his drink at the name and the woman turned her head to the side. "Easy. Why are you so shocked?"

Using a napkin, he wiped away excess alcohol around his mouth and coughed. "I'm sorry. Just a bit shocked is all. Never met an…Atlantean before." He admitted. "_Atlantis exists in this universe?! What the hell?!_"

"**_That sounds like a bother…wonder what an Atlantean tastes like._**" Venom bemusedly thought, wondering seriously if a citizen of Atlantis would taste like fish or man… or both. His host mentally berating him for thinking that.

"Such a shocker, huh?" She asked. "Lot of people around here are from Atlantis, you know. Guess you really are new in town."

"I don't lie." Seth said and downed the last of his drink. "Think I should go back to my crew." He got up from his chair. "Thanks for the company, Mera Curry."

"Likewise, Seth Fury." Mera said with a smile and waved at him. Seth began walking away and as the Atlantean was left alone, she pulled out her phone. Her fingers quickly went to work and typed in the message.

"_Met him. Need more time for recon._"

"_Affirmative. Any possible information available?_" The reply came.

Mera typed in what she found out. "_Name's Seth Fury. That's all for now._"

"_Alright, stay close and gather more information._" She received her orders.

"_Will do._" She said and drank from her drink, her head turning backwards and placing her eyes on the man again. Mera smiled from the rim of her glass.

X

Seth walked back to his friends and saw both Barry and Joseph looking at each other with spite. The three girls were listening to the sounds of the instruments playing jazzily, all of them enjoying the music immensely.

Iris looked at him suspiciously. "So you make a new lady friend out there?"

"Met a lady, that's for sure. But wouldn't call her a friend." Seth retook his seat. "And don't worry, it's not what you think."

"I'd hope so, because it looks like that woman was flirting with you back there." Iris quipped.

"If you say so, Master Detective." Seth quipped and listened to the musicians who kept playing. "Pleasant. Wouldn't mind coming back here a few times while I'm on this Earth."

"Had a feeling that you're not going to be staying around here forever." Iris said and got his attention. "So when do you think you're gonna departure and return home?"

"Don't know. But I think the key is finding out more about Zoom and where he runs off to when he's not with his group." Iris drew a blank. "Before she got away, Dr. Light told me that if she didn't bring me back Zoom would hurl her into another universe."

"You think it has something to do with your Earth?" Iris wondered.

"You guy saw the Singularity appearing over your city, right?" He received a nod as confirmation. "Yeah, it came from my world and it's because of that I'm even here. I tried to stop it and I was hurled into this universe. My best friend Matt told me, that when the portal that brought me to the other universe exploded, it sent out a shockwave that formed dozens of these small wormholes that sucked in everything around them and dragged them into the new universe. Which is how he actually got pulled into that universe."

"Sounds like a blast. But you think the same happened here?"

"I have absolutely no idea." Seth honestly said. "But I'm gonna begin checking up on it tomorrow I guess."

"Speaking of which…" Iris got up. "Think it's time we get back again. Come on, guys. Bye Dad."

"Bye baby." Joseph said back before hugging his daughter and giving glances at the others around them.

Having said their farewells, they all walked to the exit.

X

Being the first one to exit through the doors, Seth held the door open for the others. "Gotta admit, it's nice to come out and enjoy the city like this. Pretty damn good."

"Best there is for a nice time." Iris said as she interlocked arms with her husband.

"When your father isn't berating at every chance he gets." Barry snidely said.

"Actually, that was the funniest part of the night." Ruby joked.

"Your sense of humor is unlike anything we've ever seen before." Jesse commented.

"Yeah, Jesse's right, you're bit of a swamp mouth, Rubs." Evelyn giggled.

"Like you're any better, Spotlight." Ruby playfully pushed the metahuman.

Seth gave a mock glare of anger, "Hey, her name's Eclipse. Took a while to come up with that nickname, you know, Rubs."

"Well, I'm expecting a better name for me next, old man." Ruby said.

Seth looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Still not that old, Ruby." He turned back…and his face paled when seeing a large red ball coming their way like a missile. "Get down!" He screamed and quickly engulfed his form with the symbiote, his maw opening while the white skull grew over his face before blasting a fire blast from his gaped mouth.

The two red attacks collided and canceled each other, unleashing a powerful shockwave that cracked the ground and the glass on the door behind them. Venom's form was completely formed, the spines dug into the back of his hands while the bone-like spikes dug out of his front torso and bent over to dig back into his body. "**Who's there?!**" he roared his question with his blood eyes looking around for the source.

His roaring query made the detective take out her firearm from her purse. Her left hand cocking the gun before raising it high up with both hands. Barry stayed behind and stood in front of the girls, despite them being capable of defending themselves.

Jesse raised her hands and took a boxing stance. Evelyn's eyes opened and her forehead was occupied by a white moon with dark crescent moons on either side of it, a wider crescent moon formed under her right eye. The rest of her body kept shining white and black light while her hands flexed, ready to attack.

Ruby's hands were clenching heavily, cracking loudly while her eyes expressed a fire that was growing brighter and brighter like an inferno. The trashcans and antennas around them began shaking, the metal bending and shaking as though the very air was in the progress of tearing it off their roots.

"So that's you, Venom."

The group heard the distorting strange voice speak and looked to it. The person that spoke was walking forward, wearing a strange suit. His suit is dark red, patches and pads with greyish overtone. His entire face was covered by some kind of mask. Huge black-tinted eyeglasses. A prominent nose and a mouth plate. Honestly, it resembled a cross between an alien face and respirator. Attached to the patches of his shoulders, a dark-red cape was flapping thanks to wind that touched his form with each step he took towards them.

But what drew their attention was without a doubt, the long and sharp scythe that the man was wielding. A veil of reddish energy was around its entire elongate form, running over the weapon in the form of reddish lightning while it caused the weapon to emit a clear magma-like glow.

The man swung the sickle around and shut off his energy. He made eye contact with the crimson-red eyes belonging to the demon. "Hello, Venom."

"**Another one of Zoom's henchmen, we take it?**" he asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"Correct. But don't think I'm like the others. I won't underestimate you, my brother advised me to do so." The metahuman said.

"**Your brother have a name?**" Seth asked while forming large ice blades on both arms.

"He does, but for now, my name's Rupture." The metahuman pointed his scythe at him, riddling it with glowing red plasma-like energy. "And it's time for you to come back with the girls. Back to Zoom."

"**Detective, stay here and keep the girls safe and get out of here. We'll take care of this one.**" The mutant stated his plan while lightning crackled over his enlarged body.

"Alright, be careful. Guys, come on." Iris kept her gun aimed at Rupture while walking backwards with the others following her.

But despite them following the mutant's orders, the metahuman wasn't going to let them go so easily. "Not a chance!" Swinging his weapon around, he lashed it forward and projected a red plasma blast.

Venom jumped forward, making sure he was close enough to the incoming energy blast and crossed his ice-armed arms over his chest. He took on the blast, exploding in his face and pushing him back, spiraling his body into the air.

He spun around and dug his feet into wall that he was hurled into. Roaring in anger at the metahuman, Venom leaped after him and got close to Rupture. Reeling back an ice blade to the side, he swung after him from the side.

Rupture's glowing red energy enveloped the scythe before he twirled it around. Keeping his eyes on the demon's ice weaponry, he slammed his energy-charged sickle into the ice blade. Both hands tightening their hold on his weapon, unleashing a plasma pulse that shattered the icicle weapon like glass.

Crouching down, Rupture swung the scythe upwards, cutting off the other ice weapon with the blade charged with red plasma. Spinning around, he went to slam the blade into the demon's stomach. But Venom sparked lightning around his body again and jumped backwards.

The elemental landed back down on his feet. "**Take this!**" he growled and lashed out both hands, splitting them off into a storm of black tendrils. Each of them turning into adamantium and their speed increasing with lightning and wind. They slithered out around and attacked him from various angles.

Rupture growled and his red energy swarmed over the entire length of his scythe again. The metahuman spiraled around, swinging his long sickle around and intercepting the dome of incoming elemental tendrils. Slashing left and right, cutting the metal-enforced tendrils away, striking all incoming attacks away.

The metahuman under Zoom's rule kept unleashing a series of close-range attacks to divert the trajectory of all tendrils with expert skills, displaying a mastery of his scythe-wielding akin to that of a reaper from the underworld.

While he continued the onslaught with his tendrils, Venom jumped onto the wall again and ran along its hard surface. Getting on the edge of the rooftop, he retracted his tendrils again and assimilated his arms again. Water formed in the palms of his hands before getting into sphere-like shapes. As though he was launching bombs, he threw the bombs away and aimed for the metahuman.

Rupture stopped spinning and saw the two water bombs coming his way. The red energy on his scythe increased and looked like crackling lightning. He jumped away, he avoided one of them. Rolling backwards, he dodged the other one. Rotating back to his full height, he used the momentum of his spin and converted it into his swing, firing off an array of plasma blasts.

Clenching both hands, he turned them into adamantium, and lightning crackled over their metallic surfaces. Dodging the series of red energy strikes, Venom jumped off the rooftop and landed down behind the metahuman. Reacting quickly, the elemental slammed his fist into the side of Rupture's mid-section. The force pushed him back a few feet. But he dug the tip of his blade into the ground and decreased his hurl.

Strengthening his other arm with the earth element, Venom appeared before the metahuman again and slammed his large fist into Rupture's body again. This time hurling him much further away. And like a stone skimming across a river, he skipped across the asphalt with distortive painful grunts escaping his mouth.

Venom lashed his hand to the side and dug his sharp claws into the lid of a container before swinging it around and throwing it after him. Rupture rolled back to a standing and swung his plasma-charged scythe through the trash container, cutting it in half. The two pieces fell and landed on either side of him.

Both powered beings panted with exhaust from using their powers. Pointing the blade of his weapon at the mutant, Rupture announced. "You're have some skills. Not bad, as an opponent."

"**Likewise, Rupture.**" Venom said back. "**You do possess skills unlike others under Zoom's rule. A skilled wielder of a scythe, indeed.**" He breathed out black smoke and white mist. "**But we're not finished with you.**"

"On that…" his scythe was once again being swung around in his hands. "We can agree, Venom."

Both reeled back their hands, aiming to fire off another long-range attack at the other.

_CRACK_

But a loud cracking sound stopped either from moving… as a large piece of the asphalt was torn off the ground and forcefully thrown after the plasma-charged metahuman. Coming his way like a spinning boulder through the air.

Rupture increased the charge of red energy in his weapon again before striking the tip of his blade into it, this time unleashing a slash that followed up with a pulse that crushed the massive asphalt piece into dozens of pieces.

"Mind if I tag in?"

Both Venom and Seth swung their conjoined head back and saw Ruby stepping forward with earth-shaking footsteps. Her hands clenching and flexing as she walked towards the metahuman. The mutant looked at her eyes and widened his eyes in shock at the sight of the inferno-like will that scorched behind her eyes… and it only burned brighter and more violently. Her eyes and smile forming with vile intentions.

"**Ruby get away from here!**" Venom ordered her.

But Ruby shook his head in refusal. "No chance. I finally found a chance to test my new powers, and the Grim Reaper knockoff here is a perfect sandbag." The manic smile on her face widened.

Rupture chuckled, "Suit yourself, little girl." He jumped into a charge, running forward and quickly charged his scythe with red energy. Coming closer to the assassin, he swung his weapon for her.

Ruby's smile widened and she went to charge… but a black tendril wrapped around her waist and pulled her back with a yank, pulling out of the scythe's reach when it was brought down from high above. Letting go of her, the assassin was sent rolling and she got into a crouch to look up with rage in her eyes. "What the hell was that for?"

"**This isn't your fight, Ruby!**" Venom chastised the assassin.

But the words that he spoke did nothing to extinguish the flames erupting inside her. On the contrary, they only fueled her flames… with hate erupting in the mix. The addition of the spite increased the flames tenfold.

"It is now!" Ruby countered and flung her hand to the right. The gravitational force slammed into the elemental's body and he let out a massive roar of shock, shooting him through the wall behind him. Both she and Rupture heard a second crash, indicating he was hurled through another wall again.

Rupture chuckled. "Zoom sent me to take care of Venom, not some out of control little girl."

At those words, Ruby thought she saw her mother's shadow drowning her presence, pouring every single word she's ever uttered about her over her. Every word about her being out of control and undisciplined attacking her like barrage of missiles from every angle.

"We'll see about that!" Ruby charged after him. The plasma metahuman spun around and swung his blade for her again. At the last second, the assassin side-jumped to the right, avoiding the attack and spun around. Raising her foot and swung it into the side of his face.

He remained standing in his same spot before using his free hand and grabbed her leg. His hand riddling with red energy before throwing off him with a hurl. Ruby rolled on the ground and got up again. But her vision was blocked the second the metahuman's foot slammed into her stomach, pushing her further back.

The assassin perked her head from the ground, using her arms to push herself up and watched as the metahuman looked at her. "Now what did you exactly have to show?"

Raising herself back to her feet, she lashed out her hands and used her powers to levitate the objects around her. Suspending trashcans and trash containers, even pieces of rubble in the air with the gravitational powers coursing through her veins. "How about this?!" Thrusting out her hands again, she catapulted all the suspended objects, aiming them at him.

Rupture smirked behind his mask and held his scythe with both hands. Red energy coursed over them both and over his entire weapon. While holding it with both hands, he spun it around with such efficiency that it looked like the blade was turning into a blur. All the objects that encountered the spiraling weaponry, were instantly cut into smaller pieces. Even the larger pieces stood no chance against the spinning reddening scythe.

Ruby was shocked to see her launched ammunition cut into pieces with ease and she lowered her hands for a second. However, it was a mistake on her part, because the metahuman criminal before her saw her falter. Rupture jumped past the various pieces that still flew his way before swinging his weapon again, this time projecting an extremely fast energy blast.

The young assassin saw the blast coming her way, but before she could dodge it-

"ARGH!" Ruby screamed in pain when the blast touched her body and threw her back, leaving her body with scorch marks on her right shoulder.

The metahuman put his scythe down when seeing the girl touch the ground. "Easier than what I expected." He chuckled callously as he walked to her.

"**Think again!**"

Rupture turned to face the origin of the demonic voice and was met with large adamantium fist slamming into his head. The fist pushed him back but before the metahuman could touch the wall, the fist expanded and grabbed around his head.

Venom jumped into the air before throwing him away like a trash bag. The elemental threw him into a wall and watched him go through it. He greatly considered taking care of him right now, ending his life with a swing of an ice scythe. "**_Seth, think of Ruby. She's hurt._**" But his partner's words were able to halt him from making a selfish choice.

"_You're right._" Seth agreed and jumped over to the assassin. He wrapped both hands around her and brought her up close. "**Let's go.**" Keeping one arm around her, he shot out a tendril from his other one and attached it to a building before swinging away from the battlegrounds.

As they swung through the air, Rupture walked out of the rubbles of the wall and dusted off debris from his body. "Till next time, Venom." He said out loud while watching the mutant jump away and into the city.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"Ow!" Ruby winced in pain when Detective Iris West tightened the bandage around her shoulder, pushing the pack of ice closer to the scorched area on her shoulder.

"Sorry. But it must be tight, otherwise this is pointless." Iris apologetically informed her. Evelyn and Jesse were seated on the seats beside the couch, where the detective was tending to the assassin's shoulder. Barry was watching out the windows, in case the last one was making his way to them.

After escaping from the battle with Rupture, Seth had dropped Ruby back at the house so Iris could treat her while he went to take care of some of his own business, something he did not divulge to others.

"Why exactly did you fight against Rupture, Ruby?" Jesse asked. "He's strong, he's one of Zoom's metahumans."

"Figured as much, Whiney."

"Ruby, this isn't a joke." Iris sternly told the assassin. "Seth would have been able to take care of him if you hadn't interfered like that. Why did you do it?"

Ruby glared at the detective. "Maybe, I was tired of always being sidelined like this. What does it matter? I am strong enough to fight against Zoom's metas one-on-one."

"Yeah, you sure proved that today." Iris told her and the assassin's glare intensified. "And that little glare doesn't work on me, Ruby. So explain yourself right now."

Barry turned to face them. "We deserve that much."

"Oh this I gotta be part of."

Everyone looked to the side and saw Seth walking into the room. His eyes were looking at Ruby the entire time, the assassin looking back at him "What the hell was that out there, Ruby?" he exclaimed at her. "I told you to go with Iris and the others."

Ruby got up from her seat and looked at him. "Well if you hadn't noticed. I'm not a kid like the rest here. I was HYDRA. I was trained to become the Destroyer of Worlds. Trained to the bone every day to the be the strongest. I was engineered to be the best being and the next leader of HYDRA. And for your information, I was able to fight against Carl Creel and give him trouble in a bare hand-to-hand combat fight. And that was before I got my powers."

"I know Creel, fought him once before. He's a strong one, no doubt. And it shows skills that you were able to fight him like that." Seth walked closer to her. "But Creel's not a metahuman, he's not here, and he's not under Zoom's control unlike the others here. You saw what Zoom's metas are willing to do. Remember it was Deathstorm who burned your hands?" she clenched her hands in anger. "These metahumans are not like the enhanced beings you faced on our Earth. They might be more dangerous. They have no remorse and are in constant fear of disobeying Zoom, and scared animals are dangerous beyond any compare. Cause they'd do anything to survive."

"And I can defeat them with these!" Ruby threw her hands up and levitated a few of the objects on the stands, holding them up in the air. "I'm strong enough to use these to fight them!"

"Clearly not, because you don't have experience with fighting with powers!" Seth raised his voice, shocking everyone in the house, especially Evelyn and Ruby. "You just go off like that, attack your friends, people who care about you because you wanna prove yourself. Is that how you do it? That what your mom wanted from you? Act like a brat and throw a tantrum and do whatever the hell you want without a care in the world? That's not how it is in this world, Ruby!"

Sending her arms back down, Ruby brought herself closer to him. "What are you saying then?!"

"You're completely out of control, is what I'm saying!" Seth exclaimed at her.

Ruby felt as though she once again saw the shadow of her mother who kept looking at her like she was the world's greatest disappointment… or at the very least, _her_ world's greatest disappointment. But for some reason, she felt that Seth's gaze was stinging more than her mother's.

… And she didn't like it one bit.

Ruby then screamed. "Maybe if you didn't start treating me like I'm your stupid kid, this wouldn't have happened!" Seth and the others looked stunned. "Let's be clear about something, Seth. I'm not your kid, you're not my father. So stop treating me like I am. It pisses me off!" the assassin had said her piece and ran out of the house. Before reaching the threshold to the outside, she pulled off the ice pack from her shoulder and threw it to the ground, not caring about the fact that it broke instantly upon collision with the floor.

"Ruby!" Iris called out after her, but she was already out the door. She looked to the elemental and saw him looking down on the ground.

Barry walked closer to him. "Seth, you okay?" he didn't respond.

"Seth?" Evelyn tried but she was having as much luck as the other natives. She turned to the side and saw Jesse getting up from her chair. "Jesse what are you doing?"

"Remember when you and Ruby followed me when I ran away before, to check on Seth when he fought Sand Demon?" The metahuman nodded to her query. "Well, I figured since you guys saved me back then, I think I should return the favor and get Ruby back this time."

"You know where she's going?" Evelyn asked in shock.

"I think I do. Wanna go with me?" Jesse asked and the metahuman nodded in agreement. The two ran through the living room and through the front door in a rush.

As they sprinted through the door, the elemental remained paralyzed in his state of shock…and self-hate.

X

**(Zoom's Lair)**

Rupture walked into the lair and saw Reverb walking over to him. "Welcome back, brother."

The scythe wielder took off his mask and revealed his smirking face to his brother. "Thank you, brother." Dante Ramon from Earth-2 said back to his brother.

Black Siren walked over to them. "What's the verdict on your fight against Venom?" Deathstorm and Killer Frost joined them once getting closer to them.

"A challenge that I will gladly accept at any time of any day." Dante revealed with a smirk.

Killer Frost licked her lips. "Is that so? So no problems at all?"

"There was one." Dante said and the metahumans listened closely. "One of the girls in Venom's care appeared to go off rails and attacked me or tried to at least. She even pushed Venom out of the way for her to take on the battle instead."

"Which one?" Deathstorm asked.

Reverb chuckled. "Once again, your brain proves itself to be the size of an acorn."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Deathstorm growled, unwittingly confirming the vibing metahuman's point.

The frosty metahuman then explained, "He means that it was the blonde one that you burned. As if the other one would dare hurt Seth. Wells's kid doesn't have the powers to do anyone harm, so it gotta be the little blonde girl. She does appear to be a bit temperamental."

"So what's the plan now?" Reverb asked out loud.

_WHOOSH_

The answer came in the form of a blue flash of lightning, drawing everyone's attention to the menacing form that stood at the exit. "**Now…**" Zoom started, "**… We capture all four of them.**"

X

The nighttime had rolled in. The moon in the sky shining as the only source of light, moonlight emitting from it and hitting the surface of the waving lake within the Woodlands. A small but stronger wave rippled throughout the lake when a hard object was launched into the middle of it, making an audible splash.

Ruby kept sitting on the grassy ground instead and raised her hand, a rock raising up into the air and spinning around while suspended in its airborne state. With gritted teeth, she reeled her hand back along with the rock, before thrusting it forward again, this time throwing the rock into the lake. Penetrating the middle of the water lake again, this time with a much louder splash.

After her much heated words…the very hateful words she uttered to the elemental…once again…Ruby found herself overlooking her own thoughts. Something she hadn't done since before Seth helped her and the others out of Zoom's lair.

All this time he had been showing her concern, pure concern and nothing more. A feeling that was strange coming from a stranger, especially since the mutant's true identity had bene revealed to her. The only man to have ever displayed those emotions to her.

He was kind of like her mother, only showing concern to her through her maternal instincts driving her actions and emotions. Though she was a head of HYDRA, General Hale was still first and foremost a mother… and still cared and loved her daughter. But that did not allow her indoctrination by HYDRA to not affect her daughter's upraising.

But Seth was nothing like that. He was only showing true and unaffected parental care to her. Not because od duty… not because of DNA…not because it was demanded of him… he only did it out of the kindness of his own heart.

…

…

And she was sure right now… that despite all the kindness he has shown… despite how many times he's saved her… despite how much he trained her, Evelyn and Jesse…

She was sure… that with her cruel words… she broke his heart…into pieces.

"Words are a weapon…aren't they, Mom?" Ruby muttered to herself as she looked upwards to the pale moon above her head. The pain of hearing her mother's heartbreaking words returned to the front of her mind again. She recalled the waves of sadness that followed as the aftermath of the stinging words… and she now knows…

… that Seth was feeling a pain that was planetary larger than what she experienced back then…

Ruby Hale was no better than her mother now. "Like mother, like daughter."

"Wow, you're talking to yourself now?"

The assassin turned her head and saw Jesse and Evelyn rushing over to her with wide strides in their steps. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked of them and got up on her feet. "How did you find me?" she directed at Jesse.

The native girl stopped and breathed in a few times before explaining. "Just thought this would be your go-to spot for some thinking." She gestured to the lake and the grassy area. "This was where Seth showed us that powers could serve more than one purpose."

"Yeah, guess that's true." Ruby breathed out.

"But you did manage to go far in a short time." Evelyn admitted. "I mean, it's like you flew or something."

"I didn't." the assassin shook her head. "But I think I just ran like hell and found myself dropping down here on the ground." She faced the direction of the water again. "How's the house back there?"

"Quiet" Jesse walked closer to her and stood beside her. "But what can you expect from two people going off on each other like that?"

"She's right." Evelyn walked to the other side of the assassin. "You may have gone over the top back there, Rubs."

"I…" Ruby didn't have any words to speak now. "… maybe." She clenched her fists. "Guess, I'm not used to the way that Seth treated me. It was usually my mother who was like that to me. But a stranger like him…guess it's a foreign feeling for me."

Ruby then felt a slap on the back of her head. She looked to the right side and saw Jesse retracting her hand again. "You really are strange. I don't everything about you guys… but I know you're not bad people. You never were. Even though, Ruby, you were an assassin for a Nazi organization. But that's in the past. You can't let yourself be driven by past mistakes; you guys are better than that."

"Thanks, Jesse." Ruby smiled. "Guess I need to apologize to Seth, too."

"Yeah, you kinda do." Evelyn agreed.

"But don't worry, we'll help you." Jesse assured her.

"Thanks. Jesse. And I guess, I'll stop calling you Whiney, for a while, of course." Ruby jokingly said.

"Of course, you are." Jesse rolled her eyes, but she then neared the assassin and hugged her tightly. "Let's go back, okay?"

"Well isn't this sweet?"

The three girls turned their heads to the side and saw to their misfortune, Black Siren walking towards them. She waved her hands over the sight of the three girls. "All three of you finally becoming friends. Sure took its sweet time, but better late than never, right?"

"What do you want?" Ruby asked in a growl. Evelyn closed her eyes and concentrated. Jesse took a fighting stance.

Black Siren chuckled while another set of feet began walking on the ground. With a flick of her long white hair and a small cracking sound emitting from her hand, she revealed her presence. "Thought we could all just see you again and bring you home again. We miss you all." Killer Frost announced with a pout.

"But it appears not all are here. Brother, you were proven wrong, it seems." Reverb told his brother as they both appeared.

"It happens, Reverb. But look at the bright side." With his scythe pointing at the three girls, Rupture said. "We now have three pieces of bait to get the mutant back here."

"Good." Deathstorm smiled manically. "Cause, I'm looking forward to burning that guy to ashes after making him scream."

Ruby chuckled. "You met the guy? He's gonna scream from you? That's a joke."

Deathstorm chuckled. "Wasn't hard to get you to scream." His hands and his head erupted blazing flames. "Wanna have another taste of it?"

Clenching her hands, the assassin responded while shaking the ground with her powers. The others narrowing their eyes in shock of her display. The shock increased when pieces of the ground began cracking due to the immense pressure of her gravity force. "Trust me, it's gonna be different."

Evelyn opened her eyes and her entire body emitted a shining combination of both light and darkness. Her forehead was forming a white moon and two black crescent moons. The white light ran under her right eye and formed a crescent moon. "We're the not the same when we were your prisoners."

"And here's a proof!" Jesse grabbed a branch and threw up in the air, aiming in the direction of Deathstorm. All his fellow metahuman companions followed the same direction of the branch.

But the fiery metahuman scoffed at the weak attempt and threw a fire blast at it, burning it to ashes instantly. He turned to face the girl again. "You think that's actually had a chance against me? Thought you'd be smarter since you're that guy's brat, guess I was wrong."

However, confusion came over the metahuman criminals' faces when Jesse smirked. "Made you look, didn't I? Evelyn now!" both Jesse and Ruby covered their eyes and jumped away in time so Evelyn could thrust her hands forward, her hands pushing a bright orb of light forward. None of the metahuman criminals expected the ball and saw it impact with a large tree.

_EXPLOSION_

A blinding explosion of light fell over them all, forcing them grunt and cover their eyes. Killer Frost, Black Siren and Deathstorm covered their eyes with their hands, but Reverb and Rupture appeared to be fine because of their glasses. But the brothers were unable to see the shadows of the girls through blinding sheer of brilliance.

Which is what needed as the young assassin who fully clenched her hands and brought up pieces of the ground, tearing them up from her ground. And then like she did to the mutant when he decided to train her, she thrusted her hands forward. Bombarding a gravitational force catapulted from her outstretched hands that launched the ground pieces with speed of raining bullets.

All of them appeared to go their intended trajectory and will be able to hurt them upon collision.

_WHOOSH_

But all the objects were blasted away with a series of violent pushes from a sapphire blue flash of lightning. The light from flashbang-like explosion dimmed down and everyone looked to the middle of their standoff and once again laid eyes on the unstoppable demon with the face of death.

Zoom looked at the three girls, taking in their displays of strength and their confident expressions. "**You've gotten stronger? Good. Perhaps, this time will be a challenge when we capture you again.**" He spoke daringly.

"We won't go so quietly this time!" Ruby lashed out her right hand and fired off another gravitational burst.

It, however, did not frighten Zoom in the least. In the eyes of a speedster, the burst came at him in slow motion. And he merely sped behind the assassin within the fraction of a second and grabbed hold of her neck before throwing her off into a tree.

Evelyn and Jesse faced him-

_WHOOSH_

But once again the pitch-black speedster was too quick and used both hands to grab hold of the two remaining girls' necks before hurling them into the ground. The native girls landed somewhere near the young assassin. All three of them winced in pain while mixing in pained grunts. They stopped when they looked up and saw Zoom and his group of metahumans walking closer to them.

Zoom cracked his pitch-black claws while the blue lightning ran over his hands. Black Siren clenched her fists while inhaling deeply, readying the sonic cry in her for release. Deathstorm's flames erupted and violently blazed on his body. The two brothers, Reverb and Rupture readied their weapons. One brother gathering vibrations in the palms of his gauntlets and the other one swinging his scythe around with red energy. Killer Frost licked her lips sensually and formed ice spikes on her right hand's fingers.

All of them were looking at them viciously, ready to tear into them like ravenous and carnivorous dogs.

The three girls… looked ready to once again accept a fate in Zoom's captivity.

"_Seth…I'm sorry._" Ruby thought with sorrow lacing her feelings and her thoughts… and regret…as she would never have a chance to apologize personally to the mutant.

_PIERCE_

A smokescreen appeared on the grounds behind the metahuman criminals, drawing their attention to it and saw the dust screen slowly dissipate. Their eyes widening with increasing shock at the sight of that familiar weapon again…that weapon that was sticking out of the thick tree bark…its colorful crystal blade causing them all to halt their actions.

_ROAR_

A demonic roar followed the throw of the massive crystal sword. But it came from all around the Woodlands, the metahumans looking all around them in search for the origin.

A pitch-black form leaped from the top of a tall tree, its entire body cloaked by a large veil of lightning and wind before slamming its huge form down on the ground. Zoom saw the form touch down on the ground in a burst, landing right between them and the girls and blowing the criminals away.

Each of them digging their feet into the ground, decreasing the velocity of the push and stopping them from being. Zoom looked up and a familiar flaming cyclone wrapped around an incoming arm slammed into his stomach and pushed him back again.

The symbiote on his body retracted into his body and the mutant revealed his face to the criminals again. The two females of the group smiled and licked their lips sensually, enticed by the elemental's appearance. But his eyes drew their attention and sent shivers down their bodies.

Each eyeball containing an ice-cold sea…an ocean so cold that it was nothing short of a tundra from Hell… allowing no life to take residence in their bodies of water…. Utterly and completely lifeless. A sight so frightening that even the eyes of his demon-like alter-ego was unable to match.

Ruby looked up at him. "Seth…" she smiled and so did Evelyn and Jesse. She looked down in sadness. "I'm-"

"Are you three alright?" he cut her off and turned the side of his head to face them.

"We're okay." Evelyn answered as she and Jesse got up.

"Just a bit bruised, is all." Jesse informed as well.

Seth looked at Ruby and saw her still looking down at the ground in sadness. He chuckled and reached out with his hand; he patted the top of the assassin's head in a calming manner. She looked up at him, he smiled in response. "Glad to see you're okay, Rubs." He looked at them all. "But ready to fight them all, not bad. I'm impressed."

They all smiled at his praise. "But now…" he turned back to face the metahuman criminals, his voice speaking without emotions. "Leave them to me and get out of here."

"What?!" Ruby exclaimed. "Seth, they're six of them and one of you. You won't stand a chance."

"Maybe, maybe not." Seth argued casually. The black symbiotic mass enveloped his right arm before lashing outwards. A set of black claws formed on the end of it before reaching his large crystal sword and pulled it out of the tree and back into his hand. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna let these guys take you back to be their prized prisoners. Get out and go to Iris and Barry."

"What about you? Seth, you won't make it out of here alive." Evelyn spoke.

"It's gonna take more than them to take care of me." Seth assured them. "Go and be safe." None of them listened and stood there. "Go now!" he exclaimed his order and this time they listened, rushing out of the area near the lake.

"_Glad to see them listen, finally._" Seth thought before turning back to the metahuman criminals in front of him. "Not going after them, Zoom? Don't tell me you're afraid now? Little Zoom getting quaking in his pants?" he mocked him while swinging his sword around.

Zoom twitched his head around. "**Their capture will be imminent once you…are dead.**"

"Dead? Now you want me dead and not captured alive, I'm hurt." Seth's smirk fell. "But it's gonna be fun… seeing you try to kill me and failing miserably."

"You might have that sword now," Deathstorm started while walking closer. "but that doesn't mean you're gonna beat all of us."

"Yes. According to my brother," Reverb began and gestured to his brother, the mutant's eyes narrowing with realization. "He was able to have you on your ropes end."

"I truly did, brother." Rupture followed up.

"**_Brothers? That means Rupture's really Dante Ramon, Cisco's brother._**" Venom pitched in. "**_Unbelievable._**"

"So how about you come back with us again, huh, Seth?" Black Siren asked curiously while running her hand over a strand of hair. "We might just treat you a bit nicer than before? Pinky swear?"

Killer Frost narrowed her eyes threateningly at her metahuman companion. She let her eyes drift back to the mutant and raised her ice spikes to run over her lips. "So how about it, Seth? Wanna be our little dog again?"

"Sounds fun." He let lightning and fire run over his entire form while his clothes shifted and turned black. "But how about…" his form enlarged with the spine-like constructs shooting around his arms while his head was engulfed by the black mass before the white mask followed. Roaring at them and peering his red eyes at them, Venom continued. "**We just fight, and you will fall!**"

"Confident." Killer Frost she put out an arm out in front of her and the other behind her, creating icy mist around them both. "But…" she pouted. "Who said we used all our strengths before?" she took a stance, one foot in the front and the other one behind before her cryogenic powers activated.

A blast of icy mist blasted from her left hand and touched the ground light, forming an ice platform under her feet, while her other hand blasted icy mist from behind, propelling the metahuman forward. Venom watched as she then formed an ice slide-like structure as she skated along it. Skating along as she raised herself on the structure, passing over the tree heights and looked down on the mutant before charging for him.

Swinging his sword around, he leaped away from the frosty metahuman's charge and grabbed onto a tall tree with one clawed hand. Venom swung his head around and saw Deathstorm thrusting himself after him. Performing a backflip, he dodged the metahuman and landed on another tree. With the fiery metahuman's back to him, he swung the side of his crystal sword into his back.

"ARGH!" Ronnie Raymond's doppelganger screamed in pain when feeling the sword slam into his back and hurling him into a tree.

Black Siren appeared behind the mutant, standing firmly on the ground before opening her mouth and firing a sonic cry. Her sonic blast penetrated through a tree and neared the elemental. But Venom saw the attack coming thanks to his friend and extended his free hand, wrapping it around a tree before pulling on it and avoided the sonic attack.

Landing on another tree with his feet digging into the surface of a tree, he swung his head to the sonic cryer. "**Someone's asking for trouble.**"

The metahuman smiled and beckoned him over with a single finger. "Who doesn't like a little trouble?" she quipped and watched as the bark cracked instantly when Venom jumped off it. He landed before her and thrusted his other hand, enhancing the skin with adamantium.

But the sonic cryer leaped back and landed in a crouch. Her mouth temporarily forming a smirk before shooting open to blast a sonic cry for the mutant. Venom held his large sword in front of him, blocking the attack. It connected with his weapon and pushed him back while the sonic attack echoed and affected his body, rippling throughout his body with the sound waves feeling as though they were penetrating his body like small sharp needles of sound.

Seth's grunting and pained face revealed when the symbiotic mass began shaking like water rising uncontrollably like it was a sign of a catastrophe and pushing off his body like it was forced to separate from his body again. His body was being pushed back from the sonic attack, forcing him to grab his handle with both hands, tightening his hold.

However, he couldn't let that happen. It would lead to the capture of the three girls again. He wouldn't let that happen. Seth and Venom would rather spend an eternity in this hellish sound chamber. "Let's go, Venom!" he growled through the pain.

"**_Time to work._**"

The mass spread on his back, forming a puddle on his body before dozens of tendrils shot out and went to attack the metahuman from various sides. Black Siren saw the tendrils turn red before they all burst into flames and shoot for her.

To escape a flaming impalement, she had to cancel her sonic attack and sprint away from the tendrils that followed her like serpents travelling through the air. Retaking a stance, she swung her head around and gaped her mouth open, sending out a blast of sound attack. With her swinging head and sound attack, she was able to deflect the tendrils away, diverting them into the ground.

While it only lasted a moment, it was all needed for the mutant to reattach the symbiote to his body again before driving his blazing claws into the ground and upwards, sending pieces of the ground into her body before slammed his fist into her. The sonic cryer had to hold her stomach with both hands as she was sent skipping on the ground.

He turned his head around and saw both Deathstorm and Killer Frost charging him, one thrusting himself through the air with his blazing red flames and the other propelling herself across her ice slide with icy mist. Seeing them together like that… was incredibly painful for the mutant's heart, cracking it into pieces and didn't show any signs of stopping.

But his partner wasn't about to let himself lose himself into the pits of his sorrow. "**_Snap out of it!_**" Venom roared in his partner's head. "**_You swore to protect those kids? Then protect them! Be the Lethal Protector, Seth!_**"

Seth hissed in anger at his own stupidity and hesitation before letting the symbiote engulf his head again and he roared at the two of them.

Killer Frost smiled. "_Guess he's eager to fight again. Oh, I'm shivering._" She couldn't keep her tongue from wetting her lips, lacing each lip with a thick coating of saliva.

Deathstorm smirked and swung his hands, hurling off two fireballs in his direction. Both were intercepted by a pair of water spheres. Steam emitted as the aftermath of their collision. But Venom jumped through it with wind blowing it away.

The fiery metahuman stopped himself from continuing, suspending himself with his flames blasting downwards. He flew to the side to dodge the elemental's charge. However, his hand stretched out and wrapped around his blazing head, compelling him to try and force the symbiotic limp off his face.

Placing his feet on the underside of a tree branch, he swung Deathstorm like a mace and launched him through a tree. His body bouncing off one tree before hitting against another like a ricocheting bullet before landing on the ground with a grunt.

Killer Frost raised her hands while sliding across the air via her ice slide, her left hand momentarily raising to shoot sharp icicles after the elemental. Venom swung his sword around, raising it to swipe the incoming ice attacks away before jumping onto the trees.

The frosty metahuman smiled. "Playing hard to get, huh? I like to play." She increased the power of her right hand and propelled herself much quicker.

"**Then let's play!**" Venom responded and the two entered a chase. Killer Frost raised her hand higher up, forming the ice slide higher up through the air, creating it above the heights of trees. "**She's good.**" He admitted and chased after the icy metahuman, using her own ice slide as a path.

Under his weight, it began cracking quickly with each step he took. It caught Caitlin's doppelganger's attention and she looked to the cracks. It caused a distraction and let the mutant wrap his tendrils around her upper body, pulling her arms around her body before pulling her off the ice slide.

Releasing them from her body, Killer Frost was placed down on the ground near the lake. She looked around for the elemental on the grassy ground but found him nowhere. She heard a splashing sound coming from behind and turned around to face it. Her eyes widened when seeing the mutant stand on the water surface…without sinking.

"That's a neat trick." She complimented his technique and was inwardly impressed by his water usage.

"Thanks, I guess." Seth said while he formed water spheres in his palms. "How about you get out of here, Frost? Before you make me real angry."

"What if I like that?" she challenged him before smiling while chuckling distortedly. Her finger raised up and pointed around the area that they found themselves in. "Just remember, handsome, I'm not the only one here."

_WHOOSH_

A flash of blue lightning ran over the waters and slammed into the elemental's body. But grunts of pain emitted from the pitch-black speedster's mouth as the ice spikes dug into his body while the mutant remained steadfast on the liquid surface.

"Zoom, I _know_ how to fight speedsters and I will never be afraid of them." Seth told him while he unleashed a wave of ice from his feet, freezing himself a platform for him to stand on. The ice wave continued and froze Zoom's feet within a case of ice. Lightning erupted from the mutant's body, touching the evil speedster's body with the intensity of a lightning bolt.

Zoom tried to phase out of the icy shackles on his feet, but the lightning kept him bound, countering his phasing at every chance, stopping him from escaping. "**How?!**" He demanded to know from the mutant from the other universe.

"Found out a while back, that lightning can stop a speedster's phasing. Think its do to lightning can cancel out a lightning-based phasing. Pretty cool." Seth smirked, he was happy that the speedster from the future, Eobard Thawne, killed him in the alternative timeline that Barry erased. If he hadn't done that, then the knowledge of stopping a speedster's technique would have been lost to the mutant. "I thought you would have realized it by now. But let me just tell you this:"

While lightning roared from his body, increasing and wrapping them both in a cloak of thunder, Seth leant his face closer to his foe. "I am…_nothing_… like The Flash! I'm the nightmare of villains, you bastard. And that means…I'm gonna be your nightmare!" He slammed his palm into the speedster's stomach. A gale of wind centered in his hand before bursting, unleashing an air burst that pushed him back.

But the mutant wasn't done with Zoom yet. Quickly enveloping his entire form with the symbiote's form, he lashed out both hands, splitting them off into arrays of tendrils that shot through the air and wrapped around the pitch-black speedster's body. Using his largely clawed hands, he pulled the tendrils into ropes and swung Zoom around in a propeller-like motion.

"**Nice flight!**" he exclaimed before his tendrils released their hold on him and let go of the metahuman's body, hurling him over the rim of the lake and far into the grassy grounds around them. Venom jumped back onto the shores and looked around. "**Now where are The Brothers Grimm?**"

Turning his head to the right side again, he saw a familiar red plasma blast coming his way along with a vibrational blast following beside it. A tendril wrapped around his sword and attached it on his back. Placing both arms side by side, white mist emitted around them before disappearing and exposing a large rectangular ice shield. Turning legs into adamantium, he dug them into the ground and anchored his position while the two metahumans' attacks impacted with his shield.

The vibrational blast caused his shield to not break but it did cause immense cracks to appear on it after contact. But it was the following crimson plasma attack that shattered the mutant's shield and pushed him back.

Thanks to his anchoring feet, he was safe from falling over. He lowered his hands to the sides, letting the remains of his ice shield fall to the ground and turned to face the two metahumans again. One wearing his dark-red and grey clothes, Rupture swung his scythe around in fear. The other wearing black clothes, while Reverb's goggles shined with blue light.

"Perhaps, it's up to us brothers to vanquish the demon." Rupture said confidently with his weapon swinging.

"Appears to be, brother." Reverb agreed and he raised his hands and pointed them at the mutant.

Reaching behind him, he took hold of his sword again and held it in one hand. "**Less talking.**" Venom hissed before jumping forward and raising his weapon high in the air. Like it was a mallet, he brought the sword down with massive strength. But the metahuman brothers jumped away, each leaping into their own sides.

Reverb thrusted his hands, blasting a pair of vibrational blasts. It was dodged thanks to the demon performing a front roll and reddening his fangs to fire off a fire attack. But instead a grunt of pain came when he felt an energy attack the back of his head. He looked back and saw Rupture reeling back his scythe before thrusting it again, projecting a red blast. Venom dodged it and swung his fist at him, firing a wind blast at the armored metahuman.

Another vibrational blast hit his back, pushing him back and he swung his head to see Reverb fire off another attack. Using his partner's help, he knew there was another red blast coming his way behind. One hand unleashing a water sphere at the plasma blast while his other hand swung the sword and smashed into the vibrational attack.

"_So that's their thing._" He thought as he realized their plan was to attack from various sides with one brother's long-range attacks, while the other brother fired from the other side. Classic way to wear an enemy down before delivering the finishing strike.

"**_Let's end this._**" Venom stoked the flames inside his host's body, causing it to burn like an inferno.

Roaring his frustration out of his body, he jumped into the air. Spinning around, he swung both hands around and they break off into tendrils. They wrapped around the arms of the metahuman brothers. Landing back on the ground, he gathered lightning in his body again.

But it was canceled out when a sonic cry connected with his back, causing him to retract his arms and his body painfully detached from his body. His face was blocked as a powerful red flaming blast slammed into his head, and pushed him back, rolling against the grassy ground.

He dug his sword into the ground, halting his roll and landing in a crouch while the symbiote slithered into his body again. Seth looked up and saw Firestorm descending to the ground, and Black Siren walking to his side. Killer Frost walked up to them as well, the brothers coming as well.

_WHOOSH_

Zoom reentered the fray and saw his group of metahumans nearing the panting mutant. He narrowed his eyes on the elemental and hissed in rage. "**You lose…Venom.**"

"I ain't dead yet." Seth wiped the blood off the side of his jaw and twitched his head from side to side and got up again. "And none of you will _ever_ be able to kill me." His right hand clutched around his sword before pulling it back and his left hand enveloped by the symbiote and blazing up massive flames around it. "Nothing in this entire universe is gonna stop me. Not a single damn thing." Half of his face became enveloped by half of the white-masked face of his pitch-black demonic alter-ego. "No**ne** o**f** y**ou** wi**ll** def**eat** u**s.**" They said unified with a smirk.

Though his words were filled with confidence, parts of his being doubted if there truly was an outcome where he could pull himself out of this fight. The mutant had encountered various opponents at once and managed to take them on, but that was only normal armed humans. This time he stood before a trial of fire, a group of metahuman criminals out for blood…

… _his_ blood…

Alone, he might be able to take them on. But against them as a group, and their leader Zoom too… would prove itself to be a challenge… even for the man who would be the powerful biological weapon of the human army…Weapon X Hades.

"_Gonna be tough, Venom._"

"**_Only one way to find out, partner._**"

Both host and symbiote readied themselves for another long figh-

_SPLASH_

However, a massive splash erupted from behind him and he along with the metahuman group, looked at the direction of the lake. A massive geyser of water erupted from within the middle of the lake…and it appeared to stop while blue light emitted from within the geyser.

Time appeared to have stood still as they all watched the geyser merely remain still in mid-erupt. The blue lights from within began moving around, appearing to follow a certain motional pattern. The blue lights became clearer and through them, a silhouette of a person revealed itself. Their long hair flowing upwards while in the water…and their sparkling clothes on their body shined through the water.

"What the…" Seth trailed off when he saw two blue lights on either side shine brighter and then appeared to be thrusted forward.

Appearing to, upon command, the water geyser gained motion again, bursting forward and taking the huge and massive form of a wave, flying over the mutant's head. He followed the direction of it with his eyes and watched as it touched the ground, attacking the metahuman criminals and pushing them away without mercy whatsoever.

Screams of pain and shock from the metahumans were interrupted when they felt the surging water enter their mouths, temporarily filling their lungs with water before they threw it up again. Even Rupture had to take off his mask to cough his water mass out.

Seth looked to the lake again, this time seeing a water mass spiraling around like a small vortex. It stopped suddenly and then from within it…. something was thrown… in a blur of gold…

_PIERCE_

_CLANG_

A loud piercing sound followed by the sound of a loud clanging echoed and hit the ears of everyone near the lake. The mutant looked to the origin and widened his eyes at the sight. And he wasn't the only one to divert his eyes to the origin.

Its three pongs were shining brightly like small suns touching the surface of the golden trident as its pongs were penetrated through the surface of the grassy grounds. Its entire form was of nothing more than gold. The entire length of the shaft was purely made of gold and shining brightly when sun touched it.

_SPLASH_

Another loud splash emitted from the lake, as though something was launched from it. The object touched down on the ground, revealing themselves to be a person drenched in water when landed in a crouched position. Seth saw the person, seeing that it was a woman. But he instantly recognized the scarlet red hair flowing down her body.

Spiraling back to her feet, the woman let her drenched hair and body spin around as she took a standing. All of those around them took in her form and was shocked by her suit. She was wearing a bright one-piece golden suit. Small golden hexagons attached to her suit, giving off the appearance of something like fish scales. Sunlight danced over her form, causing her suit to adapt to an even brighter gold color. Her scarlet red hair whipped away from her face and flowing down her back…

Mera Curry placed her shining blue eyes on the group of metahumans before swinging her head around to the shocked mutant. "Are you well, Seth Fury?"

"I'm well enough to be shocked." He replied with a shocked tone and tightened the hold on his sword. "You mind explaining yourself, Mera?"

"I will, I promise you." she swore and pulled her trident out of the ground with abnormal strength. Spinning it around in her hands, she had the pongs point downwards while holding it with both hands. Shining brightly blue once again, her eyes pointed at the metahuman group of criminals. "But now, I will offer you my aid in this battle."

"Guess, I can make use of that." Seth said while his form enlarged while his clothes began changing their color into black. Mera watched with shock as he took on the hellish demonic face with a white skull as an extension on a massive black and white-streaked body. Roaring again in anger, he turned his crimson-red eyes on the group. "**Let's end this!**"

Killer Frost got up along with the rest of the group. She used her powers to freeze the residual water out of her hair and thought to herself while looking at the two in front of them. "_How many women does this guy know?_" She couldn't help but feel her jealousy spike because of the sight of the beautiful Atlantean.

Black Siren whipped her hair away and asked out loud in rage. "Great, now this guy knows an Atlantean too. For a guy who's never been here before, you sure know how to make friends."

"**Jealous?**" Venom dared her with a grin…Mera frowned with disgust at his happy smile on the demon's face.

Zoom and the other male metahumans raised to their feet, foregoing the face that they were drenched from head to toe. The pitch-black speedster growled his orders. "**Kill them both!**"

"Venom stay back!" Mera asked of the elemental and her eyes shone brighter again and her hands were wrapped around in a blue aura. While her hands shone brightly, she swung her golden trident and jumped backwards. The Atlantean landed near the shore and spun her weapon behind her back. The water from the lake rose and formed a stream and followed the pongs of the trident.

Venom watched as the speed of her spinning of her weapon increased into a blur. Then to his surprise steam emitted from the water, appearing to heat it up…and gaining a reddening color. She then swung it forwards the metahumans, thrusting her trident and projecting a beam of heated water. As the water shot through the air, it changed… turning into brightly red flames. The beam of flames hit the space between the six metahumans, separating them into two groups with a line of blaze. Upon contact with the ground, the heated attack formed a burning line.

Zoom and the two metahuman brothers on one side, Deathstorm and the two female criminals on the other one.

Mera lowered her trident and had it point at the ground with the tip while looking at the mutant. Her expression shocked by the sight of his gaped mouth of shock. "What's wrong?"

"**Did you just convert water into a flame?**" He asked in shock.

She raised her trident. "My trident possesses many powers."

"**Cool.**" He looked between the groups of metahuman criminals again. "**You take Deathstorm and the women. We'll take the other ones.**"

"Agreed, I will come to your aid if need be."

"**Likewise, princess.**" He quipped back before jumping onto a tree. He opened his mouth and blasted at the three male metahumans. They dodged, but that was expected and they looked up at him with anger. "**Come and get me, Zoom!**" Venom dared them and jumped away, the metahumans following him immediately.

Mera chuckled. "Dream on, Demon King."

"Guess Venom has another girlfriend now." Killer Frost drew the Atlantean's attention with her words. "Or just a sidepiece maybe."

"Speak whatever you think. It will not affect the outcome of this battle, resulting in your defeats." Mera pointed her trident at them.

Deathstorm blazed. "How about I make you scream before I take that trident of yours and melt it to pieces."

"Your flames will never be able to break it."

Black Siren smirked, "I really hate how cocky you Atlanteans are."

Mera was then the one to smirk. "What you call cocky…is what we call skills."

X

Venom landed down on the ground again and saw a blur of black and blue quickly coming his way. Readying his sword in his right hand and his left hand formed an ice scythe. His right hand throwing up his sword into the air before his now free hand slammed into the ground.

The earth element connected with the ground, shaking it with an earthquake running through it. Zoom was too slow to notice it and his foot got caught in a crack that appeared under him. It forced his body into the ground and rolling along the surface of it.

Tendrils wrapped around the sword's hand and pulled it into his right hand again. With Zoom still rolling his way, he swung the sword and it connected with the speedster's body and sent him into a tree. The pitch-black speedster shook off pieces of bark from his body and was too busy to see the elemental appear before him.

His ice scythe raised high before slamming into him, digging into his shoulder once penetrated through his suit. Zoom screamed in pain and grabbed the ice scythe with both hands around the icy weapon. The mutant kept the blade in him and brought him up before slamming the speedster into the tree again. He repeated this action multiple times before letting him go and wrapped his hand around his head.

Venom looked to the side and saw Rupture charging him towards him. He threw the speedster at him. Dante was too shocked by his flying boss to stop him from slamming into him. Its force was strong enough to send them both rolling on the ground like crazy.

However, their rolling momentum was put to a halt when the mutant wrapped his tendrils around them and pulled them closer. Once within arm's length, he grabbed hold of both by their stomachs and forced them into the ground with enhanced strength from his earth element. The ground cracked again from the force.

Rupture lashed out both hands, shooting out red plasma blasts from them and hitting the mutant's face. it caused him to stagger back from the surprise attack. But a series of vibrational blats from behind caught his attention. With his tendrils wrapped around a large tree branch, he pulled himself upwards and out of the way.

While latching onto the tree branch, he saw the vibrational blasts hitting Zoom and Rupture. Both hitting the ground with a thud. Reverb's arms lashed out and fired off against the mutant. But thanks to his leaping abilities and swinging capabilities, he managed to dodge all blasts.

Reverb was busy with firing off the blasts, too much that the mutant landed down behind the metahuman. Raising his adamantium fist into the air, he let lightning run over it. Venom roared and slammed the fist into the viber's back.

The metahuman was pushed forward and slammed into the ground with a grunt. He gritted his teeth and got up on his feet and reeled back his hands. Intentions of massive retaliation filled his mind as he readied another array of blasts.

_WHOOSH_

But fate had other plans because Zoom appeared and took the metahuman brothers away within a veil of blue lapis lightning. Venom looked around and enhanced his senses, trying to see if the speedster was nearby and planning a surprise attack or something.

It appears fortune was on his side for now, as he couldn't find the speedster's presence anywhere in his vicinity. "**I really, really hate speedsters.**"

"**_They have the ability to run away from any type of trouble._**" The symbiote pitched in.

The two conjoined beings turned their heads to the right, seeing a blast of fire flying into the skies, but quickly put out when a blast of water shot into it. "**Let's see what Ms. Curry has to say in her defense.**" Seth shot out a tendril and wrapped around a tree brace before pulling on it.

X

Mera jumped abnormally high up in the air and dug her trident into a tree. Using her strength, she penetrated the tree from the side and reached the bottom of its trunk. Releasing her weapon from the trunk she outstretched her hand towards the lake.

The blue aura around her hand shined brightly and the water gathered around her hand. Mera yelled out a loud war cry and the water took on the form of a solid sphere with sharp spikes around its circular form. She then hurled the ball into the air. While it's was travelling through the air, she flipped her trident around and threw it into the tree's bottom trunk.

At the same time, the trident penetrated through the bottom trunk, Deathstorm, Killer Frost and Black Siren appeared. But the fiery metahuman was the first one to emit a scream of pain when the hard water orb slammed into him and brought him down to the ground in crashing motion.

Killer Frost and Black Siren turned their head to the falling tree and shared a look. The two of them looked snidely at each other because they knew what they had to do. They both looked back at the tree again. The sonic cryer opened her mouth and unleashed a cry that connected with the tree, suspending it from falling. The frosty metahuman thrusted her arms at the bottom of the trunk, blasting a blizzard of icy mist aimed at it.

The icy mist followed up the length of the trunk, freezing it at the bottom first before running up it and freezing the tree into a frozen tree. It stopped it from falling but it also gave it the density of ice itself. And the sonic cryer knew it and increased the strength of her sonic cry. The frozen tree began to crack quickly and broke into dozens of big pieces that fell to the ground around them.

Deactivating their powers, they looked at the Atlantean who withdrew her golden trident again. She pointed it at the women. "Do you dare to think you can still beat me again? Cause the result will still end in your defeat."

"You really don't know how to shut up, do you?" Black Siren asked while her temper increased with each word escaping the Atlantean's mouth.

"Think it's time we put you on ice." Killer Frost joked and fired off ice blasts at again.

Mera rolled on the ground, avoiding the icy attacks before spinning again, her hands and eyes shining blue while the water shoot out of the lake again like a geyser and wrap around the pongs of the trident. She stopped spinning and pointed her trident at Black Siren, the water from the tip of it erupted and wrapped around the sonic cryer. Raising up the trident, she lifted the enemy before throwing her into the lake.

"One down," Mera turned her eyes to the frosty metahuman who formed ice blades in her hands, extending them into the lengths of a pair of swords. "one more to fight."

She crossed her ice blades over one another and said. "Careful, I'm might give you a frostbite if you run your mouth."

"And I will gladly run my trident through your cold blue heart, Killer Frost!" she exclaimed before rushing to the frosty metahuman. Killer Frost met the Atlantean and swung one ice sword from the side, but it was blocked by the golden trident.

Performing masterful techniques with the trident, she applied enough pressure to the ice weapon and crushed it to pieces before water wrapped around Mera's azure shining hand and thrusted it into Killer Frost's stomach and sent her away. Killer Frost stood up again and emitted more ice around her last ice sword, extending it further till it took the elongated form of a long sword.

Mera saw the sword and smirked, her smirked widened when seeing a growing mass of water puddle around her. Holding her trident high up in the air, she then began to spin it around fiercely and the water around her feet gathered at its tips, spinning around and forming a ring of water around the weapon itself. The Atlantean then began to spin it around her body with impressive skills and growing ferocity so much that it looked like a blur.

Killer Frost looked a bit scared by the display of the hydrokinetic powers that the Atlantean possesses. While she may have chosen a close-range option in the beginning, the sight of that vortex like technique changed her thoughts. She twirled her ice sword around and then like a lance, threw it at the golden Atlantean woman.

But Mera expected such a move and threw her spinning trident at the incoming ice sword. The force and added momentum of the trident's gathered force easily overwhelmed the fragile ice structure and crushed it to pieces before being bounced into the air again.

The Atlantean woman jumped into the air and grabbed hold of it before landing on the ground again. While she may have let go of the weapon for a moment, she still managed to continue the spinning move from before.

However, this time something strange happened… as Killer Frost watched the other woman continue to spin her weapon… she saw something running along the surface of the spinning water…and it was…crackling?

"Lightning?" Killer Frost stated in shock at the sight of blue lightning running over the spinning trident. It was though the trident was able to convert the water into separate elements if the wielder desires. And that feared the frosty metahuman greatly.

Mera then stopped and swung her trident again, letting out a battle cry and projected a lightning strike for the evil metahuman. Killer Frost turned on her heels to try and run away, but instead she tripped and fell on the ground. She looked up and watched as the lightning neared her like an arrow set on her head.

She closed her eyes in fear of what she might witness if she watched it…

_CRASH_

Killer Frost heard a nearby crash, very close, and then a massive heat that touched her skin, but without touching her skin. Slowly opening her eyes, she widened her eyes to see that the source of the heat was because… of _him_.

Seth was standing before the frosty metahuman, fully enveloped by his symbiotic partner's mass and his entire body riddling with bright flames that wrapped with lightning. The lightning that emitted from the Atlantean weapon appeared to have been canceled out by the mutant's lightning. He was able to generate more which must have overwhelmed hers.

The frosty metahuman rose back to her feet and looked confusedly at his back. "Why did you do that?" she asked in shock of his decision.

He didn't make eye contact with her as he revealed his reasoning. "**Instincts…Bad habits…Whatever you wanna call it…dictates our actions.**" he continued vaguely.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Killer Frost walked closer to him-

_WHOOSH_

But then a blue flash grabbed hold of both Killer Frost and Black Siren and pulled them away. Despite their shouts of protest, they were dragged away, defeated and soaked in water.

Mera grew confused and watched as the azure lightning disappeared further into the woods and left her and the mutant alone. When it was completely out of her eyesight, she stated out loud after sighing in relief. "They're gone. But Seth, why did y-" she turned to face him but stopped at the sight of him.

Seth had let go of his symbiotic demonic form and was looking directly into her eyes, completely devoid of any emotions and his blue eyes pierced into her soul with nothing but a single ice-cold gaze. His right hand clutched around his large crystal sword handle while it was held out and pointing at the Atlantean's face.

Mera gulped loudly at the sight of the mutant's blade pointing at her throat, his gaze was enough to terrify her to not raise her trident to fight back in any way. "What are you doing?" she asked in fear.

"Drop the act." Seth bluntly told her, and she widened her eyes. "I know you've been scoping me out for some reason. Trying to seduce me at the lounge before?"

The Atlantean knew that she couldn't talk her way out of this. And though she promised her friend to not divulge anything, she had to now. "What gave it away?"

"Back at the lounge, I noticed that you were alone and pretty much ignored everyone around you. But for some reason, you only paid attention to me. I may be new to this entire world and all, but I know a recon mission when I see one." his instincts as a SHIELD agent are showing themselves.

"How?" Mera asked in shock.

""Dressed to impress," you have this saying here?" Mera nodded. "Well I know a similar saying. "Dressed to get attention", one my father told me when you must get information about a target. Choose clothes that is without a doubt able to gain anyone's attention and try to wrap them around your finger. Ask them a bunch of questions about themselves while making sure you still hold their interests. It's a classic strategy for reconnaissance."

"That gave it away?" Mera wondered.

"That and you just happened to talk to a random guy who came at the exact right time you happened to be there. I don't believe in coincidences; I believe in set-ups." Seth informed her. "Plus, while you have been dressed to the nines, you were definitely not a thrill seeker."

"What's that supposed to mean? What makes you think I wasn't one?" she asked.

"I met thrill seekers, and I know how to be one." Seth nodded to her right hand; his eyes locked onto the shining wedding ring on her ring finger. "A genuine thrill seeker does not hold their wedding ring tightly, or even wear them for a night out." Mera held it with her other hand. "It shows that you love your better half with all your heart. And you don't dare to take it off, do ya?"

"I couldn't imagine myself taking it off. I love my husband too much to even do this to him." Mera admitted to his confirmation. She inhaled deeply before asking him shakily. "What do you want now then? Kill me?"

"No, I won't." he lowered his sword and she was relieved with a sigh. "While I may not know what your plan is or why you wanted to spy on me, you did just help me fighting against a group metahuman psychopaths. I can accept that." He walked closer to her, nearing her with each step. "But you mind telling me why you wanted to get a scope on me?"

"Sorry, I can't. But I can say that it was because a friend asked me to check on you…wanted to see if you're trustworthy."

Seth chuckled, "If I was a good guy…or a bad guy, you mean." Mera nodded, giving him all the confirmation, he needed. "So what's the verdict then?"

"I don't believe you're a bad guy. But you do have traits of one while still being a good guy. That's my conclusion."

The mutant raised his sword, giving the Atlantean frights, before he swung it around and placed it on his back. A symbiotic mass grew on his back, wrapping itself around the sword and absorbed it into the pocket dimension of Venom's body. "Thank you for helping me out there, saved my ass."

"You're welcome." Mera smiled.

"But here's another thing." He began, she was giving him her full attention. "Whoever your friend is, if they want to know about me…tell them to just come and meet me themselves."

"My friend's pretty untrusting of everyone, so might be a bit impossible for that to happen." Mera quipped before walking back to the lake. "But I will pass on the message to my friend. And I'm sorry for everything, Seth."

"It's okay, you had a job and had to do it. I don't blame you for that. Oh yeah, pretty cool trident you got there." He pointed a finger at the trident.

"Thank you. King Atlan had taste." She smiled and a blank look came over the mutant's face. "But what about that kid of yours, the blonde one?"

"Not mine. Just made the mistake of thinking of her like that." Seth breathed out. "But I'm gonna make it up again. I have to. Just don't know how."

"Can I give you some advice?" the mutant nodded. "You only treated her as your kid because you obviously care for her. There's no shame in that, Seth. It just shows how much you care about her, so don't be too hard on yourself."

"Yeah, I guess." He narrowed his eyes on the Atlantean's form. "Oh yeah, how long have you and you friend been watching me?"

Mera winked and stepped into the waters again, "Sorry but I'm not one to spill secrets like that so easily." She stepped further backwards into the waters and the water reached her waist, reaching higher up her body as she walked deeper into it. "Pleasure to meet you, Seth Fury. And I hope we can meet again."

"Same goes for you, Mera Curry. But I hope it's under normal circumstances, and not under missional intentions." He smiled and watched as the water reached her neck. "How do I contact you if I want to?"

"You'll find out soon enough, I promise." The water reached her jaw as she said. "Until next time." she stepped back again and disappeared into the waters.

Even though Seth used his partner's senses to search for her, he was unable to find her presence. "_Guess we got an ally from the deep._"

"**_Talk about being in deep waters._**" Venom couldn't help but joke. His host frowned at the joke. "**_Oh come on, you love it!_**"

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

His mind riddled with self-hate… while his eyes pointed upwards at the ceiling while he was lying on the couch in the West-Allen household. Seth had returned to the house and found that only Iris and Barry had been waiting for him to return. He informed them all had happened when he went to intercept the metahuman group by himself.

Seth had informed them of Mera Curry, an Atlantean that the married couple had heard about from their times in Atlantis, but only in passing they had never actually met the woman herself. While it was shocking to hear her aid the mutant, it was even more shocking to hear that she possesses hydrokinetic powers and wields a golden trident which allows her to convert water into either fire or lightning.

They were shocked to hear the Atlantean was actually working for a friend who had asked that she met up with Seth and gathered intel on him. They were worried when the mutant informed that the Atlantean had received intel about him previously, probably spying on him and the family here from afar without their knowledge.

The elemental drifted his eyes down to his clothed stomach. His brown shirt changed colors, shifting into a mass of pitch-black goo before stretching upwards and slithering into a large tendril. The tip of it pointed downwards the mutant and then took the shape of a fang-like teeth before sprouting into a mask…wearing the face of Venom.

Seth was shocked to see that even in this form, the symbiote wore the white skull extension and red eyes. Looking at the connecting tendril, he saw the tendril was slowly entangling with a white bone-like spine. The symbiote formed a saddened face and looked at his host. "**Are you okay, Seth?**"

"Not sure how I feel about being stalked by a suspicious person who somehow has a powerful Atlantean on speed-dial. But it's sure that we're on their watchlist. Next is to determine if they are friends or family." Seth said.

"**Not what we meant, you idiot.**" Venom insulted him. "**About what Ruby told you before… Are you okay?**"

He didn't answer for a few moments, trying to compress everything floating in his head. "Do you think I really did that? Treating Evelyn and Ruby like my kids." The symbiote didn't answer, already knowing full well that the host knew what he was about to speak. "I hate myself for it, Venom."

"**Don't do that, Seth. You did it because you wanted to keep them safe.**"

"Not just that." Seth revealed and the symbiote let his partner speak his heart. "Frankie…" Venom widened his red eyes. "I just miss…I just miss my daughter so much." He felt tears stinging the surfaces of his eyes before they rolled down his face. "She's alone right now…without her father…. Without me. I'm scared for her. And I just want…to hold her and tell her I'm sorry for leaving her."

"**Seth…**" Venom looked sadly at his partner.

"And worst of all, I took all of that and put it on Ruby and Evelyn." Seth clenched his hands, the sound of his knuckles cracking echoed in the living room. "What kind of father am I? To put his feelings for his child on two others who have lost their worlds and their parents…that's…probably the lowest thing I have ever done."

Venom was shocked beyond any measures to hear Seth speak like that in such a heartbreaking tone. And he could even feel the cracks on his heart widening quickly through their bonds. This disheartening feeling was similar… he had felt it before in the past… when he held the dead bodies of his son… and the woman who was going to become his wife.

But it was… unlike then the pain froze his heart and broke his emotions into pieces… forcing him to fall into a pit- No, a world of lifelessness. The only existing emotion for him to accept…to feel… so he would still resemble an actual living being. But it caused him to commit dangerous acts of both a reckless nature…but also acts that many of his friends and family would consider downright suicidal.

He was lost back then.

Heartbroken… Alone… Dying from an untreatable poison… the only thing keeping him going… the feeling of vengeance that dictated his very being to imagine… the feeling of destroying Carnage once and for all…. It was his drive…

…his reason for still existing back then…

"**You only cared for them, Seth.**" Venom told him and his host turned his teary eyes at him. "**You're a father, a natural protector of anyone innocent. To not care for them like that would not be you, partner. Don't blame yourself…. Because those feelings you have for Frankie and Evelyn and Ruby…. They drove you to protect them. It's nothing to be ashamed of.**"

"Too late." He wiped the tears away and straightened up to a sitting while his partner held eye contact with him. "They didn't deserve that kind of treatment. Evelyn lost her parents, I just put myself in that spot like it was a vacant parking spot. Ruby's not that different, she never had a parent and I just…" he clenched his hands again. "I went off on her like that, and…what the hell is wrong with me?"

"**Seth…**"

"Hey…"

He and Venom shared a glance before looking to the staircase again. Their eyes widened when seeing Evelyn and Ruby walking down the stairs. The assassin pointed a finger between the host and symbiote. "We interrupting anything here?"

"Not much, just a talk between brothers." Seth assured her, while his finger gestured to himself and his partner.

"So that's what Venom really looks like?" Evelyn asked in shock as she and Ruby walked closer to the couch.

"**Hallo, girls.**" Venom greeted them with a nod of his head. He turned his head to his host again and told him comfortingly. "**Don't think like that again, alright partner?**" he told him when feeling the self-loathing thoughts brewing in Seth's mind again.

"No promises." He quipped to his partner while the symbiote retracted back into his body. Looking at the girls again, he asks. "You guys, okay?"

"We're fine. Thanks to you." Ruby took a seat on the couch with Evelyn following her behind. The young assassin put her hands together and rubbed them against one another. She started apologetically. "Seth about before-"

"Before that. Ruby, you were right." Seth cut her off and both she and Evelyn were shocked by his words. "And it's not just you, but it's Evelyn too." He inhaled deeply, steeling himself for what he's about to say… it was nothing short of a confession. "I didn't even realize it till I heard you say it, but I really did treat you two as if you were my children. And I'm sorry for that. It's just that…I think I miss my daughter too much and I put it on you two."

"It's okay, Seth." Evelyn assured him calmly while Ruby struggled to find words for her to speak.

"It's not, Evelyn." Seth dejected her natural kindness even though it was the last thing he'd ever want to do. "Neither of you deserved that. You lost your parents and don't deserve to have me try to fill that spot, it's not right for me to just force myself into that position because I miss being near my daughter. I'm sorry for it."

"Seth, it's…fine, don't worry." Ruby finally spoke assuring to him, hoping that her words this time was able to heal the damage left behind from her previous sharp words. "And I'm sorry for what I said. I was too harsh, and you didn't deserve that." She spoke truthfully, regretting the words that she told him before. "You were just acting like a father, that doesn't mean you had to go through that. I didn't realize you were in pain from missing your daughter, I didn't think of it."

Seth waved his hand, sloughing off her concerns. "You have absolutely nothing to apologize for, Ruby. I have to thank you for giving me that wake-up call. So, thank you." He looked at them both with a determined look. "I swear to you both that I won't do it again and treat you two better in the near future. Nothing like this will happen again. You don't have to worry about it anymore."

"I was never worried about that." Evelyn revealed and the mutant looked at her with surprised eyes. "Seth, you helped me with my powers and made sure I was safe. Yeah, I miss my parents… but you managed to get me to keep fighting even though the rest of my family and friends have turned their backs on me. I'm happy for that…" she looked down embarrassedly. "I'm happy you don't treat me like an outsider or a freak like others have."

"And I never will." Seth told her in earnest. "Trust me on that."

"Same here." Ruby got his attention with her small words. "I know what I said was harsh, and I'm sorry for going off like that before."

"Same here, Rubs." Seth made eye contact with her. "I'm sorry for calling you a brat and for saying that you're out of control. And for bringing in your mother like that before. It was a low blow."

Ruby smiled weakly. "Well, then I'm sorry for using my powers to smash you through a wall before. I kinda felt like I was disappointing you. My mom used to say I was a disappointment. I guess, I just wanted to prove myself so I wouldn't be a world-class disappointment in two universes."

"You're not a disappointment Ruby." Seth surprisingly said and the assassin turned her equally shocked eyes to him. "Sure, you have a few kinks that might need an adjustment or two, but it's not unexpected. You wanted to show your worth, especially with new powers in your arsenal. I mean, being the Destroyer of Worlds does mean people would have high expectations of you… you were just trying to live up to them. And don't ever call yourself a disappointment again, because you are nothing like that, Ruby Hale."

Ruby tried to stop it, but she couldn't prevent the smile on her face from widening in happiness from his words. It sounded like he was genuinely happy for her… even proud of her. "Thanks, Seth."

"Destroyer?"

"What was that?" Ruby asked in confusion from the sudden change of subjects.

Seth smirked and told her. "Destroyer. Think that's a cool nickname, right?"

"Yeah. Destroyer." Ruby repeated the nickname. "I like it. Thanks."

"Well, you did want a cool nickname, right? And I figured it's about time. Not exactly on the level to level planets, but you're definitely ready on the right path."

"What if I don't want to be like a hero? They are such goody two shoes, and I wouldn't exactly fit in there." Ruby wondered of him.

"Like I told Evelyn a while back, you don't have to be if you don't want to." He softly told her. "You're skilled enough to be anything you want to be. Don't worry about it."

Ruby looked at Evelyn and directed her eyes to the upper level again. the metahuman understood and nodded. "I'm gonna go upstairs and maybe sleep. Goodnight you two."

"Night Evie." Seth told her.

"See ya tomorrow, Evelyn." Ruby said as the metahuman walked up the staircase. She then looked to the mutant again. "You know, those words you used before, they sounded like what my mother used to say to me whenever I went off the rails."

"That sounds like an occurring thing with you, Rubs." Seth joked and the assassin slapped his elbow. "But I'm sorry for acting like an ass before. Won't happen again." he promised her.

But then Ruby's next words shocked him. "If I have to be honest…I didn't really mind being treated like that before." Seth widened his eyes. "You know, like your kid."

"Glad to hear, I guess." He leant over and hugged her gently. Ruby returned with her own arms wrapping around the mutant. "I'll protect you all, I promise, until my last breath."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that, but thanks Seth. It means a lot." She unwrapped her arms from him and looked at him. "Thanks again. I'm gonna hit the sack now. Night Seth." She told him while walking to the stairs.

"Goodnight, Ruby." Seth lowered himself to the couch again.

Ruby noticed him lowering himself to the couch from the top of the stairs. "Goodnight…Dad." She breathed out barely above a whisper before continuing to the bedrooms.

Seth smiled to himself. "We're gonna continue to protect them all three, Venom. We find a way back to our Earth and bring them along and we stay there for a while, till things settle down."

Venom mentally smiled. "**_Sounds like a plan, brother. Let's do it._**"

"And we can't underestimate the metahumans under Zoom's rule anymore." He let a tendril slither out of his side and enlarge. The tip of it opened up and released his large crystal sword. Wrapping his hand around it, he held it high while his eyes ran up and down its multi-colored reflective surface. "We'll master this sword and win against all who fights us."

He heard a chuckle come from within his mind before the symbiote stated his thoughts with glee. "**_Every king needs a sword to ride into battle. Even a demon king._**"

"Good point, Venom. And we're definitely going to be riding into a fight and win…every last one that we fight." Seth agreed with a smile. But his smile faded when realization came over him. "But some people are spying on us now. We might have to watch our next steps now."

"**_If its enemies, then they're gonna regret ever meeting us._**" Venom growled his response and the host agreed. Cause he swore that nothing would happen to the girls and Iris and Barry…

… and a Lethal Protector does not go against his own word…

X

_KNOCK KNOCK_

Having heard the knocking on the other side of the door, the woman looked up with bright green eyes from her computer screens and asked Tony Woodward. "Tony, would you be a dear and take that for me?"

"Sure thing, Boss." The man answered and opened the door and widened his eyes in shock of the person there. "Ms. Curry, good to see you again."

Mera rolled her eyes at his formal tone and told him. "Thought I told you last time, Tony, you don't need to be so formal with me."

"Old habits die hard." Tony stepped to the side and allowed the Atlantean to go into the room.

The woman on the other side of her computers smiled happily at the sight of her. "Mera, come here girl!" she practically squealed in delight.

"Hey yourself." Mera opened her arms and allowed her friend to embrace her in a hug. "It's good to see yourself." She pulled back and saw her eyes now blue and had to ask. "So, what's the name now?"

"This time, it's Lindy." The woman revealed her name to her old friend. "I'm really sorry for pulling out of Atlantis and away from Arthur, but you were the only one I knew who might be able to survive a meeting with a demon of all things."

"I think you mean, a demon king." Mera corrected her with a smirk. "But I am impressed by him."

"What did you think of him?" Marcus asked as he stepped closer to her, joining in the conversation.

"Other than the fact that he's a very handsome guy," she smiled, and the two men wondered if she remembered what her mission was. "he's strong and smarter than we thought. He knew from our meeting at Jitterbugs that I was there to gather intel on him. He had his sword pointed at me before."

"What?!" Lindy shockingly asked and grabbed the Atlantean by the shoulders. "Mera, are you okay?! He didn't hurt you, did he?!" she was worried for her old friend, worried that she might have been responsible for putting her in danger. Her eyes running up and down the woman's form to search for any wounds.

"I'm fine, Lindy." Mera told her assuringly. "He didn't use it on me because I saved him when he fought against Zoom and five of his metahumans." This seemed to relieve them of their concerns. "But…" their worries returned with a hatred mixed with mountain-sized concern mixed in. "… he knew that he was being watched and he's told me to give you a message."

"He knows about me now?" Lindy worriedly asked and the two henchmen looked worried as well while clenching their hands in fear of what the demonic king might do to their boss.

"No." Mera relieved them again with a shake of her head. "But he said that if you wanted to learn more about him, then you should meet him face to face."

"I might end up doing that actually." Lindy put two fingers on her face and rubbed her chin in thought. "There's too much about this guy we don't know. The more we know about him, the better are our decisions if we decide to bring him into the fold."

"I might have something to help with that." Mera started and gained their attention. "Seth's a really good guy, not a bad guy…and he's not from this world, I think."

"Wait? You're saying that this demonic dude is from another universe?" Marcus asked in shock.

"Possibly, yeah." The Atlantean answered. "He appeared to be unsure of the things in this world and if some sayings are like ones he knows. It would explain a lot, since he's a nobody that shows up with these incredible powers."

"Yeah, that's true." Tony agreed.

"Wonder if it has anything to do with Zoom running off with some of his henchmen and they're nowhere to be found here anymore." Lindy wondered out loud.

"Chances are," Mera garnered her attention. "Zoom's sending metas over there for his own reasons and he's pretty persistent about it."

"I might have to set a meeting with him soon." Lindy got their attention this time, this time wielding brown eyes and red hair. "With the Demon King…with Venom… with Seth Fury."

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps.**

**An uproar has taken place as the mutant was force to recognize his own actions. Projecting the thoughts of holding his daughter again onto the two girls, Ruby and Evelyn. It got to the point where the young assassin retaliated and pushed Seth aside…through a wall.**

**But it turned out that she did not mind the fatherly affection Seth displayed for her. She regretted saying the harsh words that she did not like them or the affection that he was showing. **

**Thankfully those words did not halt the mutant's true natural protectiveness, leading him to find the girls again and save them from being taken by Zoom and his metahuman group again. **

**And though Seth appeared to have reached the end of his rope, the mutant was saved by a new ally of the deep. Mera may have been called to the field because of her friend, Lindy. But Lindy appears to still need more confirmation of the mutant's allegiance…especially because of his identity and his capability to wield the sword that once belonged to Blackfire.**

**But the Altantean weapon that Mera wielded was impressive, capable to convert water into fire and lightning. Another thanks to Ryu otsutsuki for this amazing idea.**

**This ally is gonna play a part in the mutant's life while he remains on Earth-2. And so is Lindy.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	12. Chapter 12: The Darkness and The Light

**And a very, very Merry Christmas to you all out in the world.**

**Christmas Eve is near and this is the best I can offer as a present for you guys, for all your wonderful reviews and PMs and of course, your much appreciated support.**

**Now I also hope you will read the stories of a few friends of mine, all of them are talented writers. So remember to check them out.**

**Reconzilla117**

**The IDEALLER 1995**

**T-Rex-1000**

**makoto x chelia**

**They are very incredible writers.**

**Now… without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 12: The Darkness and The Light**

_FLIP_

The only sound to echo throughout the Cortex was the sound of a page flipping… the eyes of the many watching with undivided attention at the man flipping through the pages of the thick book in his hands. Arrays of hundred emotions coursing through them all like floods.

Rage and heartbreak overwhelming the others in some more than the other people.

Olivia kept herself as calm as possible, trying to barricade her true feelings behind the iron-clad fortress-like walls of her SHIELD training that's she's been put through for years prior to the dimensional travel to this Earth. Otherwise, she would have to take on the force of a fallen angel from Heaven and strike down the man in the Cortex without hesitation.

Matt was no different. Underneath his clothes, he used his nanites to run through every single part of his body, forcing them to run like insects through his skin. His way of telling himself that he shouldn't jump into actions and attack the man as he was casually reading through the pages. Holes on his palms opened up and nanites formed small blades on his fingertips, right before they were dragged across his flesh and cut through the skin, leaving trails of blood on them.

Cisco was watching with hate and confusion and shock at the man. He had his arms crossed over his chest and dared not to blink. But feelings of hatred boiled on his skin. Feelings of horror brewed as well, memories of what the last man with his face told him…still deeply rooted to the forefront of his mind and flashing over his open eyes.

Barry was just as much shocked as them. He still remembered the last man with his face… the man who murdered his mother…the man responsible for intentionally blowing up the particle accelerator and letting a lightning bolt strike him down and infusing with dark matter… turning him into a speedster… a tool for his plans to be fulfilled, nothing more than a means to an end.

Caitlin was having just much problems with keeping her true emotions held within the walls of her façade. She was trying her best to not scream out her anger at the man before them. The last one to wear his face was responsible for loss of the man she loves and the father of her young daughter. Because of his malicious plan, the man she loves had to sacrifice himself to save the lives of the entire city, if not the entire planet and the universe itself.

And because of this man before her, she had to lose the love of her life…and the world that only she and Seth were allowed within.

Frankie's eyes were shining like magenta crystals. She couldn't contain her anger, her blue eyes now hiding behind the overshadowing veil of rage that was blazing like a fiery fury. Her hands clutched at the either side of her frame, the skin enveloped by the symbiotic mass from within before quickly turning back to normal repeatedly as she watched him. Parts of her-

No, her entire being as both Frankie Fury and Magenta demanded the blood of the man… wanting to tear into him and tear his body to pieces like a savage predator. Willing to even cast aside the protector within her to achieve that goal.

However, not a single one did anything like that. They merely watched as he continued to read the page.

Harrison Wells lowered the book in one hand while flipping through the pages with the other one. "Very strange to be holding your autobiography, especially when you didn't write it" he put the book down on the console. "and it's not about you."

The speedster walked over to the others, momentarily shocked by the level of restrained violence within the eyes of the mutants before shaking off his surprise. "Dr. Caitlin Snow, Olivia Stark-Fury, Frankie Fury, Cisco Ramon, Matt Stark, meet Dr. Harrison Wells…from Earth-2."

"Hi." Cisco breathed out his greeting with a low voice.

"Hi." Harrison Wells greeted back in a monotone voice, completely casual and without emotions.

Cisco stepped forward and started. "So, let me get this straight." He pointed a finger at the man from the other. "You're the doppelganger of the man who murdered his mom and is responsible for Ronnie, Eddie and Seth's deaths?"

At the mention of the elemental's name, the hands of his family members clenched their hands tightly from growing anger.

Caitlin inhaled deeply before clarifying. "Yeah, but he's not even the doppelganger of the Dr. Wells that we knew because that Dr. Wells' body had bene taken over by the Reverse Flash, who was really Eobard Thawne and Eddie's distance relative from the future." She expected her quick explanation and unsure words to gain a reaction from her daughter. But it appeared to do nothing do dull the flames blazing within Frankie in the least.

The man from Earth-2 blinked rapidly before stating. "Yeah, I didn't follow any of that. I'm my own man. I had nothing to do with the murder of your mother" he nodded his head to Barry before pointing it at the group of five on the other side. "or your friend Sam."

Caitlin saw red and she put her hands on her daughter's shoulders, keeping her child from leaping into a frenzy and reminding herself of a reason to keep herself from losing control. "His name was Seth." she could hear the bones within the mutants beside her cracking as though they were ready to burst in hate for the man

"Him either." Harrison said without a care.

Matt narrowed his eyes on the man, blood slipping between the gaps of his fingers and falling and landing on his shoes. "You said something about proof of your identity? How about you show it, unless you're nothing but bullshit."

Harrison didn't appear interested in the threat and walked over to his bag on the chair. "This almost hit me when I went through the portal." He pulled out a familiar handbag and held it before the eyes of the many in the Cortex. Caitlin recognized it and walked to him, her daughter following for her protection. "Your stabilized breach downstairs connects directly to the S.T.A.R. Labs on my Earth."

The female doctor grabbed the handbag with both hands and told the man. "Technically, this could be mine, but I want to run some tests on you."

He then explained quickly. "I'll be genetically indistinguishable from my Earth-1 counterpart. Your tests will reveal nothing."

"Great! Still gonna run 'em." Caitlin didn't appear the least bit interested in his words.

"Be my guest." He allowed it.

Olivia looked at her husband's hands, she saw the blood dripping on his shoots. With a flick of her fingers and lit of her eyes, she formed a psychic energy veil around his hands, isolating the blood and keeping it from spilling on the ground. "You might wanna clean that up, honey. Frankie shouldn't see that."

Matt blinked a few times and put his hands together. The veil dissipated and he pulled the blades off his fingertips and watched the holes through his skin healing again. "Sorry, not exactly used to this kind of situation."

"You and me both." She intertwined her fingers with her husband's.

"Do you think Frankie's okay?" Matt hoped his wife's psychological traits would be able help them out in this situation.

"I don't think so, no." Olivia started. "Her eyes have been magenta the entire time. She's spiking a lot right now."

"Can't blame her." He took out a napkin and dried off the blood on his hands. "The sight of that man again…is enough for us all to lose our minds and he's making it very hard…to not just kill him right now."

Harrison heard his words and drifted his eyes to them, both wearing cold eyes and not showing any emotions or even willingness to aid him.

Cisco walked to Barry and whispered into his ear. "Why are we even listening to him? How do we know he's not evil like the other guy?"

Barry faced the engineer's face. "He saved Frankie's and my life last night."

At the mention of her name, Frankie's brightly shining magenta eyes shifted to the speedster with malice in her gaze. "I wasn't the one in fishhead's choke. That's all on you, Flash." Harrison narrowed his eyes at the young girl's tone. She then looked at the man from the other Earth. "The question is why you did it?"

Matt then added, "I'm guessing you didn't travel between dimensions to meet our residential speedster." He didn't see any need or reason to speak the name of Barry's alter-ego.

Harrison tightened the sling on his right shoulder and looked at them all. "That's exactly what I did." The serious tone he used caused the others to give their full attention. "I came here to help you, Barry, to stop your greatest enemy."

"We already took care of that." Olivia stated while leaning against the console's railing.

Cisco nodded his agreement before voicing it. "He already did that." He shifted his gaze to Caitlin, Frankie and the two mutants. "And theirs." The four of them smiled in warmth of his consideration.

"I'm not talking about Reverse Flash or whoever the other one is." Harrison dejected. "I'm talking about Zoom." He noticed the faces of the many falling at the name he dropped. "I see you've already heard of him." He deduced.

Barry nodded. "Yeah, Zoom has been sending metahumans from your world through the breaches to fight me."

When Frankie heard that her eyes flickered, turning back to their normal blue color for a second because of the thoughts entering her mind. But it was only for a moment, once again turning back to magenta as her curious thoughts passed.

"Well, they're the symptoms." Harrison told them. "Zoom's the plague, one that's infected my world and now he's coming for yours."

Frankie narrowed her eyes on him before asking, "Since you're such an expert on Zoom, what do you know about him?"

"Everything, little girl." Harrison stated. "I created Zoom." They didn't look surprised. "I'm responsible for all Earth-2 metahumans, a fact I've ignored for far too long, but now I'm doing something about it." He placed his rifle on a chair.

Cisco had his arms crossed over his chest as he stated his thoughts. "Yeah, well, we're batting a thousand against these breachers."

The man responsible for the Earth-2 metahumans looked at him and said, "You're batting a thousand, Crisco? What's your sample size? Ten? Less? Zoom is obsessed with speed. He will never allow there to be another speedster in the multiverse, and he's gonna keep sending these metas here, one after the next, all with the same goal: to kill The Flash unless we stop him together."

"Big words coming from the same guy who just admitted he's been ignoring the same metahumans he created." Matt said bemusedly, getting the man's attention. "But how can we actually trust anything that's coming out of your mouth now?"

"He's right." Cisco agreed with a nod of his head. "Last time we listened to a guy with your face, some bad things went down."

Caitlin placed a hand on Frankie's shoulder as she spoke in a tender tone, pained and still heartbroken from the past events from over six months ago. "We lost people we cared about." The mutants looked at them and felt their pain.

But Harrison didn't feel the same and stated bluntly. "Everyone loses someone they care about, Snow. The real test of character is what you do once they're gone."

Olivia walked forward and looked him directly in his eyes with an ice-cold gaze with her blue eyes. "You don't talk to her or anyone else here like that again. I'm not known for taking it easy on people who insult my family."

Despite his calm composure that he's upheld the entire time since he arrived in this universe, Harrison Wells from Earth-2 felt himself swallowing a gulp in fear at the tone he heard from the magenta-haired woman. He hadn't expected such hostility from someone who appeared to be so kind towards a child.

He may have been underestimating this world a bit.

But as he was dealing with these feelings and thoughts, Detective Joe West walked around the corner and passed the threshold of the entrance. He wore a worrisome expression on his face, but that instantly fell into a whole new expression of shock… and hate when he saw…_that _man again.

Pulling the side of his coat open, he reached for his gun and pulled it out instantly. The others in the Cortex faced the entrance… but it was too late for anyone to speak because the detective pulled his trigger… four times.

The gunshots emitted and the bullets travelled through the air, paving through the air and making their way to the scientist. Time slowed to a crawl and the speedster jumped into action. He grabbed one bullet with his left hand. Spiraling around, he took hold of the second one with his right hand. Barry faced the scientist and saw a bullet coming his way. He managed to grab it by diving down and landing on his knees.

But he didn't see the fourth bullet following the others and was about to contact the scientist.

…

…

However… it never appeared to touch his clothes…. In fact… the bullet was no longer moving through the air and merely suspended in the air.

Time returned to normal and everyone looked at the suspended bullet with shock on their faces. Harrison saw the same and ran his hands over his torso, trying to find any entry wounds from the bullets.

Matt exhaled and turned to his wife. "Nice job catching that bullet, babe. Nice timing, really."

Olivia shook her head. "That wasn't me."

"Then who?" Cisco wondered in shock.

"Guys…" they all heard Caitlin's voice and looked at her, they saw her face broadening a wide smile. "I think my daughter, has been training a lot more than we thought."

They looked at the young metahuman and widened their eyes in surprise when seeing her hold out a lashed-out hand. Her limb was shaking a bit as she had her eyes placed on the bullet. Realization hit them like a tidal wave.

Frankie was somehow able to catch a bullet with her magnekinetic powers.

"Finally, able to do that." Frankie smiled as she curled her fingers, bringing the bullet closer to her hand and placing it in her palm. She clenched it and widened her smile. "Felicia's gonna be proud to hear this."

"Frankie…" the young metahuman shivered when hearing her mother's cold tone and looked at her. "Did Felicia shoot you or something?"

"No!" Frankie exclaimed in fear of her mother right now. "I mean, I did find a gang or two that did shoot at me, but they failed. So, no need to worry."

"I hope you're not lying to me now, young lady." Caitlin leant closer to her daughter's face. "I don't want to ground you, you know." Frankie felt herself shrink under her mother's scolding gaze, not even in the form of Magenta would she stand a chance of escaping her mother's wrath.

Olivia looked at her husband with a fearfully shocked face. "Is it just me, or did Caitlin get even scarier these past months?"

"Think she could actually give Seth a run for his money. Heck she might just scare him out of his abominable form when he's pissed off his rocks." Matt admitted with just as shocked expression. He even wondered if Seth just fell in love with Caitlin's frosty side.

Barry turned to face his adoptive father who had his firearm raised and pointing at Harrison Wells. "Joe! Put the gun down!"

The detective rushed around the main console and exclaimed. His adoptive son stopped him with his hands pushing against him. "How is he still alive? How are you still alive?" he powered through despite his son's efforts to push him back. But he stopped himself from going further as the man spoke.

"I don't know, because you missed?" Harrison said.

Barry didn't find the joke the least bit helpful and told him. "Hey, I'm trying to keep him from shooting you. You're not helping. Let's take a walk, all right?" He had Joe turn around. "It's all good." The two walked away and into the corridors.

Caitlin then turned to the mutants and Cisco. "We know someone who can verify everything that this guy just said."

"Yeah, we might actually have use for him." Olivia agreed.

A flash of inspiration came over Caitlin and she asked them. "Liv, can you and Matt find him and bring Frankie with you?"

"Sure thing. But what about you, Caity? You don't want fetch our helpless and powerless traveler from the other world?" Olivia asked of the doctor.

"Normally, yes. But…" she briefly glanced at her daughter who was still wielding magenta eyes. "What I have to do, is more important right now."

"All right. Be careful." Matt told her.

"You too." Caitlin said back and walked away from them.

"Matt." The nanite mutant turned to the exit and saw Barry waving him over. "Joe wants to talk to us both." He didn't nod his acceptance and walked with the speedster reluctantly.

Olivia walked to her niece and patted her shoulders, getting her attention. "Wanna go with your cool Aunt and fetch a man from another universe, honey?"

"Okay, Aunty." Frankie's eyes turned back to blue and she asked her aunt wonderingly. "Aunt Liv, do you think I'm a monster as Magenta?"

"Of course not, Frankie. Why would you ever think that?" Olivia asked in shock of her niece's words.

"Because…that guy…the half-man half-shark metahuman…he called me a monster all of a sudden."

"Sweetie, you might not wanna take the words of a stranger serious, especially if that man is a huge-ass shark metahuman who looks like he escaped from Disney's dark side." Olivia joked. She saw the sour face still on her face and asked. "Babe, what's wrong?"

"It's just that guy…it felt like he had seen me before or something." Frankie shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Maybe just shock from fighting a landshark. Let's go get that guy again." She walked ahead of her auntie.

Olivia gained a confused look on her face before walking after the young metahuman. She shared a brief glance with Cisco who nodded back.

Cisco turned his attention back to Harrison who asked. "I don't suppose you have a Big Belly Burger in this universe, do you?"

"This isn't happening." He walked away; he couldn't handle this.

X

Joe was pacing around in the hallway of S.T.A.R. Labs, walking back and forth from one wall to another while his right hand was running down his face.

Barry and Matt walked to him, to ease his troubled mind as best as they can. The speedster was the first one to begin. "I know this is a lot to take in, but that guy back in that room…" he pointed to the entrance of the Cortex. "…that's not Wells."

"Joe, that guy is just some other guy with the same face that Eobard Thawne stole to trick the entire city. He's _a_ Wells, not the one that played us like chess pieces. Just another one." Matt tried to ease the detective's mind.

The detective then revealed to their shock. "Dr. McGee swore she saw Wells. He broke into Mercury Labs."

"What?" Barry exclaimed.

Matt raised an eyebrow. "The guy hasn't been on this Earth for more than five minutes and he's already committed a crime? Not bad. Then again, he did off a walking pile of sashimi so there's that too."

"Why didn't you tell me this?" the speedster demanded of his adoptive father in a shocked tone.

"Because I didn't believe her." Joe explained. He gestured to the room again. "I didn't even want to consider Wells was alive."

"You're thinking of the wrong Wells, Joe." The nanite mutant tried to reason. "Eddie erased that Wells from existence. And like I said, he's not him, he's a whole other guy. He's someone else."

"And he says he's here to help us stop Zoom." Barry followed up quickly.

Joe looked between the powered males and asked them both. "How can you guys even look at him?"

"You think is easy for me?" Barry asked. "The guy in there looks, moves, sounds exactly like the guy that drove a knife through my mother's heart. I have to resist the urge to kill him." Matt chuckled at his words. The nanite mutant didn't find those words convincing in the least. Especially because he finds the speedster too good-hearted to commit such an act. "I'm trying my best to get past that, okay? You shooting him… that's not helping."

"Debatable, I don't trust a word coming out of his mouth, not for a second." Matt added his opinion.

"After all our losses, I thought at least we were free of Wells." Joe spoke.

"You guys have that saying that cockroaches can survive the apocalypse here?" Matt asked them.

"Yeah, we do, and seems appropriate for this situation." Joe agreed before looking upwards hopelessly. "I just want one week where we're not surprised by somebody from our past." Both powered males knew he was also talking about his wife's late visit to him and Iris. "I better go fill in Iris."

Barry stepped backwards as he said. "Good luck." He walked away and left the two men alone.

Joe looked at Matt. "Surprised you and Liv haven't torn that guy to shreds yet."

The nanite mutant rolled up his sleeve and revealed the veins on his right arm popping and shifting around under his flesh. The detective knew that it was his nanites that were moving around his body, but it was quite…discerning to see it like that. "Since I saw that guy step into the facility, I've had my nanites run through the limbs, making the shift and turn around inside me like insects trying to dig their way through my flesh. Kinda like my unique way of telling myself to not rush."

"Liv doing the same?" Matt nodded while rolling down his sleeve again. Joe walked closer to him and whispered his question. "Matt, do you have anything that I can give Iris? Like something like those lasers, you have on your suits?"

"They're called gauntlets and fire off repulsor beams." Matt corrected the detective. "But why do you want to give something like that to your own daughter?"

"Because I'm praying that Barry's right about this Wells when he thinks he's not gonna harm us. But he's an unknown element and I don't want that around my daughter if she's not protected, or at least has the means to protect herself."

Matt understood the need to protect one's loved ones. He nodded after a deep inhale and revealed. "My gauntlets won't fit Iris, they're too big for her arms." Joe's face fell. "But…" he looked back to the mutant. "She know how to fire a gun?"

"She does. Why?"

Matt had Joe follow him as they both walked into Cisco's workshop. The detective watched as the mutant opened a drawer and pulled out a metal case. Placing it on the desk, he opened the latches and revealed its contents.

It looked to be holding a normal gun, but it was different. The shape and pieces looked the same, but instead of the usual black plating, it was bearing yellow and red plating on it. Matt gestured to the gun, wordlessly telling the detective to pick it up.

Joe did so and picked up the gun and held it one hand. His eyes ran over it, looking the firearm over for any cracks, any sharp edges or anything that might cause troubles. He tested its weight and lifted it up and down lightly with his hand. Taking a stance, he held it both hands and aimed it at the wall in the far back.

"What do you think?" Matt asked.

"Feels good…but also light and not light at the same time." Joe couldn't find any better way to explain it.

"It's because it doesn't use bullets." Matt revealed as the detective gave him the gun. "Inside the magazine, there's a miniaturized Arc Reactor, storing a sufficient level of energy in it. Pull the trigger, it can fire off repulsor beams like my suits."

"Not bad." Joe admitted.

"Yeah, pretty proud of it. But the catch is, it's a prototype, so it can only fire off one or two shots. The beams are strong enough to blast a hole through a wall." Joe looked ready to object but Matt held out his hand. "But if the beams are aimed at a living creature, it will merely knock them out. Not much damage that it can kill them, but definitely strong enough to knock them on their asses."

"Thanks." Joe accepted the gun. "Think Iris will like this."

"It will, but it all comes down to her marksmanship. Remember, only two shots max. There's no third chance if she misses." Matt repeated as he watched the detective put the gun inside of his coat and into his holster.

"I didn't raise a lousy shooter, so don't worry about that, pal." Joe quipped before walking out of the workshop and left the nanite mutant alone.

When he was sure that he was left alone, he rubbed his chin with his thumb and his index fingers as he thought to himself. "_If Caitlin didn't want to go and find Garrick, then where the heck did she run off to?_"

X

Opening the rooftop entrance, Caitlin passed through it and made her way to the middle of the roof. She heard the door close itself, but she didn't face it. She looked around in search for the person she contacted after leaving the S.T.A.R. Labs facility.

With the arrival of the man who bears the same face as the man who ruined this city and caused the losses of her loved ones, she wanted to be extra prepared and that meant contacting a special someone for help.

"Where is she?" she muttered to herself while her eyes looked around for the person.

"Someone calling for a kitty cat?"

Caitlin snapped her head around and looked at the top of a wall. She saw the unmistakable form of the infamous thief of Earth-616 walking to the edge of the wall. She performed a small jump and elegantly landed down on the ground before the female doctor.

Felicia began to play around and twirl around the doctor with elegant moves like a professional ballerina. "You called me, Caity? What's up? You looking for a gal to hang with for a girl's night out?" she performed a flip and landed on the edge of the roof.

The doctor had to chuckle. "Sorry not tonight, Felicia." She walked closer to the thief who began walking on the edge daringly without a hint of fear like a small kid playing around. The infamous thief had her eyes stretched out to the sides as though she was trying to keep her balance while walking on the ledge. "I need your help with something?"

The thief stopped walking and spun around on one foot, turning around to face Caitlin while her other leg was stretched high above and straightened up her torso and touching the top of her head. "Since you called me, I'm guessing it's not about building a machine or drugs or digging into people's heads, right?"

"It's not." Felicia heard the doctor's serious tone and lowered her foot back to the ledge and listened. "There's something you need to know."

Caitlin spent the next few minutes talking to the infamous thief, telling her everything about what has transpired. She told her everything about Earth-2, the breachers sent their way, them all following this evil speedster, Zoom's commands out of pure fear. The last thing she said was about Harrison Wells from Earth-2 who have arrived on their Earth and asking them for their help in the fight against Zoom.

"So, a doppelganger of the guy who took the face of the real Harrison Wells have appeared and need your help?" Felicia pieced it together. Caitlin nodded in shock of her quick deduction. "Guess that's a usual Tuesday for this city."

"Yeah. But I don't trust this guy in any way."

"Hoped so." Felicia took off her visor-like goggles. "But what do you need from me, Caity? Want me to scope him out or something?"

"No." Caitlin shook her head. "But I wanted you to keep an extra eye on Frankie. I don't Wells, this Wells, to go anywhere near my daughter. I'm not like you or Matt or Liv, I don't have the means to protect my daughter like you. I know she's gotten much stronger thanks to you, of course, but she's not that strong. If something happens to her…I don't know what I'd do." She inhaled deeply. "I want you to help me protect my daughter. Please."

"Caity, you know you can always count on me to look out for both you and Rose." Felicia assured her. "I'll look out for her and make sure that bastard doesn't come anywhere near Frankie."

"I can't thank you enough for that, Felicia." Caitlin smiled.

"Well, you don't have to, Caitlin. I love you both a lot, I'll gladly keep the baddies away from you." She put on her goggles again. Felicia jumped onto the ledge again and a shaking and sound emitted from her belt.

Caitlin's perked up and her eyes looked at the thief's belt. She focused them on the small pouch attached to her utility belt. Another glass like shaking sound came from it and the doctor looked at her curiously. "What's in the pouch, Felicia."

Black Cat smirked. "Central City Museum might be missing a few diamonds…again." She winked and jumped off the ledge again, this time letting gravity pull her down before she fired a grappling hook and hooked onto a building. She used the hook to swing away.

The doctor chuckled. "Guess a cat's like a leopard. They never change their fur."

X

**(CC Jitters)**

Barry brought Cisco to the popular coffee shop, CC Jitters, which was…not exactly the kind of drink that the mechanical engineer requested. He needed a drink after hearing the unbelievable words coming out of Harrison Wells' mouth before.

"You do realize that when I said I wanted a drink, I didn't mean a latte, right? I was talking about alcohol. Like, mind-numbing alcohol." Cisco voiced his complaints as both he and the secret speedster took their place in the back of the line of costumers.

The metahuman placed his hand on Cisco's shoulder as he tried to reason with his friend, "All right, look, you got to give him a chance, okay?" the engineer crossed his arms over his chest, clearly uncomfortable with this. "He's not a speedster. He's just a regular, normal guy… from another universe." He whispered at the end.

Neither of the men noticed the presence walking up close to them from behind.

"I never thought I'd miss time travel." Cisco admitted.

"Time travel?" both Cisco and Barry snapped their heads around and turned to see Patty Spivot wearing a smile.

"Hey! Are you kidding?" Barry stated his greeting with a wide smile on his face.

"Hi!" Patty greeted back with a short laugh before asking curiously with obvious traces of excitement in her voice. "Is there a metahuman who can time travel?"

"Time- No. Time travel's not real." Barry assured her weakly and Cisco nodded.

"'Cause that would be really cool!" Patty giggled.

"Not so sure about that." Cisco admitted sheepishly through a wide smile.

Gesturing to his friend, Barry inquired of the detective. "Patty, you know Cisco Ramon, right?"

Patty recognized him. "Yeah, you're the scientific advisor on metahumans to the CCPD, right?"

"Yeah, that's' me." Cisco nodded.

"Nice." Patty turned to Barry. "Hey, Barr, did you hear I was right about King Shark?"

"King Shark?" Cisco was surprised by the nickname and genuinely impressed by it. "Nice name. I like her."

Patty smiled again. "Yeah, yeah, King Shark almost ate The Flash. But Magenta saved him."

"Oh, nah, I'm sure The Flash had it handled." Barry disagreed with her, even though he was the one in King Shark's fins.

"Oh, no, I was there. I saw it all." The detective stated. "I saw Magenta attack the shark and fought against him with all her powers. It ended shortly because some hooded guy stepped in."

Cisco narrowed his eyes. "Wait, and you're not, like, traumatized or anything?"

The smile on her face widened. "I just watched a half man-half shark take on the fastest man alive before fighting against a small pink demon that can control metal." She pointed at herself. "I love this city." Cisco saw the smile on his friend's widening as well and he smirked knowingly, while the detective's phone rang in her bag. But the engineer's attention was then diverted and fully focused on the beautiful barista on the other side of the counter.

In his eyes… she was truly mesmerizing.

"See… sorry." Patty apologized while taking out her phone. "Oh, uh, Captain just texted me. He wants me to write my police report." She then asked the secret speedster hopefully. "Uh, you maybe want to write it with me?"

"Uh, I can't tonight. I'm busy. Um, yeah, sorry." He apologized to the detective.

Patty looked okay with his answer, but she kept her inner defeat hidden behind a mask. "Oh, yeah, okay."

"I've just got science stuff." Barry told her. Cisco looked at him with a shocked face by his lie. "Stuff I gotta science the stuff out of." He was not doing any better with that horrible lie. "Maybe next time." The speedster told Patty in the end.

"Yeah! Coolio." Patty tried to mask her true hurt feelings.

"Yeah." Barry said, Cisco narrowing his eyes to the point where it would be impossible for them to be narrowed more than they already are.

Patty then sheepishly said. "But I'm gonna actually skip the coffee and go get a head start, so…" Barry looked shocked by her sudden decision. "Good to see you guys." She walked away and the guys voiced their agreements.

Cisco turned to his friend with pure disbelief. "For real?"

"Stop, all right?" Barry pleaded. "I was gonna ask her out, and then a man-shark tried to eat me, Frankie saves my ass and then Dr. Wells the sequel showed up."

"Okay, can we not use the name "Dr. Wells"? I'm just gonna call him "Harry"." Cisco said.

"Okay. Harry, yeah."

"And did you even thank Frankie for saving your ass there?" Cisco wondered and but he didn't have to wait for an answer because the expression on his was all that was needed to draw a conclusion. "You haven't thanked her, have you?"

"Been a bit busy dealing with Harry, you know. And you know, she still hates me. As does Matt and Olivia too, Cisco." The speedster reminded his friend.

The engineer didn't accept that and shook his head. "Listen, there's always gonna be Harrys out there, but you can't let the Harrys of the world get in the way of you living your life. Ask Patty out." He advised his friend while his attention turned back to the barista who showed a charming smile. "You gotta…you gotta be bold."

Following the direction of his eyes, Barry saw that his gaze was solely focused on the form of the attractive barista. "That's tough talk. When was the last time you asked a girl for her number?" he dared Cisco. He knew that things between him and Bette hadn't gone that well because he got those strange vibes, which led to their break-up.

But the metahuman figured that he couldn't let himself be heartbroken forever. Now would be a good time to move on.

Cisco knew what was going through the speedster's head, knowing that it was merely words meant to grease the wheels in him. He didn't know if it was the right time to move on from Bette, but he would never know whether or not it would be the right time, so he did the only thing he could do… Take up the challenge.

"Watch and learn." He accepted the challenge.

"I'm watching." Barry dared and watched his friend walk over to the counter with a confident expression.

The barista saw Cisco come over to her and she formed a smile and asked him politely. "Hi. What can I get you?"

"Hi, there." Cisco tried to play it cool.

The young woman looked sheepishly at him. "Hi…again." Cisco found himself lost for words…and merely stood there with a gaping mouth, unable to form any coherent words and put them into a sentence. Seeing that, the barista gestured to the coffee machines and suggested. "Do you want some coffee?"

"Yeah, I'll get some coffee." He finally spoke. "No, uh, no, I don't want coffee. You know what I do want though? I want to ask you this." the young woman listened closely with a shocked face. "Do you want to go out with me?" he boldly asked.

Barry gave him a sideways look and the barista looked at him shockingly. "Oh…" she let out with her head reeling back.

Hearing the shock in her voice, Cisco clarified embarrassedly. "To…we…I mean, we could go get coffee or we…"

"No." Came the final answer from the attractive barista.

And the faces of the men fell instantly. "That's a no." Cisco said. "That's totally cool. It's cool." He stated to the woman. He slowly walked backwards. "Respect." He walked away and left the barista.

But the moment he stepped away from her…it came again… just like before…a vibe…

X

_Cisco blinked…this time witnessing a much clearer vibe…his eyes looking around… _

_He… saw police offers, maybe security guards hiding behind staircases…._

_Turning his head around…he saw multiple people, civilians crouching down on the floor…shielding their heads and faces with their arms._

_Turning his face to the right…he saw a person in white and black clothing...standing in front of a person… who was holding a large bag that was being filled with cash by a scared civilian._

_The person in black and white turned around and appeared to be a woman with a visor-like mask covering the top of her face._

_The woman in strange clothing walked over to him slowly…causing Cisco to walk away to escape her…. but she then lashed out her hand…firing a shot of…compressed light at him…_

_But he managed to step back far enough…nearing a pillar… which ended up being the target of the light beam…_

_… the name of the establishment…itched into his mind…_

X

"Yo, dude, you good? It's her loss." Barry tried to comfort his friend. He was thinking that his friend was dealing with some bad memories of his last relationship with Bette Sans Souci.

Cisco didn't hear that question and let himself be settled back to reality again, his eyes going over his surroundings around. He appeared to be extremely disoriented and the speedster saw the same and he asked. "Hey, what's up?"

He slowly turned around and faced the metahuman. "We have another breacher."

"What? How do you know?" Barry asked confusedly.

"Central City Bank. You gotta go now!" The engineer exclaimed the urgency.

"All right." Barry accepted and the metahuman ran away.

The engineer reached into his pocket and typed a message, quickly sending it hastily to his friend.

X

**(Central City Bank)**

The familiar form of the female metahuman, Dr. Light walked through the masses of panicked civilians with both hands tightly clutched around the bag handles of the two bags in her hands. Each of them filled to the brim with cash. The mission for now have been fulfilled and she thought it was good enough for her to get out of here.

"_Glad that guy's not here anymore._" Dr. Light thought to herself as she was inwardly thankful that the large form of the elemental demon was still a vision to be found on another universe.

_WHOOSH_

A crackling sound of lightning drew her attention and she looked in the direction of it. Finding The Flash of this world. "You got my attention." He took notice of her attire, surprised to the stylish black and white suit on her. The visor-like mask was shocking to see as well.

"Flash." She let out before lashing out her right hand, blasting a light beam at him.

Time slowed down to a crawl and Barry bended backwards, dodging the laser beam before getting back to his full height again.

Dr. Light fired off another one, this one much longer and stronger. It flew through the air and came for the Scarlet Speedster.

_CLANG_

A clanging sound emitted from the other side, followed by a blue laser that connected with the light stream and resulted in both cancelling each other out. The female metahuman looked in the direction of the beam and saw the armored form of a man standing there. Both arms paired with arm blades and wings attached to his back while his knight helmet shone brightly at the visor.

"Who are you?" the female metahuman asked him.

"The name's Iron Knight." The mutant told her.

"Don't think I've heard of you before." The thief told him.

"Shame." Matt quipped while holding up his palms, both shining with energy as they were being charged for another array of repulsor blasts at the woman. "Ready to come quietly or you're gonna be difficult about it?"

"I'm gonna have to choose number two." She quipped before swinging her arms around like propellers, gathering up light in her hands. Dr. Light slammed both palms down into the ground, unleashing a massive light pulse that pushed various civilians away and hurled them into the air.

Barry saw the airborne civilians and quickly sped into action. Utilizing his trusty superspeed, he quickly pushed the couches and sofas behind the civilians, cushioning their fall and making sure they safely landed.

Matt used his thrusters on his hands and his feet to fly to them and grabbed them, plucking them out of the air and gently placing them on the ground again. Those that were near a collision course with the hard floor, he used grappling hooks and grabbed them and softened their descend to the ground.

The Flash saw Iron Knight taking care of the others and sped to the middle of the floor. He saw that the bags she had in her hands were dropped to the ground before looking around the metahuman herself, but she was nowhere to be found.

"Fantastic, this one has a disappearing act." Matt muttered behind his mask.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

After having enjoyed few pieces of his Big Belly Burger meal, Harry from Earth-2 took out a flash drive and plugged it into the computers when he learned of the attire and abilities of the latest breacher who the two powered males encountered. Those two along with Cisco Ramon waited for him to reveal his research.

"Her name is Doctor Light." He began as the files and articles of his research on the metahuman was brought up. "Small-time thief on my Earth until exposure to the dark matter from the Particle Accelerator and became a metahuman with the ability to derive power from starlight. Her powers are somewhat similar to another metahuman on my Earth, one that doesn't appear to have come here."

Cisco read the articles and other research notes closely, "Oh, very cool." Barry nodded.

"Stars having a temperature of 5,300-degree kelvin and a blinding luminosity, I would say, "Not very cool at all"." Harry dejected.

"Still pretty impressive for a thief to have such an ability." Matt admitted.

Harry faced him, "She does. And she's using it for bad, so again, "Not very impressive at all"." Matt didn't appear the words from him the least bit intimidating.

"You know, our Dr. Wells may have been evil, but you're just a dick." The mechanical engineer insulted the scientist bluntly.

"Take it down a notch, Cisco." Matt turned to the man. "Okay, so obviously, Zoom brought this Dr. Light here from your Earth like the others." He deduced while Harry took a bite out of his burger.

Harry nodded. "Now that we know that, we can use that to gain advantage."

"What do you mean?" Barry asked puzzledly.

"We capture Doctor Light and use her to lure Zoom here." Harrison Wells revealed his plan.

"You wanna go fishing for Zoom with Light as bait?" Matt asked in disbelief.

"You are insane!" The booming voice of Jay Garrick came through the entrance to the Cortex, gaining the others' attentions. Matt watched as Frankie and Olivia walked with Caitlin over to them. The powerless speedster made eye contact with the man responsible for all metahumans on Earth-2. "Okay, we are not luring Zoom anywhere!"

Caitlin made her way to Cisco and Matt and informed them. "Apparently, they know each other."

Frankie gestured to them with a hand and said, "And, let's just say, Jay's gonna be buying him welcome cards anytime soon." Her tone was angry and vicious, clearly evidence of her current feelings as were her brightly shining magenta eyes.

"Bring out the popcorn people, cause we're about to witness a massacre." Olivia announced in a mock announcer-like tone.

"Well, well, well." Harry started surprised to find his fellow Earth-2 native here on Earth-1. But his tone suggested he was anything but surprised. "Like everyone else, I assumed Earth-2 Flash was dead. Why am I not surprised to find Jay Garrick here, still alive and in hiding a full universe away from Zoom?"

Jay felt his blood from overheating anger scorching through him. "I'm not in hiding." He walked closer to him. "Zoom nearly killed me and stole my speed before the Singularity pulled me here."

"Is that right?" Harry said unaffected by the explanation, not finding it believable.

"Yeah, that's right." Jay told him.

Harry then said with a monotone voice. "Well, whatever the case, in your absence, Zoom has only gotten more powerful, faster." He faced the speedster. "Barry, you have to defeat Zoom now while you still can. Your friends here can help you, if need be." He gestured to the mutants and the younger metahuman.

"No, this isn't the time to be reckless." Jay disagreed. "We don't even know why Zoom sent Doctor Light here. She's a thief, not a killer."

Matt then voiced, "If she's a thief, then we shouldn't expect a body count anytime soon."

"She's a henchman of Zoom, it's naïve to think like that, Stark." Harry disagreed and looked at Garrick again. "And this is Zoom we are talking about. Zoom can make people do things out of character. Thief or not," she looked at the Scarlet Speedster. "she'll kill you."

"All right, look, hey," Barry interrupted. "we can decide what to do with Light later. First, we have to find her, okay?" neither of them spoke, but Harry took a slurp from his drink, right in Jay's face before separating.

Barry then walked over to Cisco. "Hey, how did you know that she was breaking into the bank?" he asked him, Matt narrowed his eyes on the native engineer.

Cisco reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone clumsily. "I got an alert on my phone." He tapped on the screen. "There's a little ring-a-ding," he made a strange sound with his mouth, "every time, like, there's a robbery at a bank."

"What?" Olivia asked in confusion, the same level of confusion washing over the faces of the others except her husband's face.

"But you know what?" he walked past them. "I think I can get the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite to scan for any irregular solar radiation emissions and we can find Doctor Light's… light." Cisco stated his plan, but the nanite mutant had his eyes narrowed on his friend suspiciously.

Frankie and her mother shared a look of confusion while Olivia turned to her husband with curious eyes. Barry thought that sounded like something Cisco would do and told them. "Okay, I'm gonna also call Joe, see if CCPD has any leads." He took out his phone. "Why don't we keep them apart until I get back?" his eyes directed at the two Earth-2 natives.

Caitlin then quipped, "I am sure that won't be a problem." Without even looking, she knew that the powerless speedster was glaring daggers at the man responsible for the Earth-2 metahumans.

Frankie then formed a sick smirk, "Yeah, and if they do, we can always reduce the number of Earth-2 people to one." She said and walked away, leaving a chilling sensation to fall over them.

The doctor looked at the two mutants and walked to them. "Do you guys know what's going on with Frankie? I feel like she's been letting her other self, the not-so nice version of herself, take over for a while now."

"Can't actually blame her." Olivia pointed a finger at the two men from the other Earth. "I mean, just the fact that someone with Thawne's stolen face is here, is enough for us to want to tear into him or go berserk."

"She's right. But you don't like it, do you Caitlin?" Matt asked her.

"No, of course not. Frankie's my daughter and somehow, it looks like Magenta coming back to the surface, much angrier now. I don't know what to do now." Caitlin stated.

"Caity, remember the last time she saw a man with his face, was the very same day she lost her father." Olivia sadly reminded the doctor, who nodded in realization. "It's hard for her now, cause right now…" she had a finger pointing at Harry. "Frankie's got a massive and constant reminder of what happened to her that horrible day."

"Not just her." Matt said.

"You're right, Liv. Thanks." Caitlin inhaled deeply. "I just don't know how to do this, how to help her through this. It's strange and not something a parent could ever prepare for."

"Well, as a SHIELD Agent, I'd say that if you have an unwanted constant, you remove it immediately." Olivia admitted, the doctor giving her a dry look. "Okay, as a psychologist, my professional advice is that you find a moment with your daughter and have an old-fashioned mother-daughter talk with her. You know Frankie just as well as we do, even better actually, she'll definitely open up to you. You're her mother after all. Having a talk is all that's needed between the two of you. Give it a whirl."

"I will, thank you. Liv." Caitlin expressed her gratitude to the psychic mutant.

"You handle the thing you needed to take care of before, Caitlin?" Matt asked.

"I did, and I'm glad I did." She replied.

"What was it exactly?" Matt wondered.

Caitlin briefly looked around to see that Harry was not in the Cortex anymore and she revealed. "Talked to Felicia before. Needed a favor from her."

"Cat can be trusted, so you don't have to worry about that." Olivia assured the other woman.

"I know that." Caitlin answered confidently.

X

Music blared from the speakers, loudly bouncing of the walls of Cisco's workshop but that did not affect the concentration that Harrison Wells from Earth-2 was putting into his research as he read the articles in front of him. His eyes running over the screen before him. All series of articles focused on one subject…

… the man who wore his doppelganger's face… and used it to bring nothing but chaos to this city…

He thought he could spend the time trying to read up on this…imposter's achievements and whatnot on this earth while he waited. Harry drifted his eyes to the article to the left by the Central City Tribune. "_Dr. Wells Leaves Central City in Black Hole._" He looked to the one in the middle by Central City Picture News. "_S.T.A.R. Labs Disaster One Month Later._"

The one on the right side, is another one of Central City Tribune's articles. The headline had him immediately intrigued. "_Wells Confesses To Nora Allen Murder Post Mortem._" He switched between articles, looking between the various articles made because of the man.

Cisco investigated the room and heard the music thundering through his workshop. "Hey, Harry." His words got the man to perk up and look around in search. "Hey, over here." He directed Harry who formed a frown at the sight of him. "Hey!" The engineer spoke louder, getting the man from the other universe to decrease the volume of his music.

When it was low enough, Cisco joked at Harry in annoyed tone. "Come inside. Use my workroom. Use my computer! I don't care!" he was obviously offended by the fact that this unknown stranger with a face like Harrison Wells's just walked into his workshop and used his equipment, especially without his permission.

"Thanks." Harry didn't think much of the engineer's offended words.

"You and Wells Prime have very different musical tastes." Cisco commented while walking to the desk. "His were better."

Harry crossed his arms and noted out loud to Cisco. "This Harrison Wells and I are very different, but similar in some respects. I see he made almost the same mistake I did with the Particle Accelerator."

"He did a lot of terrible things, and none of them were by mistake." Cisco said sadly, the pain of the memories hurting his entire being…especially with the fate that's been brought upon him by the man he once respected.

Getting up from his chair, Harry walked over to the engineer. "What did he do to you?" Cisco looked down. "I know he caused the Singularity, murdered Barry's mother, killed Seth, blah, blah, blah, blah. What did he do to you? You can barely look me in the eye." He hit a metal pole with a wrench, gaining Cisco's attention. "Why is that? What did he do to you?"

Not wanting to take on more of his prying words and persistent attitude, Cisco revealed. "He was about to shove his hand into my chest. He would have stopped my heart. A friend stopped it and killed him, but he lost his life in the process."

Harry couldn't stop the laugh in him from escaping his mouth's confines. "Ouch." He mused. "Okay, that would do it, but you survived that, thanks to this…friend of yours."

"Only because Barry erased that timeline. Meaning none of those things happened, thankfully." Cisco continued.

Those words peaked the scientist from Earth-2's interest. "I see. Barry traveled in time."

"Twice." Cisco added.

"Hm." He hummed and put down the wrench. "Here's how it is."

"What's the deal?" Cisco wondered in curiosity.

"You don't have to like me. I don't like you, but you and your angry friends have to work with me to stop Zoom and Doctor Light." He spoke seriously with a cold tone, chilling Cisco's very nerves itself. "Can you do that?"

"I guess we'll see, wont' we?" Cisco said, not fully believing the scientist from Earth-2 yet. He walked away.

"I guess we will." Harry agreed. "One more thing…" he managed to stop Cisco from continuing to the door. "you said you were going to re-task the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite?"

"T-To scan for solar emissions, yeah, we're up and running." Cisco assured him.

But the stuttering didn't go unnoticed by Harry. He turned around to face the man from this universe. "I'd like to examine your program."

"Don't worry. It'll work." Cisco told him before walking away.

Harry looked down at his wrist again. His special watch opened and showing interesting results. Flipping down the lid, he went to walk back to the computers.

"Oh, you're here."

Looking back at the entrance, he saw Matt standing there before walking into the workshop. "What are you doing here?" Harry asked of him.

"Funny, I recall you being the guy who wondered in here without permission." The nanite mutant quipped without looking at him, his right hand reaching for a drawer. Pulling it back, he reached into it and pulled out an Arc Reactor.

Harry narrowed his eyes and asked, "What's that?" he didn't get a response and watched Matt close the drawer again. "What? You hate the Harrison Wells of this Earth too? Why's that?"

Matt turned around to face him. "He used all of my friends and family for his own reasons."

He laughed again, but it was much shorted than before due to the iron gaze glaring at him by the mutant. "Is that so? Huh, think that makes sense, yeah. But is that all he did to you?"

Taking slow and heavy steps towards, Matt reached him and stated in a cold tone. "Because of that coward, my best friend, my wife's brother… my niece's father… love of Caitlin's life… is dead." Harry widened his eyes. "And honestly, it's taking every… single… inch of my will…" Nanites dug out of his arm and formed a long circular blade around his arm. Harry's eyes widened to new limits when the blade the was raised in front of his face. "…to not drive this into your heart."

"So, you're willing to kill an innocent man, huh?" Harry wondered.

"Judging from Garrick's words before, you are anything but innocent. Considering you're the guy who's been blasting dark matter into your City without taking responsibility." Matt's tone remained iron cold. He dissipated his sword again. "But I won't do that, I kill my enemies."

"Fascinating story." Harry said. "But I'm not here to make friends like the rest of you. I'm here to stop Zoom and nothing more than that. And hopefully, you, your wife, Katherine and her daughter's gonna help us with that."

"We'll see about that." Matt said and walked out of the workshop.

Harry rubbed his throat, as though he was feeling some sort of phantom pain there despite the fact the blade was nowhere near his neck. He looked down at his watch and once again received strange results.

X

The nanite mutant walked through the corridors and came to a stop when he saw Frankie leaning against the wall. She didn't appear to have noticed his presence and he walked over to her side. Without her noticing him still, he patted her shoulder.

"Ah!" Frankie yelped in shock of the sudden touch, her head swinging in the direction of the touch and saw that it her uncle Matt. Her eyes briefly donned the color of magenta before relaxing into their normal lapis blue color again. "Oh, Uncle Matt, sorry. You startled me."

"Would have thought Black Cat would have taught you to be aware of all your surroundings at all angles by now, kiddo." He bemusedly said and patted her head. Frankie giggled and playfully pushed his hand away. "You doing okay, Frankie? I know this must be really hard on you."

"It's fine, I'm okay, Uncle Matt. I just don't trust that guy, is all." Her eyes briefly flashed again, changing colors again.

Matt chuckled, "You know, Felicia and I fought back in our home universe."

"You did? Did you win, Uncle Matt?"

"No, I lost." Frankie's eyes widened and she waited for an explanation. He then revealed. "I lost back then because she was able to get me too riled to make mistakes. She was able to play on my emotions every time we fought, and she also had gear that could shorten out my suits." Scratching the back of his head, he continued. "Man, she was a real troublemaker. Every time I fought her; she got the better of me. It pissed me off even more and it only made me make more mistakes."

"So, what did you do then?" Frankie asked.

"Had a talk with your Dad back then." He started with a smile. "He let himself be my punching bag and I just let everything I had bottled up inside me out on him. He healed of course, but he kept provoking me and telling me to get on with it, like he couldn't even feel my attacks." Matt ruffled his niece's hair playfully. "It helped me a lot, because the last time I fought against Black Cat, I won. She managed to escape but I won the fight."

"That's cool. But what was the point of it, Uncle? The story, what was it for?" Frankie wondered; she curiously narrowed her eyes when feeling her partner roll her eyes.

He laughed briefly. "Guess that's for you to figure out, honey. But I think we have to go and meet up with the others now. Come along." He told her and the two walked around the corner.

"**_Please say you know what he meant with the story, Frankie?_**" Magenta practically begged.

"_I'm not sure right now, actually._" Frankie admitted, once again she felt an eye roll in her head. "_You already know?_"

"**_That's for you to figure out._**" Magenta cheekily recited Matt's words as they both passed through the threshold of the Cortex.

Caitlin looked back, "Hi, honey." She greeted her daughter with a hug.

"Hi, Mom." Frankie greeted with both arms wrapping around her mother.

Olivia looked at her husband. "Harry getting on your nerves too?"

"You have no idea how much, babe." Matt replied to his wife.

Jay Garrick stood on the other side of the main console, his eyes shifting between the two mutants with curiosity before settling on Barry.

The doctor unwrapped her arms from her daughter and looked at the computers, which beeped. She pointed at the screen when noticing an update. "The silent alarm just went off at the Bank of Central City."

"That's gotta be Doctor Light." Barry was confident about that as he walked to his suit.

"Could be a trap." Cisco suggested.

Jay followed the speedster of this world. "Barry, trust me, Doctor Light is not a killer. You can talk to her."

"Okay." He accepted the words.

Frankie looked at her mother, "Need to help him, Mom?"

"No, it's okay, honey. Barry's got this now. We can't have you go out and fight all the city's battles, now can we?" she jokingly said.

"I wouldn't mind that." Frankie smirked.

X

**(Bank of Central City)**

Two compressed light beams cut through the thick wall that stood before her, cutting the wall and forming a circle through the dense barrier leading into the bank vault. As the last piece of rubble was cut, the circle she formed fell.

_CRASH_

Resulting in a crashing sound that echoed within the bank vault. Dust fell over the entire area of impact, but a pair of brightly shining lights were able to penetrate through the dust screen. She powered down the light in her palms and walked through the hole.

She looked around for what she was looking for. No matter what earth she was on, she would still stick to her to roots as an infamous thief.

_WHOOSH_

"Looking for this?" Barry got her attention as he stood near the large bunch of money. Dr. Light saw him. "I know Zoom sent you here to kill me. Good news, you don't have to do that." He quipped.

Dr. Light nodded to the money. "Not if I can get out of town with that cash."

"And then what?" Barry inquired. "Zoom's not gonna like that you ditched him, right? My friends and I can help you."

"Nobody can protect me from Zoom!" While she said that, she couldn't help but think back to the demon with the large sword that swore to protect her. Maybe she should have taken up on his offer and let him protect her, but it was too late now. Her fate was in the hands of another Earth. "Last guy that said that… he's not you."

The Flash looked confused. "Last guy…"

She didn't give an appropriate answer, she let her hands shine brightly in a threatening manner. Barry held up his hands defensively. "All right, why don't we take it down a lumen, have a normal conversation, all right?" he narrowed his eyes, trying to shield them from the light with his eyelids. Thankfully, his words appeared to work, and she deactivated her powers. "Thank you."

Dr. Light pressed the side of her mask, opening it up and revealing her face…a face that once made Barry's heart quake…that he adored…

"Linda?" Barry wondered in shock, questioning his eyes visual capabilities at the moment. The mention of the female metahuman's name by the speedster caused shock to come over her. "Linda Park?"

"How do you know my name?" The doppelganger of Barry's ex wondered with wide eyes. She couldn't hide her shock and staggered backwards.

"I don't understand." Barry was just as much shocked like the metahuman woman.

"This was a mistake." She swung her hands backwards and unleashed an explosion of light. This time the speedster's eyes were not shielded behind anything and were forced to take on the full force of the blasting light.

He was brought down to his knees while Dr. Light ran away. Pants of pain reached his communication devices and made their way to the facility. "_Barry, what's happening?_" came the query from Cisco.

"I can't see. Guys, I can't see." He said with his hand reaching out in the air. Shock and surprise came over the others in the Cortex.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

No matter how much light Caitlin shined into the speedster's eyes with her flashlight pen, it did not appear to have the least bit effect on them. Not a single response came from his unresponsive eyeballs. He was only able to blink with them painfully.

Right now, Harry and Jay were in the private lab along with Caitlin, Frankie, Olivia and Barry who was being examined by the doctor. Matt and Cisco were doing their own stuff in the Cortex.

"I still can't see. How long is this gonna last?" Barry asked the doctor who stopped shining light in his eyes.

Frankie walked to her mother's side and asked her. "It's solar…retinopathy, right?"

Caitlin looked shocked with wide eyes at her daughter. "You know about this, Frankie?"

Olivia tilted her head to the side, "Frankie, where did you learn this?"

The young metahuman shrugged. "If I can't sleep, I start reading some of Mom's books. I have some of them in my room."

"Not bad, honey." Caitlin decided to use this moment to see how deep her knowledge runs. "What does this mean for Barry then?"

"I think it means his retinas are severely damaged."

"Correct." Caitlin smiled proudly and hugged her child before telling Barry. "You're lucky you're not permanently blind." she walked over to her computer with Frankie.

Jay stepped in front of his blind friend and added in comfort. "But with your rapid regeneration abilities, your sight should return soon."

"6.25 hours by my estimation." Harry added smugly and Jay felt as though his voice was like nails scratching against a blackboard. "All this could have avoided if you just stopped Light instead of chitchatting with her."

Jay then defended the speedster. "She caught Barry off guard."

Harry threw his pen away and then said offensively. "Always an excuse with you, right? He's the fastest man alive. How could she possibly do that?"

Then Barry revealed the reason. "Because Light looks exactly like my ex-girlfriend, Linda Park."

Olivia looked shocked. "Linda's doppelganger's is a metahuman thief? Damn."

Harrison quickly deduced. "That's why Zoom sent her… because he knew you'd hesitate."

Matt and Cisco walked into the lab as well and the native engineer after hearing their words said. "So that means Zoom had to have known somehow that Linda was your ex."

"Not necessarily, Cisco." The nanite mutant disagreed. "It could just because Zoom sends them at random or as scouts to gather intel on us. But yeah, the chances of them knowing our personal relationships…they're small, if you ask me."

"Doesn't matter what you guys think." Harry stated angrily. "But just this, the possibility of Zoom knowing of our weaknesses and relationships, is enough for us to be take this seriously. Which is why Barry has to act now, before Zoom sends another double from Barry's life."

Barry then voiced his opinion. "All right, right now, I'm worried more worried about Linda. When I saw who was under the mask, I said her name."

"You dumbass." Olivia slapped herself in the face as she insulted the speedster.

The speedster didn't know where to look and pointed his damaged eyes at a wall…which pissed off the psychic mutant. "That's up for debate. But what if Light didn't even realize that she had a doppelganger here until I accidently told her?"

"That means that Linda, the one we know, has a target on her back right now." Matt stated grimly.

Dark thoughts came into Cisco's mind as he said. "The first thing that Atom Smasher did when he crossed the breach was to kill his doppelganger."

Jay argued. "Yeah, but Light's not like Atom Smasher."

Harry then said. "We should keep an eye on your Linda."

Barry liked that idea. "All right, I'll go." He told them and got up from the gurney. Caitlin walked to him, but it was the speedster who accidently walked into her, causing her to gasp. "Sorry." He apologized before walking.

"This is gonna be fun." Frankie muttered to her mother who couldn't but smile mischievously.

"Bro." Cisco chastised him.

"Barry!" Jay called out after him.

"What?" Barry asked and turned around, accidently walking into the doorframe.

"Someone please record this." Matt smiled.

"Okay, okay." Jay rushed to his side and placed his hands on the speedster's shoulder. "You can't do anything until your sight returns." Barry tried to walk out of his grasp. But the powerless speedster stopped him. "No, no, no, come on, here's the little rail here." He pushed him to the railing at the console, his hand taking Barry's and putting it there.

"Me and Frankie can go and watch out for Linda." Caitlin suggested.

Jay looked at them. "You sure about that, Caitlin?" he asked them worriedly. "It'll just be the two of you."

"My daughter's no pushover, Jay. Trust me." Caitlin assured him while proudly hugging her pride and joy. "You can come later or something, okay? If me and Frankie gets too tired or something." She and her child walked to the exit and out of the Cortex.

"Hey, Barry!" Iris exclaimed as she rushed into the Cortex, walking past Caitlin and Frankie in the process.

"Hey." Barry greeted, unable to look in her direction.

"I came as soon as I heard…" Iris stopped when seeing Harrison Wells from Earth-2 step into the Cortex himself. Her eyes focused on him. "You look just like him."

"I'm guessing my counterpart did something to offend her as well?" Harry wondered knowingly out loud.

Matt was the one to explain, "Her fiancé, Eddie died because of that bastard."

"Oh…" Harry let out, unable to find any other word to speak. They stared at each other for a while before separating, walking away for their own business.

Matt looked around and shrugged before leaving himself. Jay following shortly and Olivia looked at Iris. "You okay, Iris?" she asked in concern as the reporter's eyes were solely focused on the Earth-2 scientist.

"It's… strange." Iris let out, her mind was still reeling in the shock, trying to adapt to the situation and the new and old elements that have submerged.

Hearing her voice, Barry concerningly told her. "Iris, I know it's weird seeing him."

"You think, Flash? It's a shit load to process." Olivia stated sarcastically. She then made eye contact with the wide-eyed reporter again. "Right, Iris? You have a lot on your plate, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded in agreement. "Wells, my mother." She walked to Barry.

The speedster, still blind from solar retinopathy, looked in the wrong direction. "How are you doing with that, by the way?"

She twirled around on her feet and faced him. "I mean…" Barry spun around, following the sound of her voice and looked in the direction. "…now that she's gone…okay."

Barry rubbed his damaged eyes, stilling narrowing them to slits. "Yeah, Iris, um, look…" he held out his hand, trying to cup her hands.

Iris took hold of his hands to aid him. "Yeah. Thanks." She smiled.

Hoping that he was making eye contact with her eyes, he assured her in comfort. "You know you can talk to me about it."

"Yeah, I know, but really, I'm fine, okay?" Iris told him. Olivia narrowed her eyes on the reporter's form, not finding the words the least bit truthful. Like something was weighing on her shoulders, a heavy burden unlike most. "I should be asking how you're doing."

Before he could come with a response, his ears perked up at the sound of a phone vibrating with a chime, a notification coming through it. He recognized the tone and stated, "That's me. I got it." He went to reach for it, but he still had to hold onto the railing.

"Barry, let me help you." Iris told him and gently pushed him back. "I got it." She chuckled at his struggles and grabbed the phone when he conceded. Grabbing the phone and holding it front of her eyes, she read the message out loud. "Uh, "Running a little late. P."" Looking at Barry, she inquired. "Who's P?"

Olivia watched as the speedster slapped himself in the head because of his forgetfulness. "I'm gonna take a wild guess here, and say that this P might be one Patty Spivot, right?"

Iris widened her eyes. "My dad's partner Patty Spivot?" she wanted for clarity and the speedster hummed his confirmation. "What is she running late for?"

"Um…our first date." Barry embarrassedly stated.

"That's so great! She's great." Iris told him happily for his sake.

"Yeah, no, Patty's great. I just, you know…." He began stuttering before admitting. "I doubt she's gonna give me another shot when I have to cancel on her."

Iris slapped his shoulder playfully. "Don't cancel." She shot down his idea.

He then reminded him, gesturing to his eyes. "I'm blind, Iris. A literal blind date. It's not gonna work."

Iris dejected. "Hey, we are in S.T.A.R. Labs. Come on, there's gotta be something here that can help you get through the night." Barry agreed while the reporter had her eyes pointed at the psychic.

But even without her telepathic powers, she refused to help the speedster no matter what. She made her point abundantly clear when she walked out of the Cortex with long strides in her steps. Iris scoffed and sighed in defeat before turning her head to Cisco's position. "Or someone." She knowingly and vaguely stated.

Barry's head perked up… this time hope was within the horizon.

X

Near the Central City News, a S.T.A.R. Labs company van was waiting outside the newspaper publisher. Inside the van, Frankie had her eyes peeled open and looked out of the front window in search, worriedly looking for any signs of the metahuman criminal, Dr. Light.

"**_Think your Mom's gonna come soon? I'm hungry!_**" Magenta whined childishly.

"Magenta you are always hungry." Frankie spoke out loud while searching for her mother herself. "She just went out for some coffee for us both, she's gonna come soon. Just take it easy."

"**_No promises, partner._**" Magenta huffed.

"Such a baby." Frankie joked. Her expression took on a serious look as she asked, "What did you mean before? About understanding Uncle Matt's story?"

Magenta rolled her eyes in annoyance of the question. She wanted her host to achieve the meaning behind the story herself. "**_Not gonna spill it like that, but here's a hint. What's the thing that Black Cat keeps telling you?_**"

"Not let my emotions get the better of me." Frankie summarized the same saying before unsurely asking. "But what does that have to do with Uncle Matt's story before?"

"**_By the maker, you are so oblivious!_**" Magenta exclaimed.

Before Frankie could investigate her partner's annoyance, the door at the driver's seat opened up and Caitlin took a seat in it. In her hand was a cupholder with two beverages from Jitters. "Hey, honey. Got you your favorite drink: Magenta." She took the frappe and handed it to her child.

"Thanks, Mom." She accepted the drink and saw her mother put a bag in the middle of their seats, right on top of the gear stick. "What's that?" Frankie pointed at the bag.

Caitlin smiled and opened the bag to reveal a series of doughnuts of various kinds. "Doughnuts and coffee. Classic stakeout fuel."

"Awesome!" Frankie didn't wait and took out a doughnut and put another one in her pocket.

"You think doughnuts and coffees are on Earth-2, sweetie?" Caitlin asked as she sipped on her Venom drink.

"I don't know. Uncle Matt says that coffee might be a constant in the multiverse. He kept drinking liters of it whenever he would work on his suits back there." Frankie said.

"Well that's to be expected, your Uncle Matt's a bit of a geek." Caitlin joked with a wink. Frankie giggled and dug into her doughnuts. "Honey, you noticed how Jay and Harry kept referring to the Flash of his world and Zoom before?"

"Yeah, I did." Frankie nodded while swallowing her doughnut. "But what do you think it meant?"

"Maybe they fought each other many times. And from their last fight, Jay must have been on his ropes' end more than once." Caitlin deduced. "Must have been hard."

"Yeah, especially since this Zoom guy took his speed. To a speedster, or any powered person, their powers are the most precious thing to them." Frankie glanced at her mother. "But family's a close second." She cheekily reminded.

"Yeah, you're not so bad yourself, Frankie." Caitlin joked.

"But do you trust Wells?" Came the question from the girl with brightly shining magenta eyes.

"I don't know about that honey. But he's obsessed with Zoom, that's for sure." Caitlin looked at her daughter's shining eyes. "Sweetie, is there something you want to talk about?"

"Like what, Mom?"

"Your eyes, Frankie." Caitlin gestured to her eyes. Frankie blinked a few times, her eyes returning to blue again. "You know, your eyes have been like that ever since Dr. Wells came."

"I don't trust him, Mom." Frankie looked down at her hands, both clenching tightly around the cup in her lap.

She felt a pair of fingers grab her chin and gently directed her to look to the side, looking into her mother's eyes again. "Frankie, I might not be an agent like your aunt and uncle, but I know when there's more to a story when I hear it." Frankie didn't speak for a few moments, forcing Caitlin to speak what was really going on within her mind. "It's because he reminds you of the day that you lost your Dad, isn't it?"

"How'd you know?" she wondered in shock of her mother's deduction.

"Your eyes turn into magenta when you feel anger, frustration…hurt and sadness. It's your natural defensive mechanism ever since you became a metahuman and got your partner as well." Caitlin explained and her child looked down sadly. "I know you still want to be strong for your father's sake, to try and be like him… but it doesn't mean you have to hide your feelings, honey."

Like a true mother, Caitlin cupped her child's cheeks with both hands and spoke with a smile. "You have to channel your feelings into your actions, don't let them overwhelm you. Even if you see bad people or bad events happening in front of you, even if it happens to people you love, you can't lose yourself to your emotions. You're much stronger than that."

"I'm not like Dad, Mom. I'm not strong like him." Frankie admitted sadly, her eyes stinging with tears from sadness.

"You're strong in your own way, honey. And you are definitely going to be strong as your Dad, maybe even stronger." Caitlin brushed the tears away from her eyes with her thumbs. "And remember your Dad have lost himself to his emotions in the past. But he always came back…no matter what." She could remember it as though it was yesterday.

Seth erupting a veil of massive lightning coated flames out of his body and enveloping his entire form, submerging him into pits of unfathomable rage and hatred that even men would find unbelievable to exist within their moral realms. But the elemental that they both lost was able to submerge those pits, cladding his entire body into that of an abomination of elemental disaster and symbiotic catastrophe.

Rage of having his loved one kidnapped by two seasoned career criminals… made him dive right into those pits and willingly donned the armor of his abominable form to dispose of her captors… in the most hellish manner possible.

Hatred of having his daughter face him… as he was telepathically forced to wield his ice scythe… pointing at her as though he was going to strike her down like she was nothing more than the criminal scum he usually fights and kills.

But once he broke through the shackles that Grodd put on him, he embraced the darkest and deepest parts of the endless abominable pits. No… he commanded them as though they were nothing more than the elements he wields. Letting them flood over his entire form and once again became the abomination that even demons fear.

However… no matter what…no matter how many times he became that being… the sight of his precious daughter… and the sight of the woman he loves with her entire heart…. was enough to purge the abominable elements from his soul. Their love for him was enough to reel him in again… back to the lands of his loved ones' home.

Frankie needed that too.

"Even if you lose yourself to your emotions, honey… just always…come back to me, okay? It's the only thing I ask of you." Caitlin stated.

Frankie smiled again, wiping away the tears. "I will, Mom. I promise."

"Thank-"

_BLAST_

A massive light blast went unnoticed by the two in the van. Connecting with the front of the van and flipped it over, forcing glasses to be unhinged and bounce off the van and shattering on the ground. They both didn't see it but the symbiote within the young metahuman saw the light closing in on them. Magenta unleashed tendrils from out of her host's body and they wrapped the two women before attaching them to the walls around them, keeping them steady and in their seats as the vehicle touched down on the asphalt.

Dr. Light walked through the shattered glass pieces and looked into the vehicle. She saw the two bodies inside unresponsive and deduced that they were knocked out unconscious. Turning around, she made her way to the newspaper publisher. Going for her target… one that would have a familiar beautiful face.

Once they were sure that the metahuman thief was gone, Frankie and Caitlin perked their heads and looked around in case the thief was still there. The mother looked at her child. "Nice job, Magenta. But I think it's time for you both to go and take care of her."

Nodding in agreement, Frankie raised her hand and clenched her hand. Her magnekinetic powers launched the car door off its hinges before jumping out of the vehicle. The symbiotic skin quickly oozed out of her skin and wrapped around her form, forming the symbiotic form of Magenta.

X

**(Central City Picture News)**

The employees of the news publisher station were interrupted by the sound of clacking heels and the surprising form of the metahuman thief in white and black clothes. Iris got up from her desk with wide eyes. Linda was there as well and looked at the woman entering their station.

And Dr. Light noticed her gaze at her and smirked. "Hello, gorgeous." Without making eye contact with the others, she commanded. "Everybody out, now!" The chief of the station ordered his employees out of the station with orders of his own, scared for their safety.

When Linda went to move, Dr. Light stopped her with another order. "Except you."

Eric Larkin, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper publisher, stopped and disagreed. "I don't think so."

Iris agreed with those words and jumped in front of Linda defensively. "No, no, she's leaving with us."

"Not today." Dr. Light shook her head in disagreement.

"What do you want from me?" Linda asked in shock of why the metahuman wanted her to remain her.

The metahuman lit her hand up and her palm faced her doppelganger. "Your life." She answered callously, causing shivers to run down her doppelganger's spine. "I've never killed anyone before, but it's not murder if it's your double, right?"

"Why are you doing this?" Linda asked fearfully.

With each escaping word coming out of either doppelganger, Dr. Light walked forward. "It's the only way that I can stay alive." She didn't notice the editor-in-chief grab hold of a knife. "To become you. I'm sorry, Linda." She reeled her hand back, ready to fire a light blast.

"Can't say I'm sorry, Light."

A pair of black and white streaked pink tendrils wrapped around her hand and pulled her back and into a desk, causing it to break from the immense force of it. The thief metahuman had to shield her face from the desk contents falling on top of her. Pushing away the computer from her, she got up on her feet and stood on shaking legs from the voice.

Looking at the source, she widened her eyes in terror. Her eyes following the direction of the tendrils as they were being retracted and they slithered back into the young metahuman's body again. Clawed hands looked to be sharpened, elongating with the sharpness of talons. Feet digging into the ground and cutting through it with the pressure applied into the claws on her toes. White pseudo eyes of anger locked onto the other metahuman. Pitch-black and holy-white veins spiraled around her pink symbiotic skin.

"Think it's time you faced a real challenge!" Magenta roared and her hands clenched. Metal pipes above her head tore off and wrapped around her right arm, cladding it in a dense gauntlet. "Come with me, otherwise you're gonna regret it."

None of Magenta's words were registered by the metahuman thief. She was far too busy being drenched in terror that caused her every cell to shaken. Dr. Light staggered back in fear and the younger metahuman noticed it too.

Once again… Dr. Light felt as though she was once again standing on the ground of her home universe, Earth-2, standing in Central City Bank… watching those blood-red eyes on the face of skull-bearing demon king… watching him once again swing the massive sword that once resided in the hands of that… monster…

"How…how can you be here too?" Dr. Light asked in shock of the sight of him again…. But her eyes blinked a few times behind her visor-like goggles. She realized that this demon might look similar to the one she has met in her home… but it definitely wasn't the same. "You're not… you're not him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Frankie asked of the thief.

"Doesn't matter." Dr. Light announced with a steeled conviction before blasting a light blast from her right palm at him. Raising her own right arm, she launched the fist into the light attack with considerably large strength. Intercepting the blast with her strike, caused the light to disperse on contact and force the metal off her appendage.

Magenta leaped and morphed both arms into large swords. Attaching herself to the ceiling, she ran along the surface before jumping off and swinging them for the metahuman thief. Dr. Light spun around and dodged them. She charged light in her palms again and unclenched them.

Before she could fire them off, Frankie pulled the computers off the desks and into her hands, forcing them to fire upwards and they hit the ceiling, causing a large hole to be formed with the edges burned off. Light grabbed the two incoming swords of the younger metahuman's.

Frankie's lower half of her mask opened… rather ripped itself up to reveal a massive jaw with a long serpent-like tongue. Dr. Light flinched at the sight of the familiar mouth, she jumped backwards and dodged another swipe of her blades. She looked up and saw the damage on the ceiling from her earlier attack. An idea formed in her head.

The metahuman thief aimed her hands upwards, swinging them left to right with brightly shining palms, firing off an array of light attacks that collided with the ceiling. The attack forced the previous damage to spread, cracking along the ceiling before it became too much. Pieces of the surface fell off.

Frankie was too late to notice them coming her way from above, meaning that she was forced to accept the force of the rubble as it landed on top of her. "Argh!" she screamed in shock and pain at the pain that spread through when the pieces connected with her.

Dr. Light panted and walked over to her. "Sorry, honey. But you're not the guy I thought you were." Before Frankie could question her words, the metahuman thief continued walking and made her way to Linda Park who was still being defended by Iris. "Now… where were we?"

She heard a war cry coming from the other side and saw the editor-in-chief charging at her with a knife. Raising both hands, she lit them with light and accidently fired a light beam… one that penetrated Larkin's heart and caused him to drop the knife down.

"No!" Linda Park exclaimed in despair as the man dropped down to the ground. Iris jumped into action while Frankie was still struggling to escape the rubbles on top of her. Dr. Light looked at her own hands in dismay at the act she had just committed.

Iris managed to pull out the specialized repulsor gun that Matt had made and given to her via her father. She raised it and pulled the trigger. The barrel shined brightly with blue energy and blasted a repulsor blast at the thief.

A different recoil shook her after being fired and the blast hit the thief's mask. But instead of causing it to break into pieces, it flung off the woman's face and clattered against the ground…echoing as the three women recognized the face of Linda Park.

Linda Park of Earth-1 looked in shock at her own mirror image and exclaimed. "How is this possible?" her disbelief coating each and every syllabus of her words.

"You couldn't understand." Light vaguely answered.

"Light!" Caitlin rushed into the building and saw Dr. Light standing there in front of Linda Park and Iris. She noticed the dead body there along with the form of her daughter's alter-ego struggling through the rubbles that restricted her movements. "Magenta!"

Dr. Light pointed her unmasked face at the woman who entered. She recognized her from outside in the van. "I thought I took care of you outside." She commented.

"Guess you were wrong." Caitlin quipped and Light raised her hand to fire light blasts again.

"Caitlin!" Iris exclaimed.

But she had nothing to worry about. A grappling hook hooked onto the metahuman's sleeve and pulled on it, forcing the hand to point at a wall and with it, the following light beam. Dr. Light winced as the hook detached from her clothes and withdrew back to its origin.

"Are you girls having a party without me now?"

She and the other women followed the direction of the voice and the retracting hook. They watched as the hook returned to the wrist gadget on the form of a tall, slender and curvaceous woman with platinum blonde hair and red visor-like goggles. Her body was clad in a skintight black suit with white accents.

"Who are you?" Light asked.

"Name's Black Cat. And sorry to tell you, honey." The infamous thief of Earth-616 jumped off a table and landed on top of another in a crouch. "But there's only room for one attractive thief in this universe. Especially if they're from another universe. That role's been filled by moi." She gestured to herself.

"You know?" The thief of Earth-2 asked.

"Yup. And you do not mess with my rose and get away with it." Black Cat spoke threateningly.

Light was tired of words and lashed out her hand, sending out an elongated light beam. Black Cat smirked before performing a cartwheel and dodged it. Another light blast was launched and the cat-like thief spun around and jumped into the air. She continued her spinning motion in the air and grabbed hold of a computer screen with her metal claws.

Her grip on the monitor strengthened and caused the screen to crack from it. Landing on another table, she hurled the screen at Light. But the metahuman thief blasted them out of the way with blasts of her light. The light blasts caused her to momentarily lose her field of vision and when it was gone, Dr. Light saw that Black Cat was gone.

She felt a finger poking her shoulder and she turned her head to look at the source. It was short-lived as one of her hands were caught in a vice-like grips. Dr. Light was too late to move and suddenly Black Cat twirled her body around, swinging her legs upwards and wrapped them around her neck.

With a massive pull, Felicia Hardy managed to force the metahuman thief down to the ground with a mighty push. Her legs kept Light locked there and would have done it much longer, but a light blast aimed at her head forced her to unlock her hold on Linda Park from Earth-2.

Performing a backflip, Black Cat landed on the floor again and Dr. Light got up from the ground. The metahuman thief gathered light in her palms again. And with a violent move, she slammed them both into the ground and discharged a large light pulse.

The light pulse pushed both Iris and Linda over various tables. Frankie was pushed out of the rubbles and landed on top of her mother. Black Cat was launched off the ground and about to connect with the floor again in a fall. But she dug her claws into the ceiling and hang from there.

Everyone looked up from their different places and saw the only thing remaining of the metahuman thief is her mask.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Everyone had gotten back to the facility of S.T.A.R. Labs and Caitlin looked over everyone. She was focused on her daughter mainly. Felicia had Olivia who took care of her lightly bruised areas and applied bandages on her scars.

They had been informed that the police had been informed of the situation there. Larkin's dead body had bene brought into the morgue for examination.

Matt was clenching his hands in anger while his eyes noticed Harry pacing back and forth in front of the main console. Jay was watching them all be treated from the middle of the room. Felicia had her goggles taken off her face and smirked at the nanite mutant's behavior. "Hey, Iron Junior, take it easy, would you? Your wife's gonna have to give you an aneurysm to stop your brooding."

"Okay, I would never give my husband an aneurysm, Cat." Olivia noted and the thief merely laughed while a band-aid was applied to the scar on the side of her head.

"I know, I know. I just hate that I wasn't there to help Frankie and Caitlin. Maybe then, Larkin wouldn't have died." Matt said as he walked closer to his wife and the thief.

"Not your fault, Junior." Cat assured him.

"She's right, Matt. Regrettable as it is, lives are always in danger. And no matter how much we try to avert it; innocents always gets into this kind of damage." Olivia added. "And sometimes, their lives are lost too."

"I just hate it." Matt smiled as he looked at Felicia. "Thanks, Felicia. It means a lot that you were there to save Frankie and Caitlin and the others back at the news station. Really means a lot."

"I should be the one to say that." Caitlin announced as she and Frankie walked over to them, the doctor took off her gloves as she looked at the thief. "Thank you so much, Felicia. You saved me and my daughter, I can't thank you enough for that."

"Yeah, me too." Frankie smiled in gratitude. "It means a lot, and you saved us all back there. Thank you."

Felicia's cheeks began to redden from the series of compliments coming her way from the various people. She felt a bit embarrassed by them. She made eye contact with Seth's family and told them honestly. "I made a promise to Caity, guys. I always keep my promises, right down to the letter." Turning her attention to her little disciple, she asked. "What about you, Rose? You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing my Mom or Magenta couldn't fix." Frankie smiled.

As they continued to converse, Barry rushed into the Cortex and made eye contact with Caitlin, his eyes briefly noting the presence of the thief from Earth-616. "Caitlin, are you guys okay?"

"Yeah." Caitlin assured the speedster, her daughter not saying anything to him.

"Barry, I'm sorry." Jay stepped forward with a guilty expression. "Doctor Light's never killed before. I thought we could reason with her."

Harry didn't agree with that and voiced his thoughts. "You cannot reason with someone under Zoom's influence, and now a man is dead because of you Garrick. This whole thing is because of you." He pointed a finger at the speedster of this Earth. "He doubts himself because of you, but believe me, Barry can do what you could not. Barry can stop Zoom. And so can the rest of the heroes here." He gestured to the various powered beings here.

"I spent two years hunting Zoom." Jay told Harrison Wells.

But that wasn't how it looked to the scientist. "Wrong! Zoom hunted you! You spent the last two years of your life running, running, running from Zoom."

Jay gritted his teeth. "Zoom would have killed me just he will kill Barry if you lead him down this path!"

"No because he is not like you." Harry argued. "Barry runs towards danger, not from it…because Barry's not a coward."

The powerless speedster hurled his right fist into Harry's face, slamming it into the left side of the man and pushed him back and against the railing.

"This is gonna be interesting." Felicia muttered bemusedly by what was happening now while some of the others gasped in shock.

Harry countered with his own right fist hitting the powerless metahuman's face. He slammed his other hand into his stomach next. His right hand came from the side, but Jay blocked it with his forearm and delivered a jab into Harrison's stomach.

Jay repeated this technique a few times before aiming for the scientist's face.

"Now, it's getting boring." Olivia stepped forward and waved her right hand, veiled by a sheer of psychic energy. "Enough!" the energy wrapped around them both, forming separate cocoons and pushed them from each other.

The push she commanded threw both Earth-2 natives to the floor. Harrison looked shocked at the woman. "How did you do that?"

"Ever hear of a mutant with psychic powers? No? Didn't think so." Olivia said while the founder of Earth-2 S.T.A.R. Labs huffed in anger before moving away.

Cisco walked over to Barry. "Maybe you should have a talk with him? He seems to trust you or something like that."

"Yeah, sure." Barry accepted and walked after Harrison Wells.

Frankie looked at her uncle and mentor. "Uncle Matt, I know what you meant by that story before."

"Do you? You sure?" Matt wondered with a proud smile.

"What's this about a story?" Felicia pitched in.

Matt turned his head to look at her. "Remember those times I fought you and lost pretty badly?"

"Oh yeah, the good old days." Felicia remembered nostalgically.

"It was because it was about me not losing myself to emotions to the point I couldn't come back again, right?" Frankie said. And though he didn't respond with words, the smile on Matt's face was enough for her to draw her own conclusion. "I have to have something that can pull me back always, whenever I will lose my cool and emotions."

"Your father and your aunt are my grounding mechanisms." Matt revealed. "When I lose myself to whatever emotion gets the better of me, I make sure to tell myself that I'm always gonna fight for the woman I love and the man that saved me from Hell."

"I have one, too." Frankie looked at her mother who was tending to Jay after getting those punches. "My mom."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco's workshop)**

"You were pretty hard on Jay in there." Barry stated when he found Harrison Wells in Cisco's workshop.

Harry put his hands at his waist and countered. "Maybe you should be hard on Jay too." He turned around to face the Flash of this world. "I've seen what you can do, Barry. I've calculated how fast you can run, and you should be teaching Jay, not the other way around." He turned back to face the desk with heavy thoughts brimming in his head.

Barry couldn't help but feel like he has had a similar conversation with another man. "You know, before I learned that the other Wells was the man who murdered my mom, I looked up to him. He was my mentor, actually."

Realization dawned on the doppelganger of Harrison Wells. "So my doppelganger, a man who looks exactly like me… betrayed you." He faced him with his head looking down. With genuine honesty, he reminded him. "I'm sorry, I'm not him, so you need to listen to me when I say you can take care of Zoom, and all we have to do…" he snapped his fingers for empathize. "is capture Doctor Light."

The speedster then suggested his previous idea. "I thought about testing the mask for Light's DNA, but it would only have Linda's."

The scientist from Earth-2 gained a confused expression. "Mask, what mask?"

"Light's mask." Barry replied.

X

The two moved back into the Cortex with the others standing around them. Felicia had taken off, knowing that the mutants and metahumans would be able to handle the metahuman thief promptly without her aid… resulting in her being the reigning thief from another universe in Central City.

Cisco and Matt had attached Light's mask to a few stands and lights that shined over it. The native engineer was the one to push the cart to the middle of the Cortex, allowing Harrison to inspect it with narrowed eyes. "How did you get this?"

Barry answered, "Iris shot it off Doctor Light when she attacked Linda."

Jay looked curiously with slight suspicion at the scientist. "You know how to use the mask to find Light?"-*

"How's that gonna work?" Frankie wondered, this time her eyes remaining blue as the skies. "It's DNA won't help us because it will just register it as Linda from this universe, right?"

"It will do that, yeah." Matt told his niece before looking at Wells. "Do you actually know how to do this, or is this some BS strategy of yours?"

"Yes, I do." Harry assured them. "All we have to do is give it…" he pointed his head at Cisco. "to him."

Everyone looked confused except for Matt who narrowed his eyes strangely on Harrison. "Why me?" Cisco asked in confusion when he felt the eyes of his friends turn to him.

"Because… you have powers." Harrison stated.

Catlin and her daughter shared a confused look before both pointed their eyes to the native engineer. Jay looked shocked with his gaze shifting between Harrison and Cisco. Olivia had her eyes on her husband who looked back at her. Barry had to scoff at the ridiculousness of that statement.

"What are you talking about?" Cisco asked, while feeling his defenses cracking.

Pulling up his wrist, Harry revealed a watch-like device attached to his wrist. "I developed this watch to detect metahumans." The lid was pushed open and he stretched his hand near Barry. It began beeping with a red screen. The others looked curiously at the device, which was then put near Caitlin. Not letting out chimes as she was not a metahuman.

Harry looked to the mutants and stretched his watch over them. But it didn't blare, meaning that they weren't metahumans. "Interesting." Neither of the two mutants looked happy about the device. The scientist walked over to Cisco slowly. "You never got an alert on your phone. You never reprogrammed the S.T.A.R. Labs satellite," he stood beside him. "And this is why."

"Hey wait!" Matt tried to stop Harry.

But the founder of S.T.A.R. Labs on Earth-2 had already lashed his watch in front of Cisco. The screen blaring with a red screen. Matt stopped and looked ready to attack the scientist, eager to drive his blades into his core because this was not his secret to reveal. "He's a metahuman." Harry stated.

Cisco looked at Matt's face, seeing the expression of defeat on his face and closed his eyes and nodded comfortingly to his friend. Harry lowered his hand and saw the angry look on the nanite mutant's face, shocked by the level of animosity displayed on it.

Barry looked shocked at what the scientist said about his best friend. "Cisco, have you known about this and you didn't say anything to us?"

While Harry closed his watch, Cisco explained. "Yeah, I was gonna tell you. Thanks a lot, Harry." He gestured the nanite mutant. "Matt is the only one who knows about this because he pried a little too much."

"Still an agent, people. Don't expect that to change any time soon." Matt jokingly stated.

Cisco looked at the others again, seeing their sad and hurt faces. "I swear I was gonna tell the rest of you, but I didn't." he began pacing as he continued in a saddened tone. "I was just… I was afraid."

Olivia shifted her eyes from her husband and then to Cisco, having some idea of what the man feared. "What were you afraid of, Cisco?"

He inhaled deeply before revealing. "Dr. Well said the dark matter gave me this, this gift." Dr. Wells from Earth-2 snapped his head at them. "He said that one day I'd thank him for it. What if I become like him?"

"Cisco," Caitlin started. "I don't think any of us would become evil if we all of sudden got powers, even if they were from Dr. Wells." She walked closer to her friend when she saw his unchanged face. "And remember Seth, Matt and Liv…they all got powers this… horrible way." Harrison narrowed his eyes on those words. "But look at them now."

She gestured to the two mutants there. "They didn't turn into monsters or evil, they turned into the best kinds of heroes there could be. They were going become weapons and yet they didn't. Sometimes powers don't change you, but they might just enforce the person you already are."

"Even making you a much better person than you already are." Olivia added with a gesture to her niece. "Look at Frankie, she's a wonder. Both before and after her powers and Magenta showed herself."

Matt nodded in agreement. "Remember, we know what it's like to fear your own powers. But it doesn't matter where the powers come from, Cisco. What matters is what you do with them."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Cisco smiled again, happy for the series of aiding words coming from his friends. "I should have said something. That's my fault. I'm sorry."

Barry shook his head, not blaming his friend for being frightened of this newfound gift. But before he could say anything to his friend, Harrison interrupted. "Well, you can be sorry later, because right now, we have to use your powers to find Doctor Light."

Jay then wondered. "Cisco, your abilities, how do they work?"

"Uh, I get these feelings sometimes, these vibes, visions of the breachers when they come to this Earth." Cisco explained. "I just… I'm not sure what triggers it. Sometimes it just happens. Sometimes it's when I'm touching something of theirs."

"Something of importance then." Matt deduced.

Harry faced him and ordered him. "Touch the mask." Cisco looked at him confusedly. "You want to find Doctor Light, do it." Cisco looked at his friends for guidance. But all they could do is nod, telling him to trust himself and do it.

Cisco steeled himself and raised his hand…he slowly reached for the mask… his hand began shaking as he placed it on the mask… A gasp emitted from his mouth while he had his eyes closed. They all looked at him expectantly.

But he didn't say anything and for a moment, he opened his eyes again. Closing them again, he grunted, putting in more effort to it and placed his hand on the mask again. It didn't appear to be working and Cisco tapped the mask instead a few times, but with no success. "I don't think it's working."

"Try again." Harry ordered.

"Cisco." He looked to Matt. "It might because you're-"

"Try again!" Harrison ordered loudly again, interrupting the nanite mutant without a second thought.

The native engineer placed his hand on the mask once again with closed eyes. He withdrew his hand with another look of defeat. "I'm sorry, it's not…"

"Again!" Harry ordered.

Cisco didn't like Harry's tone and told him. "I can't control it."

"Because you're afraid." Harry took the mask in his hand.

"Wells!" Olivia chastised him.

"I'm telling you I don't know how it works! I can't just make it happen!" Cisco screamed in his face.

Harry held up the mask high up. Matt formed a gauntlet on his right arm and Olivia took out her bladed whip. "I'm telling you, yes, you can!" the scientist screamed and slammed the mask into Cisco's chest.

X

_Like a series of flashing lights, the vibe was brought more clearly to the newly discovered metahuman._

_…_

_Cisco looked around with a gaped mouth of shock. He looked upwards and saw a sign with the number: "15"_

_…_

_Looking downwards, he found the familiar face of Linda Park, but it wasn't her…it was Doctor Light._

_…_

_The mask was pulled away from his chest…and the vibe ended._

X

Cisco gasped when he was brought out of the trance-like state. "South Plaza train station, platform 15." He informed them. He blinked a few times and realized that Matt was the one who had pulled the mask back and Olivia had her whip wrapped around the Harry's wrist.

"You okay, Cisco?" Matt asked in concern for his friend.

"I am." Cisco nodded.

Olivia nodded her acceptance and unwrapped her whip from the scientist's wrist. While rubbing his sore wrist, Harry looked at Barry. "What are you waiting for?"

_WHOOSH_

Barry sped away after putting on his suit.

Matt looked at Olivia who nodded her consent. He put on his suit after having the nanites swarm out of the Arc Reactor on his chest. The adapted to his body and formed his Iron Knight suit before he flew out of the skylight and after the speedster.

X

**(South Plaza Train Station)**

_WHOOSH_

The Flash sped into the train station and looked around for Linda's doppelganger. But it was impossible to find her in the large mass of people around him. Iron Knight touched down near him and looked around in search as well. His HUD screen scanning through the crowd for the metahuman thief.

"Oh, guys, the platform's crowded." Barry informed his friends.

"You sure she's here, Cisco?" Matt asked while he continued to scan.

"_She should be wearing a black trench coat._" Cisco told them via the comms.

Flash looked around and spotted her. "Black trench coat. Found her." The speedster made eye contact with the light wielder.

"Speed everyone out of here. I'll take her on." Matt ordered him and Barry listened to him, speeding away and taking everyone else out of harm's way.

Dr. Light saw Iron Knight coming her way and asked. "Why won't you just let me leave?" she took off her trench coat.

"You know why. You killed an innocent man." Matt told her.

"That was an accident." She said defensively.

_WHOOSH_

Barry appeared behind Doctor Light. "Trying to kill Linda Park wasn't."

"It's the only way that I can be free from Zoom, unless I kill The Flash." Doctor Light explained.

Iron Knight quipped, "Tempting, but we can't let you do that either, so we got a bit of a conundrum."

Doctor Light swung her head around, looking between the two male heroes. "We'll see." Lashing out an arm at both heroes, she fired light blasts.

Jumping into the air, the nanite mutant dodged the light blast. "Nice try!"

Speeding behind a pillar, the metahuman avoided the light beam. Awareness fell over him as he inquired of the others at S.T.A.R. Labs. "Guys, should have talked about this before I left, but how should we stop her?"

"We kill her!" Matt launched after her, he swung his quickly formed semicircular blades for her, each of them pulsating with repulsor energy. The metahuman thief heard the airborne mutant's exclaim and rolled out of the way and fired an array of light blasts.

"_No! You do not kill her!_" Harrison Wells ordered through the comms, while Matt used his flight stabilizers and flew higher into the air, dodging the brilliant attacks. "_We still need her!_"

"Don't take orders from you, Wells!" Matt told him while spinning in the air, dodging various shining rays of light. "This son of a bitch hurt my niece," he stopped mid-air and launched ion levitating cannons from his back. His arms formed larger ion cannons. Charging them all, he aimed all six at Doctor Light. "and I don't forgive anyone who hurts my family!" he launched six repulsor beams at her.

Doctor Light quickly dodged the series of beams coming from above. Rolling out of the way and let the blasts hit the asphalt, breaking the ground into pieces with each penetrating energy blasts.

"_Keep trying different angles, Barry. Find her blind spot._" Jay advised the speedster, who looked from behind his hiding spot. He had to withdraw his head when a light beam came his way. He sped behind the train while airborne blasts came after the metahuman thief.

"I can't get close enough. What should I do?" Barry asked while looking upwards, seeing the lights emitting from the mutant's weaponry. "Think Matt's having better luck than me right now, and I don't do anything soon, he might actually kill her. What do I do guys?"

Then the least favorite response came from Jay. "_I-I don't know._"

Barry pushed his head back. "I gotta tell ya, that's not exactly the answer I was looking for."

"I did. Guess it's my plan then." Matt stated happily.

"_Is your husband's first response to kill everyone?_" He heard Harry direct at his wife.

"_Someone messes with our family, they have a target on their back, and usually me or my hubby's gonna be the one to shoot the middle._" Olivia told him.

"_Fascinating._" Harry appeared the least bit interested. "_You need to confuse her. She has to two targets now, you and Stark, give her even more so she does not know who to fire at._"

"All right, how do I do that? Ask Matt if he can send out more flying cannons?" Barry said.

"_Chances are he's gonna shoot everything there, including you, Barry._" Came the surprising response from Caitlin.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense." Barry muttered in agreement when seeing the flashes of opposing energy attacks clash against each other.

"_Distract her…_" Harry started. "_By running so fast, you create multiple afterimages of yourself… you create a speed mirage._"

"A wha-speed mir- I've never run that fast." Barry complained.

Dropping down on the ground, the mutant and the metahuman thief faced off. Matt charged his gauntlets. "Do we have to remind you of your biggest mistake from all those months ago?!" he roared his words to the speedster while he fired two repulsor blasts, both of which collided with Light's shining beams.

Harry reminded the speedster. "_Well, from what I've been told, you've traveled through time. You'll be more than fast enough._"

The collision of energy attacks exploded in a shockwave that pushed the two from each other. Both skipping on the ground, but Matt shot into the air again. Linda from Earth-2 rolled onto her knees and pointed her hand to at the speedster, blasting another light beam at him.

But he sped away from the blast…and he followed the scientist's plan. Running so fast, that he created various blurry images of himself. Speeding around the platforms, the entire station, he formed dozens of versions of himself around.

Matt looked around from above and saw the metahuman thief swing her head around in confusion and shock at the sight of the multiple speedster afterimages. A light beam was fired but it didn't hit anything and hit a pillar. "This is a nightmare."

All the Speed Mirages narrowed in on the metahuman thief, ensnaring her in closed confines of them. Doctor Light gathered massively concentrated light in her hands and released another pulse around her, causing the Speed Mirages to disappear from the shockwave.

In the midst of the afterimages, Barry was among them and was hit by the light pulse, pushing him back and hurled him into a pillar.

The grunts of pain traveled through the communication devices and the ones in the facility heard them. "_Barry?_" Cisco asked in concern.

"I can't do it." Barry finalized with a panting voice. He looked and saw the metahuman thief continuing another barrage of light rays at the nanite mutant who formed a long rectangular shield with both arms.

"_Yes, you can, Barry._" Jay shot to the microphone. "_Hey, Dr. Wells is right. You are fast, faster than I ever was and better than I ever will be. Don't let fear and doubt hold you back like it did to me. You're The Flash, Barry. Show Light what that means._"

"_Preferably before Stark starts to vent Light's body with holes._" Harry added for urgency, clearly not trusting the nanite mutant.

Once again, the speedster sped into action. Running around and around the station once again, forming hundreds of afterimages that distracted the metahuman thief from continuing her onslaught on the mutant's defenses. And once again, the images walked closer and closer to her again.

She lashed out her arms to various angles, sending out rays of shining lights again. But not a single one of her attacks came into contact with the speedster's real body. All of them merely passing through the blurry images. "Where are you?!" she screamed while the nanite mutant looked from afar.

He saw The Flash sped into the metahuman thief from behind, sending her into the pillar near and knocking her out cold. Barry walked to her and answered her question. "I'm right here."

Iron Knight walked over to them with clanging steps when her feet would touch the ground. "Tempted to off her right and now."

"Matt, don't!" Barry told him.

The nanite mutant turned around and his back faced him while walking. "You don't give me orders, Allen. Nor will you ever."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Caitlin, Frankie and Iris and Olivia proudly walked back into the Cortex. The doctor neared the main console as she happily said. "Doctor Light is safely locked in the Pipeline."

"Nicely done." Cisco praised and fist bumped the female doctor.

"Bit of an adventure today, ladies and gents." Olivia admitted and her hand interlocked with her husband. "You did good out there."

"Thanks, but I regret not killing Light out there." Matt confessed. "But if this Zoom guy is a bigger threat than her, then she could have her uses."

"Yeah." Olivia breathed out and turned to her niece who stood beside her mother. "Frankie, you did good too. You should be proud, honey."

"Thanks, Auntie. But it was because of Uncle Matt and my Mom that I did so good." Frankie said with her head leaning against her mother's arm.

Iris walked over to Dr. Wells. "Wells, thank you for helping Barry put away Doctor Light."

Joe turned to Barry, Jay and Matt. "So what now?" he inquired.

"Guess it's pretty clear at this point." Matt said.

"We do what Dr. Wells said." Barry continued, letting his decision become known. "We use her to lure Zoom here, end this once and for all."

Jay looked in disbelief. "You can't be serious."

Olivia looked at the powerless speedster. "Jay, you know that more breachers are gonna come. And it's gonna mean more people like Larkin, _innocent people_, may die."

"We can't let that happen anymore." Matt added.

"You're making a mistake." Jay looked around, looking at them all. "Okay, Zoom is a nightmare you can't wake up from."

"I've already had my worst nightmare." Barry walked forward. "His name was Reverse Flash, and I spent a long time being afraid of him. I'm not gonna be afraid anymore."

"He wasn't the only nightmare to be fought here." Caitlin admitted with crossed arms. "That monster that haunted some of us here…his name was Carnage." Both Jay and Harrison looked confused and horrified at the name. "But we defeated him. And we'll take care of Zoom as well."

"Okay." Jay walked closer to Barry. "You may be faster than me, you may have won against the Reverse Flash and this Carnage, but you're not ready to fight Zoom by yourself. Even with these other heroes from the other universe." Harrison took note of those words, narrowing them on the two mutants and Caitlin's child.

"That's just it, Jay." Barry stopped him. "I'm not gonna fight him by myself. I've got all of them to help me. I've got Dr. Wells. I've got…" he looked at the mutants, but both didn't show any willingness to aid him. "I've got you." He finished off when he looked to Jay again.

However, that didn't sit well with Jay. He regrettably had to admit. "No, I can't in good conscience help you when I know… it'll only lead to you losing your speed, or even worse…your death."

"Optimism must be an Earth-1 thing." Cisco sarcastically said.'

"We have it on Earth-616 too, you know." Matt commented on his friend's words.

Jay looked around at the faces of the people he has come to know. "You all need to ask yourself why this man, for years," he walked closer to Harry who had taken his glasses off. "wouldn't admit that he was responsible for the Particle Accelerator exploding underground. He may not be Harrison Wells from your Earth, but he has just as many secrets as the one you knew."

He walked to the exit and the only to call out to him was Matt. "Where do you think you're going?"

Jay stopped. "I'm sorry, Matt. But I can't let myself, willingly, agree with this. It wouldn't be right for me." He looked at the mutant. "But I know you can protect Barry than I can."

"I'm not here to protect him." Came the shocking response, at least for the Earth-2 natives, and Barry looked down at the ground. "I'm here to protect my family."

"But I know that also means protecting your home, this city. So I'll leave that to you guys." Jay finalized before walking out of the Cortex.

Olivia turned to the scientist, Harrison Wells. "Wells." She got his attention. "You might have our support now but make no mistake if this ends up backfiring and hurts our family, you'll be the one to pay for those mistakes." She pointed a finger at the speedster. "And trust us, we are nothing like Barry."

"_I figured as much_." Harrison thought to himself, he felt a familiar cold sharpness like a blade torn out of an icy rook. But it also shocked him…because it was a feeling that was akin to that of a…

… villain.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

"Have a nice day." The beautiful barista told her guest after handing her order. It was another busy day at work, and she was ready to go through with it. She turned to the next costumer. "What can I get…you?" she slowly said when realizing who the next costumer was.

Cisco held up his hands defensively and stated. "Yeah, I know, this is supes awkward, probably more for me than for you, but I just want coffee, okay? Just two Flashes, one of them decaf, one Magenta, three Venoms. That's it."

The barista nodded her acceptance and turned around. But as her face was no longer making eye contact with him, she couldn't help but smile. Dozens of thoughts entered her mind and she turned back to him and asked knowingly. "Are you sure that's all you want?"

Her intentions were pure, but Cisco didn't think so and said hurtfully. "Oh, that's funny. You just want to shoot me down again?"

However, that was the last thing the barista wanted to do. "No, no, no, no." she chuckled as she explained. "What I mean is, I just moved to Central City, and it's a pretty big change from where I come from. Everything here is so big and new and filled with metahumans."

Cisco couldn't help but chuckle. "Yeah, well, when you factor in the size of the city, the chances of running into a metahuman are actually pretty low." He ironically said despite the fact that he himself is a newly discovered metahuman.

She couldn't help but briefly laugh. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, you kinda caught me off guard the other day, but now I'm a little more prepared, so I just want to make sure…is coffee all you want?" she laid it on thick.

The engineer chuckled and stretched out his hand. "Hi, I'm Cisco Ramon."

"Kendra Saunders." Kendra introduced herself as she shook hands with him. "It's not to meet you."

X

"Are you okay, Frankie?" Caitlin asked her daughter while she, her child, Matt, Olivia and Barry waited for Cisco to bring the drinks. Frankie had been a bit quiet for some reason.

"Yeah, just thinking a bit, Mom." Frankie told her.

Magenta laughed. "**_That's a first._**"

"_Jerk._" Frankie quipped back.

"Gonna be weird without Jay on the team now." Olivia admitted.

"Yeah, but now we can just focus on the one Earth-2 native." Matt stated.

"Well, look, Jay is a hero." Barry said, "They always seem to show up just when you need 'em."

"Speaking of..." Matt nodded to Cisco who arrived with six coffee beverages.

"Yo, peep that." Cisco put them down on the table, and once he took a seat and he showed a piece of paper with Kendra Saunders' name and number. Barry looked impressed and Matt looked surprised. "That's how it's done, young Padawan. Going on a date next week."

"Not bad, Cisco." Matt gave him a thumbs up. "But you sure about this?"

"I need to move on, Matt. And hopefully, Kendra can help with that." Cisco assured his friend.

Matt took out his Venom drink from the cupholder. "I'll drink to that."

Barry smiled and chuckled with a joke. "Things are looking up for Cisco Ramon."

"I guess so. Still stuck with these powers, though." Cisco sadly stated. "Just don't know how to feel about 'em."

Olivia rolled her eyes and lightly tapped him with her own cup. "Remember what Matt said before: you don't gotta go through it alone." She looked to her husband with narrowed eyes. "And you better not be thinking of keeping more secrets from me, mister."

"Last time, it happens. Cisco asked me and I respected his wishes. But it didn't lessen the feeling of hiding something from my wife." Matt cupped her hand. "Sorry for it."

"You're forgiven." Olivia leant over to his face and kissed him tenderly.

"But there's only one thing that Cisco needs." Frankie said vaguely while drinking her frappe.

Caitlin knew what her daughter was referring to and said, "Now you need a cool name."

"Oh, snap! You're totally right." Cisco was surprised with realization. "Oh, I gotta think about this one." The mutants laughed as his baffled expression. "Well, you know me. It's gotta be perfect. Something that really sings, you know? Something like…" he looked deep in thoughts.

"Vibe?"

Everyone looked at the speedster after he said that single word. It wasn't bad and the others appeared to like it as well.

Caitlin nodded in agreement. "Vibe." She agreed.

"Vibe." Cisco agreed with the word being repeated.

"Welcome to this much crazier world of heroes…" Matt held out his coffee cup. "Vibe."

"Cheers." Vibe said back before they clinked their cups together.

"Cheers!"

They all said and clinked their cups together in unison before drinking them.

It was the birth of a new hero… one that all of them loved to be a part of. Caitlin looked between them all and smiled happily. "_Wish you were here…_" her hand drifted up to her neck and clutched her necklace tightly.

"…_I love you… Seth…_"

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**Jay's gone from the team, leaving them with another Earth-2 native in exchange. And now the group is now in possession of the bait that they're gonna dangle on the hook in front of Zoom's ugly face. **

**Barry seems to be all for it but not the others, they're still skeptical about trusting him. Harrison's plan is gonna take action. But how will that happen with the additional aid of the various mutants and Magenta. **

**And thanks to Caitlin's request, Black Cat was there to help Linda Park and save Iris, Linda, Caitlin herself, and Frankie too. **

**Now Cisco's metahuman abilities have been become known to everyone on team, some of them shocked by the fact that he is another metahuman. But with that experience, the metahuman Vibe was born.**

**Frankie in dismay because of what the last man with Wells's face had done. He was responsible for the loss of her father now… the man she would give anything to see again. Her eyes would have remained in a state of agitation had it not been for her Uncle Matt who had learned from his previous battle with Felicia Hardy. **

**Caitlin is in the same situation. The scar of loss still deeply engraved in her heart and she couldn't help but feel like it was growing deeper and deeper with the passing days as she was no longer with the man she loves. The protector that holds her heart is not there and she wishes he was there to protect her from further harm.**

**But she would rather have him there by her side through thick and thin.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**

**And of course, have a Merry Christmas!**


	13. Chapter 13: White Feathers of Distrust

**And now another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**I hope you guys have an amazing Christmas with friends and family, and I hope you guys also have an amazing New Year's Eve coming up.**

**Thanks again to Ryu otsutsuki for helping me along this journey with this story.**

**There's gonna be a few extras here. You might know them from the canon.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 13: White Feathers of Distrust**

_Not a single sound was uttered in this world. It was like a shadow had fallen over the entire world that she knew…_

_Removing any and all sources of light that was known to man…_

_As though an enormous shadow was cast over this entire world shrouded it and thicken with each passing second…_

_No matter how much she looked around, Iris couldn't see through the thick veil of darkness that coated the city of her hometown. She couldn't find anyone there like it had absorbed them all into infinite darkness._

_Iris looked around, trying to find anything but she kept finding herself in this dark world of her home, Central City. All forms that are around her are completely enveloped in pure darkness. The detective turned her gaze upwards, trying to look into the skies but they were like the rest… darkness._

_"Barry!" she called out to her husband in fear as she looked around, hoping that he would hear her voice. "Barry! Anyone!" she looked around and kept calling out for anyone and her husband, even her new friends. "Seth! Ruby! Evelyn! Jesse!"_

_But none of them were there to answer her distress…_

_"Iris…"_

_She snapped her head around at the sound of that familiar voice. "It can't be…" Iris trailed off with shock… her feet moving against her commands and making her way backwards._

_Her mouth opened up and let out a gasp when she felt her back collide with something. Iris snapped around and looked down at her gun… but it was not in her holster… nor was her holster for that matter._

_Looking back up… her eyes widened at the sight… at that familiar sight…_

_"…F-F-Fred…" She stammered confusedly._

_Walking closer and closer to her with slow steps, almost agonizingly so, was a familiar face. Gray ragged hair on top of his head. Pale aged skin on his body, hiding under the formal attire of a white shirt, a dark-blue tie and a pair of dark-blue pants. All of that covered by his signature brown suede leather trench coat. His face was hurt and beaten… like he had been in a brawl or something worse. Even scorch marks around his face and hands and clothes._

_"Fre-"_

_Before Iris could ask her old mentor of what was going, before any of her questions could be formed outside of her mouth, Fred grabbed her by the shoulders with a tightening grasp, like he was trying to tear her arms off._

_Fred neared her face and screamed into her face. "Stop it, Iris!"_

_"Stop what?" Iris tried to shake herself out of his grip, but it was no use, she couldn't get out of his grip. "What are you talking about?!"_

_"Stop it! Don't go after him!" Fred shook his old student violently. "Don't go after Blackfire!"_

X

"AAARRGHH" Iris screamed with her eyes snapped open as she sat up abruptly from the bed.

"Iris!" Barry heard his wife's scream and sat up himself and turned to his wife. He saw the sweat pouring down her face and oozing out of her entire body. Even when she wiped it off with her hand, more took its place. "Honey." He hugged her and brought her in close.

"Barry, good you're here." Iris breathed out in her husband's arms. Before the embrace with her husband, she felt herself hyperventilating from the nightmare's horrible experience. "Sorry for waking you up, Honey. Didn't mean to do that."

"It's okay." Barry assured her while stroking her hair. "You began fidgeting in your sleep. And then you…just startled."

"I had another nightmare again." Iris revealed to him.

"What was it about?" Barry asked… but the look on her face told him that he already knew what it was about. "It was about Fred again, wasn't it?" she nodded and while her sweat soaked his clothes. "It's about Blackfire again?"

"Every time I see him, he tells me to not go after him." Iris straightened up from him and wiped the sweat off her forehead. "But I have to. If I don't… dozens of people are gonna experience hell."

"I know that, and I love you for trying to stop him. But… I don't wanna lose you, Iris." Barry told her as he lovingly stroked her face.

"Nothing's gonna happen to me, Barry. I swear." Iris looked into his eyes while her hands cupped his face and brought it close. "I'm not going anywhere, and if I do… I'll be running back to you. Always and forever. I love you, Barry."

"I love you, too, Iris." Barry leant closer to her and kissed his wife on the lips. They stayed connected like that for a several moments, letting their love keep them connected through this amorous act of affection.

But while the two were connected via their lips, they sniffed the air, smelling it. Their nostrils widened at the smell… of fried eggs.

Disconnecting from each other, Iris and Barry looked at each other in confusion before they looked around. "What's going on downstairs?" Iris asked when realizing that smell was coming from… _THEIR_ kitchen.

"Let's go." Barry said and put on his clothes quickly as did Iris who put on a robe over a gown. She pulled out her gun and with her husband walked to the door and out of it.

X

Husband and wife, both taking caution steps down their staircase as they sought to investigate the situation happening in their kitchen. They heard mouths chewing on something within the kitchen and a rather ravenous chewing sound, like a hungry dog feasting on the meaty skeleton remains of its prey. Reaching the end of the staircase, they nodded to each other and then rushed down to the floor and turned around to face the direction of the kitchen.

However, their eyes expanded when seeing Seth standing by the stove and frying eggs with a spatula. As he let the mixed eggs cover the entire pan, he didn't appear that frightened by the gun pointing at him by the detective.

While Seth took out a plate with different contents and put them on one side of the eggs, Iris and Barry turned to the side and saw that the three girls were sitting by the table and eating. Feeling the married couple's eyes on them, the girls waved at them before turning back to their meals.

Seth, who didn't mind the ravenous chewing happening beside him, and turns to the married couple. With the spatula pointing at the detective's weapon, he said while he flipped the omelet was covering its filling and frying. "You bring your gun to every meal, Detective? Or are we somehow the exception?"

Ruby swallowed her food and said, "Well, she does have a thief, a prisoner of Zoom's, an assassin from another universe and a cannibal from the same universe living under her roof. I'd actually be hurt if we didn't give special treatment."

Jesse gave her a look. "You think having a gun trailed on you is special treatment?"

Evelyn chuckled and patted Jesse's shoulder. "It's pointless asking her that, it's how she's wired."

"Finally, someone in this house gets it!" Ruby exclaimed.

Seth pointed the spatula at her. "You finish eating your omelet otherwise no muffins for you." He sternly said and she laughed in response before returning to her meal again. He looked to Iris and Barry and explained. "Figured with all that's happened lately, I thought it would be nice to get some proper breakfast into us all."

"Aw, that's really sweet of you Seth." Iris cooed and put her gun on a nearby shelf. "And sorry for bringing a gun in here. Forgot you guys were here for a second, and I didn't know who was in the kitchen."

"Don't tell me you were expecting Zoom to be standing here in an apron and cooking you guys breakfast?" Seth joked, and honestly couldn't imagine that speedster as someone who would willingly wear an apron for anyone… even if that someone was a Mrs. Zoom.

Barry and Iris took a seat at the table and the CSI scientist asked the mutant. "What's on the menu then. Chef?"

"Philly cheesesteak omelet and there's chocolate chip muffins in the oven baking right now." Seth answered whilst he pointed at the oven. "Also have some coffee brewing if you guys need a wake-up call from last night's rest. So take a seat and dig in." he returned from the stove with two plates with omelets.

"Thank you, it looks amazing, Seth." Iris praised the food and asked him. "You made this yourself?"

"Yeah. Back at the academy, me and my sister would have cheat days from our training days." Seth started. "And when we did, I would occasionally make this for us both. Nice way to start a cheat day." He gestured to the meal he made.

"It's really good." Barry said after taking his first bite of the omelet. "You're an impressive…" he stopped himself from talking as he heard the ravenous chewing grow louder. Looking around curiously, he looked back to the mutant. Before now, neither he nor his wife noticed that a black tendril was stretching out of his back.

Both husband and wife followed the tendril. Their eyes once again widened to new limits when seeing the tendril moving around vigorously within an open food container. It was almost like it was trying to break out of it like it was a cage that confined its movements.

Seth followed the direction of their disbelieving eyes and saw what they were looking at. He chuckled embarrassedly. "Venom was getting a bit hangry, so I bought him a box of chocolate doughnuts." The oven chimed and another tendril shot out of his back. It opened the oven and pulled out the muffin baking pan with the perfectly baked muffins. "Awesome, they're good." He placed the tray on the table and took a seat himself. "Dig in."

"Thank you." Iris said as she ate a muffin. She enjoyed the flaky texture and the feeling of chocolate melting in her mouth. "But Seth what brought this change on? Think it's the first time you've ever made food for us."

"Not really a change. Just wanted to thank you two for letting us stay here is all. Not to mention getting rid of Evelyn's charges before. You've done a lot for us, and I wanted to do something nice for you." Seth took a bite of the omelet and put it into his mouth and began chewing.

"You moved Heaven and Earth for this city, Seth. We should be the ones to thank you." Barry said. But he narrowed his eyes on him suspiciously and stated. "But I can't help but feel like there's more to this?"

The mutant smirked and put down his coffee on his plate, right beside the muffin. "Thought someone here would see through it." With the tendril retracting into his body, the mutant reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. It was strange as it appeared to be an old-fashioned flip phone made of a dark-blue metal. "Got this in the mail this morning with a message."

"From who?" Evelyn wondered.

Jesse reached out for the phone and held it with both hands. Her fingers moving around the flip phone and opening it up. Her eyes following the same patterns as her hands and examined the phone. She deduced out loud. "It's Atlantean steel and tech. it's their version of old-fashion."

"Exactly." Seth nodded.

Ruby knew what this meant and said. "Wait that means…"

"Mera reached out to me." Seth finished the young assassin's thoughts. Seeing the confused faces on their faces, he elaborated. "Mera wants me to meet her at Jitterbugs today. She didn't say what or why for this meeting, but she apparently wants to see me again."

Ruby raised an eyebrow, "So the beautiful Atlantean that saved your ass from further harm, the same one you had your new gigantic sword pointed at…"

Evelyn then followed. "…The one that told you that she has friends who have been spying on you, and also this house, meaning the rest of us as well…"

Creepily, Jesse was the third one to follow, putting the phone on the table again. "…now wants to have a date with you, a mutant with elemental powers and cannibalistic tendencies because of his symbiotic roommate? Not to mention being from another universe."

"Two at that." Iris corrected the universe native with a knowing smirk.

"Not a date!" he said loudly to them. "I think she just wants to get to know me better."

"So…" Ruby smirked teasingly. "A date."

"God you girls are unbearable." Seth rubbed his eyes with a chuckle, while the girls giggled. "But Mera said to meet her later this afternoon at Jitterbugs' upper floor. Didn't realize they had that when we were there last."

"They do." Barry said. "Despite Joseph's obvious despise of me, I have been there a few times. And the upper floor is used for fine first-class dinery. Lots of CEOs, police captains, big names can be found up there."

"I hate those places." Seth breathed out before sipping on his coffee. "I usually find some scumbags there." He stood up from his seat. "I'm gonna go outside and train some more with my sword. To kill some time."

"Sure thing, Demon King Arthur." Evelyn joked and laughed.

The mutant gave her a look with his tongue poking out and walked out the back door and into the backyard. The moment the door pushed closed, he heard from within. "**_Why didn't you ask the detective of the scream coming from her and Barry's bedroom?_**"

"Cause it's not the right time for it. Not yet. And I, for some reason, doubt she would be honest about what it was about?" Seth stated to his partner.

"**_Could be because of a fetish the two shares._**" Venom stated suggestively.

"Stop it!" he stated while he took out his sword and began cutting trees.

X

"You arranged a meeting with Venom?!"

This time it was Lindy who had to scream out her shock at her red-headed Atlantean friend who had told her of her plan. Even Marcus Bishop and Tony Woodward had to cover their eyes in shock of their boss calling out aloud in shock.

The Atlantean with her hands, told her to decrease her volume before stating with her own words. "Lindy calm down. Look at your hands." Gesturing her hands, both the two male henchmen looked at the hands of their boss along with the boss herself.

Lindy looked at her hands… her eyes laced with sorrow at the sight. Her arms were shifting. One moment, they're pale white…the next, they changed into a darker color. "Oh God, not again." She breathed out in dismay.

"Boss calm down." Tony calmly told her as he walked closer to her.

"Remember, just breathe." Marcus followed up helpfully. "In and out."

Lindy listened to her male guards' advice. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply and exhaled. Inhaled again before exhaling again, releasing all the stress and shock that was brewing in her body in outtakes of air. Her arms returned to their usual tanned skin color again. Sighing, she said gratefully to the men. "Thank you both, so much. It means the world."

"Well, it's nothing compared to what you have done for us, Boss." Tony patted her shoulder comfortingly.

"Yeah, the man's right." Marcus agreed with a smile as he fetched a tumbler of tequila for Lindy. "You did so much for us, something that anyone else would never do for us. Heck, you're a savior."

"Keep your engagement rings in your pockets, boys." Mera jokingly stated, her hands gently pushing the boys away. Both of them laughing in response to her words as they in mock defense held up their hands. "But yeah, I sent a burner phone to Seth, one with a message about having this meeting. I want to talk with him again, get more intel about him."

Tony turned to her. "You think he's likely to open up to you?"

"I'd hope so." Mera shrugged. "I did save his life though, but then again, I did try to seduce him, and he found about it instantly. So looking at a fifty-fifty chance of the guy opening up to me right now." With her hands, she acted like a scale of the chances of her plan working. "But I really do think we can trust him, Lindy."

"What makes you sure of that, Mera?" Lindy asked her dear friend. The level of trust the Atlantean was putting into the Demon King was unlike anything she's ever put into the other people they've asked for help. It was like the powerful Atlantean was willing to trust the man with her life.

Mera smiled and confessed, "Cause unlike anyone else in this city, this guy was willing to jump in front of three defenseless kids and chose to fight against Zoom and five of his henchmen, including his two top lieutenants alone. This is just my gut feeling right now, but I think he genuinely didn't give a damn about what might have happened to himself."

"He only cared about the kids." Lindy finished her friend's words with a gaped mouth.

"He did." Mera nodded.

"If the guy did that, then he has my respect." Marcus stated determinedly.

"So do I. Anyone who puts kids above themselves can't be that bad of a guy." Tony added himself.

"Unless…" the three of them turned back to Lindy who continued to remain skeptical. She interlocked her fingers once taking a seat on the chair at her desk again. They saw a drop of sweat rolling down the side of her face. "…he's playing us. He's a metahuman, we've never encountered… we don't know his true intentions."

"Then I will figure them out." Mera finalized and walked out of the door, she had to be ready for her meeting with the Demon King.

Marcus looked to his boss again. "Boss, what do you want?"

"I trust Mera with all my heart, I really do." Lindy's interlocked hands shook with a tremor from her nervousness. Her eyes changing colors. First blue, then yellow, then green, then red, then brown and then black. "But I don't know if I can trust this guy yet, not after he had his sword pointed at Mera."

Tony leant against the wall. "What do you wanna do then, Boss?"

"I know they're probably gonna wanna stay out of it, those two idiots but…" Lindy breathed out. "Get the Hawks."

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

The pages of the newspaper in her hands flipped to the next page. Ruby was curiouser and curiouser about this world with the passing time of late. And she wondered if there was any news of Venom's fight against the evil speedster and his group of metahumans in the Woodlands.

But she didn't find any news of that fight in any of the pages in the newspaper. "_Was pretty far in the forest… guess no one would go in there and actually record a fight like that. And even if they did, they're not like Seth. Chances of them wanting to try and take on Zoom would be close to zero._"

"Hey Ruby." Iris got the young assassin's attention as she walked into the living room. "What are you reading there?"

"The newspaper." Ruby closed it. "I thought maybe they'd be something about Seth's fight against Zoom and his merry band of metas out there, but there's wasn't any."

"Don't be surprised. It's rare for any journalists to want to go into the Woodlands." Iris told her. "A lot of them and a lot of civilians do the same because they're afraid of running into Zoom's metahumans." She took a seat on the couch beside the girl. She saw the look on the girl's face and asked her. "What's wrong, Ruby?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. Still a bit… I don't know, guilty from what I said to Seth the other day."

"There's nothing I can say to make you feel better, kid. Sorry." She ruffled her hair. "But that doesn't mean you can't try and try."

"I went off like a brat at him, and he still saved me from Zoom." Ruby smiled warmly; the detective surprised to see such a genuine smile of warmth forming on the girl's face. "How can a guy who turns into a demon like him be so damn nice?"

"He's an adult and a father at that." Those words seemed to cause the girl's smile to widen. "Taking care of innocent people is the job he chose for himself when he became both a doctor _and_ a hero, or whatever he is. But willing to protect innocent kids no matter who they are, and no matter what and against anything with every inch of his will is something only a parent can do." Iris saw the girl's face again, this time donning a confused expression. "You said before, you never had a father, right?"

"Never knew him." Ruby corrected her. "Only been me and my Mom my entire life and endless training and classes at HYDRA Preparatory Academy. Along with constant lecturing and occasionally berating."

"Parenting at its best, right?" Iris joked.

"That's one way to put it." Ruby joked back. "But how do I make it up to Seth? I really have no idea on how to say I'm sorry again."

"Best way to make it up to a guy like him?" Iris had the assassin's full and undivided attention. "Get stronger and maybe save his ass next." She suggested and Ruby smiled.

"Sounds like a plan." She accepted the idea; she didn't have any other plans to work on than that. And saving him? Sounds like the best way to make to him for being a brat.

The backdoor was pushed open from the other side and Seth walked into the living room. Most of his clothes appeared to be have taken damage given their ragged stage. Iris looked at him and saw his sword in his hand. She drifted her eyes to his attire. "The tree fights back or is the squirrels that fought back because you took out their homes?"

"And the detective manages to throw in a joke." Seth smiled. "I had Venom dig his tendrils into the ground and attack me from various angles. I tried parrying them with my sword, but a few of them still made contact with me."

"Must have been angry for the lack of chocolate." Ruby laughed.

"Yeah." Seth looked around. "Hey, where's Barry? He told me; he'd give me a lift to Jitterbugs for my meeting with Mera."

Iris pointed upwards. "He's getting ready upstairs. But what about you, don't you have to be ready yourself?"

"Sure, just a second." True to his words, the clothes on his body turned black and spread over his entire body. The clothes stopped shifting and turned into a dark-red shirt under a black leather biker jacket with white streaks running down from his shoulders to his wrist sleeves. Grey pants formed on the lower part of his physique at last. "There, all done."

"Nice. You clean up nice." Iris praised him… and she couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of his symbiotic powers that allows him to form clothes to his liking so easily.

"I want a symbiote now." Ruby admitted.

"Yeah that's not happening." Seth said as Barry came downstairs.

"Ready?" The CSI scientist asked the mutant.

"I am." The elemental looked to Ruby. "Ruby be nice to Jesse and make sure none of you do any stupid while I'm gone okay?"

"Sure thing. Don't fall head over heels for the feisty redhead, okay?" Ruby quipped teasingly to him.

Seth walked to the back of the couch and ruffled her hair. He made it even more annoying for her and let water seep out of his hand and into her hair. Ruby gasped at the cold water touching her head and slapped his hand away. "Dick move!"

"Language!" Seth told her in a mock stern tone. "Alright, take care guys." He told them and walked with Barry to the door.

"See ya, Seth!" Ruby called out to him.

"See you guys!" Iris called out next.

X

The drive to the lounge bar was driven in silence. Barry kept his eyes on the road in front of them without looking away for even a second. Seth was seating beside him in the passenger seat. His eyes, like the driver's, pointing ahead but his chin was resting on the knuckles of his right hand.

Throughout the drive, the mutant's mind returned to their morning. Evelyn, Jesse and Ruby hadn't heard it due to the sound of his purposefully rattling of the kitchen utensil back in the kitchen when he made their breakfast, but he heard it clearly.

The definite scream of fear and horror… from an even worse nightmare.

"**_There's something that the detective isn't telling us._**" Venom told his host.

"_Figured as much, but I wonder what's going on with her?_" Seth thought back before his eyes drifted to the man who knows her better than anyone else in this entire world, her husband, Barry Allen. "_If there's something going on with Iris, then he's the one to know about it._"

Seth turned his head to face him. "Barry?"

"Yeah, what is it?" Barry answered.

"What was that scream about before? The one coming from you and Iris's bedroom before." Seth asked.

The mutant watched the CSI scientist's face instantly pale before he watched a gulp being swallowed loudly with a gulp. Following the lines of his arms, Seth immediately noticed his hands tightening their hold on the steering wheel. His hands flexed, his muscles tightening and tensing up from the mere statement of the question. It looked as though Barry right now was afraid of inhaling more air as the air inside of him was kept within.

"I-I-It was nothing." Barry stutteringly said, but the moment he began to stutter was enough for the mutant know that it was a lie. "Just a bad dream Iris had."

"She gets them a lot lately?" He asked in concern, his partner slithering around inside of him and listening on the conversation to spot for any lies.

Barry sheepishly coughed with his mouth closed. The native of this universe felt like he was put under the mutant's microscope and felt like his every movements were being watched. In a way, it was like he was a criminal being interrogated by a merciless detective.

But at the same time, it felt nothing like that… it felt worse.

"A bit after a hard day at work, you know. But that's all." Barry laughed with sweat trailing down his face. "She probably thought about some of her old cases that left a sting on her. It happens to cops like her."

"Remember, I'm an Agent of a secret governmental agency, Barry. I know what it's like when a case leaves a scar on you." Seth reminded him understandably. "When the feeling of defeat still lingers on you after its been solved." His fists cracked. "It doesn't get easier no matter what."

"Yeah, you get it." Barry nodded as the car was pulled to the sidewalk near the lounge bar entrance. "We're here. So good luck on your date and rememb-"

"Not a date!" Seth exclaimed loudly in the CSI scientist's face, the man himself wincing and pulling back in fear. He pushed the door open. But before he swung his feet out of the car, he told Barry seriously. "Barry, I hope you know that both you and your wife can trust me. So whatever it is, you're hiding… I hope you can trust me enough in the near future to tell me. Either you or your wife." He went to walk out.

But Barry grabbed his forearm. "Seth." The elemental turned his head to see his serious face. "What it's about…" he gulped, the mutant widening his eyes in shock of the scientist's action. "I can't talk about it. It has to be Iris. Trust me, she's gonna tell you about it, when she's ready."

"I trust you, pal. Don't doubt that. I'll wait for Iris then." Seth assured him and got out of the vehicle.

Barry watched the door close behind the mutant's back and hoped inwardly that Iris would divulge the information soon. Because the longer he was out there…

… the more lives would be terrorized by the… Rival of Zoom…

X

**(Jitterbugs)**

Once again, Seth walked through the doors of the lounge bar and was bombarded with the smell of alcohol and the sounds of jazzy musical instruments playing to their highest level. He looked around and saw various people being entranced by the musical joys filling the space of the lounge.

He looked around and smiled. "Could really get used to this place."

"Oh, you're here again."

Seth had to withhold his chuckle when hearing that lazy way of talking, almost dully. It made it even more difficult to not chuckle at as he knew it was coming from Joseph West. Turning to him, he once again saw the musician hold a tumbler of whiskey. "How's it going Joe?"

"It's Joseph, pal. And yeah, it's going fine." Joseph corrected him. "Why are you here? And alone?"

"Have a meeting with a friend here." Seth said. "How's the singing going?"

"Good enough to keep the people coming." Joe callously said as they both moved along the lounge. The musician turned his arms to the sides and pointed them at the guests. "You know, I figured out where I remembered those one of those girls from before."

"Which one?" Seth asked seriously.

"The little brunette." Joseph took a seat and the mutant took a seat on the one in front of him. The musician put his drink on the table and leant forward, his hands intertwining. "That little girl used to steal from this bar a lot a while back. Why did my daughter, a detective taught by the best, let a little thief like her stay in her own house?"

"Don't hate Evelyn. I know she stole from you as well, but she just trying to survive. Life dealt her a bad hand." Seth told him. "But I asked Iris if she could help with Evelyn's charges, and she did, after I helped out with a case of hers. One that needed special point of view, one from a bioengineer's view. I was the only one available to do that, because I have studied metahumans before."

"So what? You suddenly a consultant for the CCPD?" Joe asked suspiciously.

"I guess you could say that." Seth vaguely said. "But back to Evelyn. She's not a bad person, and I'm taking care of her now, so don't hold it against her for activities."

"You care about this little girl this much?" Seth nodded instantly to the musician's query. "For a stranger you care so much about a random girl… heh, must be a father."

"Takes one to know one." The mutant smirked.

Joe smiled and leant back in his chair, "I don't have anything against her. Yeah, she took my wallet but only stole around twenty or so dollars. I usually keep a few hundred bucks in case of emergencies or something else for my friends up on the stage. But she only took a small amount."

"She's not a bad kid." Seth told him again.

"I know that." Joe nodded and pointed his finger at the stage. "You sing?"

"I have been known to dabble in the area. I actually had a job at a bar before myself and sang there. People liked it." Seth said with a smile.

"Sounds like a challenge." Joe dared.

"Maybe later, old man. But you gotta lay off Barry then?" Seth wagered, and the musician scowled. "He's your daughter's husband, man. Give the guy a chance. He's not a bad guy, despite what you think."

"Small chance, _if_ you can sing a song up there later." Joseph finished off with a gesture to the stage before walking away.

"Sure thing, Joe." Seth said and got up from his chair. He walked to the bar and looked to see if Mera had come. She was there the last time and now… she wasn't. "Guess punctuality is not an Atlantean skill."

"I wouldn't say that."

He turned around on his feet and got a surprised look on his face at the sight of her. Mera was walking towards and different clothes than last time. She was wearing a mouth-gaping beautiful dress before and now it was different. The Atlantean was now wearing a grey zip hoodie over a blood-red T-shirt. The lower part of her body was clad in dark-blue jeans fitting tightly to her legs. Her crimson red hair was pulled into a long ponytail. Over her hoodie was a black leather jacket.

She had a smile on her face as she walked over to the mutant. "You don't look so bad."

"Likewise, I guess, this's not going to be another seduction tactic, is it? Judging by your clothes now, I mean." Seth gestured to her clothes.

"Once again, I'm sorry about that." Mera apologized and walked to the staircase. Grapping the railing with hand, she looked back and said. "Come on, I already reserved us a table. Get your butt up here." She walked up the stairs and the elemental followed her.

"So what is this time? Poison? Get my guard down with alcohol and food, maybe?" he joked as they were led to their table. The other guests giving him strange looks when hearing his joke. Most of them also widened their eyes when realizing who his companion for the evening was.

"No, just a simple meeting, I promised you that on the message, didn't i?" The woman told him after taking a seat and so did Seth. "I told my friend about you wanting to meet face-to-face to talk about this entire situation. But she's not ready yet."

"Guess, I'm gonna have to focus on the messenger then. You." Seth pointed a finger at her and the waiter came back to them with a pair of menu cards. "Thank you." He thanked the waiter as he accepted the card. "I hope you're paying."

"That was the plan." Mera assured him and put down her napkin on the table. "Guess it's the least I can handle. Mind if I order for us both?" Seth shrugged and accepted her suggestion. The waiter came back to them. The Atlantean took both cards and handed them to the waiter. "Two Atlantean Specials."

"As you wish, Ms. Curry." The waiter bowed and walked away to relay the order.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "You must be famous around these parts."

"I admit I have come here many, many times." Seth looked intrigued with narrowed eyes. Mera blushed and said embarrassedly. "They have a wider range of drinks that they don't serve here in Atlantis. And again Seth, I am sorry for trying to seduce you before…I just had to get a feel on you."

"Instead of apologizing to me again and again, how about you do something for me then?" Seth had a serious expression on his face. Mera gulped and swallowed loudly. "I need protection."

Looking absolutely baffled by his statement, she asked absentmindedly. "A demonic king with a big-ass sword needs protection? Yeah I need a few drinks to swallow that."

"Not for me." He clarified and the Atlantean's attention was returned to him. "You know everything about the place I'm staying at?" Mera nodded. "The people too?" she nodded again. "Then you know I don't want anything to happen to them. They're kind enough to let me stay at their house with the girls ever since I came to this world and started causing trouble for Zoom."

He leant over the table and closer to her, seeking to whisper his request to her ears only. "But I don't want my problems to become theirs. So I want you to protect them if they might get into trouble. Zoom and any of his merry fuckers can't come anywhere near Iris or Barry."

"Detective Iris West-Allen and CSI scientist Barry Allen." Mera thought out loud. "Yeah, before my friend called me about this job, I heard about those two. Apparently, they have a pretty good teamwork going on and are really good at their jobs."

"I can vouch for that." The mutant added. "They're good people, all of them. Their kindness won't be their downfall, so I want you, Mera, to personally watch over them."

"One condition." Seth looked shocked. "I want to meet them, at their house and tell them the news myself. And then I can assure you that I will not hesitate to protect them from any and all harm that will stand before them."

"Thank you, Mera." Seth smiled and reached over the table. "But I have to tell you something first…" Mera thought it was weird for him to want to cup her hand, given her marital status. However, she was then corrected when the demon took the napkin and pulled it away. Her face paled when he revealed her metahuman alert watch. "I am not a metahuman."

"You're not?!" She loudly whispered out her response.

"Okay. Let's see… where to start…" Seth perked his head up as he began. "The Singularity that appeared above the city, I'm gonna take a guess and say that you and the entire world have heard about it."

"Some of us have seen it on the TV, but yeah. I was here in the city when it happened." Mera informed while their appetizers were delivered by the waiter. "Oh, thank you. Oh, Seth, the Atlantean Special's a big course meal. Hope you have a big stomach."

"Oh, I do." Seth admitted and watched the appetizer be put on their table. "Bacon-Wrapped Scallops, huh?" He remembered from the menu.

"With Spicy Cilantro Mayonnaise." Mera finished off.

"Well back to the story. The Singularity came from my world." Mera's knife never even came close to her scallops from the shock that followed those words. But it didn't stop the mutant from digging into the scallops on his plate. "The Singularity was due to a Particle Accelerator on my Earth that injected a particle that collided with a speedster who ran inside the Accelerator Ring multiple times to achieve Mach 3."

"Wait? Your Earth? Does that mean?" she was too shocked to even say it. She

"Yeah. The multiverse is true." He took hold of his glass of water between two fingers, sliding it in front of him. Swinging his eyes from side to side, he looked for anyone who might be looking at them from other tables. Finding no one, he dipped the tip of his index finger into it. Mera watched as he rubbed his thumb with his index finger.

"My friend kept saying that it was possible for other universes to exist, but I... always thought it was a joke. I never took it serious." Mera stated.

"Trust me, it is very much true and I'm proof of it." Separating his fingers from each other, he used his water powers to separate the water drop into three smaller drops. Mera was wide-eyed at the display of his powers, if she didn't know any better, she would have thought he was another Atlantean. "I'm from another universe, much farther from this one… not the one that created the Singularity."

"You're from two… universes?" Mera was unsure if she heard his words correctly or misunderstood him.

Nodding his consent, the mutant raised his other hand and pointed it at the furthest water drop. "Think of these water drops as universes. This furthest one is the one that I was born and raised in. It has its own heroes and villains that continues the multiverse's rule of cats fighting dogs. I was fighting against a villain there myself, and it ended up with an accident that literally sucked me and my baby sister into a wormhole that shot us out in another universe along with the villain."

Mera appeared to have caught on. "And that's the universe that created the black hole in the sky?"

"Exactly." Seth confirmed while his finger turned to the drop that was closest to his thumb. "It's this one. The world that I'm from… where my friends and family are…" he gritted his teeth, but he felt his partner ease his mind with the waves of soothing emotions. He smiled again and continued. "But the black hole was like a portal, a gateway if you will, between my world…" his finger turned to the drop in the middle. "This one, your world."

"It was connecting our two Earths?" The Atlantean had to ask.

Seth nodded with a smile and dropped the three drops into the glass again before taking it in his hand. "Yup." He drank from it and turned to Mera who remained shocked while the main dishes were placed on their tables. "These look good as well. Any other question for you to ask me."

"What are you?" She instantly fired off. The woman looked around and leant over the table again. "You say you're not a metahuman, but what are you then? You can turn into a demon hellion and has these incredible powers over the elements… what are you, Seth Fury?"

Unbeknownst to them both, two pairs of eyes were watching them from the ground floor with intense eyes.

"The Earth I was born on… doesn't have metahumans." Seth started. "But instead, they have a different type of powered beings. A type of being gains their powers from a mutation, a gene that manifests itself following experiencing puberty, sometimes earlier. But only a small amount of the human population has this gene. Through this… _X-Gene_." Mera widened her eyes again. "The ones with this X-Gene and powers are called mutants."

"And you are a mutant?" The elemental nodded to the Atlantean's question while he ate his food. "That's incredible. A being of naturally gifted powers from a young age… it was like you are an Atlantean of the lands itself."

"Easy, princess." He halted her with his hands. "Bit of an exaggeration on that. I can stand on water, but that's only in my real form like this." Seth gestured to himself. "But my mutation, my X-Gene, allows my body to be an environment for elements that I put inside of it. By absorbing an element like an injection, I can use that element from any part of my body. Right now… I have seven elements inside of my body that I can use when the situation calls for it."

"That's amazing." Mera smiled goofily... and the mutant had to admit she looked good without a serious expression.

"**_Careful, Caitlin's not gonna like that._**" Venom teased his host. But it was also meant as a warning.

"_I know that, pal. Caitlin might freeze us both with a single glare._" Seth thought back. Despite all his powers and all his efforts to avert it, he couldn't stop the smile from forming on his face at the memory of her chestnut brown hair that felt like silk in his hands. The way her amber brown eyes looked like brighter than the finest gold ever to be found.

"But Seth..." The woman got the elemental to get out of his trance. "What about that demonic form of yours?"

"He's an alien clone of a villain from of my origin universe, a villain also called Venom." The Atlantean gaped her mouth again. "I got him when I was very young. I can't go deeper into that subject because it's a painful memory of mine from that time."

"Aliens… Oh King Atlan…" Seth looked confused by her words and watched as she drank her entire water drink. "Here I thought things with you couldn't be much more complicated, but then you just pull out a story like this." Mera groaned and the waiter came with deserts. "Hope you like Chocolate Mousse Pie?"

"A favorite of mine." Seth casually said and took the fork. "Mind answering a question for me?"

"Least I can do." Mera quipped.

"Why?"

That single word caused the Atlantean to… ironically feel a tidal wave of bewilderment crash over her. She had expected an array of different questions to come her way from the elemental. But those that were predicted in her mind were carefully worded and not compacted into one single worded question. It caught her off guard and she looked around.

Swallowing the piece of cake in his mouth, he clarified. "Why me? Must have been other guys in this world that could be within your radar. Why me only?"

"That I couldn't answer even if I wanted to." She stated her answer. "My friend brought me in because she wanted someone could pique your interest and could…" Mera clicked her tongue sheepishly as she continued. "Maybe, a very huge maybe… take you out if you turned out to be a bad guy."

"Funny." Seth said and let the passing waiter take their plates. "He didn't give us a check?"

"I pre-paid the orders." Mera stated as she stood up and walked to the stairs with the mutant. "But sorry about this."

"Well, I hope you have a car with you. Cause I'm gonna have to go back to the house again."

"I do." Mera assured him as they reached the ground floor.

"Joseph?" Seth called out to the musician who turned to him. "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to say singing here is gonna be tomorrow. Gonna bring the girls as well."

"Last chance you get, pal. Unless, you scared." Joe challenged him.

"Game on, geezer." Seth smirked daringly and the mutant and his companion walked out of the lounge bar.

A tumbler was slammed down on table loudly, as the woman with long black hair and golden-brown highlights replaced her feet on the floor again. The woman licked her lips and turned to the exit. "So that the guy Lindy wants us to keep an eye on?"

"Yeah, he is. Lindy wanted us to keep an eye on them, in case the guy decides to attack Mera." The short-haired man stated. "I mean, he is the one who had his sword at her throat."

The woman turned to him and looked concerned. "Are you okay, Carter? You look a bit pale?"

Carter Hall shrugged. "That sword… our friends… I don't trust anyone with that god-awful blade." He poured the rest of his drink down his throat. "I am very, very tempted to find him and kill him myself, Kendra."

The eyes on Kendra Munoz-Saunders' face expanded. "You wanna find Blackfire and kill him?" she whispered out the words.

"Yeah, I do." Carter stated. "Or at the very least, Zoom. Either of those two needs to be taken care of. And right now, Lindy is too worried and too focused on a gigantic motherfucker who looks more bad guy than good guy. It's stupid."

"Hey." Kendra tapped his hand. "You forget who managed to get us out of trouble before. Lindy. She always has a plan that works out for everyone. That's the kind of gall she is. Trust her."

"If you say so. But I'm not gonna trust anyone with that big hell blade." Carter got up from his chair. "Even if Lindy says that." He walked out of the back entrance.

Kendra threw a final glance to the front entrance again before walking after her other half again. "I hope you're not going to do anything stupid, Carter." Her right hand was clutched around the straps of her travel bag.

…A silver-tipped sharp edge shone with light touching it when sticking out of the bag…

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"Guys, meet Mera Curry." Seth introduced the Atlantean who had saved his life from an encounter with Zoom and the rest of his metahuman posse. The two had already walked into the room and they were met with the faces of the people that the elemental's been housing with.

"So this is the beautiful Atlantean?" Ruby stated without any visible facial expression. But inwardly she was shocked to meet an actual citizen of a world thought to be lost, a real life Atlantean.

Mera turned to the mutant. "Beautiful huh? You do know you were the one who pointed that I'm married, right?"

"To be exact, I never said you were beautiful." Seth defended himself and pointed his hands to the three girls. "That's all them. They're kids and they're natural troublemakers at that age."

Evelyn pouted, "Hey, I'm not a troublemaker."

Jesse chuckled. "No, you're just a teleporter."

"I'm sorry, a teleporter?" Mera stated confusedly with shock.

"Yeah, girls you talk with the Atlantean. I'm gonna have a talk with the adults. Barry, Iris, to the kitchen, please." Seth walked to the kitchen with the married couple following him.

The Atlantean looked to Evelyn again. "You're a teleporter?"

X

"What do you want to talk about?" Iris asked the elemental.

Seth made sure that the girls and Mera was out of hearing distance and stated to the married couple, "The girls don't know it yet, but I have arranged for Mera to be your protection if troubles come at your doorstep."

"What do you mean by that, Seth?" Barry asked and his wife was wearing a shocked expression.

"In case, I'm not there and Zoom or his henchmen wanna pay you guys a visit, Mera will take of it. She's probably just as strong as am I am." Seth stated, the shocked faces on the two caused him to elaborate. "I really appreciate everything you two have done for me, letting a stranger like me into your lives. You're letting me live here in your house, eat your food, sleep under your roof and more importantly…"

Neither Iris nor Barry knew what to expect when he continues his words. It was as though time stood still from the expectation raising to new limits that nothing short of the level of the stratosphere. It felt like seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned to hours. Hours turned to days. And days turned….

…to forever…

But then Seth finally spoke. "The two of you are have been willing to put your trust, your faith in me. You're trusting me with your lives, and I wanna be worthy of that trust. So there's no limits to what I have to do to protect you both. I know asking Mera about this favor without consulting you guys, is not right of me, but I have to. It's important to me."

"Getting an Atlantean to be our bodyguard?" Iris couldn't help but chuckle. "You really are a hero, Seth. Or anti-hero, in your case."

"How did you guys know about that?" Seth wondered; he didn't recall telling the two of them about that part of him.

Barry was the one to reply. "Jesse told us that in your world, well worlds, that you are known to be an anti-hero. A hero who's willing to do the bad things for the right reasons. And apparently, you are the idol of our little strangely-wired assassin from another universe."

"Sounds about right." Seth sighed. "But another matter, I need to say." The two gave their full attention again. "I want Mera to stay here with you two tomorrow, you three get acquainted with one another. Names, numbers, living addresses, make friendship bracelets for each other and become BFFs or whatever. Just so you guys can trust each other and know it all, so you're ready for an emergency."

"Sure makes sense." Barry agreed.

"But what about you? You gonna go on a shopping streak with the girls? You don't look like the type." Iris commented.

"I have a daughter, thank you very much. Thankfully, she's more about training and fighting and spending time with her dad." Seth smiled warmly before continuing again. "I'm gonna go back to the Woodlands and train the girls again. I've been way too lax with their training."

"What do you mean, they've been training themselves and expanding their powers on their own. Isn't that well enough?" the mutant heard the argument coming from the detective.

"Not if their arsenal's too weak to defend them against Zoom and his cohorts." Seth countered. "I'm gonna have to go a little harder this time. Evelyn's the problem though and so is Jesse for that matter. One doesn't have enough fighting experience and the other keeps too exhausted from her powers when in use."

"May I come with a suggestion?" Barry held up his finger. The mutant and the detective looked to each other before looking to the CSI scientist again with nodding heads. Clearing his throat, he explained. "You said that her powers manifest themselves in light and darkness… in the form of arrows, right?"

"Well, the light side of her, at least, but yeah." Seth said.

"But what if she could somehow… channel it through something. An object perhaps. Would that perhaps lessen the burden of her powers' drawback?" He suggested.

"Possibly yeah. But it's not always the case, it comes down to the materials. I don't know if there's materials on this Earth that's strong enough to contain the powers of shadows with incredible strength and teleportation. Not to mention her light that can penetrate anything and is incredibly blinding." Seth looked unsure. "I'm not sure, but I can try."

"Wait, what if we gave her weapons?" Iris suggested, the elemental looked unsure and shrugged his shoulders. She shared a look with her husband. "She could maybe channel her powers into weapons. We've seen metahumans do that before. Evelyn's a metahuman, too. She should do that. And we might have something in our basement that Evelyn might use."

Both men looked confused by her words.

X

Following closely behind her, Iris walked into the basement with Seth and Barry. The moment the door was swung open, the nostrils on the elemental's face flared open from the dust blasting into his face. "_Think they're not really the cleaning type of people._"

"**_Since when have _you_ been the cleaning type, Seth._**" Venom stated to his host. "**_But yeah, they got a shit-load of dust down here. Might wanna blast a few hurricanes down here while you're down here._**"

"_Yeah, cause blasting a cyclone of wind down here, in a basement under a house, is definitely not an idiotic plan._" He snidely said back.

"**_Jackass, your liver is still edible. Don't tempt us!_**" Venom threatened.

"_Get a new threat, would you? Heck, go to a Wikipedia site for jokes, might do you some good._" Seth joked.

"**_We could always go for your testicles._**"

Seth abruptly stopped in the middle of the basement, thus continuing a long discussion with his "other" that felt like eternity. Iris reached under a shelf and pulled out a duffel bag. Turning her head to the mutant, she saw his strange state of paralysis. "What's wrong, Seth?"

He shook his head. "Just a long ass talk with my partner. But what is that?"

Grabbing hold of the straps she lifted the bag from the table and handed it to the elemental. "Something you can use tomorrow. For Evelyn."

Taking it in his hand, Seth said. "Thanks. Hope it's gonna be useful."

"Likewise." Iris said. "Think you need to go and tend to your lovely guest. Tell her she can spend the night here, if she has to."

"We can arrange another bed for her or something. That or you can sleep down here, Seth." Barry chortled.

"Like Hell that's happening." Seth said before walking up the stairs.

With the two left behind, Barry turned to his wife with a shocked look. "Iris, I thought for sure you were gonna tell him about Blackfire… about Chyre." He spoke in a whisper, afraid that the elemental or others are gonna hear him. "But… you didn't?"

"I'm not sure, honestly. About telling him about him…" Iris turned around and locked at an evidence box on the floor. The name "_Chyre_" painted on it with big red letters on the lid. "Telling him about Blackfire… seemed too hard. What if the same thing happens to him?"

"Iris…" he walked closer to her and cupped his wife's face with both hands. "Seth's not Fred." She got a saddened expression. "I know it's hard to hear, but Chyre's dead. And Seth's so much more than Fred, he's a hero. A hero who's never been thought to exist in our world. We have to ask him."

"Maybe… but he's a father, he has a daughter, universes away from this one. A daughter who might think that he's dead right now. I can't let him risk never seeing his daughter again because of me and what's happening in our world." Iris confessed tearfully.

She remembered the times that Seth would talk about the woman he loves…. The daughter he speaks so dearly off, the apple of his eye…. Iris couldn't be the reason for his family to never see him again. She would be no better… than Blackfire himself.

"Okay." Barry would always support his wife no matter what. "I'm here for you. I will back any and all decisions you make, I promise you that, as your husband. Don't worry, take your time."

"But not too long… he's still out there." Iris remarked as she felt her husband's arms embrace her in a loving hug.

An embrace that she desperately needed right now….

X

**(Woodlands)**

The next day was started off with bright sunlight dazzling over every inch of the magnificent forestry woods of the Woodlands near Central City. The hike was much shorter this time around. This time they didn't have the married couple with them, which made it perhaps easier for the mutant and the three girls to get into the woods.

Seth looked around and the area near the lake. "Perfect."

He felt his "other" mentally raise an eyebrow within his mind before the question came. "**_Why do you want this place exactly? Chances are Zoom and his metas are gonna be on our ass again if we stay here._**"

"It's a risk we have to take at this point, Venom." He answered out loud. "This way, I can really train them to new limits."

"Is this today's training grounds?" Ruby called out from behind as she and the other two girls followed behind.

"Yeah they are, but it's gonna be a bit different today." Seth said and put down the duffel bag on the ground.

"How different?" Evelyn wondered with crossed arms.

The mutant looked to Jesse who was huffing and panting. "Because this time, Jesse's gonna learn how to fight against me." The native girl in question snapped her head up to the elemental with a shockingly gaped mouth. Seth smiled while he let icy white mist emit from around his body and mix with the black smoke as well. Lightning sparked on his body as did wind. His fists turned into adamantium. "With my powers." The black tendrils shot out of his back.

"What?!" she screamed unbelievably loud… and the other three could have sworn they heard birds flying away in shock of the sudden scream. "You want me to fight you with your powers on?! Why?!"

"I can't take it easy on you guys anymore. Training's gonna be for real now. Which means, my powers are gonna be on. And frankly, Jesse, you've, come a long way, but you haven't reached the level I think is good enough for you to take on a metahuman yet." Seth announced. "So trust me, I'm gonna have to go all-out from now on. And not just you." His eyes pointed to the powered girls. "You two, as well."

"I can't wait for that." Ruby smiled sickly happy.

"It's gonna something, alright." Evelyn admitted.

Jesse gave them a look. "Am I the only one who's _not_ looking forward to this?!" She said.

"Probably." The symbiotic mass spread over his arms and his arms, forming adamantium claws. "But I'm doing this to help you guys defend yourselves. So come on, Jesse. Step forward." The native girl stepped forward till she stood in front of him. "When you're ready."

"You're not gonna go easy on me, are you?" He shook his head with a smirk. She sighed in defeat. "Thought as much!" she charged for him and swung his arm for him.

But her fist never came to connect with him because a series of tendrils wrapped around her body parts. Starting with her arms, the tendrils wrapped around her legs. Each them tightened their hold and squeezed her. "Ow!" Jesse stated out loud in pain.

Seth didn't like to hurt her, but he had to do it now. For her sake. "I'm sorry, Jesse. I am, but I have to do this, for you."

"It's okay." Jesse told him in an assuring tone while she tried to struggle out of his hold. Lashing his arm out back, he gathered wind around his palm before hurling it at the girl's torso. The wind blast pushed her out of his tendrils' grasp. She groaned as she laid on the ground. "Get up, Jesse. You're not done yet."

"No, I'm not." She said determinedly and got up on her feet again. Retaking a fighter's stance, she said. "I'm not done yet. Not till I at least got one hit."

"You can certainly try." He challenged and the native girl rushed him again. This time, she stretched out her hand downwards and quickly picked up a long tree branch. Resuming her charge, she swung the tree branch from downwards to his face.

The flames around his right arm slammed into the branch and broke it in two pieces. Before Jesse could let herself feel shock, his left adamantium arm grabbed both of her hands and held them above her head, lifting her above the ground.

"What the?!" she let out in shock as she felt her feet leave the ground.

"Nice choice." Seth complimented her. "It's good to think outside the box and use the things around you. Heard you did back when Zoom and his friends paid a visit before. But you can't always do that. You might find yourself in an area where they're no life, no branches for you to use as a tool."

"What do I do if find myself in a situation like that?" she asked.

"Use your arms and legs, strengthen them. You might not have powers, but you definitely have the power to make yourself stronger and faster." He released his hold on her again. She landed on the ground with a small thudding sound. "These are the powers already in your arsenal. Sometimes the weapons you need are the ones you were born with."

"My Dad never taught me things like this before." Jesse admitted.

"_My_ Dad did." Seth chuckled. "It was the best way for me to become an agent of SHIELD and become the very best elemental combatant there is." He grabbed her hands. "Use these for a while now, turn these into your weapons and then Zoom and his metahumans are gonna be ones running."

"Bit of an overestimation, right?"

"Not really." Seth surprised her with that answer. "Metahumans, mutants… they're like people who hold a normal weapon. They think that one thing about them makes them invincible, damn near untouchable. Basically powers makes them super cocky and might put in a horrible makeover, including a very sour personality change."

Jesse smirked, "That didn't stop you from making out with Killer Frost, did it?" her right foot lifted backwards and dug into the ground, digging dirt and sand up and on the tip of her shoe.

Seth threw up his arms and exclaimed. "Why do you guys-" The native girl thrusted her foot upwards, hurling sand and dirt into the mutant's face, abruptly interrupting him and causing his field of vision to be blocked. "Ah!" he let out a cry when feeling the dirt and sand grains sting his eyes.

His tendrils retracted and he covered his eyes with his forearm. Jesse smirked and ran forward again. Lashing out her foot, she swung her feet for his body again. Without the aid of his eyes, his partner controlled his movements and brought both arms forward side by side. He expected to feel the impact of her limb connect with his own.

But what he didn't see was the smirk widening on her face and swung her feet around backwards. The back of her foot slammed into the right side of his face. "ARGH!" A pained scream escaped his mouth and retreated from her. His hands cupped his cheek.

"YES!" Jesse exclaimed happily at her achievement, she felt like she had received an award for a scientific discovery that only she has uncovered. "Finally! I got a hit in!"

"Not bad." Seth wiped away the rest of dirt and sand from his face, he felt like he had to dig into his eyes to swipe away the remaining grains that still stung his optic organs. Making eye contact with her, he stated. "I'm impressed. You started to use your surroundings more, you thought outside the box."

"Well, I had a good teacher." She quipped with a smile.

He squatted and scooped up sand in his hand. "Simple elements like sand and dirt can very well cause the needed shift in a battle, to tip the scales to your side. It's a pretty basic thing that even a lot of pro fighters don't know." Seth stood up again, the grains slipped through the gaps of his fingers. "But you figured it out instantly."

"Thanks. Wanna continue?" Jesse asked, resuming another fighting position.

However, a shaking of his head caused her to be surprised. "Like I said, you have to train your body to new limits, and get stronger." Pointing his eyes to the powered girls. "I have to train those two next. You have to train yourself alone for now. Do it at your own pace and make sure that you push yourself."

"I will. Thanks." Jesse went to walk away.

"Jesse." The girl turned around to face him. "You never told me why you were captured by Zoom and his hang of misfits. I hope you can tell that at some point, cause the more I know is gonna help me help you." He revealed. "Well, whatever, good luck with your training."

"My Dad." Jesse started, the mutant opening his eyes in a shocking manner. "Zoom took me because of my Dad. He wanted to make him hurt, and because of that, my Dad is doing anything he says. I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier."

"_Doubt I know her father._" Seth thought to himself. Chances of him knowing him would be slim unless it was a doppelganger. "_Gonna have to wait._" Another mystery for another time while he remains on Earth-2.

Scratching the back of his head, he admitted. "He's a father himself, so I get it. When one's child is in harm's way, then a parent will stop at no lengths to get them back. She wasn't my daughter back then, but a psychopath captured Frankie and held her hostage because of me. I went ballistic at the thought of her in danger and immediately jumped into battle to find him and save Frankie. I wouldn't let anything stop me from saving her and I would do anything for her. Even trying to blow up a Singularity. I get it. He's probably doing everything in his power to help you right now."

"Maybe…" Jesse said doubtfully, the mutant tilting his head in confusion. The native girl got out of her thoughts and ran over to a tree to commence her training.

Seth narrowed his eyes. "More than meets the eye, huh?" he looked back to the other two girls. "Ruby, you up for a sparring?" He beckoned her over with his finger.

The assassin cracked her knuckles as she walked over to him. "I'm ready. And you better not go easy on me."

"Like I said before, you already have experience and you are much stronger than the others, so things are gonna be different." He told her with a smirk. The smirk was enveloped by a black mass with white veins that spread over the entirety of his body. Ruby looked upwards as he grew taller and bigger.

His face bubbled like boiling water and the white skull extension covered over his face and his eyes turned crimson red. The white spine spiraled around his arms and dug into his hands again. "**This time, we will fight you to our full extend. So get ready.**"

Ruby couldn't hide her excitement from showing on her face. "I can't wait for this to happen."

Venom smiled maliciously and raised his hand again. A mass formed on his palm, bursting and revealing his massive crystal sword. "**Let's see how long that will last!**"

X

Two pairs of feet touched down on the ground not far from the group of girls training with the elemental demon, Venom. Both clad in silver armor that appeared thick enough to even withstand bullets. Their shoulder pads appeared to have the same pattern, gridlines that gave the appearance of feathers. The same was with their helmets. The sides of their helmets accompanied with black feather-patterned pads. Small bags attached to both of their thighs.

Each of their backs paired with large…. Pale…White… Feathery… wings.

The man held a silver-handled mace with golden spiked ball in his right hand, twirling it around in his hand as he looked ahead at the sight of the group training. The woman beside him had holsters attached to her thighs as well. Each one holstering a firearm. Her hand had her binoculars placed in front of her eyes.

She zoomed in on the elemental who enlarged his form into the form of the Demon King. "Seeing him on the news, hearing about him and _actually_ seeing him turn into that is incredible."

"Yeah." The man took off his helmet and revealed the face of Carter Hall. "But that sword…" he tightened his hold on both his mace and his helmet. "He's no better than Blackfire then."

Placing her binoculars inside her bag, she took off her helmet. "Carter, we can't judge books by their covers, and that means this Demon King too. I mean, look at him." Kendra Munoz-Saunders gestured to the elemental and the young girl.

They watched the elemental swing his arm down from above, hitting the ground after the young girl dodged it. His sword came from the left, but she jumped backwards and avoided it. The same could not be said when a series of tendrils wrapped around her hands and threw her away. They watched him open his maw and firing a blast of flames after her.

"What? A gigantic demon trying to kill a girl?" Carter sarcastically remarked, but he thought it was exactly like that.

"No, you dumbass." Kendra chortled. "He's just a guy who's training a young girl right now. To better her chances of her fighting against Zoom and his gang of metas. He's doing something for her sake. And Mera wouldn't vouch for him, if he was another bastard like Zoom or Blackfire."

"I don't know about that, Kendra." He held his mace high. "But if he makes the wrong move, I'm gonna smash his head clean off his body."

"Carter," Kendra had to resist the very powerful urge to slap herself in the face from that statement while she gestured to the demon again. "I think you have to be worried about _him_ smashing your head clean off _your_ body."

Carter didn't dare to disagree with that.

X

Ruby dug her feet into the ground and made eye contact with the demon again. The young assassin watched as Venom twirled his sword around. The trees around them shook from the gravitational prowess within the girl.

Venom smiled. "**You don't have to use your hands, Ruby. The power is in you. From what you told us, just the mere thought of you wanting to crush your opponent's head is enough for your powers to respond in the same way. Imagine it.**" She listened to every word escaping his mouth, following his instructions as best as she could. "**Imagine the shaking of the trees. The ground cracking with each pulsating thought passing through your mind.**" True to his words, those exact things happened.

The trees began shaking again, violently shaking more and more with the passing of each second. Trees began to tear into pieces and fall down to the ground. The ground cracked opened like it was Mother Earth's mouth opening up and ready to swallow anything that's within the reach of her teeth.

The pieces of the shaken trees were unfortunate to meet such a fate; gobbled up by the very foundation of which their roots called home.

The smile on the maliciously looking demon widened once more, smiling proudly at the sight of the young assassin's progress. "_Nice… Ruby._" Seth thought impressively.

He swung his blade around again, this time challenging the young girl. "**Come on, Destroyer. Show us how you fight! Imagine it! Imagine the gravitational push that will hurl even us to the skies!**"

Ruby sharpened her gaze on the mutant and like an explosion, a gravitational blast connected with the elemental's stomach and launched him off the grounds like he was a hit by a missile. Seth was surprised by the level of destructiveness hiding within her powers. His body crashed into one tree before ricocheting into another one. Venom was then launched into another tree and bounced off it, causing his hold on his sword to be released from his hand.

He screamed out in both pain and shock before his body was slammed into the ground. The sword's blade dug into the ground right beside his head, digging deep enough so only the handle and the guard can could be seen.

While his mouth opened and closed repeatedly to let out an array of pants, Seth thought to both his partner and himself. "_She's much, much…_" he looked upwards and couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of the trees with broken branches and torn forms of each of them. "_Much, much stronger than I expected._"

"**_She could definitely give Olivia a run for her money._**" Venom stated.

"_Yeah._" Seth agreed while both and his partner straightened themselves up to a sitting. "_Last time, Ruby tried to hurl us like that, we wouldn't even budge an inch. But now… she was able to throw me unbelievably far away from her. A few days have passed, and this happened all of a sudden. Incredible. She's powered up, all right?_"

"**_She might have more to fight for now._**" Venom said with a chuckle. "**_A good heart, the right reason, the sufficient training, that's enough for anyone to reach levels like hers._**"

"_Got that right._"

Venom got back up on his feet and wrapped his hand around his sword handle. He extracted his weapon from its confines of the field. Tendrils slithered out of his back and he put his sword on his back. The tendrils wrapped around the weapon and pulled it close. He jumped off the ground and latched onto the side of a large tree. "**_What the hell?_**"

Seth stopped moving and asked him partner. "_What's wrong?_"

"**_Nothing. Thought we saw a large bird before. Guess, we were wrong._**"

"_I'll get you some food when we get back._" Seth told his partner before leaping again. Thinking it was nothing more than just hunger.

This time he had to train Evelyn.

X

Ruby looked around in search for the elemental. "How far did I throw him?"

"Too far, I think." Evelyn joked as she stepped closer to the assassin's side. Her eyes turned to the duffel bag on the ground. "What do you think he has in that bag there?"

"Definitely not a bunch of candy bars, that's for sure. Even though, he does have a sweet tooth." Ruby quipped. Her ears perked up at the sound of rustling leaves and cracking bark. Turning her eyes to the direction of the upper parts of the trees, she saw Venom jumping off them and landing on the ground. "Welcome back. Hope you had a safe flight with Hale Airports."

Venom leant down to the assassin's face. "**You are definitely not getting a five-star rating. And definitely getting a lousy review.**"

After a laughing for a short while, Ruby said. "So what do you think of it? Maybe learn how to lessen that blow?"

"**No.** it was perfect." Seth revealed while his form was retracting the symbiote into his body again. He rotated his arm and walked to her. "I am shocked with how much you were able to do, Ruby. I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks." Ruby smiled happily.

"But here's the challenge." He smiled. "This time, I don't want you to attack, but instead learn how to restrain with your powers."

"Restrain?" she asked curiously. "What do you mean?"

"You saw how I used my tendrils to keep Jesse from moving and captured her?" The assassin nodded. "I want you to do the same with your powers. Learn how to hold your opponents with the visible force of gravity itself. Once you learn how to do that, there's nothing in this world, or even the multiverse that you can't stop with your powers."

"That's sounds like a good goal." Ruby admitted with interest.

However, that interest was only a small fraction of what it turned into after Seth said. "And if you can learn how to do that, you change it and actually use it to apply pressure, apply weight to the target themselves. Basically, you'd be forcing them to the ground."

"I did that once, back in our universe, in my time." Ruby said and the mutant looked confused. "There was this woman, Daisy from SHIELD, who tried and wanted to help after I infused Gravitonium into my cells. But I was out of control and I was angered. I just compressed her lungs instead of accepting her help."

"Yeah, but that very same technique can also be used to stop a fight. You can use it to force a target's weapons down to the ground and crush it to pieces." Seth told her.

"Guess, I have a new goal now." She said with a smile.

"Yeah, you do." Seth winked. "But you're gonna have to learn that alone. You can ask if you can do it with Jesse maybe, you know train with her." The assassin smirked sickly. But the mutant saw it and he held out a tendril in front of her face, waving it around in her face in a disapprovingly. "You are not going to crush her limbs or the rest of her, alright? That's a big "No-No"."

"Not even a little bit?"

"Not even a fraction of a little bit." Seth clarified.

"Fine." Ruby held out her hands and walked away. "Good luck with Eclipse, old man."

"She really is a swamp mouth." Seth said with a short laugh. He turned to the metahuman girl who was walking towards him. "You ready for a training session, Evie?"

"I am." Evelyn said and without putting her hands together or closing her eyes, her entire body shined with the combination of both light and darkness. The marks on her face formed quickly as well. "I've been training a lot lately." Without much effort now, her palms pressed together formed a light sword.

"Haha, you keep impressing me, Evelyn." Seth remarked impressively. "But you can cancel the sword now, kiddo. I have something else for you to do now."

"Um, okay." Evelyn released her hold on her sword. The moment she did, the light weaponry disappeared. "But what so then? What do you want me to do?"

Seth walked over to the duffel bag and zipped it open. "I took a look at these last night, but I think these will go well with your skills from both parkour and athleticism." Evelyn's confusion was still strong, and it only grew stronger when the mutant revealed the items within the duffel bag.

His hands were clutched around different objects. The right hand was clutched around the grip of the dark-green bow. The left hand was holding the straps of a small quiver with dozens of arrows in it. "Iris gave these last night. Apparently CCPD had a recent visit by a green archer. And he lost both his quiver and bow, not really smart that one." He handed them to her.

"Thank you." Evelyn grabbed them. She swung the quiver over shoulder and made sure it was secured on her back. Checking the bowstring, she held it up and pulled on the string again. "Feels good."

"You know how to use it?" Seth asked.

"Yeah, my Dad took up archery in his high school years. He still did it a while after I was born. He showed me a few tricks and taught me how to use it." Evelyn said but her confusion was still there. "But what's the point? I can already make arrows sharper than any known metal."

"Yeah, but it takes an enormous toll on your body whenever you use that power." Seth said informingly. "So we are gonna try something else instead." Gesturing to her weapons, he continued. "Think maybe another way to ease you is to let your powers flow through a weapon. It might lessen the toll on you."

"Might?" she recited that single word.

He decided to speak honestly. "I really don't know, the chances of the materials of these weapons handling the force and pressure of both your light and darkness… they might burst if that happens."

"Don't you know how to make weapons?"

"No, I don't, sorry." Seth told her regrettably. "Never been much for making weapons. Only using them." He turned around and looked for a target that was nowhere near Ruby or Jesse. Looking in the direction of the lake, he saw a large tree on the other side of it. "That should do it. Aim an arrow at that tree and make sure to use your powers."

Evelyn nodded and stood near the shore. Seth stepped back and tendrils shot out of his body and hooked into the ground, anchoring him to the earth underneath his feet. He watched the light and dark energy within the metahuman intensify, glowing out of her body.

Inhaling deeply, she reached behind her back and pulled out an arrow. She placed the arrow on the arrow rest on the bow. Her fingers grabbing hold of the bowstring and pulled it back. Exhaling deeply, the energies from within her body ran over her arms. The bowstring was getting dark and darker, enveloped in a sheer of darkness that waved thin string around like an ocean of shadows. While the darkness continued to run over the string, the light from within her roared and ran over the arrow, slowly embracing it in a force of pure brilliant light. The arrowhead was appearing to be sharpened while shining so radiantly.

Seth couldn't help but be entranced by the increasing sharpness. Like metal be hammered and hammered as it was being forged, the redder and redder it grows, the stronger it gets when finally turned into a weapon. "_Each strike burns it redder and the more its strength increases. Guess the same applies here._" The elemental thought.

"**_Her darkness strengthens it and the light sharpens it?_**" Venom suggested his thoughts on the matter.

"_Perhaps…_" Seth noticed Evelyn's hands shaking, and so did the bow and arrow she holds. "Evelyn." He got her attention without her turning to face him. "Don't think about the damage, about what might happen if you fail. Whatever happens, I can stop it. I promise you that. Believe in me and believe in yourself, Evie. I trust you."

"Thank you." She couldn't help but feel herself at ease at his words.

Pulling the string back further, she exhaled one last time, the darkness and light of her powers combined… before she released.

The moment her fingers let go of it, the pure white light-embraced arrow shot forth in a blinding flash. Darkness spiraled around both ends of the arrow before wrapping around the shaft. It paved through the air and water under it blew to the sides from the immense power from within the flying projectile.

It reached the other shore…

_PIERCE_

The arrow pierced into a tree and remained stuck in it. And the arrow was still shining brightly with light and darkness. The light burned the impacted area of the tree, burn marks scorched the area. And it dug into the darkness's strength emitted through the projectile and cracked through the thick bark.

"I did it!" Evelyn jumped and down. She didn't feel exhausted this time. "Seth, did you see that?! I did that and I don't feel weak this time."

"I saw it, and yeah it's really impressive, Evie." Seth narrowed his eyes on the arrow on the other side of the lake. The arrow kept emitting energy and damaged the tree's bark. "But…" Evelyn looked worried at his words and turned to the arrow as well.

A faint cracking sound reached their ears. And fearfully, Evelyn's eyes widened. "Oh no!"

_BURST_

Right before their very eyes, the arrow burst into a thousand pieces and scattered its remains around the shore on the other side of the lake.

"Why? I thought by spreading my powers into the weapon would have been enough…" Evelyn clutched her hands tighter around the bow. Her eyes were stinging with tears from the overwhelming flood of failure that was slowly drowning her.

"Looks like I was right after all."

Evelyn turned her tearful eyes to the mutant who walked closer to her. He saw tears rolling down her face. Crouching down in front of her, he used his fingers to wipe the tears away from her face. "I wasn't talking about you, Evie."

"W-W-What did you mean then?" she stuttered the question.

He took hold of the bow in her hands and ran his fingers over the bow. "Look here." Evelyn looked at the bow. "The bowstring was close to be snapped because of the darkness. And the same applied to the arrow."

"What do you mean? I don't get it." She asked after registering the damaged bowstring.

The elemental took an arrow out of the quiver and held it with both hands. "See here." Without much effort, he broke the arrow in two by applying pressure to it from both ends of it. "The arrow and bow are both made to utilize the strength of a normal human. But a metahuman like you, they're weren't designed to withstand or adapt to that level of power." He groaned. "I wish Matt was here."

"Matt? Who's Matt?" Evelyn asked.

"My best friend and my brother-in-law." Seth started. "He's another mutant like me. But he's able to form nanites out of his bone structure after being kidnapped like me and my sister and underwent a year of hellish experiments. He became a weapons engineer after graduating from the SHIELD Academy." He looked up into the skies. "My sister's a psychologist and used her brain to assess and help mutants when their powers began manifesting. She handles the mental rollercoaster in their minds. I take care of anything that's biological. Like something that can halt their powers maybe if they can't control them. Matt's the same, but he does with technology instead. He's able to make devices and even weapons that withstand the powers of a powered being."

"You think he could make something like that for me?" came the question from Evelyn.

"Yeah." Seth threw the broken pieces away. "Definitely something that can easily handle your powers. You'd like him." He smiled. "He might even give you something that do more than this."

"Sounds cool." Evelyn smiled again.

"But this time, you have something else to do." He formed an ice staff in his right hand. "Now, we're gonna play a fetch."

She frowned and slapped him. "Do I look like a dog?" she asked with a pout.

"Nothing like that!" he assured her while he broke off the top of the staff. "But I want you to control your teleportation."

"Every time it happens, is out of my control. They happen on their own." She said with clenched hands.

"Actually, they happen because of your emotions, kiddo." Seth revealed. "Last time, you did it was because you were feeling sadness from a nightmare. You just have to find a good source, like your happy memories. Sometimes that's all takes."

"The same way I can flow both my light and darkness inside of my entire body?" Evelyn asked curiously.

"Precisely." He held up the icicle staff in his hand like he would hold a spear. "I'll throw this spear away and I want you to grab it before it hits the ground or after it does… with your teleportation powers. I know you can do it."

"You think so?"

"You natives of this Earth really like doubting me, don't you?" he quipped and assured her earnestly. "I believe in you, Evelyn Sharp. It's time for you to do the same."

"Okay." Evelyn looked ready, her eyes displaying a massive level of concentration.

"Let's go then." He reeled the spear back before letting out a cry as he launched the ice weapon into the air.

She saw the ice staff passing through the air. Evelyn recalled how Seth told her to focus on the power of imagination, the same thing she did when she let her darkness and light flow and combine throughout her entire body. But this time… she didn't think of them both.

Instead, she focused on solely one element… the darkness.

The onyx… pitch-black… darkness that coursed through all of her veins. Crashing and bouncing off her every cell. Running through her with unimaginable strength and enveloping her cells and spreading through the rest of her autonomy.

The darkness seeped out of her again and wrapped her entire body, not a single light touching her before…

She disappeared and left remains of the dark shadowy mass.

Without looking in the direction, Seth felt her presence disappear from behind him… and the smile on his face widened. "Nice going, Evie!" he looked in the direction of his thrown staff again. This time widening his eyes at the sight.

Already there, Evelyn had grabbed the ice staff with a smirk on her face. But that's not what surprised him the most. What surprised him was the fact that the young metahuman did not appear to be least bit winded from teleporting.

"_Must require less power or something. Perhaps even based on what she's looking at or what she remembers of the location of her intended teleportation destination._"

"So what do you think?" Evelyn asked as she reappeared behind him.

Smirking happily, he said. "I am really proud of you, Eclipse." Evelyn blushed embarrassedly. "We're gonna have to take a break from the entire bow and arrow training because I don't have any experience in making those weapons. Instead we're gonna take your teleportation training to the next level."

"You want me to jump scare Jesse or Ruby?" Evelyn wondered humorously.

"Jumping scaring an assassin sounds like the greatest plan of all times." Seth sarcastically stated while his clothes changed and turned black. "You're gonna chase me…" The symbiote mass spread over his entire form and he turned into Venom. "

"**You are gonna chase us.**" The mutant clarified with a wicked smile.

"Teleporting after a demon who can leap like a monkey? Your training gets crazier and crazier, Demon King." Evelyn said.

"**Oh yeah.**" He jumped backwards and lashed out a tendril out and wrapped it around a tree. Pulling on it, he yanked him onto the tree. "**See if you can catch this monkey, kiddo.**" Venom leaped away and jumped away from her.

Evelyn smiled happily at the challenge, and the darkness quickly enveloped her. It disappeared and so did she, marking the start of another fun chase.

X

"That was too close!" Carter let out after he touched down on the ground. His legs gave out and he fell down on the ground on all four, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to come to terms with had happened… or rather what would have happened.

From afar, hey saw the young bleached-blonde girl use her invisible powers to launch the Demon King away and through the forest and through the trees. He and Kendra had to take flight again and dodge the incoming meteor-like Venom.

They were closed to be spotted and they had to get away… neither didn't want to be discovered.

Kendra looked around in fear. "Think we're far enough from them. Maybe too far from them." She ran her hand down her face. "We should go back again and keep watch over them. We have a mission that we need to complete. Let's get going."

"Yeah." He got back on his feet again, having calmed down greatly and put on his helmet again.

The woman spread her wings again and put on her helmet as well. Carter spread his wings, and then both he and Kendra jumped into the air next.

_WHOOSH_

But a familiar and eerie whooshing sound behind them reached their ears and they turned around to face the source. And despite all their greatest wishes, they saw, to their misfortune, the pitch-black eyes of the evil speedster looking at them.

Blue lightning continued to run over the horrifying form of Zoom. His eyes shifted between two of the flying beings. "**Hawkman.**" He gave the name of the flying man who took out his mace. The evil speedster turned to the flying woman. "**Hawkgirl.**"

"Zoom." Hawkgirl sneered in anger at him while she took out firearms. "Why are you here?"

"**Birds. Tenacious and impudent birds that flaps their wings incessantly.**" Zoom formed a smirk and his dark eyes displayed psychotic happiness. "**Birds that needs to be… exterminated… by my hands.**"

"Just like you, as always, Zoom." Hawkman said unimpressively while he held his mace high. "Fine words that doesn't measure to anything you do. Pretty weak."

"**Is that so?**" Zoom said. With lightning fast movements, he thrusted his arms forward and spun them around, unleashing two wind-funnels that connected with the flying man. Hawkman was too distracted by the shock to dodge the wind assault. And it pushed him back and into a tree with immense force. The impact with the large tree caused bile to force its way up and out of Carter's mouth. His body sliding down to the ground and the mace slipped out of his hand as well.

"Carter!" Hawkgirl exclaimed in worry. She saw red and turned her firearms at the metahuman and pulled the triggers. "Die you son of a bitch!" While the bullets fired, she flew around in a circular motion. Flying around and unleashing hailstorms of lead at him from various angles.

But not a single one connected with the speedster.

In his eyes the bullets moved slower than snails as they traveled through the air. He chuckled and merely swung his arms around in different motions. After plucking the dozens bullets out of the air, time returned to normal.

Kendra stopped flying and remained suspended in the air as she looked at him. "What?"

Zoom opened his clenched hands and the bullets that he gathered from her attack slipped through the gaps of his fingers, letting them fall to the ground. "**What's next, Hawkgirl?**"

Carter got up on his feet again and saw Kendra charging Zoom. But it was useless as he appeared right beside her and slammed his fist into the side of her face. The punch was packed with the force of his blue lightning and its force was enough to launch the flying woman away and into a tree again.

"Kendra!" he screamed and picked up his mace again. Enragedly so, his wings sprung out of his back and he charged for the speedster with his mace lashed out. He neared Zoom and swung his mace. But it was dodged.

He landed on the ground and made eye contact with the speedster. Zoom turned his head to look with one eye at him, as though Carter wasn't worth looking at with both eyes. "**Big mistake, facing me. Even with your little girlfriend.**"

His arms flapped and he twirled the mace around in his hand. "I'll take my chances, Zoom." Leaping forward, he spun around and lashed out with his right wing, performing a wing attack.

Leaning backwards, Zoom dodged the incoming winged attack. Straightening up again, he swung his fist into Hackman's face and pushed him back. Carter's face was riddled with anger and he spun around again, both of his wings spread out to their full extend.

Spinning with incredible momentum caused his wings to turn into a blur as he neared the speedster. Zoom couldn't help but chuckle at the futile attempt to land a blow. It a desperate attempt that made it damn near impossible for him to not laugh.

His own hands lashed out and grabbed hold of one wing. Pulling on it, he stopped the flying man's momentum and swung him into a tree. Carter thought he was safe but Zoom appeared before him and launched an array of lightning-fast fists into his torso.

More bile was thrown up and soon blood followed it and soaked the front of his suit. But not matter how much blood flooded Hawkman's armor and his own fists, Zoom continued his onslaught on the man's body.

Finding an opening through the merciless strikes, Carter swung his mace once more. This time managing to get the speedster to sped backwards and putting distance between them. Within his cowl, Zoom's ears perked up at the sound of triggers being pulled and dodged another wave of lead projectiles.

Hawkgirl landed down beside Hawkman. Her hands holding guns each and pointing them at Zoom, ready to fire at any seconds. She briefly looked at him with a turn of her head. "Carter, are you okay? Can you still fight?" she asked in concern, but she was far more worried about whether or not he could stand right now.

He took off his helmet and threw it to the ground. "Watching a new demon from afar was easy enough. But fighting against an old one, that's a bit harder."

"We can take him, together." She confidently told him.

"I know better than to argue with you." Carter chuckled bloodily. He straightened up again and swung his weapon again. "Let's fly then."

"Yeah!"

Both flyers leaped into the air once more, raising higher and higher up with their wings flapping them to new heights. Zoom didn't appear the least bit threatened of them ascending above his head.

Hawkman dived on for the first swing, literally swinging his mace for the evil speedster. But it was dodged and before Zoom could counter, Carter rose up again. Hawkgirl flew down next and swung with her left wing after firing six bullets.

Zoom swiped them away and turned to her again. But his chest was met with the fully extended left wing on her back and pushed him back into a roll. Speeding up to his full height again, he appeared behind the female flying and wrapped his hand around her neck from behind. His claws digging and scratching the sides of her throat, fine lines of blood trailing down the sides. She winced at the feeling of her own life blood oozing out of her body.

"Kendra!" Hawkman screamed and charged for them both. With the added velocity of his short flight, he hurled his mace.

Smiling wickedly at the launched weapon. He with a mere push of his other hand and the release of another, he pushed Hawkgirl in front of him. Kendra widened her eyes as did Carter…

…

_PIERCE_

The sound of the mace's spikes penetrated the barrier of flesh on Hawkgirl's shoulder and stuck itself on her body. She was pushed down on the ground and Carter rushed to her. Panting heavily, almost to the point of hyperventilating, he got down on his knees and pulled off her helmet.

Cupping her face, he said apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Kendra."

"B-B-"

He looked confused at her stammering words that did not spark any recognition of the words in his head. "What are you saying?"

Fighting through the immense pain spreading from her shoulder, she screamed her words. "Behind you!"

Carter managed to swing his head back and was met with the form of blue lightning slam into his body and thrust him into a tree. He was pinned to the tree, by the throat, in the grasps of the evil speedster. He smiled viciously.

Hawkman didn't know what expec-

But he soon got his answer the sound of another piercing sound echoed in his ear tunnels… along with the sound of his own flesh forced open to accommodate… the five pitch-black claws that thrusted into his body…

The shocking feeling of his blood seeping out of his stomach forced any and all possible sounds in his mouth to be halted from escaping. The same applied to Kendra who was unable to make any sound as she watched the blood flow down the midnight-coated claws of the menacing speedster.

Zoom yanked his claws from the flying man's stomach and let Hawkman fall down to his knees. Managing with all of his powers, he turned his eyes the love of his life. "K-K… Kendra…" he said.

Kendra didn't understand why he spoke like that, spoke like it was the final words he was to ever utter to her. Horror and terror fell over her entire being like it was a rainy day as she realized why he spoke so defeatedly.

The black speedster stood behind Carter, his claws risen to the air and his eyes pointed at the flying woman who remained on the ground. Kendra shook her head. "No. No. Please, no." she knew what he intended to do and pleadingly asked of him to no do that. "No don't!"

"**Your mistake… was to challenge me!**" Zoom stated before clenching his fist with blue lightning running over his hand. The next second he brought it down.

"NNNNNNNOOOOOOO!"

_CRACK_

X

**(West-Allen Household, Porch)**

Seth and the three girls made their way back to the West-Allen house. The training went well for all three. Not perfect, but well enough for them to get better control of their individual powers, or lack thereof.

Jesse seemed more confident in herself and judging by the bruises on her hands, she didn't waste the time on anything but training. And from her words to him at the Woodlands, she seemed eager for more training. All she needed was a confident boost which happened because of the landed attack on him.

Ruby showed Seth the aftermath of her training and the results as well… on him. Without moving and without the using of her hands, she was able to pin him to the ground with a gravitational force that increased with each smirk on her face. It didn't take long before he felt like he had the weight of an entire mountain, forcing his body to crack through the ground. He was impressed and glad that he was able to spark that flame within her.

Evelyn did just as impressively as the others, if not more. While she may not have been able use her bow and arrows without damaging either of them, she was able to perform teleportation unbelievably well. She was able to catch him a lot of the times as he continued to leap and leap like Venom. Most of the times, she had managed to land on his back.

He was proud to see them all so devoted to their training and he knew he was glad he was able to teach them.

"**_Gonna be interesting the coming few days._**" Venom said.

Seth chuckled as they reached the stairs on the porch. "_Yeah. But we have to look for anything in the city that might help us back to our universe. We'll go swinging and check out the entire city soon enough._"

"**_Might be time for that for us to do that._**" Venom agreed. "**_We have to get home somehow at some point._**"

"_Yeah, we can let the girls train themselves in Iris and Barry's backyard tomorrow while we go out and train._" He explained.

"Man, that was awesome!" Jesse jumped up on the stairs with an exclaim. She smiled and laughed. "Tell me, I'm not the only one who feels like this?!"

Ruby chuckled. "For once, we agree on something, Jesse. These training sessions are amazing!"

"Yeah!" Evelyn was so hyped, she jumped onto the wooden railing on the house. "I can't wait for tomorrow."

"Glad to hear. But tonight, we're gonna have a little break again. We're going to Jitterbugs later." Seth said as he reached the door.

Evelyn jumped down from the railing. "Why?"

"A surprise, kiddo." Seth told her and saw the three of them turned their heads upwards with sighs. "Grow up." His hand reached for the doorknob and was about to turn it.

But it was already swung open and revealed Mera Curry who walked through it. "Hey, thought I heard you guys. Welcome back."

"Hey you." Seth greeted her back, noticing her jacket hanging around her arm, and the girls said quick greetings themselves before walking past the Atlantean. "So how did the bonding session with the West-Allens go? You guys already best friends?"

Mera chuckled. "Yeah, they have all my contact information and such, so when they get any troubles, I'll be here to help them." She put on her jacket. "I have to go and talk with a friend of mine now, so it's gonna be a short meeting now."

"Sure thing. But you have time later, me and the others are going to Jitterbugs to enjoy another nice break." Seth informed.

"Don't know if I can come to that. But I'll try." Mera told him as she walked down the stairs. "But my friend who's been watching you and the house here, she called me to come back to her to talk."

"Alrighty. Hey." He stopped her and saw Mera turn to face him from the bottom of the stairs. "Something's been bothering me, Mera." She looked confused and saw him walk down the stairs to stand in front of her. "You're a powerful Atlantean, powerful enough to even give Zoom and his merry band of bastards a scare. Maybe even stronger than me. So how come you didn't come and actually stop Zoom and the rest before?"

"Honestly, I was wondering when you were gonna ask me that." The Atlantean scratched the back of her head sheepishly as she said. "Atlanteans are very, very territorial. We don't mess with other cities' businesses. Anything outside of Atlantis is not worth our efforts, a lot of them think. I don't like it, but I have to follow their rules sometimes, big figure back home."

"But why change it now? Doubt it was because of me."

"It wasn't. It was for my friend." Mera said. "She's done good before, a lot of good and she asked me to help her with you. Things that needed my assistance appeared and I said yes. One-time thing. I have to protect Atlantis."

"Because of your own will or because of this territorial sense?" Seth wondered, the Atlantean not finding the words to speak any more out of shock. "Do it for the good of the people. Be the one to end their misery." He finished before walking to the door again. "Say hey to your friend for me. And I'm gonna be expecting that meeting at some point. Getting tired of messengers at this point, really."

"Gee thanks." Mera feigned hurt.

"No offense, of course." Seth added as he opened the door and got in.

"Wonder if Lindy will meet him…" she thought out loud before turning around. "Have to check up on her now."

X

**(Jitterbugs)**

Sometime later, Seth and had others walked into the lounge bar again. This time they chose to wear less-than-extravagant clothing. The others had already taken a seat and watched as the mutant made his way to Joseph West.

"So you're ready to prove yourself, pal?" Joseph smirked behind the rim of his drink.

"Born ready. As long as you keep your end of the deal, of course, and lay off Barry." Seth reminded the musician with crossed arms.

"_If_ you do well, Dr. Fury." Joseph notified him again.

Seth smirked and took the glass from the musician's hand. "Watch and learn, Joe." He downed the scotch unmanneredly before handing back the glass. "I'm gonna sing my heart out."

"Hey. You got inspiration for this song?" Joe wondered.

"Yeah… the love of my life… who's not here with me as she remains in another world..." Seth said, and it sounded vague to the musician.

But the words that he spoke right now… was probably the truest words he has ever spoken ever since he was hurled into this universe. Cause no matter where he would be in this entire wide ocean that is the multiverse…

… his heart would beat to mere mention of the woman he loves… to beat to find Caitlin Snow again… to love her again… as it should for the rest of his entire life… and nothing in the realm of the world… worlds even… would prevent him from returning to her again… so he could once more hold her in his arms… and tell her he would always love her and never leave her again.

Because in his heart that beats like a drum at the thought of her… he believes that she's waiting for him.

And he would be coming to her… like a speeding bullet.

He made his way to the microphone. Looking around at the audience, he was surprised to find so many there and then saw his friends there. He gave them a short wave before greeting through the microphone. "Hiya, people! My name's Seth Fury, and… well, let's get going then."

Turning to the band, he asked. "Hit it!"

_(Song: Waiting for Superman by Daughtry)_

The friends and others watching the mutant, saw him steel himself with closed eyes. Unlike the others in the audience, the friends of the elemental doubted he was doing it to get rid of excess nervousness within him. He looked confident enough to have done this before, so they wondered why his eyes were closed.

However, in his mind, he was only thinking of the memories of his love… of the woman he was gonna go back to again… to continue to be her…

… Lethal Protector…

_She's watching the taxi driver, he pulls away  
She's been locked up inside her apartment 100 days  
She says "Yeah, he's still coming, just a little bit late  
He got stuck at the laundromat washing his cape"  
She's just watching the clouds roll by and they spell her name  
Like Lois Lane  
And she smiles, oh, the way she smiles_

_She's talking to angels, counting the stars  
Making a wish on a passing car  
She's dancing with strangers, falling apart  
Waiting for Superman to pick her up  
In his arms, yeah, in his arms, yeah  
Waiting for Superman_

The moment they heard him singing those words, the girls and Iris and Barry looked shocked. The others in the audience enthralled by his voice, mostly the women specifically. And the staff too who stopped working as they listened to him sing.

Seth looked like he was only focusing on the song and all other sounds faded… as though they have lost their very meaning.

_She's out on the corner trying to catch a glimpse  
Nothing's making sense  
She's been chasing an answer  
A sign lost in the abyss, this Metropolis  
She says "Yeah, he's still coming, just a little bit late  
He got stuck at the Five and Dime saving the day  
She says, "If life was a movie, then it wouldn't end like this  
Left without a kiss"  
Still, she smiles, oh, the way she smiles, yeah_

_She's talking to angels, she's counting the stars  
Making a wish on a passing car  
She's dancing with strangers, she's falling apart  
Waiting for Superman to pick her up  
In his arms, yeah, in his arms, yeah  
She's waiting for Superman_

None of the people in the audience, be it friends of the mutant or acquittances or costumers, could understand what the inspiration behind his singing was. It was like… above levels of what they've heard before.

What they didn't know… was that it was entire heart that poured into each and every word coming out of his mouth…dedicated to someone…

Someone he envisioned to be there right in front of his eyes.

_To lift her up and take her anywhere  
Show her love  
Flying through the air  
Save her now before it's too late tonight  
Oh, at the speed of light  
And she smiles_

All of his words… his every soul… dedicated to Caitlin Snow….

_She's talking to angels, she's counting the stars  
Making a wish on a passing car  
She's dancing with strangers, she's falling apart  
She's waiting for Superman_

_To lift her up and take her anywhere  
Show her love  
Flying through the air  
Save her now before it's too late tonight  
She's waiting for Superman_

He finished his song and bowed to the crowd, who cheered and applauded him for his otherworldly singing. But he didn't hear the cheering or their applaud… he heard something else.

Words he longed to hear again… as though it was a distinct feeling that was calling out to him.

"_I love you… Seth._"

Snapping his head up again, he looked around in shock of the familiar voice of the Caitlin Snow he knows and loves. But he did not find anything or anyone that could have a voice like hers. Not even the doppelganger of his loved one was anywhere to be found.

But his useless search came to an end as the smile on his face began to widen.

"_I'm coming back, Cait. Don't worry. I love you too._"

X

Entering the area again, Mera revealed herself to Lindy who was seated behind her screens with interlocked hands. "You called me, Lindy? What's wrong?"

Lindy looked up to her old friend and got up from her chair with a sorrow expression. "I'm sorry, Mera."

"For what?" she asked in worry.

"I had the Hawks trail you and Venom before at Jitterbugs yesterday." She started, her friend's eyes widening instantly. "And today, when Venom trained those girls."

"Why would you do that?" Mera sprinted to the desk, standing on the opposite of Lindy with her eyes looking deeply into her eyes. "Lindy I have everything under control and Seth… I trust him. Why won't you?"

"He had Blackfire's sword at your throat, Mera!" Lindy screamed with her eyes shifting colors and her hair elongating and shortening uncontrollably. She felt her eyes, hair and skin change uncontrollably and calmed down. "I don't want to lose any more of my friends to that sword again… especially after he… took _her_. I won't lose anymore. Not again." She said.

"I know… Lindy. But we're gonna get her back again. And Seth will help us with that." Mera assured her comfortingly. "Call the Hawks back here."

"That's why I called." Lindy said. "They hadn't checked in a while now, so I tried to call them but none of them responded. I've been calling them for a while, and I'm worried that Venom… might have eaten them."

"He wouldn't do that." The Atlantean adamantly said. "I trust him, Seth's not that kind of guy."

"He didn't do anything."

Both of them turned around and saw to their shock, a sight that would never fade from their memory database. Kendra was walking past the threshold and into the room… her arms holding the body of a friend of theirs, a man that held a very special place in her heart.

Carter Hall was in her arms… his bloodied body lifelessly carried in and put down on the table placed at the right-side wall. Kendra was without emotions as she kept her eyes on the dead body of her love. "Zoom found us and he… we fought him… but he killed Carter… in front of me."

"He let you go?" Mera asked confused.

"So I could live and remember his death over and over for the rest of my life without Carter." Kendra's eyes were flooded with tears that flowed down her face like rain. "It's my fault… I was too weak."

"Kendra." Lindy got her attention. "I was the one who gave you and Carter the job, Because I didn't believe in Venom. Despite all the good he's done so far. Carter's death is on me and me only."

But Kendra disagreed with a shake of her head. "We took the job willingly, Lindy. You don't have to feel bad about anything. We're old enough to take responsible for this."

"I'm so sorry, Kendra." Mera hugged her friend, and let the flying woman cry into her shoulders. "I wish there was something I could do."

"There is." She wiped away the tears and looked at the Atlantean's face. "I want to kill one of Zoom's metahumans."

Hawkgirl had her talons set on revenge now.

**To be continued…**

**And that's another chapter, peeps.**

**Seth told Mera Curry of his origin, well at least his original worlds. The origins of his powers have been revealed to her and she will relay the same to her friends, Lindy and her group. And his training with the girls have improved their fighting prowess greatly. **

**But the next time on his adventure, he has to resume his hunting of a source to return to his home universe of Earth-1. Whatever means Zoom is using for his own gains, he has to find and utilize himself if he is to have any hopes of returning to his family again and to protect the girls under his care.**

**Iris and Barry are still unsure if telling the elemental mutant of what truly lies within the city is worth it. They know he has a daughter waiting for him as well as another loved one. The detective can't bring herself to tell that to Seth, knowing full well that he would go in and fight with all his strength to take down the man… that rivals the terror of Zoom. **

**Her nightmare of a pitch-black darkened world and her old mentor's form is enough for her to put a lid on her revelation… for now, anyway.**

**Lindy's distrust led her to send the Hawks, Hawkman and Hawkgirl after Seth and Mera, watching them from afar without being spotted. But it lead to the Hawks' downfall as they were encountered by the horror of Zoom who encountered them and fought them. As a result of their fight, in addition to them being harmed… Carter Hall feel victim to Zoom's claws of darkness.**

**And now, Kendra Munoz-Saunders is out for blood… the blood of the people who took the love of her love.**

**Oh yeah, I based the looks of both Earth-2 Kendra and Carter on their DC Comics appearances, just for visual aid. **

**Hope you guys enjoyed the song, thought it would be nice to bring one of Daughtry's great songs back into the stories. **

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps! **

**And once again, have an awesome New Year's Eve.**


	14. Chapter 14: Enter Zoom Enter The Truth

**And now another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**First chapter of the new year of 2020 and I am incredibly excited about this. I hope you guys have enjoyed New Year's Eve with your friends and families, they make all those moments more valuable.**

**Now to answer a question posted by a reader:**

**I will not reveal which chapter Seth is gonna return to Earth-1. Gonna have to wait for that chapter and read it yourselves, when it comes out.**

**Sorry guys, but wouldn't be much fun if you guys knew everything beforehand, right?**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 14: Enter Zoom Enter the Truth.**

Her brown eyes were focused on the picture of her and Seth Fury, both with their hands interlocked with a stickiness stronger than glue. Eyes locked onto each other and their lips latched onto each other with all of their heart's worth.

It felt like Caitlin Snow had done this every second of every hour of the day. Spending the time to relish in the feeling of being within the embrace of love in her would-be future husband's arms and lips. She would always look into the photo and tell the photographed image of Seth…

That she loves him… even in death.

"I love you, Seth." She longingly said to the photo of the loved one who holds her heart.

_KNOCK KNOCK_

Caitlin turned to her door at the sound of knocking. She instantly knew who it was. As she put down the photo, she called out to the person. "Come in, Frankie!"

The door opened and Frankie Fury walked into her mother's bedroom. "Hey Mom, heard you talking to yourself… again."

The mother smiled warmly and patted the side of her bed. "Come here, you." Frankie jumped onto the bed and landed beside her mother who wrapped her arm around her. She playfully tightened the hold on her child while Caitlin said. "What is it with you spying on your mother like this, sweetie?"

"Just curious, I guess." Frankie embarrassedly said with blushed cheeks.

"I just miss your Dad, Frankie." She put her head on top of Frankie's head. "It's weird without him here."

"I know, Mom. I feel the same." The metahuman told her with her hand touching the photo as well. "It really feels weird without Dad here."

"That's not what I mean, Frankie."

Frankie looked surprised and turned her shocked eyes to her mother's face. "What do you mean, Mom?"

Caitlin let her fingers drift over the bracelets on her daughter's wrist. "I don't know if its denial or not, probably denial at this point, but parts of me feel like Seth's not really gone. Even when we both saw him jump into the Singularity and saw it blow up in the skies… I still feel like he's not dead."

"I know Mom, I sometimes feel the same when I'm alone." Frankie confessed. "Maybe just hopeful wishes, or something."

"Could be." The doctor smiled and patted her hair. "You're ready to go and talk with Dr. Light?"

"Only one doctor I like, and that's the one that's my Mom." Frankie giggled.

"I'd hope so, you little rug rat." The mother tickled her daughter from all sides and caused her to fall down on the mattress on her back.

As the laughter of both daughter and mother continued to echo in the room, the photo on the bed continued to lie there and the face of Seth Fury pointed at them both… happily smiling at the sight of his daughter and the love of his life…

… together…

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)**

"Zoom sent me here to kill you, but I didn't want to." Dr. Light told the Scarlet Speedster on the other side of her cell. After having been acquainted with her new accommodation within the Pipeline, The Flash had decided to come and pay her a visit.

But he wasn't the one she was worried about. She was far more worried about the armored knight behind him. During their fight before, she heard all of his exclaims about having no qualms whatsoever with ending her life for the crimes she had committed while on this Earth.

And that scared her. The force of his beams was not something she wanted to mess with in an extended fight.

Iron Knight scoffed behind his helmet before walking closer to the cell. "Funny, you don't wanna kill him, but you had no problem with killing someone with your own face."

Dr. Light gulped and explained. "It was the best bad idea I could come up with. Leave her body for Zoom to find, he'd think I was dead, and I'd be free."

Barry looked confused at that explanation and asked. "How was he supposed to know where to find her body?"

"Just let me go." She didn't answer the question but pleaded for freedom instead. "Let me disappear."

Matt chuckled. "You killed a man; you don't deserve freedom like that. Not so easily."

The Flash gave him a look at the words he said and told the metahuman criminal. "You would spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder, never knowing when Zoom is coming."

"Okay. And what are your geniuses' great ideas?" Linda Park from Earth-2 asked as she pushed herself off the wall.

"Well mine is killing you and hang you in front of a breach to send Zoom a message to come and do his own dirty work." Matt revealed and the criminal stepped back in her cell again.

"No." Barry sternly said, but it did not have the slightest effect on the nanite mutant. The hate within Matt still remained strong and he turned to face the criminal again. "How were you supposed to contact him after you killed me?"

"I was supposed to get something… something I could only get if you were dead… and then throw it through the breach as proof."

"And then what?" Matt asked after the explanation.

"Then he'd come for me." Linda began. "Confirm the kill and bring me home. Why do you guys want to know?"

"Because I want to find him." The Flash told her.

"You really don't." Dr. Light countered.

Barry tried a different approach. "He's gonna keep coming for me. He's gonna keep kidnapping people like you, forcing them to do what he wants. I have to stop him before more people die."

"You can't stop Zoom. Not you." In her mind, she was comparing a demon of tyranny to a demon of protection.

"Yes, I can. Me and my friends can help us. We will, but we need your help." The Flash told her.

She nodded but she still said. "I'll help, but honestly I don't think you can do much against Zoom… you're not like him."

"Like Zoom?" Matt wondered.

"No. Someone else. Someone that Zoom might fear." Light moved back to the back of her cell.

"Who is that person?" Matt pressed.

"Trust me, you wouldn't believe if I told you." Light revealed and leant against the back wall. "Do a favor though." They both listened. "Keep that little pink one away from me. I don't want to see her…." "_Not another one of him._"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Barry directed at Matt.

"Apparently, Magenta scared this criminal straight into cold heart-shivering terror." Iron Knight said and walked away. "_She doubts we can fight Zoom… unlike someone else? Who is that?_" he absently thought to himself as he and the metahuman walked into the corridors.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

"Zoom wants Doctor Light to send him your new emblem?" Caitlin had to know she heard right as she and the others heard the speedster's plan.

"Yes. We need it for bait." Barry said. "If we can get Doctor Light to take my emblem, throw it through the breach, then Zoom will come to collect my body, and we can trap him."

Cisco appeared hurt by the words and voiced his hurry. "You know it took a lot of work to make that emblem, right?"

Olivia patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about that, Cisco. The guy wearing it is not that impressive or worth it in the first place." Barry frowned at the words said by the psychic.

And the frown continued its fall when Frankie detached from the ceiling and added, "We are talking about the woman who was willing to kill your ex in order to escape Zoom, but now she had a change of heart and she's willing to help us catch the bastard?"

"**_Anyone feel like it's a load of crap?_**" Magenta asked.

"This doesn't sound right." Matt voiced his thoughts.

"She knows it's the only way." Barry countered.

Olivia crossed her arms. "And how do we catch a speedster exactly? Last time we tried that; we were running around in his palm like chickens without their heads."

Harry walked into the Cortex and stated. "Before I left Earth-2, I worked on a serum to dampen Zoom's speed. All we would need is for Ramon and Stark to develop a weapon to deliver it."

"Again," Matt got his attention. "I don't take orders from you."

Caitlin added sarcastically. "Oh, great, that could be this year's cold gun. Maybe another criminal can get it, and then we'd have Sergeant Slow."

"I would never let that happen. Sergeant Slow is a terrible name." Cisco stated.

"Not the issue here, Cisco." Frankie looked to her mother. "But Mom, you might wanna stop thinking up meta names. Not your strongest suit."

The doctor poked out her tongue at her daughter before stated seriously. "Are we forgetting how much more powerful than Barry Zoom seems to be? I mean, if Barry can catch bullets, what's to say Zoom can't catch whatever you shoot at him?"

"Surprise… the element of surprise." Harry slowly answered and everyone looked to him. "All we would do is rig a projectile to fire as Zoom crosses into the breach. He can't stop what he can't see coming."

"That's great." Barry complimented the plan.

"Thanks." Harry thanked.

Frankie looked to her aunt. "What's wrong, Auntie?" she asked when seeing the unsure expression on her face, like something was bothering her within.

"Just a problem with that statement." They looked to her. "Experience. If Zoom is an experienced fighter, unlike the others he's sent after us, then it all comes down to experience. Intuition will lead him, preparing him to expect an attack from all sides or just the blind spots. A series of past fights can make up for future mistakes, would-be or not."

"She's right." Matt agreed with his wife. "We have to expect the unexpected if we want to take him out."

Caitlin hopefully turned to the detective at the doorframe. He hadn't said a single word since this discussion began. And the doctor asked him in hope. "Joe, voice of reason here?"

Joe didn't move a single muscle in his body as he plainly said. "We need a plan. That's as good as any." Barry nodded while he turned his head to the scientist from the parallel universe. "As long as he can deliver."

"Don't underestimate me, Detective." Harrison told him before walking away to work on the serum itself.

"I am." Frankie admitted, her uncle and aunt nodded in agreement.

Barry's phone chimed and he looked at it. "Oh, Patty needs us back at the station." He was already walking out of the Cortex before saying to his adoptive father. "I'll meet you there, all right?"

Once he was sure his son was out hearing distance, he directed his head to Caitlin, Olivia, Matt and Cisco. They saw the detective turning to them and with a nod of his head, he wordlessly told them to follow him.

Caitlin looked shocked and asked him. "Are you just forgetting everything Jay told us and supporting Wells now?" she looked to the mutants. "And you guys too? I thought you didn't trust Wells."

"It's gonna take more than a scary bonfire story about an evil speedster to get me to trust that weasel." The nanite mutant honestly said.

"Over my dead body." Olivia followed up.

"Oh, no, I don't trust Wells at all." Joe quickly added. He glanced to make sure the man himself did not listen in on their conversation. "I just want to see what he's up to. I figure we give him some rope; he'll hang himself."

"And we will tighten the noose." Matt cracked his fists.

Cisco nodded. "Yeah, I'm totally with you. I think he's hiding something."

"Yeah, it's like he's determined. Kinda like a homing missile set on a single target. And no matter what or where, its gonna try and find its way to him." Olivia said.

The detective agreed with a nod of his head. "Look, my hunch after interrogating suspects all these years… something's not right with this dude." He turned to the psychic. "Liv, your powers, they read into people's minds, right? Think you can…"

"Sorry Joe." She shook her head. "I can't or won't do it." She had her hand clutched tightly around her pendent. "It's… I can't." Caitlin and Matt rubbed her back calmly to cheer her up.

"Alright, I understand." Joe then turned to Cisco. "Barry told me about this you can do?" he whispered.

Caitlin looked excited with child-like big eyes. "Vibing."

"Oh, God, just relax." Cisco breathed out his response and held out his hand in front of his colleague.

Matt knew where the detective was going with this and looked to Cisco. "Think you can vibe Wells?"

The mechanical engineer shifted his eyes between the friends around him with uneasiness. "I can try." Even his tone and words were soaked with greater uneasiness.

Joe thanked him and walked away to attend to the matters at the police station. Twirling his head to the other engineer, Matt said. "What do we do if vibing the answer is not gonna work?"

Olivia looked to the scientist to the other universe. "In that case, I will gladly take harder measures."

"Well, if this Zoom is much stronger, then I'm gonna need Frost-Flame here." Matt said. "I'm gonna go and pick it up from the apartment."

"I'm coming too." Olivia added.

"Wait." Caitlin stopped them from moving. "Should we get Felicia to help us here? She's strong and will help us."

"Can't argue, she's been an enormous help to us all here for the last six months. But against a speedster she might be a bit out of her element." Olivia explained.

"She's right." Matt said. "Better keep out of this for now. What about Frankie?"

"Frankie's not gonna be in this fight." Caitlin adamantly said. "Zoom is dangerous enough to mercilessly send out more and more of his Earth's metas to fight The Flash here. I won't let my daughter face that."

"Agreed." Matt nodded. "Me and Livia will take care of this." He assured the doctor before walking away with his wife.

Cisco looked to Caitlin. "What are you gonna tell Frankie? She's not gonna be happy with being left out of the action."

"I can live with that as long as she's safe." Caitlin told her friend with an absolute decision. "I think it's your turn to get food for the metahuman prisoners this time."

"Oh yeah, it is." Cisco breathed out annoyedly as he had to go buy food for their newest addition of metahuman criminals.

Her hand wrapped around her necklace as she leant back against the wall. "We won't lose anyone else. Not again. Not against this enemy."

Her mind repeated the same horrific image of seeing Seth don his demonic alter-ego's form leap into the swirling mass that was the black hole. She envisioned her loved one sacrificing himself for the greater good of this entire city and the people in it….

… to save her, their child and the others…

And she could never not love him more for it… but she would prove that wrong… had he still been here with her.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)**

After a quick stop at the famous burger chain restaurant, Big Belly Burger, Francisco Ramon brought down a menu from fast food restaurant to give to the newest member of the metahumans in their care. But he did regret not buying some for himself as he felt himself growing more puckish by the minute as he held the paper bag of food.

Walking past the threshold of the entrance, he made his way up the small ramp to the Pipeline. But the moment he looked upwards to the cell… he came to a halt. His mouth gaped and his hand let go of the paper bag, letting it fall to the ground with a thud.

"Crap." Cisco said in dismay without blinking. He knew what he was seeing right now was reality. Seeing through the glass panel of the cell door, he saw that there were no one there in cell. The metahuman criminal wasn't there.

Rushing to the door itself, he investigated the internals of the cell again. This time looking around for signs of the criminal at all sides, worried that Doctor Light might be hiding in some of the blind spots of the cell.

Cisco looked to the floor of the cell, his eyes widening with shock when seeing the unmistakable objects on the floor. He saw the suit belonging to the metahuman on the ground. Breathing heavily from the confusion and dismay, he quickly walked to the panel on the wall.

Twisting his hand on the panel, he opened the cell door. He walked to the middle of the ramp…

But his ears didn't register the sound of feet clattering on the ground. He heard them intensifying and he heard a cry-

_PUNCH_

Before he could react to either of the sounds, he felt a punch slamming into the side of his face and knocked him on the ground. Raising his head up, he looked to the exit and saw paper bag with food… move by itself… or by something as though it was pushed.

"_Oh shit!_" he screamed in his mind when realization dawned on him as he shot to the panel again. Activating the coms device, he spoke into the microphone. "Doctor Light's gone invisible! Lock the doors!" he ran and looked up at the nearest camera. "Shut the doors!" he screamed as he ran out of the place.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Caitlin and her daughter shot to the computers on the main console. The mother already at work and but experienced problems. "The doors aren't responding."

Frankie then added in dismay. "None of the security protocols are responding. What's going on?"

"She's hacked the system." Harry stated after trying to help himself.

"Mom, I'm going!" Frankie stated and ran out of The Cortex, with her symbiotic partner enveloping her form and letting Magenta enter the fray.

She knew her daughter was a force to be reckoned with. But against a metahuman with blinding luminescence powers, it would be too dangerous for her alone. Caitlin reached for the microphone. "Barry, Doctor Light is escaping."

X

Magenta jumped outside of the building and used tendrils to swing into the air. Attaching a pink tendril to the one of the tree pillars on the rooftop of the facility, she swung around and landed on the roof again. She looked around from the high vantage point, but she did not find anything.

"Where is she?" she muttered to herself.

"**_Frankie, down there!_**" Magenta shouted and used a tendril to point in the direction.

Frankie looked in the direction and saw smoke emitting from the door. The lower half of her mask split opened before she launched two tendrils to the ground and pulled on them with augmented strength. With the speed of a catapult's fired projectile, she landed before the door.

A good chunk of the door had been blasted off, leaving it without a doorknob. Blasted with something with intense heat, able to leave scorch marks on the door.

Morphing both her hands into elongated blades, Magenta turned her head around. "**Where are you, Light?**" she snarled while her tongue moved around in the air like a serpent's.

"You really are like him…"

"**Like who?**" she asked out loud while snapping her head around for the source. "**Like who, Light?!**"

She didn't get a proper response as a light blast hit her in the back and threw her into the ground. Frankie grunted and spun around, lashing out her bladed arm after the source.

"WHOA!"

Cisco screamed out his response as the bladed tendril almost connected with his head. But instead it pierced into the wall. Frankie's white pseudo eyes turned comically large as the engineer looked at her. "You know, I'm kinda like your mother's brother. So you hurting me, might give her a reason to ground you for life, Little Fury."

"**Sor**ry, Cisco. Thought you were Light." Magenta defended herself while her mouth pieced together again to reform her mask.

"Well, I'm glad you were wrong. Cause I was not looking for a haircut by you today." Cisco breathed heavily from the shock of almost being decapitated by his friend's daughter.

_WHOOSH_

Speeding into the scene himself, The Flash appeared and asked the two. "Where is she?"

Cisco shook his head and the symbiote-bearing metahuman said. "Looks like she was never onboard with your plan after all, Flash."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Frankie brought her uncle and aunt back to the facility to notify them of what just happened. Neither of them looked the least happy about their missing metahuman thief. Nor was Joe when he heard their plan taking a swan dive.

Matt walked over to the suit belonging to the metahuman thief. The psychic shifted her head around and asked. "How the hell does a metahuman thief with powers over starlight break out of her cell like that?"

"My guess," Matt shrugged. "Light managed hacked into the lights in the cell of her cells."

Cisco nodded his agreement. "The whole building runs on fiber optics that operate on pulses of lights, so she turned off the dampeners and used her powers."

Frankie gulped with a pale expression on her face, completely drained of color. "I was just bested… by a naked… thief."

Olivia turned her head to niece with widely shocked eyes. "That's what you're focusing on, honey?"

"I feel like this is something Felicia should not hear about. She's never gonna let me off it." Frankie frowned.

Caitlin hugged her daughter from behind. "I'm just glad you're alright, sweetie."

Snapping his head in anger, Harry exclaimed enragedly. "I told you how dangerous she was. You should have listened to me and sedated her."

Barry replied, "I thought I convinced her that helping us was the only way she'd be free from Zoom."

"Well, you thought wrong." Harrison sniped at the speedster.

"Oh really, Captain Obvious?" Matt snapped back at the scientist. "Yeah, we made the mistake of trusting the bad guy again."

"Okay, look," Joe stopped the two from escalating into something far worse. "Doctor Light is gone, so instead of assigning blame, let's try to figure out what we're gonna do next."

Caitlin looked worried. "Do you think she's gonna try and take Linda again?"

"That might be possible." Matt said his thoughts.

"I had Iris bring Linda to the house, just in case, to keep an eye on her." Barry revealed.

"That's one problem solved." Olivia looked to the scientist from Earth-2. "What's the status on the speed-dampener?"

Harry didn't answer him, Caitlin was the one to answer that query. "I think we isolated the composite."

"And we're modifying the dart The Arrow used to take down Wells." Cisco added his follow-up.

Harry glared at them. "He's not Wells, I'm Wells." He reminded them harshly.

"Zip it, Harry." Matt said. "And my suit's loaded for this to happen."

"Our knight and angel are ready to take flight." Olivia smiled wickedly.

"But we don't even really know if this thing works." Joe reminded them and the others agreed.

Harry then told them informingly. "Until we try it, no. This will be a field test, so can we end this scintillating staff meeting and get back to work?" Barry was the only person to nod his agreement and went to work.

But only he and Harry were the ones to think like that. Joe had other thoughts brewing in his mind and he was more than happy to speak them. "Or how about I say what's everybody's thinking? Maybe it's a good thing that Doctor Light is gone." Caitlin agreed with a look and a wave of her hand. "Maybe it's the universe stopping us from doing something really stupid."

"Joe's right." Caitlin agreed, her daughter giving her a strange look of shock and confusion. "It's too dangerous for us to be trying to get a vicious killer in here. Even if we had a chance of defending ourselves or even fending him off, it'd be like luring a hungry and murderous wolf to a farm of sheep."

"That's dark, Caity." Olivia admitted but couldn't help but be impressed. But she knew the source of her feelings were based on the maternal instincts of her motherly side, the side wanting above all else to ensure her child's safety. "_The lioness is the one to be feared in a family of lions._" She thought to herself and knew that if Seth was still with them, he would be just as impressed by the woman he loves.

"No. No. Keep going." Barry dejected the thoughts of both his friend and his adoptive father. "I'm gonna figure out another way to get Zoom." The speedster walked away.

Joe walked after his son and so did Matt when the detective waved him over. The two saw Barry in the corridors and the adoptive father called out. "Hey, slow your roll. I want to talk to you."

Barry stopped. "Joe, look, I know what I'm doing."

"Just for the heck of it, we don't." Matt stated and said with crossed his arms over his chest. "How about you clue us in, you jackass."

"I'm trying to stop Zoom." Barry raised his voice. "I thought you were onboard with that. Even you, Matt, wouldn't you want to get rid of Zoom as soon as possible."

"Don't lump me in with you." Matt growled. "I'm here to make sure that your plan doesn't go downhill and end up harming my niece or Caitlin or Cisco here. And I'm willing to do anything to make sure that does not happen, but I'm keeping my options open."

"So am I." Joe agreed

The speedster shook his head in disbelief. "I don't understand why you guys think we have a choice. Zoom wants _me_ dead. The metahumans that he's sending from Earth-2, they don't care how many innocent people get in the way. Look at what happened to Iris and Linda's boss. He was just collateral damage in Zoom's war. The next time, that could be you or Iris." He directed at his adoptive father.

Barry shifted his gaze to the nanite mutant. "Or even Liv or Frankie."

Matt saw red and held up an arm blade to the speedster's throat. Barry was afraid to even gulp, fearing that the swallowing itself would lessen the distance between flesh and weapon. "You… You of all people in this entire world, are the very last person to even care about my family. Not after what you did six months ago." He dematerialized his weapon and grabbed the metahuman by his collar.

Pulling him closer, the nanite mutant continued angrily. "And let's be clear about something, if this ends up hurting my family in any way, just like your other great plans, then I will make you beg for whatever bedtime story this Zoom is."

"Hey, calm down. Calm down!" Joe managed to get Matt's fist to loosen its hold on his son's clothing. "Matt, take a walk."

"Fine." Matt said and walked away with clenched hands.

Joe turned back to the metahuman, who was breathing heavily in relief. "I know Matt and I have different opinions on the matter, but I'm just wondering if going after him now is premature. I mean, we barely know anything about his abilities."

"Wells does." Barry reminded the detective while rubbing his throat.

The detective turned shocked with a reeled back head. "You're putting a whole lot of faith in the man wearing the face of your mother's killer." Barry looked hurt at the reminder of that fact. "I think we should find Jay, get him to help us on this."

"Yeah, Jay made it pretty clear that he doesn't want to help get me killed, and we can't just sit around and wait for Zoom to make his next move anymore. We can't." Barry said and the detective wore a stunned face. "Aren't you the one who told me life isn't about playing defense, sometimes the only way to succeed is by working the offense?"

Joe chuckled in disbelievingly. "I think at the time we were talking about your high school football tryouts."

Pointing a finger at him and walking backwards, Barry stated. "You said you'd never bring that up again."

Rubbing his temples with growing concern, he turned around and saw the nanite mutant standing by the wall. "Wish you didn't have to threaten my kid again. But I guess it's pointless asking for that."

"What else did you expect? I'm not known for being kind to people who might endanger my family." Matt said.

"I think there's more to this than what Barry already told us." Joe revealed. "He's hiding something."

"Not particularly interested in that, Joe." Matt said and walked away.

X

Caitlin and Frankie walked through the corridors together. Her daughter looked up to her face and asked. "Mom, you know I'm gonna be here and fight with you guys right? I'm not gonna be sidelined for this."

"Sorry sweetie, but I have to ask you do that right now." Caitlin sadly admitted and her child gaped her mouth. "This is the one fight I don't want you to get involved in. It might be too dangerous for you to handle this. I know you have become much stronger than before, but against a speedster who's a bloodthirsty monster, is a whole other league."

She ruffled her daughter's long brown hair and lightly ran her fingers through the pink highlights. "I'm your mother, I can't let anything like that be put on your shoulders. Too much for you at the moment. Even more so for me." She regretfully stated. "But your uncle and aunt will be able to do this. So let's leave it to them for now, alright?"

"Okay." Frankie reluctantly said. "But if things get out of control, then I'll come and help with it."

"Maybe, let's hope your uncle and aunt will be more than enough instead." Caitlin kissed the top of her head lovingly.

X

Meanwhile in the workshop, Cisco was struggling with a problem of his own. He assured the others that he would be able to vibe the missing pieces of their puzzles. But the problem was that the pieces were inside the mind of Harrison Wells from Earth-2.

He was struggling to come up with a natural approach that would lead him to touch the man without arousing suspicion. Cisco had been standing behind the man who was working on his speed-dampener with undivided attention. Gulping almost inaudibly, he got the man's attention. "Hey."

Harry turned his head to see the native engineer behind him, but it merely a short glance before he turned back to his work again. "I just wanted to say using the, uh, tungsten composite to dampen vibrations, that was, uh…" he unsurely lifted his hand. "that was pretty brilliant."

He placed his hand on the other scientist's shoulder. Harry gazed at it shortly and went to work again. But he stopped himself when realization fell down on him and shot up from his chair. Wearing a blank expression, akin to that of an empty canvass, he turned to the native engineer and asked emotionlessly. "What are you doing?"

"I'm congratulating you." Cisco sheepishly said.

Harry didn't look the least bit convinced and slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me." He ordered.

"Wow," Cisco acted hurt. "try to give a guy a compliment."

Menacingly stepping towards Cisco, Harry said. "You're not trying to give me a compliment. You're trying to meddle into things that are none of your business. What did you vibe about me?" he held up one of the dampener's components in front of his face like he would hold a weapon.

"Nothing." Cisco assured him, his arms in front of him in fear of what the scientist might do. "God, why? What's there to vibe on?"

Holding up the component higher up to the engineer's face, Harry stated bluntly. "Don't touch me. If you have questions, ask them." He lowered the component. "Otherwise stay away from me." He returned to his work by the desk.

Cisco walked back into the corridor and met Frankie and Caitlin. The mother asked him hopefully. "So?"

Glancing back into the workshop, Cisco admitted. "God, you'd think the serial killer version would've been the bigger jerk."

Frankie raised an eyebrow. "I think Mom meant what happened when you touched him? What did you vibe, Cisco?"

Nodding his understanding, he confessed. "Oh, I didn't see anything."

Caitlin with a blank look herself said. "Go touch him again."

"No, he's onto me now." Cisco informed his friend.

Frankie gently slapped him. "Well, you have to keep trying."

"Frankie's right." Caitlin nodded. "I mean, I think Joe's right. Something must have happened between Wells and Zoom, made this personal."

Cisco looked to Frankie in hope. "Frankie, can't you symbiote bearers determine if someone is hiding or something like that?"

"No, we can determine if they tell us a lie or not. But if they don't actually say anything, then there is nothing for them to determine. That's out of our league." Frankie admitted.

"That's not exactly true, Frankie." Both Cisco and Frankie looked confused to Caitlin. "Your Dad's partner, Venom was able to sense that someone was hiding something, even if they don't speak. But Seth had been an agent for years and had grown with Venom like that. It might have just been the combined efforts of them both."

"Yeah, maybe. I don't have the same experience as Dad. Not yet anyway." Frankie admitted.

All three of them sighed and walked away, leaving the otherworldly scientist to continue his work by himself all the while wearing a heavy expression on his face.

X

**(West Household)**

After the events of the day at the facility, Barry returned home. Having walked through the front door, he saw Iris placing a pot on the dinner table. "Hey."

"Hey." Iris greeted him back.

Barry took off his jacket and looked at the table's contents. "Are you guys having a dinner party?" he had to ask as he saw various dishes on the table. The entire table was filled with untouched dishes that were still piping hot with steam emitting from them.

"You would think." Iris chuckled with a gesture to the table.

The answer to the speedster's hidden questions were then revealed when Linda walked into the room with yet another pot. "I know, I know." She put the pot on the table and explained the reason behind her cooking. "It's just, sometimes cooking helps me to relax."

Barry looked shocked and nodded his understanding… he did consider bringing in the mutants and their niece in case of additional food needing to be eaten.

After the events happening with Doctor Light, the doppelganger of herself, Linda was beyond distressed and needed to calm down. Especially since the woman with her face was the one killed her boss's life… she felt responsible to some extent.

Linda looked to Barry and asked. "Have you heard anything about Doctor Light? Am I still in danger?"

Barry had to be the bearer of bad news, especially with all that happened at S.T.A.R. Labs. "We're not really sure."

She groaned. "Come on. I'm going crazy here, Barry."

Iris nodded and quipped. "Yeah, she is."

A timer in the kitchen chimed and Linda realized what it meant. "That is the cake." She shrugged her shoulders embarrassedly. "Hope you're hungry."

Iris saw her walking away to the kitchen and said. "She's not kidding. There's enough food in there to feed an army." She quipped with a finger pointing to the kitchen while she and Barry walked to the couch. "Think we have to get Matt and Frankie to join us, if we want any hope of getting rid of all this food."

"You might be the one to call them, they both hate me." Barry said and Iris turned saddened by the information. She had a feeling that the feelings of the Furys had not changed regarding any matter involving the metahuman speedster. The speedster looked to the direction of the kitchen and said. "Linda must be terrified."

"Uh, more like furious." Iris clarified for him as Barry took a seat. "Larkin died trying to protect her, and it only makes it worse that the person who did it looks just like her. I mean, trust me. If Linda har Doctor Light's powers right now…" she stopped herself when seeing an inspirational look dawn over the speedster's face. "What?"

Barry then revealed. "I just, uh, Linda and Light… They're identical. So identical that Light even thought she could fool Zoom." Iris gave him her full attention. "Now we have Light's suit." He saw the same realization fall over Iris's face and he told her knowingly. "You don't even have to say anything, I know. It's a terrible idea."

However, terrible was not the opinion of the reporter. "No, no, no, it's not." This time Barry turned surprised. "We make Zoom think that Linda is Doctor Light and use her to draw him out."

"It's too dangerous, right?" Barry wondered of her in concern.

"Let Linda decide." Iris told him. "I mean, she's desperate to catch the person who's responsible for Larkin's death, and she deserves the chance to help us."

Barry nodded his understanding. After everything that happened at Central City Picture News, the speedster knew that the sports reporter was feeling responsible for what happened. And Iris was right… Linda Park does deserve the chance to help them out.

And she would… as Doctor Light.

X

"Please, tell this is beyond stupidity." Olivia groaned as she and her husband put down the life-sized paper figures of Joe and Cisco.

"You talking about this omega-level ridiculous plan of Barry's or the fact that Cisco…" Matt pointed to another set of figures. "has figures of the two of us."

Olivia looked to the figures. One of her looking she jumped into the air and clicking her heels like Peter Pan wearing a creepy cartoon-like smile. The other was of Matt who was posing with his arms crossed and a smoldering a gaze.

"His… items are a close second." Olivia said. "But the plan is the one thing that pisses me off the most here. Dangling Linda to Zoom… is not smart at all. She's not Doctor Light, she's not a bad person, and now we are fucking using her as bait."

"You gotta admit, it's pretty brave of her to offer herself to do this." Matt told her.

"Yeah, I commend her for that. But Barry or the others didn't even stop her from doing this. It's idiotic." Olivia turned her gaze to the figure of her husband. "But that's definitely worth looking at. Damn, it's creepy that Cisco does this, but I can't argue with the results."

"Yeah, he did pretty good." Matt had his gaze on the figure of his wife. "Don't know how I feel about him having a figure of my wife though."

"I hate that thing; I look like a frigging overenthusiastic cartoon woman." Olivia complained and walked away with her husband.

They walked over to Joe was laughing at figure of himself in his black coat and black hat. "Heh, dude." He looked up to Cisco who was attaching a figure of himself to the ceiling via a hook. Turning the figure to the engineer, the detective asked. "How long you been sitting on this?"

Cisco smiled and turned the figure of himself to the detective and the two mutants. "It's important to have hobbies." The three of them laughed at the figure of him taking a photo with a gaped mouth and his tongue sticking like a bulldog.

"This is ridiculous."

They all looked to the other side where they saw Linda Park wearing the suit of her criminal doppelganger without the visor-like mask. She was looking angsty as she donned the suit of the woman who killed her boss.

She walked over to Frankie, Caitlin and The Flash. With his vibrating voice, he masked his identity as he said. "No, it's not. You look just like Doctor Light."

Caitlin handed a pair of gloves to the sports reporter. "And with these gloves that Cisco and Matt rigged up, you'll be able to do what she does."

From the platform in the middle of the large area underneath S.T.A.R. Labs, Iris stood there beside Harrison Wells from Earth-2. The reporter saw the worried look on her friend's face and assured her calmingly. "Don't worry, they are totally safe."

"Ish." Harry stated bluntly.

"Ish?" Iris asked, hoping the scientist was joking.

"Why didn't we hear an "ish" before now?" Frankie asked rather loudly.

Cisco looked at them like they had two heads and said. "Well, come on, it's gotta be believable, so they really do fire and explode things." Matt looked like Cisco was the one with two heads now… both of them clearly not thinking clearly in his thoughts. The native engineer turned to The Flash. "And you are going to have to let her hit you with those blasts when she gets the hang of it."

Olivia looked to her husband and leant to his ear. "You might wanna help her with this, Matt."

"That was my plan to begin with." He assured his wife.

Joe looked up in disbelief at them all and asked out loud. "Who exactly came up with this terrible idea?"

Caitlin glanced at the Scarlet Speedster himself from the corner of her eye. She knew that if this went sideways, if could very well spell Linda's death. But that fact does not appear to dawn on the Flash whose mind is dead set on the terror that is Zoom.

"Okay, it's not a terrible idea." Cisco stated adamantly to them. "The suit can absorb the blasts."

"For real or ish?" Iris asked both Cisco and Matt.

Frankie then asked the native engineer. "What does a terrible idea look like to you, Cisco? I know my Uncle Matt's feelings on this."

Linda looked curiously to him and the nanite mutant saw the gaze from the reporter. He then explained. "I tweaked them so your body can handle the blasts. I have a bit more experience with fighting with lasers, so to speak."

"Okay, you know what? I like to think I can see the bright side of things, okay?" Cisco told them all.

"Pun intended?" Matt wondered with his finger pointing at the sport reporter's gloves. The native engineer glared at him. He looked to Linda again. "Don't worry, we'll be there and help you all the way, Linda."

"Thanks." Linda said and breathed out. "I'm ready. I guess."

They all nodded to her. Joe and Olivia walked to the platform where Iris, Harry and Cisco were residing. Caitlin and Frankie stood in front of the platform. Ready to jump in at a moment's notice if anyone were to get hurt. The doctor however was given a tablet by Cisco before walking after the others.

Matt and Barry were the ones to walk beside Linda. "All right. All right." The Flash said with his vibrating voice. They stood in front of a series of various figures of people from the team. "So just hit the ones of me, okay?"

"Got it." Linda said. Her ears perked up at the sound of a large mass moving around quickly behind her. She turned around and widened her eyes at the source. Matt's entire form was being enveloped by nanites that attached together and formed the Iron Knight suit. "You're Iron Knight?!" she screamed out in shock.

"That I am." He said after removing his helmet. Feeling the eyes of his other friends on his form, he told them. "She trusts us with her life, I'm gonna trust her with a secret. And this way," he clenched his hands and the repulsors shined. "you have a professional on your side to show you the ropes."

"Cool." She said impressively and stepped forward. Linda began flexing her body, relaxing her muscles as she looked at the gathering of targets before her. "Doctor Light." She muttered to herself before exhaling deeply. Raising her hands, she then uncurled her fingers.

She lashed out her right hand. "Oh!" Linda gasped when feeling a powerful recoil from the fired blast. "Oh!" Another fired out of her left hand, penetrating a hole in the figure of Cisco in middle of his torso. "Oh!" She then blasted a shoulder off Joe's figure. "Oh!" She then blasted a hole into a figure of Caitlin. "Oh!" Finally she shot the head off Mat's figure. The individual blasts pushed her further back till she was pushed into the front of the speedster.

"Uh, what the hell was that about?" Olivia called out in shock.

Matt walked over to the reporter and formed his mask again. Using his HUD screen he ran his scanners over the gloves. He groaned and turned to Cisco. "Cisco, you calibrated them so _I_ could use them and for my body, not for Linda."

"Sorry." Cisco apologized and sheepishly threw a screwdriver to the nanite mutant. "Think you can fix it pal? You're a bit closer to it."

"Sure." He said and turned to the reporter. Taking her hands, he took the tool and used it on the gloves. "Just a bit of adjusting."

"Okay, so, um, do the opposite of that, and we'll have it." Barry sheepishly told Linda.

Matt saw Linda's unsure face. "Want me to give a demonstration?"

"Yeah, just something simple. Don't show-off, okay?" Linda begged him.

The nanite mutant chuckled and walked forward. Without putting on his helmet, he raised his hand and uncurled his fingers slowly. Pointing his repulsor at the figure of his wife, energy gathered into it and then he flexed the appendage. The energy blast responded to his action and was fired off. It tore into the figure of his wife and burned it to ashes.

He turned around to face Linda. "All in the wrist, Linda girl. Just relax your entire body and flex your hand with a clear and body. And try not to shoot any of us." He failed to notice the sea of stunned looks on the faces of his friends and family. "What?"

"You just shot a figure of your wife? Your _wife_?" Linda asked in shock, repeating the word for empathize.

"Babe." He looked to his wife. "Shoot the rest of my figures, please. I'll be able to sleep better at night without those things on God's green earth."

"Deal." He agreed and turned to Linda. "And Linda, you're gonna help me with it."

Linda knew that this was gonna be one nasty workout.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

And what a workout it definitely turned into.

Linda was to ensure the safety of the non-Flash figures. But it did prove to have its problems, such as Linda's hand catching on fire once. And accidently shooting the guys on the platform… more than once.

Sometimes she did manage to successfully shoot a Flash figure, and the success would cause her to shoot up her arms in happiness, accidently leading to shooting Matt… a dozens of times.

Because of her less-than-stellar success rate, the team went back to the Cortex to rendezvous and talk about strategy.

Caitlin was the first one to voice her thoughts as she entered the Cortex. "Okay, no offense to Linda, but there is no way she can pull this off."

Harry cleared his throat. "Well, maybe if she didn't scream every time she fired."

"Or accidently shoot my husband like he's a frigging target circle." Olivia stated. Her husband walked in after her and took off his Arc Reactor. "Think you can get it ready for deployment soon?"

"Just needs TLC and she's back to her usual beauty. Just need an hour or so." Matt said as he walked over to the private lab to retrieve a few tools.

"Yeah, Linda had a rocky start, but she can pull this off. I know she can." Barry said as he was no longer wearing his Flash suit and put on his jacket. He turned to Cisco and asked, "All right, did you find someplace near a breach where we don't have to worry about civilians getting in the way?"

Cisco nodded, "Yeah, there's a place by the docks that's usually deserted at night."

"Awesome." Barry was still set on the plan of using Linda as a Doctor Light lure for Zoom. "How are we doing with the speed-dampener?" he directed at Wells and Caitlin.

"My tests indicate that it should work." Caitlin doubtfully said while her eyes looked to the side where her daughter stood.

"It will work." Harry adamantly said with confidence. "I'll tune up Ramon and Stark's gloves, make sure they work better." He went to work.

"Okay, great." Barry stated happily at what he just heard and walked around the main console to reach the exit.

Olivia looked in disbelief as did her niece who looked to her mother. "Hey, are we actually gonna go through with this?"

"Yeah, we're doing this, Frankie." Barry told her and Joe crossed his arms in disapproval behind him. "I'm gonna have Iris get Linda ready." He walked away.

Olivia saw the disapproving expressions on the faces of the other natives, including the shocking face on her niece's face. She scoffed and turned to Joe. "Joe, you might wanna go and talk to that Speed-Freak of a son of yours."

Joe didn't wear a single emotion for a few moments. But he did agree with the psychic and said so, "Yeah, I'll go talk to him." He walked after his son.

Frankie turned to her aunt. "Think this is a good idea, Auntie?"

"Honestly, Frankie. I have no idea." Olivia spoke honestly. "None of us have ever faced Zoom, and yeah me and your uncle have fought speedsters in the past, but they're nothing like the ones of this universe."

"What do you mean by that, Liv?" Cisco asked her curiously.

Matt heard the question and listened while his wife answered. "Unlike the speedsters we know from our universe, the ones here tap into the Speed Force. I don't really understand it all too well, but it gives them more power than the ones we face." Olivia said. "The ones in our universe are usually beings that got their powers from The X-Gene or something else inside of them. Maybe even artificially giving themselves speedster powers."

"So it's not pure?" Caitlin wondered.

"Good question. But who can say that the Speed Force is pure, for that matter?" Olivia continued. "Let's just hope this plan doesn't bite us in the ass. A lot of Barry's plans does that."

Cisco looked at her with a gulp swallowed. "You know… you guys could ease off him, a bit."

"No chance in hell, Cisco." Olivia stated determinedly with hate in her eyes. "Not after what he did." Her hands clenched as did the hands of her both her husband and her niece….

… even Caitlin's hands clenched as well…

X

Barry pressed the button on the elevator. When the slide doors opened up, he walked into the elevator itself with his right hand pressing the button for the elevator to go down.

"Barry, hold up."

He turned around and saw Joe sprinting after him and getting into the elevator. "Hey, what?" The speedster asked him curiously.

Joe gestured to the internals of the facility again while the doors closed. "You saw what happened in there. Linda's not ready."

"She is. She's ready enough." Barry surely said.

The detective saw a haste sparking inside his son. Like he was trying to force a flame to be ignited through intense measures. "Why are you pushing this?"

The speedster was in disbelief from hearing that question. "What… why do you think? I want to get him."

"Get who, exactly?" Joe quickly asked.

"Is that a real question?" Barry asked him with narrowed eyes.

"You tell me." Joe stated and saw his adoptive son shaking in disbelief. "I'm… I'm not sure this is even about Zoom. I'm starting to feel like you're still chasing the Reverse Flash."

Leaning against the elevator wall, Barry reminded him. "Reverse Flash is dead."

"Yeah, but after all he did to you, you weren't the one that stopped him." Joe told him.

Stuttering his response, Barry said. "W-We all worked together."

This time, Joe reminded him. "Yeah, and Eddie got him in the end." Barry leant his head against the wall as his adoptive father continued. "I mean, did that make you feel cheated, like you didn't get your revenge… Seth did with Carnage…" the speedster widened his eyes. "And stopping Zoom is the next best thing?"

At the mention of Seth Fury's name, Barry gained a darkened and saddened look while the elevator reached the right floor. The doors opened and Joe told his adoptive son. "Look, all I'm saying is, if you're gonna ask people like Linda, to risk their lives, you better be sure of exactly why they're doing it."

The doors closed as Barry walked away from the lift. But the question stuck in his mind, was he doing it because he subconsciously felt cheated as he wasn't the one to deliver the finishing blow to his arch-nemesis. That honor was reserved to Eddie Thawne.

And he wasn't like Seth who delivered the final blow himself to the man who tormented his life.

X

After a while, the group had separated and went to do their own tasks. They had to be ready for the trap that was gonna be set tonight. Ready to take on Zoom. Cisco and Harry were seated in the workshop and working on various items.

Harry worked on the Light gloves and Cisco was fine-tuning some programs on the computers.

Thinking back to his task given to him by the detective, Cisco turned an eye to the scientist from Earth-2. The answers for them to find, the missing pieces of the puzzle… he had to find them.

He got up from his chair and walked over to Harrison. While the otherworldly scientist kept his eyes on the gloves he was working on, Cisco told him in a calm tone. "Listen, I just want to bury the hatchet and say…" he extended his hand to the scientist' "thank you for all your work."

"You're welcome." Harry replied monotonously.

"Okay." Cisco withdrew his hand. He had a feeling that the scientist from the other world wouldn't come into contact with the vibing metahuman. Harry removed the screwdriver form the gloves and sighed. Cisco looked to the other end of the cart and saw a can of oil.

An idea sparked in his head. Taking it in his hand, he unscrewed the lid and suggested helpfully. "I think maybe the trigger mechanisms are just sticking."

"It's not the trigger mechanisms." Harry told him while Cisco leant over with the can of oil. The two began bickering back and forth in an argument.

"It's just a little bit of oil." Cisco said and was accidently pushed by the scientist and it caused oil to spill over the device. Harry recoiled his hands and sighed in enclosed anger. "Ugh, I'm just gonna clean this up really quick." He placed his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Do not touch me." His hand was pushed away instantly when Harry shot up to his feet.

"I'm just trying to help." Cisco defended himself and he was pushed back. His hand accidently pushing the can of oil and spilling more oil on the table. Both men went to wipe the oil away with a cloth.

But Cisco's hand accidently touched Harry's hand… and then it happened again in a series of flashing lights… another clearer vibe…

X

_Cisco found himself in… a forest. _

_He didn't have to look around as his field of vision was already covered by an ocean of sky tower-like trees. _

_His attention was diverted from the trees when he heard a panting and gasping voice… he turned around and saw a young woman running. Short light brown hair swinging around in the air as she was running hastily in escape._

_Cisco saw her running through the forest and she then began to sob uncontrollably as she rushed through the branches and trees. Leaves falling on her body as her hastily movements rustled the trees and their limbs._

_She tripped on a root and looked up, Cisco followed the direction and widened his eyes as did hers._

_A pitch-black figure walked over to her while the lapis lightning continued to course over each inch of his black and grey suit. A black symbol with a reversed lightning bolt on his chest. Black eyes locked onto the form of the girl. His scarecrow-like masked face breathing out menacingly._

_"**You will never escape from me.**" He said to the downed girl. Cisco knew that this must be Zoom. Jay was right, he truly looked like death, like a demon. "**I know Wells went to the other Earth.**" He twitched his head around. "**Why?**"_

"_I don't know, I swear._" _She sobbed out her answer she crawled backwards to escape whatever wrath he had in store for her. Cisco looked horrified and didn't dare to imagine the hell this monster could bring forth with his hands along._

_Zoom groaned. "Your loyalty is admirable…. Jesse." He raised his claws._

_Jesse opened her mouth and screamed out in terror as she feared the claw was about to be brought down on her._

X

The scream echoing from Jesse was the last thing remains of the vibe that Cisco registered.

Harrison didn't appear to recognize the gaped mouth and wide eyes of shock as the aftermath of a vibe on Cisco's face. He merely thought the expression was a result of the accident that was clearly his fault.

As Harry was wiping his hands, Cisco looked to him apologetically. "I'm sorry." He walked away from the scientist who threw down the cloth after having wiped his hands clean of the oil before returning to his work again.

Cisco had a curious look on his face as he continued to watch the man himself.

X

The time had come.

The time to capture Zoom. Everyone had taken their place. The two mutants suited in their suits and hovering in the air above the docks and looking down at the docks themselves. Iron Knight turned his eyes to the rooftop of a ship and saw Harry on his stomach with a special rifle. His fingers ready to pull the trigger and fire the speed-dampener.

Angel Fury looked around and saw Joe beside the scientist from the other world, wielding the same type of weapon with the same type of dampener. "Looks like mission's a go" she muttered loud enough for the others to hear her via the comms device.

"Yeah. When you guys are ready." Matt followed up.

"I'm here to kill The Flash, and no one can stop me!" "Doctor Light" exclaimed loudly as she impersonated her villainous doppelganger and walked around. She quickly put her fingers to the side of her mask and asked the team. "How's that?"

"_Uh, it's a little too much. Uh, stop messing with the earpiece._" Cisco offered his notes back in The Cortex.

"_Yeah, you don't want to dislodge it._" Caitlin followed up as she, Iris, Frankie and Cisco.

"_And don't accidently shoot off your own head, okay? Gonna be one mess to clean up._" Frankie jokingly added.

"Right, you… you told me that. I'm sorry." Linda apologized.

Matt and Olivia were listening on their conversations from above and both couldn't believe how much she was sounding like Seth. "It's kinda worrying that she's so much like Bro."

"She's a mini-Seth in pink." Matt chuckled. He rubbed the back of his helmet his armored right hand. "I feel weird talking about him when he's not here. I hate it actually."

"Knowing him, he wouldn't mind it. It's okay to miss him… but it's goddamn hard moving on." Olivia admitted.

"Yeah." Matt added his own thoughts. "But I think he'd be proud of us now."

Olivia looked to him. "Until we give Frankie permission to date, then he's gonna haunt our asses till kingdom come."

"…_You're doing great, Linda…_" they heard Iris tell Linda.

Matt got a notification from Cisco. "And enter the hero."

x

_WHOOSH_

Entering in a flash of yellow lightning, The Flash came and stood in front of "Doctor Light". He made eye contact with her. "All right, Doctor Light, here I am." The two of them began walking around in a circular motion. "But we're gonna skip the part where you say you're gonna kill me and go right to the part where I don't let you."

"I'm here to kill you, Flash." Came the response from "Doctor Light". Linda lowered her voice and whispered loudly for the speedster to hear her only. "Wait, what are you doing? We're skipping that?"

"Yes." Barry whispered back just as loudly.

As she walked, Linda had to recall her lines and said. "Uh, I am loyal to Zoom, so get ready to fry." She threatened.

X

"Okay, who the hell wrote these lines?" Olivia exclaimed.

"_Yeah, right. Next time we're doing this, I'm writing better dialogue._" Cisco spoke from the Cortex.

"""_Next time?""_" came the united shocked response of both Caitlin, Iris and Frankie beside the native engineer.

"I sure as hell hope there's not a gonna be a next time. Cause one of these is enough for this guy." Matt remarked while he turned his attention back to the fight underneath him.

X

A light blast was shot out of "Doctor Light's" hand and missed The Flash. It connected with a small warehouse behind them.

The speedster turned to the reporter dressing as her villainous doppelganger. Lina shook her hands, showing her shining palms to him as though there was a wordless message to be shown. Realizing what she meant, he emitted a groan of pain and fell down to the ground as though he was hit by the blast of light. "Oh!" Barry exclaimed.

"Gotcha." Linda smirked while impersonating her doppelganger.

"Yeah, you did." The Flash mimicked a pained voice like he was experiencing the pain of the beam.

"Real good." "Doctor Light" said with a smirk.

"All right. Ugh." Barry got up again while mimicking a grunt of pain.

"Bring it on." She challenged him with her hands beckoning him to her.

Greatly reducing his speed, he sped to him. "Doctor Light" lashed out her hands and fired another beam of starlight. It connected with his shoulder and he groaned in pain. Another beam connected with his other shoulder.

But as The Flash neared her, Linda spun around and fired another laser of light into his back. He groaned once again in pain and was brought down to his knees. "Doctor Light" smirked and watched as the yellow lightning continued to course over his being.

She watched as The Flash was brought down to his back. Smiling evilly, as best as she could, she walked to him. "Told you, Zoom always wins." Bending down to the speedster's form, she yanked the emblem off his chest. Worry came over Linda and she leant to him and asked. "You're okay, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. I had to make it look good." He told her and resumed his dead faint.

Linda nodded and got up again, she walked to closer to the transparent form of the breach and talked into it. "Here it is, Zoom, I did what you wanted. Now bring me home!" she called out and threw the emblem into the breach.

As the emblem passed through the breach, everyone around it saw the breach take on its real form. A swirling energy mass resembling a smaller version of the one that they've seen underneath S.T.A.R. Labs.

But now… they all waited with bated breath… afraid to even blink… because they knew that a speedster could cause havoc in that same span.

…

…

However, they all expected to see a speedster with a face of death… an unstoppable demon with the abilities to steal another speedster's speed. Alas… they got none… so far… for an hour of waiting.

Harry and Joe removed their eyes from their scopes for a few moments and watched the breach, expecting to see a speedster erupting out of it like lava from a volcano. "Come on. Come on. Come on." The otherworldly scientist chanted.

Liv and Matt kept themselves airborne and had their weapons ready. One wielding a razor whip, the other wielding shining repulsors. The nanite mutant turned to the psychic. "What's going on? This is everything he wants, right?"

"Yeah, why else would he be sending metas like they're fan mail?" The psychic rhetorically replied.

"Hey, stop fidgeting." Linda scolded Barry when she saw him moving around, as he was supposed to play dead.

Barry returned to his dead fainted position. "Sorry, it's been an hour. I landed in a ridiculous position, and my foot fell asleep."

"_He's probably waiting to see if you're really dead. Any minute now, he's gonna strike._" The mutants heard Cisco suggest through the comms.

Matt put his finger on his comms device. "Cisco, he's a speedster. An hour for a speedster is like an eternity."

"_Oh yeah, good point._" Cisco said back agreeingly.

He wasn't the only one to agree with those words. Barry sighed and got up from the ground. "No."

Harry and Joe took their weapons back and the mutants lowered themselves closer to the ground as they knew that the plan had failed. Linda felt guilty and walked over to the speedster. "Sorry, I probably screwed up somehow." She said out so everyone could hear her.

"You did great, Linda." Olivia told the doppelganger of the villainous metahuman as she landed on the ground.

Matt walked over to the sports reporter with his wife. The detective walked to his adoptive son who took off his cowl. Harrison was wearing an angry expression and with the back of his rifle, he began pushing things off the crates to the ground. Joe turned to Barry. "So Wells ain't taking this well."

Barry hummed. "Mm-hmm."

"How about you?" Joe asked the speedster.

"Yeah, it just sucks, you know." Barry defeatedly said. He looked back saw that Linda, Harrison, and the two mutants had gone away. "You were right, a little bit, about this not being just about Zoom… about it being about the Reverse Flash."

"Okay." Joe was right.

"But not for the reason that you think, not because I didn't beat him." Barry revealed everything. "It's… Wells… he said something to me on that video before he confessed to my mom's murder. He said that even if he was dead, that he still won because I wasn't happy, that I'd never really be happy."

"How the hell would he know?" Joe inquired.

"He knew me. He knows future me." Barry reminded of his origin yet to be, or to never be again.

"That's future you. This is the you here and now." Joe gestured to the speedster.

"I still think that Wells is right. Ever since I went back to that night and I didn't save her… I didn't save my mom, I just… there's just been this void in me. You know, I just feel like that is always gonna be there." Barry gained a saddened expression. "For better or worse, Wells… He knew me."

"Better than I know you?" Joe asked with a small smile. "He may have stalked you for 15 years, but I raised you. Look, Wells said what he said to you to mess with you, to get in your head one last time. If you listen to him, you let him win."

"I know. I don't want that." Barry told him.

"You're responsible for your own happiness, Barry. Forget about Wells. Think hard about what you want and what makes you happy. Go out and get it. Simple as that." Joe told him. "All right?"

"Yeah."

The detective stepped back and crossed his arms and gained a stern look. "But I feel like there's something else going on Barry, what's it about? Like there's something more going on with you? What is it?"

Barry chuckled. "You really are a master detective."

"Well, takes years and years to be good as me." The detective bragged.

"You know, I heal fast, right?" Joe looked confused to hear that well-known fact about speedsters. He turned his eyes to him. "You don't. But still, you rush into every fight there is in the city. Metahumans or not, you're always there, Joe. Against metas, against things like Atom Smasher, you're still there to fight them no matter what."

"I'm a cop." Joe felt like he had to remind his adoptive son. "It's in my job description."

With a shaking of his head, Barry disagreed. "Yeah, not fighting against things like these metas of Zoom's… that's definitely not in in your job description. That's my job. Seriously, your whole task force that day could have been killed by Atom Smasher. We were lucky more people weren't hurt."

"It wasn't luck, Barry. Not that day. You were there. Matt was there. Even Frankie was there." Joe told him after fastening the strap of the rifle. "The three of you were there to protect them."

"You just don't get it." Barry scoffed and watched as an inquiring look came over the detective's face. With a gesture of his hands, gesturing to the docks, the city itself even, he continued. "_I_ am the reason that all these people have been in danger, in harm's way ever since the Singularity opened up in the skies. All the people that the metahumans have killed since getting here… they did it for me, to get to me. I've put them all in danger, again."

He looked around with a guilty look. "Ronnie and Eddie? They're dead. Because of me. And Seth too… he's dead because of me. The city praised me, and even gave me, _me_, a key to it. Because they think I saved this city. But I didn't. Eddie stopped Wells. Ronnie and Seth stopped the Singularity. Those three… were the heroes of this city, and they didn't deserve to die, not because of my mistakes, my greed."

He turned to face his adoptive father again, this time tears stinging his eyes and wetting the surfaces of his eyes. "Iris was a fiancée… and she never even got the chance to be married to Eddie. Everybody close to me, old and… new…" Joe widened his eyes. "ends up either, hurt, heart-broken or dead."

"Olivia lost her brother because of me. Matt lost his best friend because of me. And Frankie… like Matt said, I'm no better than Thawne. Just like he's the speedster responsible for ruining my life when he killed my mom, I'm the speedster responsible for running her life when she lost her father. Her, Olivia and Matt… they all hate me. And I don't think they're the only ones. Caitlin lost the love of her life. The guy who made her warm again. The guy who fought her, willing to risk his own life thousands of times for his loved ones and this city. The guy even took a sword through his heart and still kept fighting. Seth Fury was a friend of mine, a close friend, a real hero who swore to help me get my dad out of prison and back to me… and he still sacrificed himself because of me, because of my mistake." He looked at his adoptive father. "You must hate me a bit too for that, right? You lost your best friend because of me."

"I don't hate you, Barry. I will never hate you." Joe assured his son and cupped his face. "Remember what I said before? Seth and the others that day… they all made their choice of their own free will. They did that for this city, for you. And I don't know about Eddie or Ronnie, but Seth? I know he would really pissed at you for taking responsibility for his actions. He was a grown man, demon in his case, he can take the heat of his own choices."

"I know, but…"

"Stop." Joe interrupted. "Zoom sent these metahumans, yeah. But that's not on you. You can't take the blame of whatever any of the metahumans psychos says or does. That's on them." He saw the face still sour on his face. "Wanna know what you can do?"

"What?" Barry asked in hope, expecting an answer that was Joe-like.

"Keep fighting. All the sons of bitches that wanna rampage in our neighborhood, you stop them, in a flash." He quipped with a smile and managed to get his adoptive son to laugh as well. "Pun intended. But you do that, at every corner you run. And you keep running and get what makes you really happy… and don't let go of it." Joe smirked. "Cause that's what Seth did, and he didn't let go. Think you could learn from that guy."

The detective walked away. But he didn't even have to look at his son's face to know that a smile was forming on his face. One out of pure happiness. And that only led to a smile being formed on his own face. "_God, I miss you, Seth._" Joe had to admit in his thoughts with the rifle pushed against his shoulder.

X

**(Central City Picture News)**

After the disastrous plan of trying to capture Zoom with a well set trap, Linda returned to the newspaper publisher where she worked at. She felt absolutely responsible for this plan's failure. Even though the heroes of Central City, Barry and Matt, had revealed their identities to her… she felt like she had betrayed them, their trust.

She thought the sole reason behind Zoom never arriving was her horrific acting as her villainous lookalike. "It's not good to be bad." Linda Park muttered to herself in a chuckle. Her head perked up when the sound of clattering bottles reached her ears.

She laughed softly when seeing Iris walking over to her with a pair of beer bottles. "Hey." Came the greeting from her colleague.

Linda accepted the bottle. "I wish I could have kept the gloves at least."

Leaning against her colleague's desk, Iris asked curiously. "What would you have done with them?"

"Raves, duh." She and Iris laughed.

As the sports reporter drank from her beer, Iris's laughter fell, and she stated knowingly. "That is not what you were talking about."

Putting her bottle on the desk, Linda asked. "I was thinking about a lot of things. Like how everything that's happened to me the past few days is the best story I can never write."

"Ooh, tell me about it." Iris knew where she was coming from.

The two clanged their bottles and Linda asked seriously, but also inwardly worriedly. "Do you ever get used to it?"

Swallowing an intake of beer, Iris answered. "Keeping more than a few secrets that big? No."

"It's pretty heavy." Linda chuckled nervously. But Iris could see herself in Linda right now. There was more than nervousness under the surface of her. She saw that the events of the night were gonna feel like a new burden on her shoulders. One that the sports reporter would have to shoulder herself.

Getting up from her chair, she took her jacket off the back of her chair and admitted tiredly. "I need a good night's sleep." Iris chuckled while Linda took on her jacket. "I'm gonna heat out."

"I'll see you tomorrow." Iris bid her farewell before drinking from her beer again. Before the sports reporter walked out of the door, Iris called out to her. "Oh, hey, if we're gonna be Central City's heroes' sidekicks, we should probably join CrossFit or something, you know?" she joked.

"Oh, yeah, girl." Linda fastened the belt around her jacket as she joked.

"Yeah." Iris and Linda both flexed their arms like strongmen in a circus.

"Bye." Linda called out to her colleague as she pushed the door open. The door closed-

_WHOOSH_

A frightening form met her and stopped her from moving onwards to her home destination. The form of a demon with the face of death… riddled with blue lightning running over each part of his body. Linda gasped in fear as the speedster bent his head closer to her face.

Zoom growled in her face… and Linda imagined that death had reached her doorstep… for it was her time to be taken to the afterlife.

_WHOOSH_

And just as quickly, she was pulled away… in a flash.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

"Cisco here." Matt threw a new white Flash emblem to the native engineer. "Got it from your spare sets."

"Thanks, man." Cisco expressed his gratitude while he walked over to the Flash suit itself. Olivia watched the man attach the emblem to the chest plate of the suit. "There you go. It's like you think these things just grow on trees or something." He told the speedster.

"And we threw away the last one for nothing." Barry remarked in defeat.

Caitlin and Frankie were standing behind Harry who was watching the footage from the docks multiple times. After standing behind and watched his eyes go over the footage for a while now, the mother asked. "You've been going over this footage dozens of times."

"Everything went exactly according to plan." Frankie added shortly after her parent's words.

"**_Not exactly, Frankie._**" Magenta told her from within.

As if on cue, the otherworldly scientist stated in a monotone voice. "If it had, Zoom would have shown up."

"Maybe Light was wrong." Olivia suggested. But she schooled herself mentally and said. "No, she was right. Why else would they be pissing their pants so much whenever they hear his name."

"Yeah, you're right." Matt agreed with his wife and rubbed his chin. "Or maybe he can't see through the breaches. Or maybe it was the wrong breach. Speedster or not, he can't be everywhere at once."

"Or maybe he finally decided to give up." Barry suggested afterwards.

Harry didn't feel assured of these reasons. He felt his anger spike and felt his guilt diving deeper and deeper into his heart. He has to get Zoom no matter what. For Jesse… he had to do it.

To finally end the suffering that's she's been put through because of him.

A chime began emitting from the main console and the mutant looked to it. "Jarvis, what's going on?"

"**Appears to be an urgent call from Ms. Iris West.**" The AI informed them. "**Transmitting the call to Mr. Allen's phone.**"

Barry thanked him with a nod and took out his phone as it began vibrating. Putting it to his hear, he replied to Iris. "Hey." He heard her distressful words. "Iris, slow down. I can't understand you."

A bad feeling spread within the pits of the two mutants. Both of them holding their armors to their chests in case of emergencies. They then heard Harry's watch beeping loudly, his metahuman alert app. Another alarm beeped from the computers.

Cisco and Matt shot to it and checked it. "Zoom has Linda." Barry informed them.

"He's on the roof." Cisco stated.

_WHOOSH_

Barry disappeared in a flash and put on his suit.

Matt turned to his niece. "Frankie, you stay here. I mean it." Frankie nodded to her uncle's orders. He turned to his wife and saw the nanites form her suit. "Let's go, Angel."

"Right behind you, Knight." The psychic replied as the nanites on his body attached to his body and formed his armor.

The two flew out of the Cortex through the skylight and into the air with incredible speed.

X

Barry was the first one to arrive on the scene on the facility's roof. He saw the sight on the roof, the menacing form with blue lightning sparking all over the pitch-black speedster's form, holding onto the fragile and terrified form of Linda Park. A dark and ominous chuckle came from his scarecrow-like mouth.

"Put her down." The Flash told Zoom.

"**You like to fish with bait?**" Zoom started. "**I do too.**" With a lightning fast movement, he twisted her around and held Linda up with a single hand. Holding her over the edge of the roof and making his point very clear. The gasps and whimpering from her mouth did not reach the psychotic mind of the pitch-black speedster.

The Flash watched Zoom hold her and though a smirk formed on his mouth, invisible to the eyes of the many… right before… he released his grip on Linda.

_SCREAM_

Her screams reached the high heavens as she was falling through the air.

Barry sprang into action, speeding down the side of the facility and lashed his arms upwards. He spun them around with lightning fast speed and formed two wind funnels and connected with the woman's form. "Come on. Come on." The wind funnel decreased the force of her fall and she fell into his arms.

Iron Knight landed on the ground with a clang and the psychic touched down next. Angel Fury turned to Linda who was being brought down to the ground. "Linda, get out of here. We'll take care of this."

Linda was shaking her head in disagreement. "No, you guys can't fight that thing. It's a monster."

The nanite mutant faced her. "So are we. Go!" he exclaimed to the sports reporter who ran away from them.

The sound of wind whooshing caught their attention and made the three heroes face the direction of it. Walking and speeding closer till they all stood in front of Zoom, they made eye contact with him.

"So you're Zoom? Gotta admit I'm not impressed." The nanite mutant spoke his thoughts.

"**Who… are you?**" he growled his question.

"Name's Iron Knight." He introduced himself.

"And my name's Angel Fury." The psychic stated her own name.

Zoom faced her. "**Angel, huh? Gonna be fun to pluck off your wings.**"

Behind her mask, Olivia showed a wicked smile. "Trust me. I'm not that innocent and easy to deal with. I'm a whole lot tougher than that."

"**We… will see about that.**" Zoom growled menacingly.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

"Zoom cannot be human." Caitlin remarked in fear of the pitch-black speedster who was facing the two mutant heroes on the live camera footage.

"He is… or was." Harry said as he also watched the footage.

"How the hell are they gonna defeat that?" Cisco worriedly asked.

"Uncle Matt and Aunt Liv can defeat him." Frankie stated honestly. "_I hope…_" she thought to herself with a growing wave of soothing emotions.

X

Barry stepped backwards a few steps behind the mutants. Iron Knight turned his gaze to the Scarlet Speedster. "Really lousy time to be running away, Flash."

"You forget, Knight." The Flash smirked. "Running is what I do best." With those words escaping his mouth, the Flash ran away and around in very large circle movement.

"So that's his plan." Matt muttered in realization as the light of his yellow lightning touched the reflective surface of his armor. "Not bad."

"What's his plan, exactly?" Olivia wondered while her entire form was being enveloped with her psychic energy. "Running around scared with his pants shaking?"

"Can't believe I'm saying this now, but he's not scared." Knight turned to his wife again. "As Cisco would say, he's gonna thunderbolt him."

"Toss lightning huh?" Olivia realized and saw the pitch-black speedster still standing there. "What's our plan then? Wait and let Speed-Freak take him on?"

"No, not this time." Matt cracked his fingers and flexed his hands, more nanites swarmed over his limbs and his. As they adapted to his arms, they formed into long semi-circular blades with repulsor energy shining through them both. "While he charges up a spark, we're gonna kill this fucking speedster."

Angel Fury smirked happily at the answer and used her powers to take out her razor whip. "Perfect." She pressed the button, unleashing the adamantium whip and watched as it cracked into the ground with a loud whipping sound.

Zoom's face was touched by the bright lights emitting from the yellow lightning on the other speedster, but he was focused on the two other heroes in front of him. "**Bring it.**"

Iron Knight jumped and flew forward with the thrusters on his back blazing. Nearing the pitch-black speedster, he swung his right blade for Zoom's head. But in a quick blue flash, the pitch-black speedster stepped out of the blade's reach.

Matt was momentarily surprised by his action and swung his other arm for the metahuman. The pitch-black speedster used his black claws to grab the large blade. Iron Knight made eye contact with the speedster, both of their heads close enough to each other, close enough that their foreheads were about to touch.

The mutant opened the palm of his right hand and fired a blast of repulsor energy into the side of his body. Zoom's hands were released from the blades and the speedster heard a cracking sound again. He turned around and saw the razor whip coming his way.

Speeding out of the way, he dodged the whip as well as another series of repulsor blades from the armored hero. Zoom stopped and sped forward. Knight looked around and saw that Zoom had disappeared again. "Where are you, Zoom?"

"Knight, behind you!"

Hearing his wife's call, his thrusters on both hands and feet blazed, launching the armored mutant into the air. With a spun, Matt saw the evil metahuman there and the shoulder pads opened, allowing path for his missile launchers to fire missiles.

All of the missile came flying and Zoom saw them coming, but only in slow motion in his eyes. Jumping into the air, he grabbed them both and twirling the air, he threw them back into the armored hero's body. An explosion shooting him far into the air and down on the street behind the gate.

"Knight!" Angel Fury screamed.

Zoom turned to face the female hero. "**Your turn.**"

She saw red and lashed out her whip, swinging it for him. But he grabbed the whip by the tip of it and yanked on it. However, Olivia's hand was strengthened by the powers of her psychic powers. Her entire form was enveloped by her energetic aura before she concentrated a sphere of psychic energy in her left hand.

Thrusting it out, she tossed the psychic blast at the pitch-black speedster. But the metahuman released his hold on the metallic whip and let go of it, with both of his hands free he dodged the blast.

The speedster gathered a large amount of blue lightning and he sped forward to meet the psychic. Angel Fury crossed her arms over each other and increased the psychic energy in them. Launching his fist forward, Zoom slammed into the woman's arms and the force pushed her back a few feet.

Olivia jumped into the air and retracted her whip with a spin of her body while airborne. She landed on the ground and slammed her hands together, forming a dozen of small psychic spheres around her conjoined hands. Disconnecting them from each other, and with a wave of her hands, she shot the spheres forward at the speedster.

Zoom sped around in a circle and dodged the small orbs before coming near the psychic. Before she could even notice it, he slammed his foot into her stomach and launched her off the ground. And sent her rolling on the ground.

The pitch-black speedster was about to move and finish the downed woman. But stopped when seeing the ring of yellow lightning around the facility vanishing and saw The Flash stopping himself and threw out his hands, the lightning he generated latched on his limbs before being launched in his direction.

Resisting the urge to chuckle, Zoom sped forward again to meet the lightning bolt. He jumped into the air and spun above the bolt…. His hand stretching down to the bolt…

And wrapped around it… and as he straightened himself up, like a javelin… he threw the lightning bolt right back at The Flash with a growl. Barry was hurled off his feet from the force of his own lightning attack, and he groaned when his body smashed into the sign behind him.

He was bounced off it and into the ground while Olivia got up on her feet again. "What the hell did I just see?"

The others heard her question and Cisco was the one to answer. "_Depends? Did you see him catch a bolt of lightning with his… demonic claws? Yeah, saw that._"

"Guess you were right Caity, this guy can catch whatever we throw at him, surprise or not." Olivia spoke into the comms devices again.

"_Kinda wish I was wrong. But Jay was right. Even with you and Matt out there with him, he cannot do this. None of them can._" Caitlin fearfully stated.

Looking to the speedster, Olivia called out. "Flash, get out of here! Let me and Iron Knight take care of this."

The Flash couldn't help but feel his mind retract to the times when the Furys have saved him from his own mistakes, or even fixed them. He couldn't let that happen again. Not after Seth sacrificed his life for this city and his family. "No." Barry called out to the psychic whilst he withdrew the speed-dampener from his suit's pocket on his thigh. "I'm gonna see if Wells' speed-dampening serum works."

"Not the best time to test that!" Angel Fury called out while she saw energy sparks coming from the other side of the gate. "_Get here soon, Matt._"

Barry walked closer to Zoom. "What do you want from me?"

"**Everything.**" Came the ominous response from the evil speedster.

"You want to be me? Is that it? You want to be a hero?" Barry asked.

Zoom chuckled villainously. "**Heroes… die.**"

"Only if you can catch them."

_WHOOSH_

Just as quickly Barry spoke his words, he sped away and ran up the side of the facility, with Zoom following him right behind him.

"Let's go!" Iron Knight said and the psychic nodded.

"Wait!"

But both of them stopped. Harry ran out of the door with the specialized rifle from before. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm telling you to not go after them!" Harry roared his answer to the psychic. "I have a shot, and you two are not gonna ruin it."

"Problem for later, after he's figured out how to fucking match Zoom's speed!" Olivia roared out to the otherworldly scientist.

"Sometimes I forget that Barry's a CSI scientist." Matt got their attention despite how he was looking directly upwards at the speedsters running up the side of roof pillar. "Right now, he's not gonna match it. Rather, he's gonna take it out altogether."

"Honey, I'm not a science nerd, explain so I can understand." Olivia told her husband.

"_Terminal velocity!_" they jumped at the sound of Cisco's booming voice in their heads when it traveled through the comms device. "_Yeah, I was listening to you guys talking. The highest velocity attainable by a falling object._"

"_Falling through the air?_" Caitlin asked the engineer.

Matt's mind sparked. "Freefall fight. Their drag force equals the downward force of gravity, making the net force zero, making it… equal velocities. That is genius." He had to admit.

"Yeah, then stay out of it!" Harry ran away to find a spot to shoot from.

"What do you think, Matt?" Olivia asked.

"We'll stay here and make sure that none of the end destroying this place." Matt said.

X

The two speedsters rushed up the pillar like speeding demons straight out of hell. Both of them reached the end of the pillar and was shot further up into the air from the combined forces of their running.

Barry swung his fist into the other speedster's face and pushed him away. While still falling through the air, The Flash got closer to Zoom, who swiped with his claws, scratching the hero's hand and pushing the speed-dampening dart away and let it spin in the air.

Zoom was met with another punch from the hero. But the force of the strike caused them both to spin uncontrollably. However, it was short-lived bliss because the pitch-black speedster wrapped his legs around the Scarlet Speedster.

As the force of their fall increased, Zoom managed to grab the speed-dampening dart in his hand… just as Zoom used Barry's body to cushion their fall… resulting in the Scarlet Speedster to throw up blood.

But Zoom wasn't done with him. Slamming both of his hands down on him, the pitch-black speedster forced him to his feet. Growling in The Flash's face, he unleashed a series of lightning charged fists into his body. One slamming into the face, another one came into his stomach. In a flash, he repeated the same attacks on the same spots.

Harry found it difficult to hit the evil speedster because of the speeding movements. Matt and Olivia gathered energy into their palms and fired at Zoom.

But underneath the thick black mask on his face, Zoom smirked and grabbed hold of the other speedster's body his neck and twirled him around. And used his body as a shield to take on the two energy attacks from the mutants.

Matt's, Olivia's and Harry's eyes widened in terror when they saw Barry's body take on the force of the energy attacks. And it was though the smile on the evil speedster's face became visible to them all through his cowl. Cold exhaled air came out of Zoom's mask as he reeled back a hand with lightning running through its claws.

_CRACK_

It was though the cracking sound… from Barry's spine… came before Zoom's hand connected with his back and broke his spine.

The mutants and Harry felt the sound of the cracked spine echoed through their heads and into their comms devices, allowing those in the facility to shiver at the sound themselves. Barry groans with pain that was unlike anything from this pain. The pain that brings him down to his back, allows causes him to hope that the pain is over

But Zoom was only getting started. He raised a hand high up and above to bring it through the hero's chest and embed his claws into his heart.

Alas, Harrison saw an opening and he took it. He pulled the trigger of his rifle and heard the dart flying through the air and making its way to Zoom.

However, despite how much they wished for it to be on their side… fate was a stickler for following the script it's given.

Zoom caught the dart with his hand and made eye contact with the scientist from his world. "**Never forget, I am the fastest man alive.**" With now two speed-dampening darts in his hands… he turned back to the downed hero and without hesitation, thrusted them both into his chest with no compassion whatsoever. And Barry felt his entire system within weaken.

Matt's HUD screen scanned the hero's body. "He's killing him!" Iron Knight gathered energy into his arc reactor in the middle of his chest and crossed his arms.

"Knight, hurry!" Olivia called out to him in urgency, fearing the speedster had actually run his last race.

Despite the shouts or attack preparation being heard, Zoom only faced Harrison Wells after yanking the darts from The Flash's chest. "**You're next.**"

"Get away from him!" Matt screamed and fired an unibeam at the evil speedster. The ground blew up in smoke and caused pieces of it to fall all over the area. Smoke disappeared and none of the speedsters were there to be found.

"Where the hell…"

"Zoom has him." Matt stated to his wife's short query with dismay in his voice.

X

None of the cars in traffic noticed the black blur with blue lighting trailing behind it as it ran past the dozens of vehicles.

But he eventually came to a stop…. Because Zoom had a plan to dismantle the heroic image of the Flash through the eyes of the media.

Speeding into Central City Picture News, wind blew up and caused papers on all desks to fall off as the pitch-black speedster slammed The Flash into the table on the other side of the establishment. All the employees turned to the sight of it with gaped mouths.

None of them, however, had widened their mouths as much as Iris West who saw the bloodied form of her best friend's form there. "Barry." She whispered horrified to be witness to that. To see the hero that have saved this city so many times from nigh destruction and so much more… no a bloody ragdoll in the clutches of a demon.

Many of her colleagues did not feel the same as her and saw this chance as a God-given scoop. They picked up their phones and cameras and turned them to face the two. Capturing the sight on footage and watching as the menacing speedster spoke all the while camera shutters clicked as photos of the event was captured.

"**Look at you your hero.**" Zoom held up the unconscious speedster with one hand. Cameras shutters clicked faster and faster to capture the bloodied form of The Flash, the hero of Central City. "**This man is no god. He is nothing!**"

The very hero who was now… before their eyes… turned to nothing.

Iris gasped as the evil speedster sped out of her workplace with Barry in his hand still.

X

He wasn't done. People still had to learn of what the hero of Central City was under the claws of Zoom. And so should the police that was willing entrust their city's safety to The Scarlet Speedster.

Speeding into Central City Police Department, Zoom ran up the stairs to the upper floor. His eyes looking down at the lobby of officers who noticed his menacing form and sudden intrusion. All of them pulling out their guns and training them on his form.

Amongst them were Patty Spivot and Joe West. The latter forming a horrific face equal to match that of his daughter. Unlike the others, he knew that it was his son underneath the mask. And in that state, he would not be able to catch a misfired speeding bullet, which could easily penetrate its way through the suit.

"**The days of The Flash protecting this city are over.**" Zoom once again held the speedster's bloody form to them all.

"No, hold your fire!" Joe screamed to his colleagues.

"Put him down." Patty called out to the evil speedster.

"**Now what will you do without your precious hero?**" He shook the hero speedster for empathy.

"Shoot that thing, now!" Captain Singh ordered his officers.

And so began… the gunfire…

_GUNFIRE_

_GUNFIRE_

_GUNFIRE_

_GUNFIRE_

A hailstorm of bullets flew through the air and went to touch the black speedster's form. But they came at him in slow motion, and with one hand alone, he plucked them all out of the air. The gunfire stopped when the officers found their magazines empty of ammunition.

Zoom, the speedster who didn't have a single scratch on his body, held his left hand and opened it… releasing the hundreds of bullets from his hand and let them fall down to the ground. Showing the officers the result of their futile attempt to hurt him. "**Nice try.**"

_WHOOSH_

An ominous dark feeling was left in the officers' stomachs when the menacing speedster sped out of the department… still with The Flash in his hand.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Olivia and Matt jumped down the skylight and turned to the guys at the console. "Bastard's too fast for us." The nanite mutant informed them.

"Where were you guys?" Cisco asked while Frankie rushed to her aunt's side and hugged her.

"I'm okay, honey. Don't worry." Olivia petted her niece's head while she looked to Cisco. "We tried following them, but that speedster's out of our league."

"Guess, all we can do is wait now." Caitlin said.

"Yeah." Matt nodded and called out lout to the AI. "Jarvis, scan everything you can, with anything you can. Right now!"

"**Affirmative, Mr. Stark.**" Jarvis replied and the monitors showed his progress.

"Anything?" Harry asked as he ran into the facility.

"No." Caitlin was the one to answer.

"Do you have him?" Harry directed to Cisco.

"No." came the response.

"We gotta go out again." Matt suggested to his wife, who nodded.

"**That will not be necessary, sir.**"

"Why not, Jarvis?" Olivia asked the AI.

_WHOOSH_

They all got their answer when Zoom sped into the Cortex in a storm of blue thunder and held The Flash in his hand. "Shit!" Matt exclaimed and aimed his ion cannons at the evil speedster. But he didn't blast a single time. A misfire could end up hurting Barry or his body could be used as a shield again like before.

"Frankie, get back!" Caitlin called out to her daughter. Reluctantly, Frankie agreed but she reformed both of her hands into blades.

Zoom turned to Harrison Wells. "**Harrison Wells, you thought you could defeat me with this?**" he forcefully pulled the cowl off Barry's face and his bloodied head hung. The evil speedster kept his claws at the collar of his suit.

"Put him down!" Olivia said and her energy wrapped around her fists, ready to engage in a close ranged fight.

"I made a mistake." Harry told Zoom.

"**Yes, a costly one.**" Zoom agreed and held The Flash's head closer to his own, looking deeply into his eyes with his own black pair. Barry gasped as he was brought back to the realm of consciousness, but only because a single claw of the other speedster's pierced his flesh.

Everyone around them watched the finger embedded into the side of his stomach. And then pulled out a second later.

Frankie's hands clenched again, this time her entire clothes shifting and turning into a different color.

Zoom looked deeper in the other speedster's face. "**Goodbye, Flash.**" He raised him higher up and prepared the next attack, one that would end his life once and for all. "**You, too, weren't fast enough.**"

"**Piss off!**"

Magenta leaped over the main console and swung her large jagged sword for Zoom. The speedster dodged the attack, but had to let go of The Flash with a throw. Putting distance between them and letting Magenta stand between them. "**You're not gonna kill anyone here!**" she sneered at him with an large and angry howl through her open maw.

"Frankie!" Caitlin shouted in dismay of her daughter entering the fray now.

However, even though his eyes were pitch-black and without any emotions at all, he widened his eyes with shock at the sight of the small pink demon. At a first glance, he thought he saw the familiar sight of the large elemental demon on his Earth. But as his gaze lingered on her, he could clearly see that this one was nothing like the one he's been facing on his home turf.

But she still caused him to feel shocked and he twitched his head around.

Harry was shocked to see Zoom paralyzed by shock, a sight he had never seen before. Cisco used that chance to walk behind Caitlin and Olivia. His head pointing to Matt and nodding a wordless response to him, the nanite mutant understood and let him proceed with his plan.

Zoom growled and said to the small demon. "**You… look like him.**"

"**You too? Who the hell do I look?!**" Magenta screamed in frustration.

But Zoom was unable to respond to the question because a stinging pain emitted from the side of his neck. While he pulled out the projectile stuck in his neck, he turned around and saw Cisco being the one to have fired the speed-dampening dart.

The enemy lost his balance and was forced down to the ground. Everyone saw the same and hoped for the same, that the evil speedster was down for good as a result of the serum's powers. But their hopes were misguided because Zoom sped back to his feet and ran out of the facility.

Harry looked horrified that Zoom was gone. "No." he rushed to the exit of the Cortex and screamed out. "NNNNNOOOOO!"

Caitlin rushed to Barry with Frankie as well, the young metahuman's symbiotic form retracting into her. Cisco followed as did Matt and Olivia with their masks opening up. "Stay with us. Stay with us, Barry." The doctor spoke softly to the downed speedster.

"Don't you die, Flash. Not now!" Matt called out to him.

But to the speedster himself, their voices drowned out… faded like echoes.

X

After a while, Barry had bene put on a gurney by Matt and is currently being treated by the doctor. Frankie was doing what she could to help out her mother with whatever she needed. Olivia watched beside Cisco, none of them able to help out with the medicinal whatsoever. Iris and Joe had been informed of the speedster's situation and came quickly to see the state of Barry Allen.

"This is all you!" Joe shouted into Harry's face. "If Barry dies, you die." Caitlin and Frankie turned to face the angry detective.

"Uncle Joe, stop!" Frankie called out to her uncle.

"Joe, Barry's vitals have been stabilized." Caitlin followed up. "Let's let him go."

"No, Caitlin." The detective dejected.

"Why? What good does that do for Barry?" Cisco pitched into the heated conversation.

"It's gonna help me." Joe growled like an animal.

"Dad, stop!" Iris stopped him.

"Joe, chill!" Matt added loudly when the detective pushed Harry into a wall.

"Joe, stop." Cisco put a hand on Joe's shoulder. He turned his face to look at Harry. "Who's Jesse?"

"How do…" Harry stopped and pushed Joe's hand away. "Jesse's my daughter." He put his hands on Cisco's shoulders. "Zoom has her. You've… you did vibe me."

"Yeah." Cisco nodded.

"What did you see in your vibe, Cisco?" Olivia asked wonderingly.

He faced the otherworldly scientist, "I saw your daughter. Running through a massive forest, running from Zoom." Cisco answered.

"But she's alive?" Harrison wanted confirmation of his daughter's well-being.

"Yeah." Cisco nodded and the scientist released his grab on him before stepping backwards.

Matt turned to Harry. "So what's deal, Wells? Zoom sent you here like the others under his thumb?"

"Kill The Flash, and you get your daughter back?" Olivia asked after her husband.

Harry faced the two mutants. "The only way I get my daughter back is, I capture Zoom. Do you understand?" He faced the detective. "You love Barry. Snow loves Frankie. I love my daughter." He growled his words after hitting the doorframe. "And none of these children are safe as long as Zoom is here. I tried on my Earth to capture him. I failed. I thought I could bring him down here with Barry's help."

The eyes of the many around him, pointed at him and he said. "I was wrong."

"Wait." Matt looked Cisco. "Cisco, vibe him again."

"He's not gonn-"

"You lost the right to make a choice when you decided to use us like pawns!" Matt interrupted him and Harry staged back in fear. He turned back to the native engineer. "Cisco, please."

"Okay." He inhaled deeply and raised his hand. Cisco saw the look on Harry's face but paid no attention to it and thrusted his hand forward.

He inhaled sharply as he felt the vibe coming… in flashing lights.

X

_He didn't know how or why… but he was brought back to the same sight as before. Watching Zoom about to bring down his fearsome claws down on Jesse, in the middle of this beautiful forest. Eager to dye the entire green forest red with her blood. _

_The sound of Jesse's frightening scream returned to Cisco's ears and his eyes registered the blue lightning running over the pitch-black demon's claws. He feared that he might have to remove his hand because he dreaded to see the image of her dying._

_"Knock knock!"_

_Zoom, Jesse and Cisco widened their eyes at the voice and their expanded further when a metal fist slammed into the side of the pitch-black speedster's face and pushed him off his feet and into a tree, away from Jesse._

_Cisco widened his eyes as though he recalled that familiar voice… but how… it couldn't be. He turned to Jesse again, seeing a smile on her face and then looked to the direction of the fist._

_A familiar… and most unbelievable form revealed itself. Standing tall before Jesse… with spiked brown hair stood proud and his blue eyes looked at Zoom and his mouth smirked._

_"**You!**" Zoom growled._

_Reeling his head back and rolling his eyes, he responded jokingly. "You're supposed to say, "Who's there?". Come on, Zoom!" _

_Seth… Fury spoke… as he has never been dead…_

X

In another series of flashing lights, the vibe ended, and Cisco was returned to his friends with a wide smile of happiness.

Everyone looked confused at the smile on his face. Caitlin saw his smile and walked over to him and got his attention by grabbing his shoulder. "Cisco, what's wrong? Are you okay? What did you see?"

"Caitlin!" Cisco abruptly hugged her tightly with his smile. "He's alive!"

"What?" Frankie asked in shock of the engineer hugging her mother.

Unwrapping his arms from Caitlin, Cisco quickly hugged Frankie, causing her to gasp in shock. "Frankie, he's alive!" he dislodged her arms and turned to the others with out thrusted arms. "Guys, he's alive!"

"Cisco." Matt stopped him and asked him. "Not that I don't mind the entire boost of joy and happiness in you like a drug, who the hell's alive?"

"Seth's alive!" Cisco exclaimed.

…

…

No one in the Cortex spoke. Harry didn't know what was going on. But he did witness an array of various emotions going through both the eyes and faces of the ones in the room. A few wearing mixed emotions. Others wearing confusion. Another wearing hate and rage.

"Cisco…" Olivia sneered. "That's… not… funny."

Matt then stated. "What kind of a joke is that, Cisco?"

"No, guys. I'm serious." The native engineer shouted again. "I just vibed Seth, he was with Jesse."

"Who is Seth and why is he with my daughter?" Harry stated his question.

"He's not. Seth's dead." Joe looked to Cisco. "Cisco, he is dead. It can't… be"

Frankie looked to him as well. "Cisco… are you sure? Is my… Is Dad really alive?" both she and Magenta looked hopefully. Their hearts even beating as hopefully as that, both hoping for the chance to see their fathers again.

"He is, Frankie." Cisco spoke honestly, and Magenta could hear it too. "I just saw him, guys." He faced everyone around him.

"But how?" Iris asked.

"I don't know, but he is." Cisco said. "I don't know how to make you guys believe. But Seth Fury is alive."

"There is a way." Matt received their attention and looked to his wife. "Livia, I know you hate it. But… if there is even a small chance of it… you can show it to us."

"I know." Olivia looked down at her pendant. She clutched it tightly and looked with cold dead eyes at Cisco. "If this is some kind of a cruel joke, Cisco. Then you will not like me very much after this."

"I promise you guys, I'm telling the truth. I saw Seth in my vibe." Cisco said adamantly.

"I hope so, for your sake." Olivia said.

"Guys be ready for a pulse." Matt's suit materialized from his reactor on his chest. His levitating ion cannons shot out and levitated over the heads of the natives. They shot out a beam that formed shields in front of their bodies.

"What's going on?" Iris asked, curious about the nanite mutant's actions.

"If Livia's telepathic powers are suppressed for a long time, and then released again, they unleash a pulse that pushes everything and everyone around them. Six months' long enough for everything here to be pushed." Matt explained. "Take it off."

Olivia nodded and yanked the necklace off her neck. The moment it did, her eyes shined with psychic energy and her body unleashed a pulse that pushed against the shields, the ones protecting her friends and family from harm. Blinking a few times, her eyes returned to their normal blue color.

"So your telepathy is back?" Frankie asked her aunt.

Matt looked curiously to Frankie's mother, while his ion cannons returned to his suit. He saw Caitlin wearing a shocked face. It looked she did not allow a single emotion cross her facial features, afraid to even show the single shred of happiness of what could possibly be the greatest news in her world… or perhaps the cruelest joke to ever been said out loud.

"Yeah, it is." Olivia said as she felt her head booming with the thoughts of the others flooding into her mind. "Let's go. Vibe him again."

"Alright." Vibe held his hand close to Harry's chest again.

"Livia, connect us all. We have to see this," Matt faced Caitlin and saw her gulp in fear. "All of us."

"I…" Caitlin Looked unsure, afraid to think this was real or not. That Seth could be alive. "I…"

"Caitlin." Olivia got her attention. "I don't know if this is true or not, but… we have to know about this. Even if there is the smallest, miniscule chance of Seth being alive again, we have to know about this. And my inhibitor is off right now, I can hear your thoughts right now. And you really don't want me to give your thoughts a voice."

She was right. Ever since she heard Cisco say that Seth might be alive… her heart began racing and her old thoughts of spending time with the man she loves again resurfaced with a vengeance unlike anything she's ever felt before. All other sounds vanished, and she felt the eyes of the others on her form. Fear creeped into her core because she felt as though her friends and family could hear her heartbeat…

… which was beating even more like a crazy bull in a rodeo…

Caitlin felt like her heart was trying to force its way out of her chest to prove to everyone around her that it was beating even without a body anchoring it. And right now… her thoughts increased because of her growing love and hope for see Seth again, and her heart… couldn't stop beating.

"Okay." Caitlin nodded. "Let's go, Liv."

Olivia smiled and turned to Cisco. Raising her hand to his head. Exhaling a few times, the psychic calmed herself and her hand on top of his head. Her hand lit up with psychic energy and unlike in the past, it easily entered his mind and latched onto it.

Her eyes sparked with more energy and she thrusted her head upwards, blasting a psychic wave out and hitting the minds of the others.

At the same time it did, Cisco's hand reconnected to Harry's chest… and this time all of them... felt it…

… the vibe…

X

_The flashing lights ended as quickly as they begun, and the entire group found themselves in a blurry forest, the same one that Cisco have vibed repeatedly. _

_"That was… freaky." Joe said._

_"And really, really weird." Iris said._

_Frankie looked around in confusion at the forest. "Where are we?"_

_"Earth-2, I'd say." Matt said with his eyes looking around their surroundings._

_"It is." Harry confirmed._

_"Yeah." Caitlin looked to Cisco. "Where is… Where is Seth?"_

_Olivia used her psychic powers to say their minds, "_Cisco, time to see if you were telling the truth._"_

_"Guys…" Joe got their attention again with his hand pointing to the other end of the tree and saw Zoom crouching by a tree, a damaged tree, the bark cracked from something hitting it. "Zoom's here."_

"_Come on, Jesse. Up you go._"

_They all turned to the sight on their other side and widened their eyes. Extending his hand to the downed young woman, they all saw the familiar sight of Seth Fury pulling Jesse Wells up to her feet again. "Seth…" Caitlin said longingly at the blurry version of the man she loves._

_"Daddy…" Frankie said just as longingly._

_They all saw Jesse look at Zoom and then back to Seth. "Sorry, I ran off." _

_"And?" Seth asked._

_"For doing it, again."_

_Seth crossed his arms. "And?"_

_Matt and Cisco couldn't help but chuckle as they saw a smile of mischief form on the elemental's face._

_Despite having been under Zoom's clutches in a long time, Wells saw Jesse huff with annoyance. "And thank you for saving me…?"_

_The elemental chuckled. "And?"_

_"Yeah, that's definitely Seth, all right." Joe couldn't help but laugh as well._

_"Oh my God, you're a pain in the ass." Jesse knew what he wanted to hear. "And I will listen to you from now on."_

_"There it is!" Seth clapped her shoulder and said. "Now get out of here, I'll take care of him." He casually pointed his thumb backwards at Zoom behind him._

_"Sure thing, be careful." Jesse worriedly warned him._

_But Seth waved off her concerns. "Nothing to worry about that, he's teddy bear on speed who's been dipped in tar repeatedly before taking an acid trip in a monster truck with one wheel."_

_"Sure… weirdo." Jesse stated before running off._

_"Weirdo? Really?" Seth rubbed his eyes, and everyone watched it. "I really hope I don't meet her father, cause that guy might need a fine-tuning of what parenting is." Harrison looked shocked to hear his words. Turning around to face the angry speedster, the elemental thrusted his arms out to the sides. "Zoom, where you been? You never call, you never write anymore, you don't even send cookies. Are we on a break? Are we seeing other people?"_

_"_Is he seriously acting like they're a broken-up couple?_"_ _Olivia asked them all._

_Caitlin laughed. "Yeah, that's him alright."_

_Zoom growled at him. "**You!**"_

_"Yeah, I'm a Santa Claus's bad replacement. And you're on the naughty list." Seth joked and walked around the trees. "You not gonna chase after Jesse? Expected a bit more, Zoom. You've gone soft." He clicked his tongue._

"**_I was expecting to find you again… Seth._**" _Zoom stated the mutant's name and the others looked shocked at that. Seth himself stopped. "**I've been to your Earth a bit now. It's gonna fun breaking it to pieces.**" He flexed with his claws. "**With my own two hands.**"_

_"You've been to my Earth?" Seth asked and laughed briefly. Shocking the evil speedster and the others seeing through the vibe. "Sucks for you, my people on that end. They're some of the toughest sons of bitches there is. And yeah, that goes double for my sister and my brother-in-law."_

_Matt looked up, knowing his wife was listening and watching. "Agree to not let him know that we got our asses handed to us by a speedster?"_

_"_Fuck yeah. Bastard's never gonna let us live it down._" Olivia agreed. But she was inwardly happy that her brother hadn't forgotten either of them, or any of them._

_"**You will… never see them again!**" Zoom roared his words at the mutant._

_The smile on his face faded and his eyes… turned lifeless. A familiar sight met the eyes of the elemental's friends and family. The sight of the one being that this city and its citizens… missed._

_The Lethal Protector._

_"You still I'm that weak, huh?" he asked while the black mass of Venom stretched around his right arm. "I told you once, didn't I? That I would never lose to any of you." The black mass expanded over his hand and elongated, the tip bursting and revealing a massive sword with a colorful crystal blade. The sword's guard was that of a demon's maw._

_Harry recognized the sword and looked horrified._

_"That's one badass sword." Cisco muttered impressed by the blade._

_"No kidding." Matt agreed._

_Seth pointed his blade at him and with cold eyes said. "No one in this entire world is gonna keep me from my daughter…" tears from Frankie's eyes when hearing her father's determined voice. "And no one is gonna keep me away from the woman I love." _

_Caitlin found herself lost for words. She just heard the man of her life, the love of her entire life, declare that he was gonna get back to her and nothing on Earth-2 was gonna stand in his way to get back home. _

_Home to his daughter… and home to her._

_They saw the mutant leaping and swinging his sword for the metahuman. Lightning erupted around his form and he charged the evil speedster. He swung his blade for him but Zoom dodged and Seth followed him._

_Zoom charged the mutant again with his fist and the mutant changed his fist into adamantium. The two fists slammed into each other and unleashed a shockwave._

_The shock of their fists colliding somehow shook they all… and the vibe ended._

X

As they were all brought back from the vibe, they were all gasped as Olivia and Cisco jumped from each other.

Joe breathed in and out repeatedly and said. "How about… we don't do that anymore." The detective smiled with a chuckle. "Seth, you son of a bitch." He turned to Frankie with a short laugh. "Frankie, your old man is like the world's most annoying cockroach."

"And he's alive!" Frankie jumped up and down and looked to her mother's face. "Mom, are you okay?" she asked.

She was referring to the rivers of tears streaming down her face and to the ground. Caitlin looked at her daughter and hugged her tightly. She ruffled her hair. "Seth… he's alive. And he's gonna come back."

Both mother and daughter clutched their bracelets and necklaces tightly, as they remembered the man they both care about, the one they love with all of their hearts.

Matt laughed a lot. "Fucking bastard, can't he even die right?"

"That's Seth, alright." Iris admitted.

"Can't believe he's alive right now, _and_ on another Earth… _again._" Olivia added strangely with a tilt of her head.

"Gotta admit, your brother has the worst kind of lucks when it comes to portals or wormholes." Cisco said with a chuckle. But he shifted his gaze to Caitlin and Frankie. "But how long do you think he's been on Earth-2?"

"Oh My God, it makes sense now!" Matt shouted and got everyone's attention. "This explains why all the Earth-2 metas have been pissing their pants whenever they see Frankie as Magenta."

"What do you mean, Matt?" Olivia asked her husband.

Matt then explained. "All the metas were scared are Magenta. But not because she looks scary as hell. But because she reminds them of the scariest demon they ever fought against. One that scared them just as much as Zoom, if not more. She reminds them of Venom!"

"That makes… more sense." Caitlin admitted with her arms wrapping around her daughter's form. "My daughter's not scary."

"Hey, I'm scary." Frankie pouted.

"Wait?" They all turned to the scientist from Earth-2. "Who is Seth, and why is he with my daughter right now?"

Olivia chuckled. "Well, Wells, your Earth is in more trouble than you thought… because Earth-2 turned into the temporary residence for one massively annoying demon."

"But who is he?" Harrison asked.

"Seth Fury… a hero." Matt said. "And a demon, who's a giant pain in the ass. Who's gonna do more chaos than good on your Earth."

That vague answer caused the man's eyebrows to raise in confusion…. which would lead to a long explanation.

X

The next morning, only Frankie, Caitlin and Cisco were there. Although, the mechanical engineer had to repeatedly tell the women to pull their heads out of whatever cloud they got stuck in. They were still reeling in the shock of Seth's aliveness and enjoying it immensely.

When something in the corner of his eye moved, Cisco turned to the gurney and said. "Hey, I think he's waking up."

Caitlin got up from her chair and walked over to the downed speedster. "Barry. Barry? Can you hear me?" She asked for his responsiveness.

His eyes closed to slits and his voice weak, but Barry managed to say. "Hey." Opening his eyes again, he saw the sight of his two friends and the daughter of one of them.

Cisco chuckled. "You scared the crap out of us. You were gone for a long time."

"How bad is it?" The speedster asked

"Bad." Caitlin started. "If you didn't heal so quickly, I'd be very worried."

"Linda… how is she?" Barry asked,

"She's fine." Frankie said. "She's staying with some friends out in Coast City."

Barry noticed a constant and freaking smile on both Caitlin and Frankie's faces. "What are you guys smiling about?"

Caitlin smiled wider than before and answered. "We just found about something really, really incredible."

"Zoom?" Barry wondered.

Both mother and daughter didn't know how to respond to that with words, but instead they shook their heads in unison. Cisco then added comfortingly. "Let's… Let's worry about Zoom when you're up and about, okay?" he patted Barry's leg.

But Barry expected to feel something from his friend's tap on his leg. Something. A feeling resembling a shockwave traveling up his leg to his brain, to register it. But instead… he felt nothing?

Raising his head a bit higher from his pillow but was stopped when Caitlin pushed him back down again. "Oh, no, you're staying put."

Barry ran his hands over his legs while Cisco said in agreement with the doctor. "Yeah, seriously, you got your ass kicked."

"No, guys, I can't feel my legs." Barry said.

Everyone shared looks of confusion and Frankie asked. "What do you mean?"

Barry, with a look of despair, shook his head. "I can't feel my legs." He repeated.

This time his despair washed over them all… because a speedster might have lost their biggest and most valuable asset…

**To be continued…**

**Following the aftermath of the horrific fight with Zoom, Vibe demonstrated his powers and it led to the most wonderful revelation of all. They saw him fighting and protecting as he's always done. Fighting like the Lethal Protector.**

**The truth has been revealed to all now. **

**Seth Fury never died and is still alive and roaming within the limits of Earth-2. Fighting Zoom and searching for a way to find a way back home to his friends and family. **

**And everyone are excited to hear that their favorite demon is doing everything he can to get back home. **

**Through the vibe, everyone saw him again. Olivia saw her big brother still alive again. Matt saw his best friend again. Joe saw his best friend again. Iris and Cisco saw their friend again. Frankie saw her father alive again, swearing that nothing would keep him from returning to her again, to be her father again. Caitlin saw the love of her life once more, swearing to return to the love of his life again. **

**Zoom would have one hell of a fight to deal with.**

**The only one who was confused… was Harry who saw his daughter with… a stranger wielding the same sword that a well-known and infamous criminal known as Blackfire once wielded.**

**But another tragedy has occurred… Barry Allen, The Flash… the protector of Central City has suffered a devasting loss… as he can't feel… his legs now.**

**Stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	15. Chapter 15: Charred Darkness in The Dark

**And now another bedtime story for you guys out there.**

**Sorry for the long wait, guys. Had to pass an exam first before I could publish this chapter and take care of a birthday party too. Both went well, thankfully.**

**And now Crisis on Infinite Earths have concluded. Bloody magnificent, if you ask me. CW does incredible work and can't wait for the other upcoming superhero series too.**

**What do you guys think?**

**Plus, now Arrow, the beginning of all, have come to an and. A shame to witness. It was a fantastic show and will be one of the best CW have made.**

**Now without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 15: Charred Darkness in The Dark**

The train on the railing high up above the buildings ran at full speed. The passengers on the train were watching outside the windows and looking bored as most would when travelling on a train like this.

A young boy was busy playing on his phone and keeping his eyes glued on the screen on his phone. He was busy playing the game and focused on defeating as many grunts coming his way in the game. "Come on. Come on." He chanted hopefully as his group of heroes faced off against the final boss on this level.

His fingers moved the joysticks rapidly, moving them out of the boss's attack range and avoiding the laser attacks and other powerful attacks following up next. His group of heroes closed in on the boss and attacked with a series of quick strikes.

"_You Win!_" The screen announced as his team of heroes delivered the finishing blow to the big boss and took him out.

"Yes!" The boy whispered out loudly in victory of defeating the boss.

A shadow passed over his form as well as the entire train.

The boy looked out of the window as did the others in the train seats and saw with amazed eyes. The large and demonic form of Venom swinging through the air with black wavy ropes attached to the buildings that he swung from. Everyone on the train saw him detach his rope and crawl on the side of a large building with a metallic surface.

"Mom! Look, it's the Demon King!" The boy called out to her mother who saw the same and smiled.

"Impressive." The mother said as they all watched the demonic being crawl up the side of the building with ferocious animal-like movements. She ruffled her son's head. "Come now, Jason. It's rude to stare."

X

His hands stuck to the metallic building as he crawled up the building. Arms lashing out and splitting into thousands of tendrils that stuck to the edge of the rooftop before pulling on them. The large form of Venom was pulled off the side of the building from the force of the yank.

Venom was shot higher up to the top of the building and placed his hands on the edge of the roof. Using them as leverage, he spun around and placed himself in crouch. The blood-red eyes residing within the sockets of his white-skull extension-covered head looked over the entire city from the high vantage point.

"_Should have done this a long time ago._" Seth thought to himself while his eyes traveled around his surroundings. Once the morning started, the mutant told the girls that he would go out exploring. And while they do that, they are to train by themselves for the time being.

They knew that he was probably going out to find a way to get back to his universe. He and the girls knew that Zoom was using something out there in the city to send metahumans under his group away and to the other universe where his friends and family reside.

But despite starting early… the elemental hadn't had that much luck.

Raising a clawed hand to the top of his head, he scratched it. "**Maybe we should check the darker places, like alleyways or something?**"

"**_Yeah._**" Venom agreed with a sigh. "**_But we have now idea where Zoom is dropping off his metas and what the actual thing looks like._**"

His hand slid down from the top of his head to his chin and rubbed it. Shifting his gaze around, he placed his eyes on various security cameras within his line of sight. "**Think whoever is watching us might know where a breach might be found?**"

"**_You think they are watching us right now? Watching us right now? Our every move?_**"

"**Regular Peeping Toms.**" Seth chuckled. "**But they have been watching us for a long time. Whether they know it or not, we know they're watching… question is… who are they?**"

"**_Better yet, why are they watching us?_**"

One of his eyes raised itself and his right hand reached behind his back. The handle of his large crystal sword stuck out of his back and he wrapped his hand around it. With a quick yank, he pulled the sword out of his back and held it out in front of his eyes. Holding it sideways with his right hand, he used the claws of his left hand to run over the blade.

Grazing past the yellow crystal with the tip of his claws, he reached the black and red crystals. "**Remember what Deathstorm said?**"

"**_Something like "you might have that sword"._**" Venom thought.

"**Yeah…**" Seth swung the sword around. "**Iris never really gave much information about this to begin with. Do you remember if she said anything worth remembering?**"

"**_Something about… birds, we think._**" Venom suggested.

"**Needle in a haystack.**" The mutant used his other hand to rub the annoyance out of his eyes. "**There's way more to this city than we know.**"

"**_Yeah… but… it is quite beautiful. This world._**" The symbiote admired the view through his host's eyes. "**_Remember what we said when we admired our world the first time we climbed up to the top of a building?_**"

Seth smiled through his partner's face. "**We do. You said… "Your world is not so ugly. The lights are very beautiful in the night". Think you said that because you thought that world was nothing but filled with humans who kills each other and enjoy torturing and just rotten the very atmosphere of their own home planet.**"

He felt his partner mentally wince at the thought of the memory. "**_Stryker and his scientists unleashed hell on us in there. Torturing us without hesitation and drowning us with the blood from you and Olivia. It was the only impression we had of humans back then, Seth._**"

"**We know. We weren't that different.**" Seth said in agreement. Being a mutant to humans… was no different than being an animal on humans' dissection table. They just cut and cut and figure out what makes you tick and continue from there no matter what. "**But we changed.**"

"**_And became the Lethal Protector._**" Venom chuckled.

Laughing himself, he slammed his palm into surface and spun around to back to his feet while holstering the sword to his back with tendrils. "**Let's go!**" he shot out tendrils and wrapped them around one of the pillars holding the train tracks up and using it swing.

X

**(West-Allen Household, backyard)**

"Take this!" Ruby shouted as she hurled a bunch of tree branches after Evelyn. But the young metahuman stood her ground and her marks shone brightly on her face. The branches neared her body and without moving a single muscle…

Eclipse disappeared in a shadowy smokescreen and dodged the attack.

The assassin chuckled. "Look, I know teleporting is your new favorite move, but can you at least try and fight back a bit?"

Evelyn reappeared behind Ruby and playfully tapped her shoulder. Once she turned back to her, the metahuman said. "Not unless you want to have your entire body riddled with arrow wounds that leaves burn marks. You might actually have to think of wearing a wig in that case."

Pointing a finger in the girl's face, she threatened. "You touch my hair; I will crush your lungs with the force of a planet."

The metahuman tilted her head. "Can you actually do that?"

"Yes." Evelyn narrowed her eyes. "Okay, not yet." Ruby confessed. "But I will be able to, one day."

"I know." The metahuman let her light and darkness energy ooze out of her hands. "Just like, I hope I'll to be able to use this without any drawbacks again. I hate it."

"Wanna see if you can maybe get arrows and a bow costume-made or something? Central City's got to have some kind of blacksmith, right?" She asked.

"Yeah, but some of them might not be willing to meet with the girl who killed her entire family with her powers. Let alone, make weapons for her." Evelyn sarcastically said.

Ruby registered her words and asked in concern. "How are you doing with that? You're okay?"

"Been better, to be honest." Evelyn sat down on the ground. "I know a lot of bad things happened to them a while back… now… I just focus on all the good things. Which helps a lot with my powers."

"Glad to hear." Ruby said as she took a seat on the ground as well.

"What about you? Do you still think about Werner and your mom?" Evelyn was the one to ask in concern.

"No, not really." Came the surprising reply. "Seth's been able to keep me focused on my powers and my good memories. A much better way for me to use my powers." She chuckled with her fingers tapping against each other. "It's funny, Seth's been so kind to me even though I was complete brat to him. He's so nice."

"Yeah." Evelyn agreed. "Must be that Dad gene in him. Can't say I know that many Dads would jump in front of Zoom and his friends to protect a bunch of kids." She smirked playfully. "Let alone do it when one of them was a brat."

Ruby smirked back and raised her hand. With a wave of it, she used her gravitational powers to push dirt into the metahuman's face. "You forget this brat can push things with her powers, Evelyn."

Wiping the dirt away from her face, Evelyn formed a backflip and landed on her feet again. This time, her entire body shone with the combination of both light and darkness. She took a fighting stance and looked at Ruby. "Wanna put your money where your mouth is, Destroyer?"

Jumping to her feet herself, Ruby took a fighting position herself and her powers caused the ground to shake. "Let's rumble, Eclipse."

X

The bathroom door opened, and Jesse walked out with a towel wiping the water away from her face. After training with the other girls in the backyard for a while, the native girl decided to wipe away some of the sweat on her off with a splash or two in her face.

She sighed blissfully. "I needed that." She admitted as she walked through the hallway to the staircase. But she was stopped when hearing the sound of cardboard box clattering against the ground. Turning to the room to her right, she realized that the sound was coming from Iris's room.

"Wonder what that was about…" Jesse muttered and placed her hear on the door. Despite her ear's placement on the wooden barrier between her and the room, she couldn't hear a single thing.

"Whoever is out there, you can come in!" Iris's voice called out from behind the door.

Jesse stepped back and pushed the door open. She saw Detective Iris West looking at the door as she was seated on her bed with dozens of evidence boxes with files. The detective chuckled. "Do I have to remind you spying is a crime?"

The young girl gave her a stern look and reminded the detective. "You are housing a cannibal, an assassin, a metahuman-"

"And the daughter of Harrison Wells." Jesse widened her eyes when hearing the detective state those words. Iris chuckled and patted the spot beside on the bed. "I'm a detective, Jesse, don't underestimate me. Searching for people is kind of my thing and my job."

The young woman sat down on the bed and said. "Should have figured. But how did you figure it out?"

"My Dad called me a while back, after hearing Seth sing at Jitterbugs, and he told he recognized both Evelyn and you and he told me so."

"Yeah. My Dad… he's on Zoom's list. But before…" Jesse was unsure if the detective knew what she did. "Me and the others were out training again a while back, and it… ended up backfiring because Ruby launched me out of the way and deep into the forest. I wasn't hurt except for a few bruises on me. But Zoom found me and chased me through the forest."

"What happened?" Iris knew nothing could have happened to her as she was perfectly fine and sitting beside her right now.

"I tripped and fell and before I could get up, Zoom was above me." Jesse informed. "Before he could attack me, he said that he knew my Dad was hiding on the other Earth. And then Seth made a stupid "knock, knock" joke and fought him."

"Glad to hear that Seth saved you, and that he's kinda like the Flash, at least about the crappy jokes." Iris said. "But you know why Zoom's after your Dad?"

"I don't know. Maybe revenge or because my Dad has something Zoom wants, I don't know. But whatever he wants, Zoom's gonna get to it easier as long as he thinks I'm there, in Zoom's hands." Jesse said and ran her hand down her face. She looked to the detective and asked curiously. "What's all this stuff here? What are you doing here alone?"

"Going over some old files… about a current bad guy." Iris breathed out heavily.

"What are you…." She stopped when seeing one of the file folders on the bed. Jesse read the title on the folder. Gulping, she read it again.

"_Fred Chyre… Blackfire case._"

Jesse snapped her head to the detective again. "Wait… he's not here in Central City, is he?" Her fear was fully displayed, either in her words or on her face, like it was bleeding out of her body.

Iris shook her head, assuring the young girl. "He's not. But his… operations are still strong here."

"And the cops are still scared to do anything about it." Jesse said under her breath. She made the mistake of saying that near an officer. And she faced the detective with an apologetically look. "Sorry, didn't mean to say that out loud."

"It's okay, you shouldn't apologize for it." Iris sighed. "Because of Blackfire, everyone at CCPD are really scared. Too scared to even do anything about it. So you're right, they are really scared to do anything about it. I'm pretty sure I'm the only cop crazy enough to work on this case."

"There was one other, right? But he… he was never heard from again." Jesse asked unsurely.

"Yeah, Fred Chyre. My old mentor." Iris said. "He was… he was dead-set on taking him on…" The detective scratched her forehead. "Barry says he's okay with me having these files and that's supporting my every decision, but I know he doesn't want me to go after him."

"I only know what I've heard, so I don't really blame him for thinking that way. He's the only guy who's willing to call himself Zoom's rival in this entire city." Jesse stated. An idea sparked in her mind. "Why don't you bring in Seth?"

"That is… my plan. Sort of." Iris said and Jesse looked unsure when seeing that look on the detective's face. "I'm not gonna involve Seth, if I'm not sure. I know he's looking for a plan to get back to his Earth now, and… I can't tell him to risk himself for the lives of this entire city, and maybe… lose his chance to see his daughter again. I can't responsible for that…"

"Seth might just do it anyway, doesn't look like anything scares him. At least in this world." Jesse joked, but she could see the internal struggling within the detective. The struggle of maybe bringing the elemental mutant into the jaws of death.

But he was probably the only man willing to face the horrors of Blackfire. The police force was scared out of their minds and unwilling to move a muscle against him. It might just take the king of demons to tackle him.

However, if it was worth the life of an incredibly good man… that was the question.

A ringing sound came from Iris's phone. The detective turned to the phone and grabbed it. "It's Seth."

"He has a phone?" Jesse asked.

"The one Mera gave him." Iris informed before answering the call and placing the phone on her ear. "Seth, what is it?"

"_Hey, Iris. You with Ruby?_"

"No, think she's out training with Evelyn. Those two might be using their powers against each other now." Iris sheepishly said.

"_Glad they needed very little help with that area of their training._" Seth chuckled. "_Anyway, have Ruby come and meet me near town square. I'm gonna go and find one of Zoom's inner metas to see if I can find one of the transporting things he's using to send his metas to my world._"

"You think any of them is gonna spill the beans?" Iris wondered.

"_Worth the try. But have Ruby meet up with me, so we can check it out together. Might as well turn it into another lesson for her._"

"Go to Saint and Sinners, a few of his henchmen might go there for some R&R." Iris suggested and then smirked. "Kinda like when you went to Killer Frost and made out with her."

"_Funny. But I'm gonna find one of them, and hopefully get a conversation out of them. Anyway, have Ruby meet me there and tell her to wear inconspicuous clothes. Normal clothes that's not gonna make her stand out._"

"Okay." Iris then quickly added. "By the way, there's three Saint and Sinners bars in Central City. Don't go to the one you visited before, go to one of the other ones. I'll text you the addresses of the two."

"_Alright, thanks._" Seth said and hung up.

Iris looked to Jesse. "Sounds like our demon is gonna have another meeting with Zoom's meta." Both of them wondered which one of his metas would be willing to meet him…

… if one of the female ones were to meet him, they would probably take advantage of him in his search for answers… like before.

X

Her hands turned into a blur with each typing she made with her fingers. Tapping on the computer with lightning fast speed. Lindy's eyes shifted quickly between her three computer monitors as she broke through hundreds, if not thousands of firewalls with each tap of her fingers.

Lindy inhaled deeply and chose another option. One that was not really her favorite.

Reaching over the desk, she placed her hands on the screens. Using her powers, she broke through more and more security measures to find what she was looking for. Her eyes moved around behind her closed eyelids; it was as though she was seeing various computer screens appearing in her mind.

Another series of images appeared before her mind, images of current places outside her field of vision. Places far away from her current placement. Jitterbugs. Central City Police Department. Central City Picture News. Central City General Hospital. S.T.A.R. Labs.

That last one caused an enraged grimace to appear on her face. But it wasn't what she was looking for. _Who _she was looking for now?

"Come on. Come on. Where are you, Kendra?" Lindy chanted to herself as she continued run through the images and footages going through her mind like a bunch of overlapping videotapes. She was desperately trying to find the woman.

A moment later, the door was swung open and the form of the Atlantean, Mera Curry rushed into the room. While wearing a stressful expression, she asked the other woman hopefully. "Please tell me you have had better luck than me."

Lindy opened her eyes and looked at her friend. "No. I haven't found her yet."

"Kendra's smart. She's a bounty hunter with wings at that." Mera rubbed her eyes. "Not to mention, she's worked with you before. She knows your techniques better than most does actually."

Removing her hands from the computer screens, she cupped her own face and leant over the table with a defeated expression. "She knows how to stay hidden from my powers too." She looked up to the Atlantean's face, a look of inspiration, and recognized the look. "No. it's not a good idea, Mera." She defiantly said.

"Venom can help us." Mera walked closer to the other side of the desk. "He might be able to actually find Kendra to begin with."

"Oh yeah, what a great idea." Linda mockingly suggested. ""Hey, Venom. I have a job for you. it's about finding this bounty hunter that we had follow you when you and I went to our meeting the other day. Oh yeah, forgot to say there were two of them. Kendra and her boyfriend Carter, and now Carter is dead because of Zoom and Kendra's out for Zoom's metas. Please don't skewer us because we tried to spy on you." Brilliant idea."

"Dial down on the sarcasm." Mera scolded her friend. "We need to find Kendra. Quickly. If not, who knows what she might do? And against a flyer like her, Seth might be the only person to actually hold her back."

"Or he might just tear off her wings and spear Kendra without a second thought." Lindy countered; her hair began shifting between various colors as did her eyes. Calming down again, she instead asked her. "How about you find Kendra, maybe she's gonna check out some of Zoom's metas' hangout places."

"Maybe. Kendra would do that actually." Mera sighed. "But honestly, it would be much better if Seth was brought into the fold. He's probably the only one, willing to take on someone like her."

"Don't do that." Lindy disapproved. "He might just kill her for trying to spy on him and you…. Just…." She clicked her tongue. "Find her and make sure she doesn't do anything bad. The last thing we need is a war with Zoom, and we're only gearing up for a war with another metahuman psychopath. Two's too much."

"Alright. I'll check them out. But if this doesn't pan out…" Mera got a serious expression. "Then I will ask Seth for help, like it or not. He trusts me and I trust him. He's not a bad guy." She turned on her heel and walked out the door. Before the door closed, the Atlantean let out. "I really wish you could see that too, Lindy."

The technopath put her hands on the back of her throat and said hopingly. "Sometimes, I wish I could." But her hands crackled as she admitted to herself. "But it's… not worth losing more friends over."

X

The town square was full of people. The streets were occupied by people doing their own business, walking to various stores and doing their own stuff. The lanes beside the streets were filled to the brims with passing vehicles. A few of them honked when cars were close to each other, nearly causing a collision. A few street musicians were playing on the streets and entertaining the people in town square.

Seth was looking upwards and watched the train running above his head while he was seated on the bench. "Still not used to seeing a train like that." The elemental murmured.

"**_You'll get used to it, partner._**" Venom stated. "**_We have been spending quite a bit of time here. We should find a way to get back home soon._**"

"Which is why we are here right now." Seth told his partner. He looked around and his eyes caught sight of Ruby walking over to him. Thankfully, Iris passed on the message of his and had her wear normal clothes that wouldn't draw unwanted attention. Wearing a red sweeter and jeans was the perfect choice to stay out of anyone's interest.

Ruby saw him and rushed to his side. She took a seat beside him and asked. "So you called for me?"

"Yup." Seth said as he looked forward. "Thought it would be a good time to check your skills in the field. In espionage and hiding in plain sight."

"What do you mean?" The young assassin asked.

"At HYDRA, how much field training did you receive? In staying hidden in a crowd or finding a target in a crowd. How much of that did you get?" he asked.

"Not much. My training was focused on psychically getting me stronger and stronger, getting me ready to become the Destroyer of Worlds. I did go out, but only as my Mom's assassin." Ruby said. She chuckled. "My Mom kept pushing me, and pushing me more and more, never understood why… until she realized that I kept losing control. I was out of control there."

Seth nodded. "Everyone starts out rough. Thankfully, training can change that and change you a whole lot more." He nodded to the front, nodding his head towards the gathering of humans in the center. "And thankfully, too, this is training."

"How? Stay hidden in plain sight?" She wondered when noticing that none of the people

"Exactly. You know how to do that; you can escape in any situation, good or bad. Even a sniper will lose you once you're blended into your surroundings." He leant forward and continued. "Field work isn't always about rushing in and using your powers. Sometimes you have to use your other powers, your mind and your senses, your abilities."

"My senses, like my eyes." Ruby wondered.

Seth nodded again, confirming her thoughts. "Look for anything out of the ordinary. People with their hands in their pockets, long coats, clothes that don't match the weather. Purposefully, wearing outside clothes inside. Even wearing sunglasses inside, people pointing their heads downwards to the ground."

"What if those things turn out to fails, what do I do then?" Ruby asked with narrowed.

"Then you forget everything I just said, and rush in and use your powers, all right?" Seth said with a short chuckle and the young assassin grinned as well. "But that's what you have to do while I'm talking with one of Zoom's metas. I need to make sure that I don't end up receiving a bunch of lies, you need to there to be my eyes and ears."

"Cool." Ruby said. "So where are we going?"

"Saint and Sinners." He got up from the bench and Ruby walked after him. The two walked through the mass of civilians and quickly reached an alleyway. "Apparently, it's quite popular for the less-than-civil people of Central City to socialize and have a drink."

"Sounds like my kinda place." Ruby smirked.

But her smirk fell when Seth placed his hand on the top of her head. "I find you with a drink, I will personally make it my mission to never let alcohol within a hundred feet of you, that and freeze you to a skyscraper. For however long, we're on this Earth." He assured her with a mix between a mock threat and promise.

"Funny." She slapped his hand away and the two continued to walk. "So you're set on getting back to your Earth? Your family and all, right?"

"Of course, Rubs." Seth said but he turned to her and saw the look of disappointment. "Don't worry, I'll be here and protect you guys still. If need be, even bring you guys with me to that Earth. Better way for me to protect you guys."

"Don't know how it's gonna be to travel between universes like that again. Getting to this one was about the only thing I could handle. I don't know about it." Ruby rubbed the back of her head; she noticed a sign above a door in front of them both. "Saint and Sinners? We're here."

"Yeah." Seth stopped and turned to her with a serious expression. "Ruby, I'm there and I will help you through anything. And honestly, I did consider sending you back to our original universe, but that might not be the smartest idea."

"Why not?"

Seth explained. "If that were to happen, then there would be two Ruby Hales in that universe. One younger version and the one you are right now. That's the problem with you being from the future of another universe. I think that's how time travel would work." He watched the sour expression on her face expand into a realm of disappointment and sadness. "But whatever you decide, I'll be there to back you up. I promise you that."

"Thanks." She clicked her tongue and admitted. "Seth, I'm sorry for going off like that before."

"Ruby, I already told you, I forgive you." The mutant reminded her. "If you still feel like my words aren't enough, have my back now and you can consider yourself forgiven." He offered.

"Deal." Ruby nodded.

"Mission start." Seth pushed the door open and with Ruby behind him, he walked past the door threshold and into the bar. The minute they did, everyone in bar gave them shocked looks. Mostly because they saw a young girl walking into the place like she owns the place. Some of the men had butterfly knives in their hands and flipped them around, as though they were ready to strike with them. A lot of them glared at the mutant.

Seeing the glares coming his way, Seth told them all bluntly. "You guys have a one shot. Only one. The others coming after, they're all mine. So make them… Count." He told them menacingly, and the way he spoke so coldly, so lifelessly was enough to make them put their blades in their pockets. "That's what I thought."

"Great, instant alpha status." Ruby joked. "You really know how to make people bow to you."

"Nothing I haven't done before. Though back home, this thing used to get me thrown out of hospitals. Even the ones where I was helping at." Seth admitted and looked around. "Time to find someone who's worth talking to."

"Well, well, well."

Both Seth and Ruby recognized that voice. But it was the elemental who voiced his dismay. "Oh crap." They turned around and was unfortunate to find the unmistakable form of Black Siren standing there.

But this time, she was not wearing her usual black dominatrix-like suit. This time she was wearing a black leather jacket and a black lace shirt under her jacket. Her pants are pitch-black as well. Her long brown hair was flicked over her shoulder before she walked over to the two. While she held eye contact with the elemental, she pointed a finger at the young assassin. "Think she's not supposed to be here."

"Why, scared of the little blonde girl now?" Ruby joked.

The metahuman criminal shifted her gaze to the young girl. "Trust me, sweetheart. One word from me, and I could blast you through a wall right now." Black Siren turned back to face Seth. "But I'm feeling generous today. And…" she walked closer to him. "I was hoping to get to spend some time with you."

"Careful now, lots of eyes on us right now." Seth gestured to the people watching them right now from all sides. Sweat was pouring down the other criminals' faces when the mutant gestured to them. "Wouldn't want them to think you have a soft spot now, would you?"

Black Siren smirked and looked to the other people watching them right now. "You know who I am?" the others gulped before nodding hastily, to the point where it was comically fast. "Then you know that I want you out of here… now!" she screamed and everyone expected a sonic cry to blast them.

But they didn't have time to wait for that to happen. Fear of being assaulted by a painful sonic force drove all men and staff to run out of the bar like the devil is on their ass. Once they were all gone, Black Siren smirked flirtatiously at the elemental and reached over the bar. She grabbed a pair of glasses and a large bottle of vodka. "Hope you like vodka." She walked over to a booth.

"My favorite." He sarcastically said and shot out a tendril to the fridge. With a pull of the handle, he pulled the fridge open and wrapped it around a bottle. As he walked after the metahuman criminal, he had the bottle held out in front of Ruby. "Got you a soda, kiddo."

"Thanks." She took the bottle and took off the cap. "Think I should be here, cause that one looks like this is some date or something."

"Not a date." He reminded her and took a seat opposite of the sonic cryer. "Why do you look so unsurprised to find me here?"

"I don't know. I was kind of hoping for some time, just the two of us." Black Siren poured vodka into the glasses. She glanced at the young assassin and added. "No offense to the third wheel here."

"None taken." Ruby said with an eye roll and sipped on her soda.

Black Siren returned her attention to the mutant. "But what brings the big, bad, Demon King to our little slice of Heaven?"

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Heaven, you say? Must have gotten the wrong address. I was looking for a little piece of Hell actually."

"Just the flip of a coin, and this Heaven can easily become Hell, baby." Black Siren coyly said.

"You know… you never actually gave your name. Your real name." Seth said. "I know your friends' names, but that's because I know their doppelgangers."

"Wild guess, you never had the pleasure of meeting mine?" The metahuman rhetorically said. "Guess her loss is my gain then."

"That's for you to decide." Seth held his glass.

"Maybe, I will tell you after this…" she gestured to the two of them with her own raised glass. "But what exactly got you to find little old me? Pretty sure it wasn't my ass, was it?" She joked after clinging it against his glass, the clanging of glasses echoed in the bar.

She expected him to make a reaction, but nothing came over him. Not even a grimace. Ruby was the one to cough on her soda. "You really don't beat around the bush, do ya?" Seth used a tendril to pick up a napkin for the young assassin.

"She walks around like a dominatrix, and you expect her to mind her tongue? Come on, Ruby. You're smarter than that." Seth stated before facing her again. "But here's what I want to know…" Black Siren gave her full attention. "How is Zoom able to send your metahuman friends off to my Earth?"

Venom was slithering underneath his clothes. Even though, the symbiote's greatest weakness was in front of his host, he wasn't gonna falter and let Seth be fooled by lies. And in worst case, both of them would be ready to strike again.

Black Siren took a swig of her glass before putting it down again. "Someone's done their homework. Good boy, you might not need those private lessons anymore."

"Believe it or not, I am a teacher myself." Seth added, the metahuman raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, someone like me teaching kids. Stuff of nightmares." He leant over the table. "How is Zoom able to send metahumans away like their love letters?"

The metahuman shrugged. "He has his means and they may or may not involve a breach."

"A breach?" Seth asked. "What the hell is a breach?"

The sonic cryer put her hand to her mouth. "Oh." She tapped the roof of her mouth with her tongue disappointedly and loudly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I expected better from you, young man. Better see you bright and early Monday morning."

"What is… a breach?" he slowly asked, not wanting to hear more of Black Siren's playful and flirtatious words.

"You're no fun." The sonic cryer pouted. "Think of them like portals, wormholes or something like that, Zoom finds and sends some of his metas through them… to… your Earth. All kinds of problems us metas here can cause on your Earth."

"Wouldn't expect much trouble. My sister and my best friend are troublemakers, way worse than me." Seth quipped.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "But why is Zoom sending metahumans from this Earth to his in the first place?"

She glanced into the elemental's eyes, "Something about trying to kill a red-suited speedster running around with a ridiculous name."

Seth chuckled. "He's trying to kill The Flash on my Earth."

"Bingo. You can expect your first-place medal to arrive on your doorstep in the mail." Black Siren mocked an announcement.

"But why?" Seth asked.

"Can't say. Zoom's not big on sharing with his minions." The woman said.

"Awesome." Seth downed the last of his drink. Before he sat it back on the table, he narrowed his eyes and asked. "Why are you so willing to help me like this? I'm an enemy of yours."

"Something about you interests me." She leant over the table and whispered into his ear. "You don't want to hurt any of us. And especially Frost." She giggled in his ear.

"What makes you so sure of that?" he countered.

Black Siren grabbed his chin and shifted his head to face her again. "You had your chance to kill her but she goes off unharmed without a scratch. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a crush on our local Ice Queen."

"**_Wrong Caitlin Snow._**" Venom quipped teasingly.

"_Jackass._" Seth thought back. "You don't know where one of these breaches are, do you?" He didn't care about her words.

"I don't know." The sonic cryer shook her head. "Like I said, Zoom's not big on sharing with his minions." Taking the bottle of vodka again, she poured its contents into his glass before pouring into her own. "So wanna ditch the kid and continue this date?"

"Ew." Ruby grimaced and drank the last of her soda like she was pouring bleach down her throat. "And I'm not a kid."

"Acts like a kid, talks like a kid, probably is a kid." Black Siren joked with a giggle.

"Careful." Seth interlocked his fingers. "This kid is much stronger than before."

"Sounds interesting." Black Siren feigned interest and got up from the booth. She spun on her heels and faced them. "Come with me, both of you." The mutant and assassin walked after her and saw that she was going over to the bar again. "So you're eager to get back home, are you?"

"Yeah." He used tendrils to grab both his glass and the soda bottle in Ruby's hand to put them on the bar counter. "But thanks for what you told us; pretty useful, however vague it was."

"Sorry, but I'm not paid enough to remember everything Zoom says." She admitted.

"You wanna give me that name, or do you prefer "Siren" all the way?" Seth wondered while he stood in front of Ruby.

"For now, you can call me Laurel." Laurel told the elemental.

Seth nodded. "Now i think it's about time we hit the road again." He told with his head pointing at the form of the young assassin.

"Yeah, that might be a bit trouble." Laurel poured more vodka into her glass.

"What's that about?" the assassin asked with crossed arms.

Laurel narrowed her eyes. "Let's just say, I'm not the only one who fancies this plan."

A distorting voice behind the mutant then spoke. "Now it's a real party here."

_SLAP_

This time, Seth couldn't resist the urge to slap himself when hearing that ice-cold distorting voice that held parts of the voice he longs to hear again. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?" He hoped that this was a joke and not another one of those instances where Murphy's law proves itself to be real in the life of a superhero.

"Sorry, handsome. But not a joke."

Those additional words were all the confirmation he needed. Once again, Murphy's law proved itself to be true. Turning around to face the voice, he saw indeed Killer Frost standing there right now. And she wasn't alone.

Walking up to the icy metahuman's side was none other than her boyfriend. With blazing hands and his head dissipating of their bright flames, he placed his eyes on the two. "Easy pickings."

Seth lowered his eyes to him. "What? Who? I don't see your Mom here, Pissstorm."

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

Evelyn slumped down to the couch after wiping away more sweat from her forehead. She was panting heavily from the exhaustion of training so much now. "Think… Think I overdid out there." As she was alone in the living room, she felt like the only person she could speak to was herself.

Iris walked down the staircase with an envelope and heard Evelyn talking to herself. "How did training go? You finally become new supreme meta?"

The metahuman chuckled. "On my way there, Detective West." She looked over the couch and saw the detective holding an envelope. "What's that?"

"Something for you." Iris took a seat on the couch beside the metahuman and handed her the envelope. "Found this a while back in my old mentor's files, Fred Chyre's files."

"Uncle Chyre?" Evelyn asked in shock. "I remember him. He was my Dad's friend. He used to pay us a visit every now and then. He was a really nice guy. He would drive me home from school in a cop car… sad he died." She turned to her again. "He was your mentor? He rarely talked about you."

Iris laughed. "Of course, he wouldn't. Only a few people considered him my mentor, and he rarely told anyone of me. Even his friends." She handed her the envelope. "Think you might wanna have this."

Grabbing it and holding it with both hands, Evelyn read the words on it. "_Sharp case, remains of the Sharp house._" "Remains? Were there something left from the house being destroyed?" she asked in shock..

"Yeah. Chyre was the first one on scene. He didn't follow protocol and rushed into the crime scene. He literally flung everything out of the way to see if he could find you or your parents through the rubble." Iris pulled a strand of hair away from her face. "He feared the worst when he couldn't find you or your parents. But then news of you being a metahuman and how your friends and family didn't help you when you reached out to them came up. He got angry and returned to the scene and plowed through the entire thing and found these."

Looking back at the envelope with a soulful look, Evelyn inhaled deeply. She reached the seal flap and opened it. Reaching in the envelope, she pulled out three different photos with charred edges. They also had ripples throughout them, each of them hurt and damaged.

But though they aren't in the best of conditions, they were still visible. They didn't mean much to Iris, but they meant the world to Evelyn.

One of them were off her and Fred Chyre. Both of them wearing goofy smiles and funny hats on their heads as they looked into the camera. Evelyn remembered that it was from a time that the officer was babysitting her. He brought her to a carnival where they took stupid photos together. She thought he was extremely cool for doing that with her.

The second one was of her holding a trophy from the last tournament she and her school's gymnastics club had participated in. No matter what she said to them, they all insisted she was the one to have the trophy. To have it in her own home. They all agreed that she was the one who brought them victory and told her to keep the trophy. "God… feels like a lifetime ago. Things were much simpler back then."

"Where you just had to worry about grades, college, parties, boys." Iris said and the metahuman looked at her with a shocked look. Punching her shoulder, she stated. "I was a teenager too, you know."

Evelyn giggled and stated. "Yeah." She got a sorrow expression. "Now, I have to worry about surviving life as a metahuman on the run from Zoom. Good times. I miss those days a bit, honestly."

"Sorry you have to go through this, Evelyn." Iris rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

"Nothing to do about it now." Evelyn said and turned to the third photo.

The third photo made her hands tighten their hold on the others.

It was of her and her two parents. It was from her last birthday. It wasn't something big thing. Her friends couldn't come, and her other family members wasn't able to attend either. It was just her and her parents. Because of that, they bought an extra-large birthday cake with red frosting. It was her favorite. She was behind the cake with lit candles and about to blow them. Her parents on either side of her sides. Both wearing smiles and rubbing their faces against their daughter's cheeks. The young metahuman felt ashamed… to admit that she has forgotten her parents' faces.

It brought tears to her face. Both hands took hold of the photo and her hold tightened once more, the photo scrunching because of it. She hated herself for being like that. Suddenly, the daughter of two had forgotten the very faces of the two people who loved her the most after all the events that have led to her current life.

All the recent bad outweighed the good of the past.

"What's wrong with me…" she breathed out in self-hate.

"Are you okay there, Evelyn?" The worried response came from the detective.

"Just forgot about my own two parents." Evelyn said in disbelief. "How can i even do that? What's wrong with me?"

"It's not your fault, Evelyn." Iris stroked her hair calmly. "But it's not that surprising, I guess." Evelyn looked confused. "You kinda got a guy who's not only your trainer in terms of power control, but also kinda like a Dad."

The young metahuman looked shocked once more. "You mean…"

_KNOCK KNOCK_

_KNOCK KNOCK_

The two stopped when the sound rapid knocking got their attention. Evelyn and Iris shared a look before facing the door. Getting up from her seat, the detective walked up to the door. Reaching for the doorknob, she grabbed it and turned it.

Her eyes widened when seeing that it was none other than Mera standing there. She had a worried expression on her face and looked at the detective. "Hey, Iris. Good to see you again."

"Hi, Mera. What are you doing here?" She got a concerned look. "Zoom's not coming for us, is he?" Iris knew that she was the fastest being on this planet, but she still felt the need to look outside the door with an outstretched head like a cartoon character.

Mera shook her head. "No, you're not, I swear." She walked into the room and asked Iris further. "I'm here because I was wondering if you could tell me something?"

"What is it?" The detective asked.

"Do you know any of the spots where Zoom's metahumans might be hanging out at this hour?" Mera inquired surprisingly.

Evelyn looked frightened. "You wanna find Zoom's metas? Are you crazy?"

The Atlantean turned to face her. "Don't worry, Eclipse. _I'm_ not the one going after them."

Iris caught on. "One of your friends is going after Zoom's metas, aren't they?"

"Yeah." Mera ran a hand down her face. "A friend, a colleague really… her and her boyfriend got a job and ran into Zoom. It didn't end well for the boyfriend, and now my friend's out for revenge."

"Yeah, cause going after one of his metahuman is the smartest idea in the history of smart ideas." Iris said. "But she does know that going against them won't get her anything? Not to mention, she's only gonna walk straight into a deathtrap."

"She's not thinking clearly." Mera said with a hurt expression. "I promised my friend to watch out for her and now she's out and about to have a deathmatch with a psycho under Zoom's thumb." This time, she ran both hands down her face with a defeated expression. "I have to find her and make sure she doesn't get herself in more trouble than she can handle."

"Okay, I'll get you the addresses of the places I think she might be at, or where she might strike, anyway." Iris informed before walking to the kitchen and writing the addresses on a piece of paper.

Evelyn smirked and told the Atlantean. "Chances are you might not have to worry about your friend."

"Why not?" Mera walked closer to her.

"Seth's out looking for a metahuman or two under Zoom's rules himself." She informed. "Let's hope he doesn't… you know… accidently eat your friend."

Those words did not assure the Atlantean in the least.

X

"Don't make me burn you again, asshole!" Deathstorm screamed at the mutant after he said that joke.

"You mean, you will _try_ to burn me, right? Your last attempts were as successful as you saying something smart." Seth tilted his head to the icy metahuman. "Now tell me, what brings you and Hothead here?"

"Oh, I invited them." Laurel said from behind the elemental.

Said elemental faced her with a raised eyebrow. "Scared to fight me alone? Or scared of Ruby?"

Deathstorm laughed. "As if that little brat is even scary."

"You'd be surprised." Ruby challenged with a daring smirk. "I'm a hell of lot stronger than I was before."

"Oh yeah, wanna prove that, little girl?" Deathstorm walked forward.

But his advances were put to a halt when Seth placed his hand on his chest. Lightning ran over his fingers and with a threateningly lifeless look, he told the fiery metahuman. "Take one step towards her, and you will find yourself missing a head."

"Seth, I can take him." Ruby reminded the mutant.

"I know." Seth surprisingly stated, the natives of this world watched him gain a sick and menacing smile on his face. "But honestly, I am itching to tear this guy's pathetic face to pieces. Any reason to give me that chance, I will gladly take it."

Laughing evilly, Laurel said. "Careful now. Would make Frost pretty sad if she lost her beau." Killer Frost narrowed her eyes on her colleague.

Seth looked to her again. "Why exactly did you invite them? Pretty sure you didn't expect me to drop by like I did."

"Well, we were bored, and we thought we might as well just enjoy a quiet night out the three of us." Laurel smiled. "Guess, you're my plus one for tonight, Seth. Lucky me." Black Siren purposely pointed her eyes to the icy metahuman who narrowed her eyes. And the gritting of her teeth didn't go unnoticed by the sonic cryer.

The elemental gave Black Siren his full attention. "Yeah, no offense, I don't expect anyone to have a quiet night with someone like you, Laurel. You are a bit of a screamer."

Killer Frost walked to the elemental's back and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Explains why she's still single."

Ruby's ears perked up at a distant sound coming from outside the building. "What's that sound?"

Gently pushing the icy metahuman's hand away from his shoulder, he said. "No need to cause a situation in here, people. Cause for once, lets…." He stopped when seeing Ruby look around. "What's wrong, Rubs? Don't tell me you're scared of these bozos?"

"Bozo?" Killer Frost feigned hurt. "Now, I thought we were all friends here?"

Turning to her again, he stated the doppelganger of his girlfriend. "Your boyfriend burned a defenseless girl's hands without a care in the world, and you think I will call him a friend? I'd rather bite my tongue off."

"I could always do it for you, handsome." Killer Frost flirted.

"Seth…" all the other four powered beings turned to Ruby. "You hear that sound too?"

They all sharpened their ears, hearing the intensifying sound of flapping wings. Seth looked around in confusion and then his ears straightened up as he recognized that the sound was getting bigger and bigger.

_CRASH_

The door was smashed off its hinges and Seth punched it away with an adamantium fist. But the door was least of his worries… when an entire belt of grenades was thrown in next.

"SH**IT!**" He screamed and wrapped his entire expanding arm around Ruby while his entire form was enveloped by his symbiotic partner.

Additional tendrils shot out as well.

_EXPLOSION_

X

Kendra descended to the ground with flapping wings as she watched the entire bar blowing to pieces. Flames erupting as the aftermath of the explosion. Pieces of wood and brick flying into the air and scattering around when landing on the ground. She knew there were Zoom's metahumans in that place. Even one of the speedster's lieutenants were in there as well. It was a perfect way to get revenge after what happened to Carter.

It was perfect.

"That was for Carter, you sons of bitches." Kendra sneered in rage. But in case they were still alive, she had a gun ready in her left hand. Her right hand was clutched around the handle of her dead boyfriend's silver-handled mace with a golden spiked ball. Her wings retracted back into her

But all thoughts of anyone dying in there were misguided as what seemed like a thousand black tentacle-like things shot out of the rubbles and swirled around. Kendra stepped back, she realized where she had seen those before and saw them latch onto the nearest wall. Their hold on the wall strengthened, causing the wall to crack before they were pulled on.

The flying woman watched as the large form of Venom was shot out of the rubble and with both arms wrapped around his stomach tightly. His feet planted onto the surface of the wall while the rest of his tentacles pulled out three bodies out of the bar rubbles.

Two of them were wrapped around the forms of Killer Frost and Black Siren and placed them on the ground. A third one was wrapped around Deathstorm's neck. Unlike with the women, he threw the fiery metahuman into the air and the metahuman himself ascended into the air with blazing hands and a burning head.

Ruby kept herself hidden behind the arms of the elemental. "Who was that?" she asked.

Venom shrugged his shoulder and turned his red eyes to the woman on the other side, before the three metahumans. "**Never seen her before.**" Despite never having seen her, he recognized the look in her eyes. A flame-like hatred growing stronger and stronger, even growing to the point where it was willing to incinerate an entire forest without exception. Life of not, it was gonna burn everything to ashes and leave no one alive.

"**Not gonna end well.**" He muttered; he knew himself that it there was nothing he say to make her calm down.

"Should we help her?" Ruby wondered.

"**Don't know if she's friend or foe.**" Venom told her. The elemental leaped higher up the wall and landed on the top of the wall. Letting the girl down from his arms, he and Ruby watched the events unfolding before their eyes.

X

Killer Frost wiped dust off her thighs with her hands and looked to the elemental. "Guess, he likes me." She blew him a kiss and turned to see Black Siren getting up again. Rolling her eyes in distaste, she said. "Oh, you're still alive."

"Right back at you." Black Siren looked to Venom as well. "So Venom is our guardian angel now? Better than your boyfriend coming and saving."

Deathstorm landed on the ground between Killer Frost and Black Siren. "Shut up, Siren." He faced his girlfriend. "You okay?"

The icy metahuman faced the woman with weapons in her hands. "Better than she's gonna be," her hands swirled with icy mist. "after I'm done with her."

Raising the mace higher up, Kendra let out. "There's a reason why ice breaks so easy, Frost."

Licking her lips, Killer Frost said. "Wanna bet on that, girlfriend?"

"I'm not now, nor will I ever be your friend!" Kendra shouted in anger, she was resisting the urge to spread her wings and charge them like a murderous hawk on the hunt with talons shredding them to shreds. "I'm kill you all for what you did!"

Laughing in realization, Laurel said. "I know who you are now." Her fellow companions looked to her for answers. "Zoom offed her boyfriend a while back in the Woodlands. He just happened to find them there. Maybe they were on a date, and he thought it would be fun to kill him. Gotta admit, I didn't expect him to laugh that much about killing Hawkman. But then again, little birdy was destined to fall when hit by lightning."

"Hawkman?" Deathstorm chuckled. "Guess that makes you Hawkgirl."

"Time to ice this bird too, then." Killer Frost laughed. "Don't worry, you're gonna see Hawkman again. Pretty soon."

Kendra didn't say anything… cause right now… the anger within her was nothing short of magma boiling within a volcano. Using all of her willpower, she tried to keep it underneath the surface of her flesh. But it was a battle on a sinking ship, quickly drowning as the mass of her anger and hate increased. The weight of her hate and anger could not by outmatched by anyone on this planet.

However, it roared and exploded the very ship the moment she heard the three metahumans in front of her laugh about Carter's death. His death, the life of a good man laid to waste, was a laughable matter to them!

"DIE!" She couldn't stop anymore and lashed out her firearm. Without a hesitation, she pulled on the trigger and fired a storm of bullets after all three of them.

Killer Frost stopped forward, not scared by the incoming projectiles, and lashed out her head with an open mouth. She unleashed an ice blast from her mouth. The icy blast connected with the hail of bullets, the coldness touching them froze them immediately. They fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Rushing to them, Kendra swung the mace for Killer Frost. But the flying woman had to use her melee weapon as a shield when a blazing fire blast came at her. The blast threw her onto her back with a grunt.

Black Siren laughed and opened her mouth. "Stay right there!" Her last word was deafened by the destructive sound of her sonic cry that came out of her mouth. It was quickly making its way to Hawkgirl.

But Kendra wasn't going to let up. Not until she's kill all three of them. She slammed her palms into the ground on either side of her downed body. With incredible strength pouring into each muscle of every part of her arms, she pushed herself up to her feet and out of the way, avoiding the sonic cry and charged for the nearest metahuman.

Killer Frost was the one to meet her mace. With a hand raised, she blasted an ice blast into the mace and pushed the weapon out of her hand. Kendra was shocked by the loss of her weapon, and the icy metahuman used the opening to strike with each of her fingers paired with ice blades, slashing the woman's upper abdomen.

Deathstorm laughed and launched a fire blast at the woman and pushed into the ground. The clothes on her stomach was burned with scorch marks and touched her skin, causing her to emit a pained scream.

Seeing a chance to further unleash damage to the flyer, Black Siren opened her mouth and unleashed another sonic cry. The cry paved through the ground and connected with the woman. And unlike last time, she was forced to take on the full force of the cry and it caused her to scream like a banshee.

None of the metahumans wouldn't be surprised if the entire city could hear her screams right now.

"That's a nice scream." Killer Frost admitted as she felt Hawkgirl's screams running through her body and sending shivers through her entire cold being.

But she couldn't help but feel her eyes drift to the top of the wall to the right side of her… seeing the red eyes of the Demon King. "_So what now… my King?_"

X

"**Ruby.**"

The young assassin watched the elemental narrow his eyes on the three metahumans. Sigh sighed, "Let me guess, you want to stop them yourselves?"

But Venom shook his head. "**Use your powers to constrain their movements from here. It's good training and should allow an opening to reveal itself. If this goes on much longer, that woman is gonna die.**"

"Okay." Ruby focused her attention on the three metahumans.

"**Remember your training.**" Venom said. "**Imagine the weight of an entire planet on their shoulders. Forcing them to the ground…. and they can't move anymore.**"

She clenched her hands and she could imagine the three of them… no… _two_ of them being affected by the force of gravity itself. In her mind, she saw it all. Deathstorm's body forced to the ground with the weight of a planet on his shoulders.

Ruby saw what was happening to Ronnie Raymond of this world, as did Seth. Deathstorm was suddenly staggering, each of his limbs gaining more weight by some invisible force. He lost his balance and was brought down to his knees.

Killer Frost saw her boyfriend going down to his knees and looked at him in confusion. She watched him being brought down to his stomach and lying on the ground. "Ronnie, what's wrong?" they heard the icy metahuman ask him loudly.

"Somet… Something's not right." Ronnie managed to let out despite the feeling of his entire body weighing a ton now. The side of his face was pressed on the ground and he saw the ground under his body cracking. One of his eyes widened. "It's that gravity brat!"

Turning her attention to the sonic cryer, Killer Frost saw that Black Siren was in a similar state as her boyfriend. However, she wasn't brought down to her stomach like him. Instead she was brought down to a single knee and had to cancel her cry because of the gravitational powers distracting her control. "Frost… take out that girl!" She lets out.

Venom turned to Ruby. "**Nice job, Ruby.**" He praised her and retracted the symbiotic form into his body again. Withdrawing his large crystal sword from his pocket dimension, he held it high. "Let's go down there."

"See if you can keep up, old man?" she joked.

"See if _you_ can keep up, greenhorn?" Seth said back with a smirk and used a tendril to wrap around the assassin before jumping down from the wall together. Landing down on the ground in front of the downed woman, the elemental turned to the three metahumans. "Know that this one behind us packing and all, but ganging up on a single woman? Really not cool."

Deathstorm got off the ground as he felt the gravitational powers lose their hold on his body. "I'm gonna kill you all three, right here and right now!"

Spinning his sword around, he pointed them at the fiery metahuman. "You're welcome to try."

"How many women do you actually know on this Earth? Cause for an outsider, you sure know a lot." Came the words from Killer Frost.

"I'd say that's a charm of mine." Seth said. "But I think it's time for you three to get away from here and stop hurting people. If not, then I will gladly drive you all out of here."

Ruby heard clattering of feet coming behind her. She turned to it and widened her eyes.

"These women must like you Earth-1 folks." Black Siren quipped.

"Oh, who doesn't like a bad boy?" Seth boasted with outstretched arms. Spinning the blade around, he said. "How about we finish this?"

"Seth… I think we have another problem." Ruby said with a loud gulp that reached his ears.

"What do you mean?" Seth asked while keeping his eyes on the three metahumans.

"**_Partner, you might wanna turn around._**" Venom stated sheepishly, but hints of urgency was coating the words.

The elemental turned around and faced the woman behind them. Both he and his partner turned shocked by the sight of the downed woman who stood up again. Even though blood was seeping out of her open wounds, soaking the charred clothes on her body blood red.

But then, the most distracting and shocking thing appeared before their eyes. A pair of large white feathery majestic wings sprung out of her back and flapped violently. Her eyes then changed. First time, they were dark brown… now… her pupils are… completely… red, almost glowing like contained magma.

"Holy KFC!" Seth exclaimed in shock of seeing the woman with large white wings. "She's got wings… _sigh_… that I really did not expect."

"Okay, who's this one then?" Ruby asked while stepping back in fear of those almost glowing red eyes.

"That, little girl, is Hawkgirl." Killer Frost revealed and watched as the woman unleashed out a war cry.

They watched her fingernails elongate and sharpen into claws. She jumped into the air and glided through the air and lashed out her claws for the mutant and the young assassin. Seth jumped in front of Ruby and turned his arm into adamantium, shielding the young girl from the slash.

But Seth had to hold back his wince when the claws connected with his arm. "What the hell's with those claws?" he asked out loud. He saw Hawkgirl fly over his head and swipe her claws for the three metahumans behind him.

Black Siren fired off another sonic cry. But unlike her previous ones, this one was dodged, and the flying woman slammed her right wing into the cryer's stomach. She was pushed off her feet and into the wall.

Deathstorm lashed out both hands, launching a flamethrower after Hawkgirl. However, with a flap of both wings, she shot into the air again and flew over the fiery metahuman's head. Before he could react, the flyer drove her claws into his shoulders and used the momentum of her leap to throw him into a wall. Blood splattered on the wall when it was sprung out of his mouth.

Hawkgirl set her sights on Killer Frost and she screamed again and flew after her. The icy metahuman swiped with her own ice claws, but none of them connected with the flyer. Kendra jumped into the air and slammed her foot into the metahuman's stomach.

"Shit!" Seth said and lashed out his left arm, an array of black tendrils wrapped around the woman's form and pulled Killer Frost away and out of the second attack's reach. His tendrils pulled the icy metahuman into his arms. He looked down at her and asked in concern. "You okay, Caitlin?"

Killer Frost smirked and wrapped her arms around his neck. She gained a loving expression and mockingly said. "My hero." She even made the extra joke of nuzzling against his chest.

"Okay that's enough." He put her down and turned to the flyer again. Seth saw her take up her firearm again. Kendra had it pointed at the mutant and the two. "Fuck."

Once again, he pushed Ruby behind him and stood in front of her. His entire form was quickly enveloped by his symbiotic partner's form. He used his arms and put them together, ice swirled around them both and formed a massive ice shield.

Wincing within his mask, he detached one arm from behind the ice shield and wrapped his entire fist around Killer Frost. The metahuman gasped in shock of the symbiotic flesh wrapping around her. "**Don't think too much about it.**" Placing the doppelganger of his girlfriend behind him, he turned to the flyer.

A hail of bullets met his vision as Hawkgirl pulled the trigger on her gun. All of them however were met with the resistance of the icy cold shield on his arms. When the storm of bullets stopped, he withdrew his shield. Red eyes widening when seeing the opposing red eyes on the flyer's form closing in on him, with the mace in her hand.

Kendra screamed again and swung the mace after his head. He shielded the attack with his arm and used it to push her away. But she recovered and charged again with the mace outstretched. This time, she swung for…

…Ruby.

Venom didn't like that. "**Get away from her!**" He swung an adamantium arm into her body, connecting with her and sending her into the air.

Killer Frost decided to offer her aid and launched ice blades into the air and after the flying woman. Kendra flew higher up and dodged the attacks. Unleashing another battle cry she flew away and left them alone. The icy metahuman chuckled. "Didn't know the little birdy would go off like that." She turned on her heels and walked to her downed companions.

Seth's symbiotic form retracted. "You know anything about her acting like an animal like that?" Subconsciously, he held his arm with his other one.

"Sorry handsome, I don't. Didn't think she was that strong." Killer Frost walked to Black Siren. She used her foot to tap against the cryer's cheek. "Wake up, Siren."

"Stop it." The cryer slapped the foot away and got up on her feet again. "Where's that flying bitch?"

"Gone." Killer Frost replied, she looked to her boyfriend. "Ronnie, wake up."

"I'm good." Deathstorm returned to his feet. "Son of a bitch, that chick's dead."

Ruby looked to Seth who looked at the three metahumans. "What are you going to do now, huh?"

Killer Frost lashed out her hands, enormous amounts of icy cold fog blasting out of them both. The mutant watched as the entire alleyway was enveloped by the fog. "Gonna go on a hunt. Sorry your date with Siren didn't go well but trust me… she's not as fun as me." She winked.

"Until next time, Venom." Laurel followed up as the fog enveloped them all.

Worried by what might happen soon, he gathered wind into the palms of both hands. Slamming them both together, he unleashed a gale of wind that blew the icy fog away. But the three metahumans were already gone. "Damn it."

"Seth… your arm." Ruby pointed at his arm.

Raising his arm to his face, he saw scratch marks on the length of his arm. "How the hell?" he confusedly stated when seeing the marks on his appendage. He chuckled and realized where they came from. "Don't know or why, but suddenly that chick got a power boost." Finally, the wounds on his arm began to heal.

"Seth! Ruby!"

A familiar voice of the deep made them turn around and face the other end of the alleyway. To their surprise, they did indeed find Mera Curry rushing over to them in haste. This time she was wearing her battle suit. The bright one-piece golden suit with small hexagons that resemble fish scales. Even her golden trident was clutched tightly in her hand.

When reaching them, Mera had already noticed the damage around them and asked. "What happened?"

"Funny story." Seth stated. "I go out to find a way back to my home world, I bring Ruby along in case she needs more actual field training. Things go well with a conversation with Black Siren, bit shifty when suddenly Killer Frost and Deathstorm appear, but we can handle it. All of a sudden, an entire belt of grenades is thrown into the bar and it blows up!" He raised his voice. "I was able to get Ruby and myself out of there, and there we find a crazy chick with a gun and a fucking mace."

Mera widened her eyes. "Did you say mace?"

Scoffing loudly, the mutant clenched his hands in slight anger. "So, I'm guessing this woman is one of your friends? Here's a promise. I don't give a damn if she's angry or not, whether she wants to fight against a bunch of metahumans or not for them trying to blast her to kingdom come, but if she attacks Ruby with either her gun or that mace, I will butcher her."

"Seth, please." Mera put down her trident. "My friend still didn't trust you enough. So she send a pair of bounty hunters out, kept track on me and you during our meeting. That woman is Kendra Munoz-Saunders, Hawkgirl, is one of those bounty hunters that she sent after you."

"Okay, nice to know. But what the hell does this have to do with me being attacked by that woman?" Seth demanded to know.

Mera answered. "The other bounty hunter, Carter Hall… was her boyfriend, the love of her life." Seth didn't appear show any emotions on his face. Ruby was the one to tilt her head in shock, but without showing emotions on her face. "They followed you guys back to the Woodlands and saw you training the girls. They then… met trouble."

"What kind?" Ruby asked.

"Not what. _Who._" Mera corrected them. "Zoom attacked them… and killed Carter right in front of Kendra."

"And now she's out for blood, and she wants to stain her blades with Zoom's metas." Seth deduced and Mera nodded. Turning his head around and inspected the damage on the alleyway walls. "I understand she has wings, and all. I've seen that kind of power before, nothing new there. But how the hell does she suddenly get red eyes and starts to get claws and increased in superhuman strength?"

"Wait, she went berserk?" Mera asked.

"Berserk?" Ruby asked in worry and curiosity.

"What the hell does that mean?" Seth crossed his arms.

Mera ran a hand through her long red hair. "Ever since Kendra got her wings, she sometimes loses herself to her emotions."

"They overwhelm her like a tsunami." Seth stated and the two women looked shocked at his words. "I have some experience on that area."

"Well, she loses herself to them and she just starts attacking whatever is in front of her like a wounded attack hound on a rampage." The Atlantean looked at the mutant. "She gets those outbursts of energy, like she can fight through any pain. Not to mention those claws and superstrength. Her wings are always there."

"Fighting through pain is gonna mean squats with an open wound on her stomach." Mera widened her eyes at his blunt tone. "Killer Frost managed to scratch her with a few ice blades of hers. I'm a doctor, I know what an open wound is gonna do. And she's a flyer on top of that, with her entire body moving, muscles expanding, contrasting and all, she's gonna lose blood pretty soon, if not treated. Let's hope she's not flying when that happens, because that would make one hell of a swan dive."

"Seth, it's not funn-"

"That crazy woman was inches from smashing off Ruby's head with that mace. Believe me, I know it's not funny." Seth interrupted the Atlantean from saying any other words. "Loss of control or not, that is no excuse for almost hurting a child. I have lost control before, Mera, but I don't attack uncontrollably. I direct them to a target, and I attack _them_ uncontrollably. Something your flying psycho friend might wanna look into. And a little something for your friend. Last time, she sends someone after me to get a scope on me. Next time, she meets me herself or she can screw off and leave me alone!"

"Okay, I'm sorry." Mera held up her hands. "I really am sorry. But I know my words aren't gonna mean much to you because of my friend's choices and sending people after you like this after you. But you don't know the pain of losing someone like that."

"Almost two years ago, I lost my fiancée and my three-year old son to my world's greatest and most dangerous psychopath." Seth bluntly told her and Mera looked shocked as did Ruby once again. "So yeah, I really do know what it's like to lose someone like that. But I take it out on anything that's not alive, that's my schtick. Or I take it out on bad guys alone."

"I'm sorry, Seth." Mera stepped closer to him. "I didn't mean to open up any old wounds. I just…" She sighed. "Honestly, I have no excuse for saying that to you like that before. Hearing Kendra lose Carter… was a shock, they're both close friends."

"Yeah, well that close friend of yours is about to join her soulmate in the afterlife." Ruby said. "Because right now, she's either gonna bleed out and fall to the ground like a fly hitting a windshield at the speed of light, or she's gonna have trouble with three of Zoom's metas."

"I'm sorry, "three?" All of them are alive?" Mera wanted confirmation.

"Yup, and super pissed off at your girl for trying to whack them like a flying hammer in a game of Whack-A-Mole." Seth joked. "Not looking too good for her."

Mera inhaled. "I know it's pretty much asking a lot, Seth. But I can't stop someone in the skies. My attacks can't reach that high. And when she's berserk-ing, she's much quicker than me… Can you stop her and save her from Zoom's metas?"

"Couple of conditions." Seth instantly replied. "First, last and only time, that friend of yours sends her goons after me. I got Zoom looking for me and the girls as is. Another fucker breathing down my neck, I'm gonna go on a worse rampage than heartbroken Hawkgirl."

"Understandable." Mera agreed.

"Second, tell that friend of yours she can fucking grow a pair if she wants to meet me. Or leave me alone" Seth stated angrily.

"Alright." Mera nodded.

"Third and fourth here are the most important." Seth seriously said. "You take Ruby back home to Iris and Barry; I will deal with that flying catastrophe, wherever the hell she might be. And finally, if…" he got a cold and lifeless look as he stepped closer to the Atlantean. "She might be out of control now, but if Kendra ends up hurting an innocent. I will gladly be rough on her."

"After what she almost did to you and Ruby, I don't expect anything else." Mera told him. "Thanks."

Seth nodded and looked to Ruby. "Gonna have to cut training short today, Rubs. Get back to Iris and the rest, and don't do anything stupid alright?" he asked of her.

"Sure thing." Ruby looked to him. "Be careful, all right?"

"Always." He assured her and ran away. He jumped onto the wall and latched onto it while the symbiotic mass on his body spread over. Once again Venom was breathing in the air of this new universe and he jumped into the air after latching onto a building with a tendril. Using it and others, he swung away and after the flying woman.

"I always expect him to go off on me like that." Ruby admitted in shock of the mutant's temperament.

"Don't be surprised, he's a father after all." Mera said and Ruby's confusion raised. The Atlantean laughed, "He's pissed because you were put in danger, because of him. He's even more pissed about being having my friend sic her friends and others on his ass. Honestly, so am I."

"Why? She's your friend?" The assassin asked.

Mera replied, "Yeah, a friend that I have repeatedly told that she can trust Seth. But instead of that, she keeps being distrustful and sends out metahumans after metahumans."

"That's irony for you." Ruby said and the Atlantean looked confused. "You don't see it, do ya? Zoom sends metas after Seth all the time to get him, your friend sends metas after Seth to get a scope on him."

"That's not the same." Mera stated.

"You sure about that?" Ruby chuckled hollowly. "He's got metas after him from left to right now, and all he wants to do is get back home to his daughter and his girlfriend. To do that, he has to find a breach or whatever the hell that is, but bit of a bitch with two meta armies on his ass. Not to mention, he's been protecting me, Evelyn Sharp and Jesse from Zoom. He's probably the only person in this entire city, who wants to fight that bastard. He looks like a demon, yeah, but he's one of the best people in this entire city. And right now, your friend, whoever she is, doesn't wanna admit that because he's willing to do the wrong thing for the right reasons."

"Sounds about right." Mera nodded.

"Well, tell your friend to put on some glasses. Seth's a good guy and he's protecting this city while it doesn't have The Flash." Ruby began walking. "If she doesn't see that yet, then she can honestly just piss off and leave him alone."

Mera understood what she meant. The young girl was right in every single sense of the words she uttered. Right now, Seth was in the middle of two opposing radars. One is belonging to the evil speedster, Zoom, and the other belongs to Lindy. Because of that, both sides are sending metahumans after him. Anyone in between is gonna get hurt.

And if too much, the Demon King is gonna embed his sword into anyone who dares come after him.

Rage only has its limits.

Mera ran up to the girl again. "I'll make this right, Ruby. I swear."

"Not your problem, Mera. It's that ignorant friend of yours that doesn't trust Seth, despite all the good he's done." She looked to him. "Word to the wise? Heroes come in all forms and they don't have to look like good guys to be heroes. Just their actions are enough to be determine where their hearts are."

"For a girl from another universe and all, you sure are smart." Mera admitted.

"Well, I was trained in a secret Nazi organization hidden in the government. Smarts was part of the education." Ruby smirked and walked forward.

Mera stopped abruptly. "Wait? A Nazi organization?"

X

A tendril attached to the side of a building and the large elemental form of Venom pulled on it to swing to it. His feet attached to it and stuck him to it while his claws grabbed hold of the surface as well, his claws digging into the side of the building. The elemental looked around in search of Kendra and his other hand swung his large sword around before bracing it on his shoulder.

"**Where is that little flying fucker?**" Seth growled in anger.

"**_You wanna tear her to shreds and eat her?_**" Venom thought, he couldn't help but lick his teeth in hunger when imagining the taste of the flying woman. "**_Remember we got to pull off her wings first._**"

"**Right before we deep-fry her to perfection.**" Seth agreed and before said. "**We seriously hate whoever's yanking Mera and that Hawkgirl's leash. We hope we don't meet them.**"

"**_Tell that to someone who actually believes you, dumbass._**" The symbiote insulted his host who turned confused. "**_You wanna meet this woman no matter what and try to figure out what the hell she wants with us._**"

"**We do.**" He used his sword to scratch the side of his head. "**And let's hope we can find her at some point and talk with her.**"

"**_Or eat her._**"

"**_Or_ eat her.**" Seth agreed with his partner.

_SCREAM_

A distant scream caught the elemental's attention and he turned around to face the direction of it. His blood-red eyes expanding quickly at the sight of a flying form flying up the side of a building and crashing into it repeatedly. "**She's off her damn rocks.**" Venom stated and swung after her.

X

_SCREAM_

What might have sounded like screams of distress and possible death to those listening from afar, was war cries that Hawkgirl was screaming as she was swinging her mace around and smashing into the wall of the tall building she was flying up at.

"ARGH!" Kendra slammed her mace into the wall with another vicious cry. Pieces of the wall broke off and fell to the ground. "ARGH!" Unleashing another cry, she flew higher and higher up the side of the building. This time, her right wing slammed into the wall, the hard surface cut the feather-covered skin of her wing and blood began to leak out of her wounds.

In between her screams of war cries, Kendra got closer and closer to the wall and smashed her head into the wall. A wound opened on the side of her forehead and more blood ran down the side of her face and over her eye. But to her enraged mind, in her current berserker-like state, nothing fazed her.

Not even the blood running out of her stomach wound, that should have made her to feel like Hell.

But her attention was diverted when a blast of wind blew her off course. She straightened herself up and turned around to face the direction of the blast of wind. Her berserker-like red eyes sharpened on the large form of the elemental demon with… _that_ sword!

"**How about you calm the fuck down?!**" Venom screamed his suggestion as the two continued to stare off while holding their battle on the side of the building. "**Don't make us hurt you, Kendra.**"

She screamed again. "ARGH!" Hawkgirl charged af him with glowing red eyes. Both hands reeling the mace back before thrusting it forward with incredible superstrength.

Venom twirled his sword around and used it to block the incoming strike. An echo of a ringing sound emitted from the connection of both melee weapons. It reached the elemental's ears and he swung his claws for her and he wrapped his entire hand around her head before throwing her against the surface. He watched as her winged form skipped on the side of the building.

Kendra managed to steady herself once more and took charge. She spun around and lashed out her wings for him again. Swinging one wing for his head, he raised his arm and split it into tendrils. Each one of them wrapped around her wing and pulled before throwing to the surface underneath him.

While she tried to struggle out of his hold, Venom increased the strength of his tendrils' grasp and pinned her to the wall. "**Get a hold of yourself, Kendra!**" He screamed in her face, but it did nothing to quall her anger. "_Any ideas on how to make this chicken calm down?_"

He felt a mental eyebrow raise followed by a shrug inside his mind before he heard. "**_Well, if you wanna butcher a chicken, you have to knock them out first._**"

"**Better than what we got.**" Seth said while listening to the girl screaming her lungs out in an array of war cries. He reeled the sword to the side before thrusting it into Hawkgirl's face. Much to his dismay, she was still awake and trying to claw his face off. "**Okay. Round two.**" Slamming it into her face, he found her… still awake.

"**We hate this.**"

"**_Look out!_**"

He heard the words from his partner and released his hold on the flying woman jumped backwards in a spin. Kendra pushed herself off the surface with her feet and with a flap of both wings, she launched herself into the demon's stomach and pushed into the rooftop of the opposite building. They got away in time just for the sonic cry to strike and pave through the side of the wall of the building the two leaped away from.

With the elemental touching the ground, he grabbed the woman and threw her into the ground. Seth pushed himself off the rooftop and saw Hawkgirl still awake and screaming with blood coursing out of her body. "**Damn, she's tough.**" Facing back in the direction of the other building, he saw a cracked hole on the building.

"Guess, we're back on, Venom."

He recognized the voice and saw Killer Frost form an ice slide to bring both her and Black Siren to the rooftop. A light from a fire touched the surface of the building and Deathstorm ascended higher into the air before touching down on the rooftop to stand beside the two metahuman women.

Killer Frost waved at the mutant. "Hiya, Grumpy. Been good?"

"**Could definitely think of something better than this.**" Venom admitted while Kendra continued to scream like a raging banshee. He glanced at the sonic cryer. "**Hawkgirl here might give you a run for your money.**"

Black Siren smirked. "Let's see about that, shall we?" Thrusting her head forward, she fired a sonic cry. The elemental opened his mouth and as his teeth reddened, he blasted a fire blast at the woman. The two attacks met and canceled each other. The smirk on her face was wettened by the tongue belonging to the cryer. "You have no idea how fun you are right now."

"**Gonna be fun to watch you three be chased by her though.**" Venom stated with a thumb pointing back at the flyer.

"What do you mean?" Deathstorm asked.

Venom faced the fiery metahuman. "**The three of you jackasses were the ones laughed about her dead boyfriend. The ones with the biggest target on their backs-**"

_SCREAM_

Another vicious scream came from the flying woman and she landed on the fiery metahuman, her claws sharpened before she brought them down on Deathstorm's face. Slashing and scratching him like a psychotic tigress.

"**You get the picture.**" Venom finished.

"Ronnie!" Killer Frost exclaimed and fired an ice blast with both hands, pushing the flying woman off her boyfriend. She got down to his side and asked. "You okay?"

Ronnie shook his head from the pain spreading over his face as he got up again. "Yeah, but that fucking bitch is dead!" his hands and head began exploded in flames as he looked at the flying woman who was still screaming.

But then Venom stepped in front of the girl with his sword swinging in his hand. He dug the tip of it into the ground and stated. "**Sorry, but you're gonna have to go through us first.**"

"Why do you wanna protect this girl exactly?" Deathstorm asked. "She's a nobody to you, isn't she? What's the big deal about that chick?"

"**Promised a friend, that we would help her. And we kee-**"

_SCREAM_

Kendra jumped onto his back with another crazy scream and began slashing at his oily symbiotic flesh like an animal. "**Son of a bitch!**" He was tired of playing nice with this girl. Reaching back with his arm, he grabbed hold of her head and flung her down to the ground with a brutal swing.

With his hand around her head, he inspected the rest of her body and saw the blood-soaked armor on her body. He also saw the feathers on her wing drenched in her own life source. Feeling a liquid dripping down his clutched hand, he knew there were also damage done to her head.

"**Kendra, for what it is worth, this is gonna hurt,**" Venom smiled. "**and we might enjoy it.**" He slammed his other palm on her stomach, unleashing a scream from her mouth as well as an ice wave that froze her wound, bandaging the wound to prevent further leakage.

Removing it from there, he placed it on her wing and put one there. He removed his hand and Kendra was lashing out after him with her teeth now like a canine animal.

_PUNCH_

Without any better ideas coming to mind, he slammed an adamantium fist into her face. For good measure, he sparked lightning around it before it connected with her face. He sighed in relief when seeing the woman finally lose consciousness. "_About time._" He used ice to cover the wound on the side of her forehead.

Black Siren watched him throw the flyer behind him and commented. "You know, you have a funny way of "helping" people, pal."

Venom shrugged uncaringly. "**I tried the nice way, but my way is easier.**" Pulling the sword out, he pointed it at the three metahumans. "**You three really wanna mess with **me?" His voice changed as his symbiotic form slithered back inside of him.

"Trust me, I will!" Deathstorm shot forward, his hands blasting him forward like a rocket.

Seth threw the sword up into the air and the metahuman stopped to see it. The elemental jumped forward and slammed both feet into his stomach, sending him forward into the ground. Tendrils shot out of his back and pushed the mutant to his feet again.

One of the tendrils shot into the air and wrapped around the handle of the large crystal sword. He cracked both of his fists and stated. "Don't underestimate me, Pissstorm. I'm much stronger than you." The tendril pulled the sword back to his hand.

"How about I check for myself?" Black Siren licked her lips before lashing her head forward and unleashing a sonic cry.

"Not this time, Siren!" Seth dodged the attack and ran to her with lightning and earth coursing through his muscles. He appeared beside the cryer before swinging his sword to cleave her.

She dodged it and screamed into the ground, unleashing a sound blast that pushed the mutant off his feet and into the ground. But he slammed his fist into the ground and kept himself from falling before using his other hand to slash the woman from downwards.

Black Siren spun away, dodging the attack. But Seth lashed out his feet, sweeping her feet away and forcing her to fall down to the ground. Returning to his full height, he looked down on the cryer's form. She looked up at him. "You really don't play nice?"

"Why play by the rules, when you can tear them down? It's more fun that way." Seth shrugged, his ears perking up at the sound of ice cracking. He faced the direction and saw Killer Frost standing there with ice forming into sharp blades in her hands.

"Wanna go on another date, handsome?" The icy metahuman quipped as she walked to him.

He twirled his sword around, the tip of it pointing at her. "Gonna have to decline. I'm taken."

She raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you and I were dating now."

"Trust me, not you." He smirked and saw her swing one blade for him.

Blocking it with his sword, he shot a tendril and wrapped it around her waist and pulled her close. Noticing the close proximity between them, she said. "You just wanted another kiss, didn't you?"

"Last time… was a mistake." Seth said and shot out another tendril from his back. Shooting its way around the metahuman, he shot it into the back of the woman's knees. The sudden strike from him, caught her by surprise and forced her to fall down. Getting the tendrils back to his body, he braced the sword again his shoulder and said. "You girls really have a thing for bad boys, huh?"

"You have no idea."

Seth spun around on his feet and saw Black Siren standing before him. Before he could react, the cryer grabbed him by his forearms and pulled him close. Any words he might have thought to utter were instantly silenced when she crushed her lips on top of his.

To say Seth was surprised would be the understatement of the multiverse. It was one thing to be kissing Killer Frost before, but to now kiss Black Siren too? Most would consider themselves lucky. Seth? He found this incredibly weird and strange. Those feelings increased thousand-fold when he felt her tongue slither into his mouth and engage in a swordfight with his own.

And he wasn't the only one to think along those lines. Killer Frost was still on the ground, and from her position, she had a front-view seat to witness Black Siren make out with the same guy she made out with not long ago. And the anger and jealousy in her body began to raise like water raising up to form a humongous tidal wave.

Pushing her away, Seth looked at the cryer who smiled and rubbed her lips slowly with a finger. "Frost was right, you are a good kisser. Might have to keep you to myself." Black Siren stated.

"Thanks, but no thanks. Still taken." Seth countered and he jumped backwards and landed in front of Kendra's form. "And while it was fun to meet you all again," he gathered wind into both hands, and formed ice spikes around his feet. "but I have to keep a promise to my friend."

He slammed his hands into the iced ground under his feet, blasting out pieces of ice off the ground and blowing up a white icy mist.

Killer Frost quickly got up on her feet and Deathstorm appeared beside her. Both of them lashing out their hands and blasting fire and ice attacks. Each strike flew through the icy mist and pierced right through it, without hitting anything and passed through the mist.

As it cleared out, the three metahumans saw that the mutant and Hawkgirl had disappeared. "Fucking bastard's gone." Deathstorm growled.

Caitlin Snow from this Earth looked to the cryer. "What was the deal with that kiss before?"

The sound of her sneer didn't go undiscovered by Black Siren who smirked again. "Thought he might enjoy a different and _better _flavor. And it looks like he did." The grin on her face widened. "Might have gotten tired of you being cold, maybe. Frost. We both know you're not that hot."

"Hotter than you, Siren." She quipped.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

The elemental was kneeled on the floor right beside the unconscious form of Hawkgirl who was on the couch. Mera was watching from one of the recliners she sat in, her eyes watching the mutant stitch her friend's wounds closed. The Atlantean was surprised to see him work so diligently and so gently, despite his behavior before.

Ruby was watching from behind the couch with Evelyn and Jesse. Iris was beside the mutant with her firearm ready. When hearing of the flying woman's outburst of rage and anger before, she had her gun on standby and ready to be pulled in a moment's notice. And according to the elemental, she shouldn't be afraid to pull the trigger. Especially, the wings that are spread out on both the back of the couch along with the floor.

"Pretty impressive there, Seth." Mera praised with a nodding of her head to his work.

"Doctor, remember? This is basic stuff for me." He replied while he was finishing stitching the wound on the flyer's stomach. While he stitched the last of the wound shut, he informed. "Her forehead's good for now, lost a lot of blood with her head and stomach open. But both of them are stitched up now, so she should be fine. As long as she eats and drinks something that can get her blood pumping again, she'll be back on her feet again and ready to fly in no time." Nodding to the wing, he said. "The damage on the wing is healing quickly, should be healed up in a few hours or so."

Barry walked into the living room with a large bowl of water and towels. "One bowl of water and towels."

"Thanks." The mutant said when the CSI scientist brought him what he needed. He took the bowl and dipped the towels into them, soaking them with water and placed them on the flyer's stomach. Using the remaining water, he washed his hands.

Jesse walked over to the couch and looked down on the flyer's body. "I didn't see you use any anesthesia on her. Is it safe to operate on her like this?"

"I knocked her out with a metal fist with lightning wrapped around it. Strong or not, that's enough to knock anyone out cold." Seth confidently said, but there were still hints of annoyance in his voice.

Hearing that, Mera said. "Seth, I'm really sorry for everything happening with my friend and the people she's been sending. I'll get her to stop."

"I hope so." Seth turned around and looked to Kendra again, applying the wet towels on her body and using them to wipe away any excess blood on her body. "Mera." He got her attention while treating the flying woman. "I told you that I'm from a different universe, and right now, I am trying to find a way back to it. Back to my girlfriend and my daughter. They think I'm dead right now, and I gonna do everything I have to get back to them." He looked in her eyes and said. "And it would be a hell of a lot easier to do so without having to look over my shoulder for two groups of metahumans who wants my ass on a pike."

"Thanks for image." Barry coughed while steadying his glasses.

Mera nodded. "I know, it's enough. I will tell her to stop it. But my friend doesn't want you dead, and she just wants to know you."

"Then get her to send me a friend request on Facebook." Seth countered. His hand gesturing to the unconscious flyer while he got to his full height. "Not send crazy flying bounty hunters on my ass."

"Yeah, she's no better than Zoom." Ruby repeated.

"I'll stop it, I promise you guys all that." The Atlantean said. "I told her that she could trust you, but she's stubborn as hell."

"Whatever." Seth noticed the flyer stirring. Turning to the girls, he said. "Girls, go upstairs please."

"Why, Seth?" Evelyn asked in concern.

"He's afraid of her doing something to us. Something horrible." Ruby deduced.

He didn't want to say anything dishonest to them. He went with the truth. "No." The crystal sword slithered out of his body and into his left hand while the girls and the others looked shocked. "I'm afraid of doing something bad to her…_if_ she acts out which will definitely not be pretty."

"Girls, he's right." Iris agreed and gestured to the staircase connecting to the upper floor. "Go upstairs." She took out her gun. "Time for the adults to handle this."

"Alright." Jesse accepted.

"Be careful." Evelyn said.

"Seriously, you don't know what this chick will do." Ruby followed up, equally as worried as the other girls.

Seth nodded. "I will. Get back up there, girls." They nodded again and walked up the stairs to upper floor. He looked down at Kendra who began to stir even more.

Her eyes opened up and Kendra looked around at her surroundings, but instantly found them to be unfamiliar. Kendra recognized Mera and asked, "Mera? Where-"

"Don't move." Seth stopped her from moving and pressed large blade of his sword against her throat. Kendra remained lying on the couch while the mutant leant down to her face.

"Who are you?" Kendra asked, having no idea on how this person was.

"Neither a friend nor an ally, to you at least." Seth replied bluntly while he pressed the blade harder to her throat.

Feeling the blade on her throat, Kendra's eyes looked downwards to the cold edge pressed to her throat and saw what weapon was being brandished. Her eyes widened in realization. "You're Venom?"

"Got it in one. Feathers." He pressed his other hand on her right eye. With his thumb and index fingers, he pulled her eyelids open to check on her eyeball. His own eyes running over the optic organ before turning to the left one. Without saying anything, he removed his blade from her throat and looked to Mera. "She's okay and ready to be brought back."

Kendra shot up to her feet and looked around for her mace and firearms. "Where are my weapons?" she asked the mutant with her wings retracting into her body again.

"I have them." Mera raised a brown duffel bag high in the air, the sound of metal clanging against metal reaching the flyer's ears.

"And you're not getting them till you're out of this house." Iris said in a commanding voice.

Kendra drifted her eyes to the duffel bag with her weapons again. Seth saw it and stated threateningly. "Go for the duffel bag, and whoever you and Mera's friend is, will get your body in a body bag."

Hawkgirl faced him. "Wanna say that again, Demon?!"

"Enough!" Mera screamed. Seth didn't appear to react to the dominating voice, but Kendra did and gained a wide-eyed expression on her face. "We're going, Kendra. And for what it's worth, you should be thanking Venom here for making sure you didn't attack anyone out there like a crazy person."

Her mouth gaped when releasing what she meant. "I went berserk again."

"Yeah, you did." Seth stepped closer to her; his face close enough to hers so the mere exhale was enough for his breathe to touch her face. "And I really, really hope I don't see you again, Kendra Saunders." The flyer widened her eyes. "Yeah, I know your name, and not really a fan. Now get out of here."

The flyer huffed in annoyance. "Whatever." She breathed out and walked to Mera. She reached for the bag but the Atlantean kept it out of her reach and walked to the door. Kendra's eyes widening even more from the actions as she followed Mera.

As the door closed, Seth finally dropped down to the couch with a loud exhale. "I swear to God, I do not want to see any more of these extra metahumans." He ran both hands through his spikey hair. "I hope I don't meet whoever this mutual friend of theirs, I might just kill that person."

"I get that." Iris holstered her firearm.

Seth turned his head to face the detective. "Iris, do you or Barry have any idea who this person is? Someone other than Zoom who rallies metas behind them, like that?"

Barry faced his wife; he saw the look of confusion spread over her facial features. But then another series of emotions ran over her face, one that he recognized very well. One of the strongest sensations to take form on her face was… realization. A huge amount of realization to be exact.

Seeing that, he answered for his wife. "A lot of people have been turned into metahumans after the Particle Accelerator explosion. And a lot of them are still in hiding, afraid of Zoom. It wouldn't be unlikely to think that a few of them might have banded together."

"And choose not to fight back against Zoom and his merry band of assholes." Seth rubbed his eyes. "And for some fucking reason, they want to waste their time on me. I really hate that."

"Yeah." Barry breathed out. "I'm gonna get some beers. Want one?"

"Yeah, thanks babe." Iris accepted.

"Me too, thanks Bar." Seth scoffed. "Heck, bring out something stronger even. We could use it."

"Sounds better." Iris walked to the kitchen. "I'll get some chocolate for your hangry friend too."

"**_Love that detective._**" Venom said.

"_Keep it on your pants, Venom._" Seth joked.

X

"Kendra!" Lindy exclaimed happily at the sight of her friend returning to their hideout alive again. She shot up from her chair and walked past Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop. Reaching her friend, she embraced her in a warm hug.

"I'm alright, Lind." Kendra wrapped her arms around her friend as well. Without looking, she could hear the rattling sound of her weapons in the duffel bag when Mera dropped them to the chair near the wall. Unwrapping her arms, she said. "I'm sorry for running off like that. I was just…"

"Vengeful." Mera helped her with a blunt tone.

"Yeah." Kendra nodded with a saddened tone.

Tony chuckled. "Hey, don't be sad. You lost Carter, anyone would go a bit bananas because of that."

At those words… Mera couldn't help but clench her hand.

"Yeah, brother's right." Marcus agreed. "Carter was one of us, a brother, we all want to avenge him. Even if that means crossing swords with Zoom."

"About that…" they turned around and saw Mera walking closer to Kendra. Her eyes looked into Kendra with a cold gaze.

_PUNCH_

That cold gaze was instantly forgotten when the Atlantean thrusted her clenched hand… directly into the flyer's face.

"Mera!" Lindy screamed in shock.

In fear of what might happen next, Tony clenched both hands and the entire flesh wrapped around his arms turned into a metallic surface, every inch of his arms' skin turned into metal with each flex of his muscles. The floor under them and the various objects on the table began to shake as vibrational energies emitted from Marcus's hands.

Kendra snapped her head back to the Atlantean with her wings shooting out of her back. "What the hell?"

"Took the words right out of my mouth." Mera chuckled hollowly. "Do you know what you almost did, Kendra? When you were on your masterful plan to take on Zoom's metahumans?"

"What do you mean?" Kendra didn't know.

"You almost killed a kid! A young girl! You almost killed a girl twice!" Mera screamed her answer into the flyer's face, causing confusion to hit her like a freight train travelling at the speed of light. "You threw a belt of grenades into a bar! That girl, Ruby, was there with Venom. You went berserk and almost smashed off her head! If Venom wasn't there, that poor girl would have died. Her blood on your hands."

"I-I-I didn't know." The flyer stuttered shockingly, her wings retracting back to her. "I- I was out of control."

"Yes, you were!" Mera screamed again.

Tony and Marcus deactivated their powers. Neither of them expected Mera Curry to scream like this, to be enraged like this. She was usually so caring and loving. "kindness" incarnated most thought. Sure, she had the hidden persona of a warrior queen inside of her, one that would awaken itself when danger revealed itself in front of her.

She would take up her trident and use any powers in her core… to bring down a god-like wrath on those who hurting the innocents. Like an angel of death descending to the grounds of Earth and smiting any and all threats that dares to hurt her homeland.

Now that… very persona… was erupting out of the Atlantean right now.

Mera turned her head to Lindy. "Lindy, this is the last time you send any of these guys or anyone else in this group after Seth, after Venom." She looked unsure. "You can't keep sending them after him like this. If you continue to do that, then he might just straight-up attack them all, even kill them." Sighing loudly. "He's a friend, like you are. And you need to trust him and stop sending metahumans after him like this. If you keep doing this… then honestly, Lindy, you are no better than Zoom."

"Wow. Wow. Wow, Mera, she's so much better than Zoom ever will be." Kendra stated in defense of her friend.

"Are you sure about that?" Mera felt like she was seeing what Ruby saw before, finally. "Seth is a father." The others widened their eyes. "He has a girlfriend and a daughter, not much older than the ones he's protecting now, in his home universe and they think he's dead right now. He's finding a way back home and Zoom knows one. He's using it even to send off his metahumans to attack his home. His friends and family are in constant danger. And while protecting those girls and this city, he has two groups of metahumans breathing down his neck and out to get him _and_ find a way back home."

"Sounds like a task for the Amazons." Marcus quipped with his palm running down his face.

"It's not funny, Marcus." The Atlantean made eye contact with the technopath again. "Lindy, time for you either to trust him or stop sending metahumans after him. Because you know, Venom is the only one with a snowball in hell's chance to even fight against Blackfire. And the sooner, you can gain his trust, the sooner Blackfire is gonna be stopped, and the more people are gonna be saved." Gulping she added, "Even Thea."

"…" Lindy's eyes shifted colors again as did the skin on her hands. "I can't lose her too, Mera."

"You won't… as long as you finally ask for Seth's help." Mera stated. "He's a good friend, probably the only one who's gonna fight him."

"Do you really trust him, Mera?" Lindy asked with a determined voice. "I mean, really trust him? With your life even?"

"I really do, Lindy. He's someone I trust with my life and I… really want him on our side." The Atlantean confidently stated. "Heck, even a detective from CCPD trusts him and she lets him sleep under her own roof."

Tony perked his head up in shock. "Wait? A detective? A woman?"

"Yeah." Mera nodded. "Detective Iris West-Allen."

"Iris is housing that guy?" Tony asked in shock. "I never expected that to happen."

"You know this detective?" Marcus wondered.

"Yeah. She's one of the best detectives in that department. If she trusts him enough to stay there, then so can we." Tony said.

"I'll arrange a meeting with him." Lindy said. Mera gave her a look. "I promise. No more metahumans chasing him like attack dogs. I'm gonna take care of it now. I swear on my life… and the life of Thea."

"Thank you." Mera smiled.

Happy that her dear friend was finally seeing it her way. Seeing that Seth Fury, Venom… was needed to fight the battle against Blackfire.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

His head was reeled back as Seth kept the bottle pushed to his lips. The alcoholic contents of the beer bottle was pouring out of the bottle's orifice and down the walls of his throat with each shallow he did. Finishing the last remains of it, he pulled it away from his mouth and put the empty bottle on the table.

"**_Satisfied?_**"

Mentally chuckling to his partner, Seth said back. "_Tired and tired, and in sore need for a break, pal._" He looked at the table and saw the five bottles of beer on the table. "_Yeah, five beers might be a bit too much._"

"**_Get some tater tots._**" Venom suggested. A wide expression came over him from within. "**_Wait do they even those in here?!_**"

"_That's your problem. Figure it out yourself._" Seth groaned and craned his neck.

"Hey."

He turned his head and saw Ruby and Evelyn walking downstairs. The assassin looked shocked at the sight of the bottles on the table. "Someone's enjoying their break."

"Don't worry." The two guys were shocked to hear him not slur his words. The amount of alcohol he must have consumed should have been enough for any man to slur their words when speaking. Narrowing his eyes on their shocked expressions, he said. "I'm fine, guys. Benefit of having living fire in your system burns through any alcohol like they're mini-marshmallows."

"That's cool." Evelyn took a seat on the couch as did Ruby. "You okay after everything before with Mera and all? Not to mention, Kendra."

"How doesn't like a flying psychopath with a mace and a firearm chasing them?" Ruby quipped.

He faced the young assassin. "You okay, Rubs? You almost lost your head because of that chick and your head riddled with bullet holes."

"I'm fine. I've fought against people like her before. Powered beings and all, and she was… yeah, she was not a favorite." Ruby admitted. "But I'm okay, Seth. Don't worry. Honestly, I'm just…"

"Shocked? Astonished? Scared?"

"Not scared." Ruby defended herself.

"I was the first time I saw a powered being like her attack like a psychotic animal." Seth faced her again and asked. "You ever heard of the Wolverine?"

"The guy with an animal-like personality and metal claws sticking out of his hands?" She asked with an intrigued smile.

"Yeah, that's him." Seth leant up against the back of the couch. "First time, I saw him lash out his claws I was so scared I thought I had a stroke. Most thought I lost my mind."

"Can't imagine you getting scared." Evelyn admitted.

Her head was gently pushed down when she felt the mutant place his hand on the top of head. "Believe it or not, I'm still a living being. Even I see something that scares the crap out of me, especially with the life I live. Everyone in the world has a fear, something that they fear above all else."

His head turned between them both and asked them both at the same time. "Guys… if I find a way back to my Earth, my new home-"

"We know about that." Evelyn stopped him. "Ruby said that you found about a breach or something like that, can bring you home again. And if some horrible things happen, you'll bring us to your Earth."

"Yeah, that's my plan for now. Of course, if you have other plans, then it's okay." Seth told them.

"Actually…" Ruby started, garnering their attention. "I don't think I'm fit for this universe, so I might actually accept that offer on going to that Earth." She had been thinking about it a lot for a while now. Wanting to get out of this Earth's barriers and away from it entirely. Zoom and his group were after her and the rest. It seemed like the safest choice for her.

And it also made her… different.

"That one might be more my speed."

"Speed puns? Really?" Evelyn joked and Ruby stuck out her tongue in retaliation.

"What about you, Evie?" Seth asked her. While she may not have been yanked away from her own universe, he knew that she's had it rougher than most at her age. Metahuman at a young age, with powers of both darkness and light residing within her being. The murder of her parents right in front of her eyes in her own home. Chased by the same psychopathic speedster who destroyed her life. Her friends and family casting her aside like trash and not giving her a second glance… almost like she wasn't worth it… as she was believed to have killed her own two parents.

It wasn't a life that was right for her… but he couldn't be the to make choices for her life. That was solely her role and her responsibility.

"I don't know." She looked down at her hands and fidgeted with her fingers. "This is my home and… my life… was here."

"Whatever you decide, we'll have your back, kiddo." Seth assured her. "But I hate to be the one to say this, but this city's not exactly thinking of your best interests, Evie."

"Then what do you think, Seth? What should I do?"

"If we can find way back, come to my Earth and lay low there with me and the others over there. Bunch of us there can protect you while we figure out what to do about Zoom." Seth told her.

She didn't speak for a few moments, letting the idea of his plan settle into her mind. When it did, the young metahuman turned to him. "Are you sure they can protect us? Your friends and family there?"

"Without a doubt. They're just as much troublemakers as me." Neither of the girls looked convinced and gave him narrowed eyes. Rolling his eyes, he said. "Ok, they're nicer and cuddlier than me."

"Sounds believable." Ruby nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. Venom being cuddly, doesn't sound quite right." Evelyn mockingly joked.

"Okay, that's enough out of the Twin Catastrophes." Seth patted both girls' heads. "Shouldn't you two be in bed by now? We're gonna continue training tomorrow. Bright and early."

Ruby looked unsurely at him before sheepishly asking. "About that…"

Seth looked with narrowed eyes himself. "What's up?"

"Can we both, maybe… sleep here tonight?" Evelyn asked.

"Why? Don't tell me Jessie snores."

"No, just… Can we?" Ruby asked.

Chuckling to himself, he reached beside the couch and pulled out a large blanket. "Sure. As long as you to don't snore." He joked and the girls straightened themselves on the couch and leaned against the back of it. The elemental spread the blanket over all three of them. "Sleep tight, girls." He told them. Both girls closed their eyes and leant their heads against his shoulders.

"Night, Seth." Ruby breathed out as she slept.

"Goodnight…" Evelyn followed up after the young assassin.

Seth watched as they slept soundly. "Goodnight you two."

"**_Think Frankie will like these two?_**"

"_She's gonna be shocked as hell to see us bring an assassin and a thief back home._" He clenched his hands. "_We're gonna find that breach and get home again._"

"**_Nothing and no one will stand in our path. Unless they wanna experience a hell unlike anything from any world._**" Venom growled.

Nothing would stand in front of them now. No one would be willing to take them on… the Demon King would raise his sword to the sky and cleave through anyone and anything.

X

**(Zoom's hideout)**

The next morning was shining brightly. But not a single shred of sunlight entered the hideout that Zoom was using. His entire base only illuminated by the lamps hanging above his head, and the light hitting the cells around him. The speedster's black eyes focused on the iron-masked prisoner in front of him.

Rage was coating both eyes and the same red-hot rage was lacing the prisoner's hands. The speedster could hear the prisoner's very joints cracking as they clenched at the sight of him.

Zoom narrowed his eyes on the prisoner's form and he walked forward with menacingly slow steps. As the blue lightning continued to run over his entire being, his body began to vibrate into a blur. His body, phasing through the glass cell door and into the cell.

The prisoner crawled backwards in fear, his back hitting the wall in the back of the cell. His fear intensified as the evil speedster crouched down before him. "**Your rage… is pathetic. Nothing and no one will save you again. You're mine… a trophy of my… accomplishment.**"

The man in the iron mask growled and thought about lashing out in rage, but it was useless. In his current state, he was absolutely useless to do anything against the pitch-black speedster who rules over this city.

"Hey, Zoom!"

Snapping his head to the side, he saw Black Siren walking towards them along with Killer Frost and Deathstorm.

_WHOOSH_

Zoom sped out of the cell and appeared in front of the cryer. "**What?**"

She got a disgusted expression and said. "He's done it again."

"**What?**" he asked with narrowed eyes.

Killer Frost walked to her side with crossed arms, both hands tightening their hold on her forearms as she followed up. "He stroke again. Another body was found."

Growling, Zoom let out in disgust. "**Blackfire.**"

X

**(Gotham City)**

"You sure it's him?" A man in a formal black suit asked as he held the phone to his ear. He was formally clothed to the role as the leader of this operation. Black tuxedo with a white shirt underneath it and a black tie around his collar. On the left side of his chest, was a badge clipped on.

The badge was of an ascending bird with three lines, each line bended in the middle to appear broken at that point. Their ends pointing upwards and the bended ends pointing downwards.

A larger emblem of that same crest was hanging on the back of his office.

"Alright. I'll have my men and myself go there ourselves. Yes, we'll leave in less than five minutes. And he won't get away. I assure you; I have everything under control, Mr. Wayne." He put down his phone and ran his hand through his dark hair.

"You okay, Dad?"

Chuckling to himself, he saw the form of his daughter. Standing at 1.7 meters and having short dark brown hair on her head with red tips while wearing a black tactical suit and holsters on her thighs. Firearms attached to them both. Kate Kane got a worried expression on her face as she asked again. "You okay, Dad? You look like you've seen a ghost?"

Jacob Kane chuckled again. "Told you already, Kate, that it's Commander Kane on the clock."

"Sorry, Commander." Kate walked closer to her boss/father. "What's wrong?"

"Get a squad together and have Agent Pennyworth and Agent Moore geared up for deployment. You too, Agent Kane." Jacob Kane ordered.

"Where's the destination?" Kate asked with an intrigued smile.

"Central City." Jacob took out his gun from the drawer and cocked the firearm. "Blackfire's our Agenda."

X

**(Central City)**

Iris rushed through the alleyway and past the barriers of officers in front of the police barricades.

The detective heard a ringing sound coming from her phone in the morning. Grabbing it, she saw that it was a call coming from her partner Floyd Lawton. She accepted the call and heard him speaking distressfully. Most of it were incomprehensible because of his state of his mind at the time.

However… one thing was undeniably clear for her to understand.

Without even saying goodbye to her friends or bringing her husband along, she hastily put on her gear and rushed out of her household to get to the crime scene.

And she finally got to the place. She ran to the gathering of officers at the crime scene. Shifting her gaze around, she saw Floyd holding his mouth with one hand. "Lawton." She got his attention and ran to him. "What's going on?"

"They found another one." Floyd looked like he on the verge of throwing up.

"It was him again?" Iris knew she didn't have to ask. The only other person to commit a crime that even would garner so many officers' attention, was Zoom himself. There another one, one who considers himself a rival to the evil speedster. "Where is the body?"

Floyd didn't speak, he raised his hand and pointed a finger in the direction of the other officers. Iris nodded her consent and ran over to them. She gently pushed herself forward and reached the direction of their sights, the form caused her to gasp in disgust and horror.

She cupped her mouth with both hands as she ran her eyes over the being.

A corpse that was… small… not much taller than that of a teenager in their late years as teens…. A corpse that was black… from the charred crust that was around every inch of its skeleton-like form. A formerly white skeleton was… now nothing but completely charred black from an immense malicious…

… Fire…

Iris felt like she had to throw herself… it wasn't the first time she would have done so when witnessing another victim done in by _his_ flames. She felt a hand wrap around her forearm and pull on her limb. Facing the direction, she saw her partner Lawton pulling on her arm.

Her partner pulled her to him, out of the other officers' hearing distance. Floyd Lawton leant closer to her head and whispered loudly. "Blackfire did this."

"I can see that." Iris ran a hand down her face.

"Partner." Iris saw him gain a serious expression. "Please… ask him for help."

"I don't think we have another choice now." Iris admitted.

The Demon King was needed for this battle now… even if she wanted anything but that that.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter folks…**

**Following the aftermath of the flying bounty hunter, Kendra Saunders, Hawkgirl herself flying through the skies of Central City, a charred corpse has now been found. A small one at that.**

**Because of that, CCPD, even an organization within Gotham City have responded to the call that's been made. **

**Now this corpse will hopefully be the wake-up call that Lindy and her friends need to realize that Seth is their hope.**

**Even the metahumans under Zoom's rule were disgusted to hear of Blackfire's attack. Black Siren might have gotten a kiss from the Demon King of another universe, but any enjoyment that might have been left behind in her core have evaporated when the news of Zoom's rival once again striking and leaving a corpse behind as an aftermath of his actions.**

**And now Seth knows that the two girls are willing to go with him to Earth-1, to better their chances at survival. Things will be interesting for sure.**

**But for now… Blackfire leaves a charred path and Venom has to take up arms.**

**Until next time, peeps!**


	16. Chapter 16: Gorilla Warfare

**And now another bedtime story for you guys out there in the wide world.**

**Sorry for the wait, guys. The old thinking box needed a day or two worth of rest. But all the wonderful and nice reviews kept me going. Thanks for them. They mean the world to me.**

**Saw the latest Flash episode, post-Crisis, really incredible as always, as expected of CW.**

**Also, I have small announcement to make at the end of the story, so be sure to keep your peepers open.**

**Now without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 16: Gorilla Warfare**

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

After an incredibly humiliating and massive defeat from Zoom, Barry was slowly taking his first steps with Joe beside him. He was holding onto the same metallic cane that Martin Stein used during his time as a singular part of Firestorm. As he took his steps, the others of Team Flash watched him closely.

"All right, I got you." Joe spoke supportively as he placed his hand on his son's back.

"Mm-hmm." Barry hummed as he agonizingly took his steps again.

In case of this not going so well for the speedster, Cisco and Matt had prepared Thawne's wheelchair so he could use it till he gets back on his feet. The fight with Zoom was devasting enough to leave him more than wounded.

"Try walking without the cane, Barry." Olivia suggested to him with her niece beside her and Iris.

"Good idea." Joe said but was inwardly surprised by the psychic's calm tone when speaking or even referring to his adoptive son.

Barry nodded and handed the detective his cane. Without the cane supporting him right now, he walked a few steps. All of them gave their full attention, honing it on him. However, despite all their hopes and feelings, they watched as the speedster fell. "I can't do it right now, all right?"

"Oh no, yes you can, Barry." Joe encouraged him.

"No, no, no." Barry chanted and limped to the wheelchair as Cisco pushed to him.

"We've been making so much progress." Joe stated.

"He's right, Barry. Believe it or not, you've been improving." Olivia added.

The speedster couldn't help but chuckle hollowly. "Yep, six whole steps. Someone get me a Bozo button."

"Fuck's sake, give yourself some credit." Matt stated. "You did go toe-toe with Zoom and broke your back. Six steps is big progress."

Barry faced him with a shocked look. "Did you hit your head or something this morning?" He didn't understand the nanite mutant's strange change of heart now. Or his wife's new attitude for the matter.

The nanite mutant shrugged. "No more than usual." His wife chuckled.

Iris chuckled. "Matt's right. A normal person would've been paralyzed the rest of his life."

Frankie looked to her mother and asked. "Shouldn't his spine be healed by now, Mom?"

"Yeah. How long until I'm fully healed?" The speedster asked the doctor.

Having done the tests on him a week ago, Caitlin informed. "The initial MRI I took a week ago showed a complete dislocation at the T12-L1 interspace of the thoracolumbar junction." They all looked at the monitors on the wall, seeing the scans of Barry's spine on the screen. "But this is the MRI I took this morning." She switched to the one that she took this morning and said. "It's remarkable, but you're almost completely healed."

"Gotta love that speed-healing." Olivia quipped.

"I'm still having trouble breathing." Barry pressed his hand on his chest.

"That's kind of part of the course with a spinal injury. It should clear up soon." Matt said. The natives of this universe gave him curious looks. Seeing the looks on his form, he cleared his throat and revealed sheepishly. "Seth, may or may not, have broken my spine a few times in the past. And healed it back those times afterwards himself."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. Good times." His wife smiled.

"Not for me, I had your brother poking me with needles the entire time." Matt complained with a frown, visibly disturbed by the memory of those horrible times he had to be treated by the elemental.

Barry chuckled. "Can't believe that instead of being dead, Seth was blasted into Earth-2. And raising hell on that Earth." He was happy within himself, happy that the actions he committed did not result in the mutant's death… merely resulting in him being hurled like a cannonball into another universe.

"He's a goddamn cockroach that Seth." Joe joked. His smiled faded as he asked the present two mutants. "You two think he knows how to find a way back here?"

"Knowing him, he's probably fighting Zoom's metas and Zoom himself right now and making them wish for a speedster." Matt said. "But about getting back, he's on it, I'd imagine."

"How are you guys so sure?" Iris asked the nanite mutant and the psychic at the same time.

Olivia smirked and pointed a thumb backwards to the people behind the main console. "Well, he has a cutie of a daughter here and, at-times, scary girlfriend."

"Excuse me?" Caitlin feigned hurt with crossed arms.

"What, it's true." Olivia admitted. "And my brother's gonna fight tooth and nail with everything in his being to find his way back to you again, Caity. Don't doubt that for a second. Not a single universe is gonna stop him from fighting his way through anything and all things to get back to you all. It wouldn't be him, if he didn't."

Matt cracked his fists. "Lethal Protector all the way. But I am surprised about that sword."

"Dad never had a sword like that before, did he?" Frankie wondered of her uncle and aunt.

"No, he didn't." Olivia said. "That sword is probably a strange souvenir from Earth-2."

"But I'm glad he's alive." Barry said.

"You're not the only one." Cisco said and had a finger pointing at Caitlin and Frankie who both held large smiles on their faces. The mother's face blushing up at storm at the mention of the mutant elemental. The mechanical engineer was happy to see his friend smile so happily once again.

The speedster's smile faltered, and he turned around in the wheelchair and looked at his suit on the mannequin. Joe watched the saddened expression on his adoptive son's face forming. "We're going to get you back in that suit, Barry. Real quick, trust me."

Another frown formed on his face as he asked. "What are we gonna do about Zoom?"

Matt shrugged his shoulders. "No sign of him since Cisco nailed him with that tranq dart." He nodded to the mechanical engineer and said. "Oh yeah, nice shot back then."

"Thanks." Cisco smiled. "And I haven't vibed since then."

"Maybe Zoom's not coming back." Iris stated her hopeful thoughts.

"Highly doubt that." Olivia said with her head looking at the entrance to the Cortex after hearing a series of thoughts. "That's what you wanna say, right Harry?"

"Stop reading my thoughts." Harrison Wells growled as he got all the others' attention. "Zoom's not gone, and he definitely will come back. Which is why I am gonna do something about it." He swung a backpack over his shoulder and onto his back.

Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean, go do something about it?"

Walking around the main console, Harry informed commandingly. "I need access to your breach room and your Speed Cannon."

"What exactly do you want to use our interdimensional portal?" Matt had a feeling where the scientist was going with this.

"Well, Stark, it's time to go home." Harry revealed to them.

Scoffs were emitting from the detective's mouth when hearing that plan. "So, you show up on our Earth, you screw everything up and now you want to go home? Sounds very familiar." He couldn't help but draw the obvious similarities between him and Eobard Thawne when he wore the face of Harrison Wells himself.

"Yeah, a coward running with his tail between his legs." Frankie grunted her response with her eyes shining magenta.

Harry faced them. "Again, that wasn't me." Having the eyes of many on him, he continued. "I need to go take care of Zoom once and for all before anyone else gets killed."

"How do you plan on doing that?" Barry asked.

"I'll think of something." Harry replied.

"You do realize that Seth is over there and protecting your daughter as we speak." Caitlin informed him with crossed arms.

"A random guy, that I have never met before is now responsible for my daughter's safety. Even if he is a nutjob willing to fight Zoom, he doesn't exactly inspire me with confidence. And if he's anything like his sister-"

"Oh no, he's much worse." Olivia's words did not help in the least.

"See." Harry gestured to the psychic before asking the native engineer. "Ramon, if you'll escort me to the Speed Cannon."

Caitlin didn't agree with that. "No, no, you can't go through the breach."

"Yeah, he can." Cisco argued. "Jay taught us how to send people."

Hearing her thoughts, Olivia said. "That's now what she means, is it Caity?"

The doctor nodded her agreement and made eye contact with the otherworldly scientist. "Look, if you can figure out how to stop Zoom on your Earth, you can figure out how to do it here. We need you to stay here until we defeat Zoom, Dr. Wells. And like I said before, Seth is gonna take care of your Earth and protect your daughter. And he is no nutjob."

Stepping closer to her, Harry countered. "What I need, Dr. Snow, is to return home. Despite what you think of this Seth, I have my own thoughts on the matter. And I will return to my Earth, with or without your assistance." He finished before walking away.

Cisco walked to his friend. "What are you doing? If Harry wants to go… bye." He directed to Caitlin with a shocked expression.

"Yeah, Mom. He used us like pawns in his game of chess, like the other Wells." Frankie tried to convince her mother.

"I know, sweetie, and he doesn't deserve to have our trust." Caitlin stated and looked at Cisco. "Look, like it or not, Cisco, we need his help."

Holding the cane behind his head, Joe stated. "I'm not sure another plan from Wells is what we need."

His daughter agreed. "Yeah, I mean, the last bright idea he had nearly got Barry killed."

"Upside, we know our favorite cockroach of a demon is still alive." Joe joked, he saw the smile on Frankie's face spreading and a similar one formed on his face.

"Yeah that's true." Caitlin agreed with a smile herself. "But Jay's gone and Seth is raising hell on Earth-2, and Dr. Wells knows Zoom better than anyone, so until Barry is back on his feet again, we need to keep Wells around in case Zoom returns." She gave a glance to the nanite mutant. "_Also_ till Matt makes upgrades to the security."

"Thank you, I can do that." Matt started. "But there is the matter of forcing the guy to stay here, Caitlin. If he doesn't want to stick around, then we're better off without his fucking ass."

"Matt's right." The paralyzed speedster agreed, half-expecting him to disagree abruptly with either an insult or a threat. But neither came, so he turned to the doctor again. "Let him go."

Caitlin shook her head. "I can't do that. Not yet." She was about to walk away but turned her attention to her daughter. "Sweetie, I'm gonna be gone for a while."

"Okay, Mom." Frankie accepted with a nod.

"Where you going, Caity?" Olivia asked.

"Gonna go and meet up with a friend. Wanna join me, Liv?" the doctor wondered.

"Lead the way, Dr. Snow." The psychic quipped and walked with her.

Frankie looked to her uncle. "Where do you think they're going, Uncle?"

"No idea. They might go out for an afternoon drink." Matt shrugged unsurely. They all heard alarms chiming all over their heads and the nanite mutant threw up his arms. "What now?!"

"Oh, snap, metahuman attack!" Cisco screamed and rushed to the main console. His urgency however was replaced with realization when reading the alarm description on the screen. "Nope, nope, my bad, that is just an alert for me."

Curiosity taking over the young metahuman and she jumped onto the railing in a crouched position. She leant over the console to look at the screen. "**_An upcoming event reminder notification? Cisco Ramon, date night tonight? Guy is using an advanced high-tech computer as a calendar? That's something._**" Magenta commented.

"_Right up there with the top ten greatest hits of Cisco Ramon._" Frankie thought to her partner. "Really, Cisco? You're using the computer like this?"

Iris looked intrigued. "What? What for, Cisco?"

Drifting his eyes between those two, Cisco said. "Oh, it's just a reminder. I have a date in an hour, so…"

"Oh yeah." Matt smirked with interest. "Who's the lucky lady to have tickled Mr. Ramon's fancy?" He joked his question in a mock British accent.

The smile on Cisco's face widened. "With the lovely Kendra Saunders, the barista at Jitters. Oh, she makes a mean latte."

"Does she now?" Matt sarcastically said. "Most have brewed you a special love potion."

"You have no idea." Cisco laughed. "I think we're gonna go out for dinner and a movie, and then, I don't know…" he scratched the side of his head unsurely, worried what he wanted to say next would be inappropriate for Frankie to hear. "maybe some breakfast."

Joe and Matt chortled. Iris couldn't keep herself from laughing as well, Frankie chuckled behind a closed mouth. Barry. however, did not understand. "Wait, breakfast? Why breakfast? I don't…"

"Yeah…" Iris put a hand to her chin and tried with all of her strength to not smirk.

"Yeah, why breakfast? Explain Cisco." Frankie demanded amusedly.

He looked like a deer caught in headlights. Sheepishly so, he said. "Cause, you know, you go home."

"Cisco." Matt stopped him with a half-smirk. "They're messing with you. And you better get out of here before you explain the Circle of Life to my niece."

"Heard it once, Uncle Matt." Frankie reminded her uncle with a goofy face.

Cisco laughed. "Oh." He turned on his heels and walked out of the Cortex.

Feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket, the paralyzed speedster reached into his pocket. Puling it out again, he saw who it was. "Patty." He told the detective before rolling away into the room with the treadmill.

Matt watched him roll into the room and felt a pain spread in him. Not physical pain, but something else. "Damn it." He muttered under his breath.

X

Barry rolled into the room and accepted the phone call from Patty. "Hey, Patty." Came the greeting when he put the phone to his ear.

"_Hey. I hear you're still sick._" Patty replied.

"Yeah, yeah, it's a… Nasty bug." He replied, still sticking with the lie that he told the police department. They couldn't know that their CSI scientist was paralyzed from the waist down at the hands of the menacing evil speedster.

Patty chuckled. "_Well, I make a mean chicken noodle soup from scratch. I could bring some by later if you'd like. I could bring some by later if you'd like._"

"No, that's sweet, I just…" he began to stutter, and didn't feel the presence of another person behind him. "I'd feel terrible if you caught any of this. Besides, I loved the canned stuff."

"_Okay, well, try to stay off your feet._" Patty said.

Ironically, it was the only thing Barry was capable of at the moment. "Oh, yeah, believe me, I am."

"_You sure you're okay?_" Without even looking at her, without even be able to see the look on her face, he felt his mind envision the worried expression on her face at the words she uttered. "_You sound like something's up._"

"Yeah, no, no, no, no. I'm fine. I'm just not myself right now." Barry told her.

"_Okay, well, I hope to see you soon, and, uh, feel better._" Patty told him in concern.

"Thanks." Barry smiled.

"_Bye._" Patty bid her farewell.

"Bye." He said back and hung up.

"When a beautiful woman offers you food, Bar, you take her up on the offer."

Using the stick on his wheelchair to turn around, he saw the nanite mutant leaning against the doorframe. "Matt. You eavesdrop now?"

"Call it a healthy habit." Matt chuckled. He stopped chuckling and walked closer to him. "I wanted to talk."

"About what?" Barry asked curiously.

"About… how I've been acting. Guess, I'm speaking for both Frankie and Olivia's sakes as well." Matt started and the speedster looked shocked. "I wanna say I'm sorry for how I've been acting all this time… ever since…" he chuckled. "We thought Seth died."

"Matt, you don't-"

"Yes, I do." Matt interrupted him. "We were jackasses for being so hard on you for so long. And what I said about you being like The Reverse-Flash? That was too, too far." He admitted. "And I'm sorry for it. It wasn't right to do so."

"You thought you lost your best friend, Matt. Don't worry about it." Barry assured him.

"Doesn't excuse how I've been acting, man." Matt said.

Seeing the struggle inside of him, the metahuman confessed. "Actually, I was kind of happy that you guys did go hard on me. I knew Iris, Cisco or Joe wouldn't be hard on me like you guys would. But I deserved to be insulted, to get a harsh punishment for opening up the Singularity above the city. I honestly thought I had killed Seth and taken away Frankie's father like Thawne was responsible for putting my Dad behind prison all those years. So thank you for being so hard on me like this, means a lot." He chuckled at the end.

"I promise I won't do it again. It was wrong." Matt stated. "God that was harder than I thought." He sighed with those words.

"Yeah. I thought you had hit your head or something with your sudden personality change." Barry joked.

"Glad that was wrong." Matt tapped the wheels of the wheelchair with his right foot and asked. "How are you handling the Hot Wheels?"

"So far so good. Hope I can get out of it soon though." Barry tapped his knuckles against his kneecaps.

Matt shrugged. "We all do. But in the meantime, don't worry. Me, Livia and Frankie will take care of the city until you're back on your feet again."

"Thanks." The speedster nodded. "Think it would be good to see that Seth's city is in good hands."

"And feet." Matt joked.

X

The elevator kept going up and up the floor levels as Olivia Fury and Caitlin Snow was waiting in it. They had arrived at the building and taken the elevator to the top floor to talk with someone there.

The doctor looked to the mutant and saw her neck. She something missing from there and thought. "_She's not wearing it anymore…_"

"Caity." Olivia's words snapped her out of her trance. "I'm not wearing my inhibitor, yes, which means that I can clearly and easily hear your thoughts again."

"Sorry, but I guess I had gotten used to seeing that on you and you not using your telepathy anymore." Caitlin said. "Guess this means that you won't wear your inhibitors anymore?"

"Not now anyway." Olivia played with a strand of her magenta-colored hair, her finger spiraling the hair strand and wrapping it around the digit. "I have to back on the horse again at some point. And knowing Seth's still out there… can't find a better reason than that."

"Yeah… he's still alive." Caitlin smiled happily with her fingers rubbing the necklace. "He's on another Earth and fighting his way back here." She smiled lovingly. "I can't believe that he's alive and out there. It's unbelievable."

"Yeah. Seth's stronger than I thought. Much stronger, than any of us thought." Olivia admitted.

Caitlin leant her head back against the elevator wall, pointing her head upwards to look at the ceiling. "Think she's really here?"

"Oh, she definitely is." Olivia said, her head filling with the thoughts flowing through the walls from the top floor and entering her mind. She grimaced in slight disgust of the thoughts. "And if I didn't know any better, I would swear she knew we were coming."

"Think she'll be happy to hear Seth's back?" Caitlin asked.

"No more than you and Frankie, Caitlin." Olivia smirked knowingly. Ever since the metahuman's vibe, where they all witness the elemental mutant take up his large crystal sword, Caitlin's thoughts of Seth have showed no signs of stopping. Thinking of how she would act when she would see the man she loves again, like it would be the very first time she ever met him. And it was though her heart was beating so quickly, that even the mutant's telepathic powers couldn't keep up with the new thoughts of love.

"You know," Caitlin gave the mutant her full attention. "Seth's gonna not give you a chance to speak those thoughts."

"What makes you sure of that?" The doctor wondered in slight worry.

"You're a smart girl, Caity. You'll figure it out." Olivia replied with a wide smirk.

_DING_

The psychic perked her head up. "And we're here." She announced at the sound of the bell chiming as they reached the top floor of the building. The elevator doors opened up and the two women walked inside. "Still as clean as ever." The mutant replied as she and Caitlin looked around the penthouse.

"Wow." The doctor let out at the floor's beauty.

A marvelous penthouse with elegantly made wooden floors. Marbled pillars placed around the penthouse loft. With the building built near the wide blue oceanic lake, the owner and anyone else within the loft was granted a majestic view through the massive two-way glass-wall on the corner and spread to the left and right sides.

Caitlin also found the living room was connected to the beautiful artistic kitchen. In the living room, were a pair of blue plushy chairs and brown recliners. A black couch was there as well, wide and comfortable for anyone to find blissful.

The doctor faced the mutant. "You didn't say that she lives in a penthouse loft that looks to be way out of my paygrade?"

"Guess her venue never came up in our conversations, you know." Olivia said as she opened up the fridge and looked around. "Of course, the girl has no beer," she pulled out a bottle of bourbon. "but she does have an expensive bottle of bourbon."

"By all means, make yourself at home."

The two women turned their attention to the living room where they saw Felicia Hardy descending the staircase and to the floor, clad in a simple white top and black pants with thigh-high boots. Her long platinum blonde-hair pulled into a ponytail. With a hand on the railing, she spun around and faced the other women. "What brings the two smart doctors of S.T.A.R. Labs to my humble estate?"

"Nice to see you again, Felicia." Caitlin greeted and walked to the infamous thief.

"What up, Cait?" Felicia wrapped her arms around Caitlin's form.

"Hey, Cat." The psychic poured bourbon into two glasses. "Caity, you want some too?"

"No, have to go find Harry, and don't need any alcohol in my system, thank you very much." Caitlin smiled as the mutant brought her glass and the other one to Felicia. "We have some news."

"Very good news." Olivia added.

Felicia pulled the glass from her lips and directed at the psychic with a raised eyebrow. "What? You pregnant?"

"NO!" Olivia screamed loudly as though it was a lioness roaring her response. "I'm not pregnant. And before you ask, neither is Caitlin."

"Damn, would have loved to crash a baby shower and gave a pair of jewels. Best gifts for both the kid and the baby mama." Felicia smiled villainously.

"Don't get ahead of yourself." Caitlin smiled. "But down to the news."

Black Cat listened to the two women's words and widened her eyes in shock. It was one heck of a conversation that lead to her glass refilled at least two more times. And pouring them her throat at light-speed.

Downing her third glass of bourbon, she exclaimed in shock. "So Ace is alive and on another Earth in another universe?" Felicia had to be sure she heard correctly.

"Yup. My brother's one hell of a demon." Olivia joked.

"But he's got the worst luck when it comes to interdimensional portals." Felicia couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, but he's gonna come back again. He said that in the vibe." Caitlin smiled warmly. "And I can't wait."

"Not the only one, I imagine." Felicia smirked. "Rose, she hear the same too?"

"Yeah. She did and can't wait for her dad to come back to this world." Caitlin said. She stood up and got up on her feet. "I'm gonna go and find Harry now. Make sure he doesn't jump out of this frying pan and into another one."

"Need me to come with?" Olivia wondered of her.

"No need." Caitlin shook her head and took out a familiar Karambits knife. "I am prepared." She spun the blade around her hand before making her way to the elevator.

"Did she steal that from your brother?" Came the query from the infamous thief.

"Absolutely no idea." Was the response from the psychic.

X

It was a slow night at the bar. Joan Celia looked around and saw that the amounts of customers were low. Ever since the damage done by the Singularity, the number of people showing up here have decreased significantly. She sighed. "Dad would hate this."

JC put her towel and placed it over her shoulder before taking the tray of empty glasses in one hand. She walked to the bar counter and inside of it. Putting the tray on the table, she looked to the customer by the counter. "Need a refill, pal?" She asked with a bottle of whiskey raised.

The costumer in a jacket and a cap kept scribbling on a map of the city he got on the table. But at the offer, he replied while gesturing to the empty glass of whiskey with his pencil. "Would appreciate that, thanks." He answered in a hoarse voice.

"No trouble." JC poured the whiskey into the tumbler. While she did that with one hand, she used her other one to put a small plate of cheese curds and sauce beside his glass. "Here try these, pretty popular around here."

"Guess, I'm gonna have to take your word for it." Harry replied. "Not a lot of people tonight." He said after looking around.

"The place was totaled after that freaky black hole in the skies six months ago. Not a lot of people wanna be near, much less inside, of a place that might fall down on top of them." JC responded while cleaning the insides of another glass.

"Sorry to hear." Harry replied.

The bartender chuckled humorlessly. "Trust me, this doesn't even sum to what happened to my family." She downed a shot of whiskey for herself.

"Sorry for that." Harrison Wells offered his apologies.

"Don't go soft on me now, pal. Drink and get wasted, make bad decisions, then my mission is completed." JC joked and walked away.

Chuckling to himself, Harrison Wells returned to his drawing and continued to draw on the map.

"You should stay away from the cheese curds." Without even having to look at her, he knew that Caitlin Snow was looking at him. "They're addicting." She looked at JC and waved her greeting, the bartender did the same.

He scoffed. "I'm gonna take a wild stab and guess that you're here without the consent of the rest of your fabulous team."

Taking a seat on a barstool, the doctor began. "It's been difficult, having you here. For all of us, not to mention my own daughter."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore because I'm leaving." The otherworldly scientist informed her.

Caitlin narrowed her eyes on him. "We can help you save your daughter." Harry faced her. "I'm a parent too, Harry. I know that's why you want to go home. But you don't have to worry about that, she got Seth on her side and protecting her as we speak."

Harry put down his pencil and said. "Look, I made a big mistake coming here. My plan… was to get the Flash's help and use that help to stop Zoom, and my plan failed. I don't have another plan, except go back home and face Zoom myself, and make sure that a nutjob like this Seth doesn't do anything to my daughter."

Caitlin stated seriously. "So let's say you go back to your Earth, and you fight Zoom. He will kill you. And then, how does that help your daughter?" Harry didn't answer her rhetorical question. "Look, the best way to save Jesse is for you to stay here, and work with us as a team, and trust Seth to protect your daughter. He's a protector and won't back down from any fight."

"No." Harry shook his head and turned to the map again. "Now, leave me alone, while I discover which one of these breaches is gonna get me home."

The doctor was fighting the urge to not chuckle or scoff, if not both before she said revealingly. "You know, you're lucky Professor Stein, Cisco and Matt never figured out how to close all the breaches, cause then you'd be stuck here. And Seth would be stuck over there."

A flash of inspiration came over his mind and he said. "Wait." Caitlin frowned and faced Harry. "We close the breaches." A wave of confusion fell over her next while Harrison elaborated. "All of them, except one, so Zoom only has one way to get to this world. Same goes for this Seth character that you speak of." He drew a large circle on the map, around the area of the S.T.A.R. Labs facility.

Deducing what he was going for, she stated. "The breach at S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Exactly." He agreed with a smirk. "And then we set a trap, plus a welcome home party for your friend."

"He's not my friend, he's the man I love." Caitlin said lovingly.

Harry looked at her like she was crazy. Anyone who's not a speedster and willing to fight Zoom would probably be crazy. "Tell me about him. I'm curious about this Seth now."

X

"_The Princess Bride_" the title on the title board read with black metal letters.

As they were walking to the entrance, Cisco announced enthusiastically. "It's got fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, and," he looked up in deep thought with a sheepish expression. "it's ranked as one of the best date movies of all time."

Kendra Saunders couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm, finding it an absolute delight. Almost contagious even. "Well, let's see if that's true." She said with her hand stretching out for her to hold.

But then the unexpected happened, in a series of flashing blinding lights, a vibe came over him.

X

_Before his eyes… a winged being took flight... wearing brown armor-like clothing that clung to her body…_

_The winged being turned around and it was though the vibing metahuman could see into the being's eyes… and watched… saw that it was woman… with wings._

X

The vibe ended and Cisco's mouth was opened in a gape and his eyes peering motionlessly forward. Kendra got a worried expression and asked him. "Cisco?" her words appeared to bring him out of whatever state he was in. "Are you okay?"

Realizing what the vibe meant and what just happened, Cisco abruptly stated. "I gotta go."

A wave of confusion came over the Jitters barista. "What? Why?"

Starting with a gaped mouth, the viber apologized. "I am so sorry that this is happening right now. I am so, so sorry." He mimicked the motion of hitting himself with his hand. "Um, I have to go." He went to walk away, but not before he pointed his eyes at her. "I'll call you, okay? I'll call you, I swear."

As he walked away, a grunt came through his closed mouth, and Kendra was left alone to watch him run away. And she didn't know she was being stood up by a guy who actually showed up or he was too scared to even follow through with the date.

X

A new day had begun, and it was a day for Barry Allen to get back on his feet. With Joe West, Iris West and Matt Stark watching from the other side of the glass panel, they watched the paralyzed speedster walking on the advanced treadmill at the same speed as a normal human being.

He looked to be struggling with breathing as he tried to increase his speed.

From the other side of the glass, Matt pressed the microphone and spoke through the speakers. "Come on, Barry. take it up a notch."

"He's right." Joe leant to the mic himself. "Faster, Barry!"

Glancing at his adoptive father, the speedster bit the insides of his mouth and increased his walking, kicking it up to the level of running now. Joe smiled. "There you go." He encouraged and watched the speedometer on the treadmill increased slowly. "Push yourself!"

Barry heard the encouragement from Joe, and he pushed himself to the limits. He increased the pace he was running at, increasing the very speed even and ran and ran on the treadmill. But it backfired, as a series of images returned to the forefront of his mind.

The images came back, showing him the images from his fight with Zoom… and the sensations that hit his body like a lightning bolt. The pain of Zoom smashing his hand into his back, almost as though he was trying to force through the spine. The feeling of his claws penetrating his flesh tearing through his skin and bone and striking her insides.

But worst of all… he remembered the face of the merciless demon that had his hands wrapped around his throat like he was gonna suffocate him with his bare hands.

The visions overwhelmed him and Barry lost his balance and fell down on the treadmill with a grunt. He pushed off it and shot into the back of the room with another pain grunt. "Barry!" Iris screamed in fear and rushed into the room with Matt and Joe. The reporter ran to him while the speedster was trying to get back up. "Are you okay?"

Barry got up again. "Oh, yeah, you know, I'm not great right now." He struggled his way back to the top of the treadmill with long agonizing strides. Matt narrowed his eyes on him with realization.

"What happened?" Joe walked closer to his adoptive son.

"It's nothing. I'm good, all right?" Barry panted. "Just forget it." He covered his face with both hands as he got down in a crouch.

"Barry." Iris called caringly.

"You saw him again, didn't you?" they heard the mutant say. "Zoom, didn't you? You saw him again while you were running. The fight you two had, you saw it like it was a video on repeat in your mind."

Iris had a shocked expression. "Barry is that true?" the metahuman didn't reply a single time. "Talk to us. We can help you."

"No, you can't help me. Not this time, I'm sorry." The speedster said defeatedly. He got back to his full height. "You just… you wouldn't understand." He sat down on the treadmill and saw a hurting look of sadness come over the reporter before she left. He sighed in hurt when Iris walked out of the door and left them alone.

As they were left alone now, Joe took a seat beside his son and Matt took a seat in the wheelchair. The detective started by asking, "What's up, Barry?"

"Was I right when I said you saw Zoom again?" Matt asked of him.

While Barry may not have nodded, the expression on his face said it all, giving them the wordless confirmation that they already had. And his next words, uttered with complete defeat in his words. "Zoom destroyed me. He showed everyone in Central City what he could do, and that I'm powerless to stop him. They gave me a key to this city, guys. I'm supposed to be their hero." He glanced at the nanite mutant. "One of them, anyway."

Matt waved off his concerns. "Don't kick yourself in the nuts like this, Barry. Me and Livia didn't stand much of a change against this bastard, ourselves."

"Yeah, but they still gave me a key to the city. I'm supposed to be the guy that can protect them from something as evil as that, and I failed in front of all of them." Barry raised his voice. He got up on his feet again, as did Joe and Matt.

"You can't think like that, Barry. you get back on the horse again." Matt tried to help him.

Stopping halfway through his walk to the exit of the room, Barry stated. "When they think of The Flash, all they see now is someone not strong enough to protect them." He turned to the nanite mutant and added solemnly. "And they're gonna think… Venom had to be here to fight Zoom… and not The Flash." He finished off and walked out of the room.

"You think he'll be alright?" Matt heard from the detective.

Shrugging, he replied. "I have no idea. This thing is more than what he's used to, I'd say. But something about your kids, they always get back on their feet, right? Heck, you have one on the other side of the panel skydiving out of a sky tower not too long ago. Either both of them are hopped on drugs, or you've given them enough confidence to fight the entire world."

"Thanks. But trust me, it's no drug." Joe assured him with fatherly proud smile.

"So they're natural-born crazies with crazy pants." Matt joked.

"Watch it." The detective mocked a threat. He lowered his jokes and said seriously. "Thanks for going easy on Barry now and all. Means a lot."

"Don't mention it, man." Matt calmly said. "Besides," he inhaled sharply. "Seth's gonna wanna put in some words of his own when he gets back."

Joe's faced paled. "Why do I feel like what you, Liv and Frankie said or did, is gonna be like a walk in the park compared to Seth?"

"Night and day, detective. Night and day." He empathized slowly… because he could imagine Seth throwing a building or two on top of Scarlet Speedster. Just to flatten him out before deep-frying him… in a volcano.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Breach Room)**

Frankie crawled on the ceiling above her mother and Cisco's heads as she asked. "You and Aunt Olivia went to meet with Felicia, Mom?"

While the mechanical engineer paced back and forth on the platform, the doctor answered her daughter's question. "Yes, we did, honey. We thought it would be good for her to know that your Dad is still alive and coming back."

Detaching from the ceiling, she landed beside her mother and asked. "You did mention he's in another universe, again, right?" She asked him curiously.

"Yes, we did." Caitlin ruffled her daughter's head, "I still can't believe Seth's alive again. It's… incredible. Really incredible, that he survived the Singularity exploding in the skies."

"Can't believe he could escape that." Frankie admitted. "He's really strong."

"And now all, we can do…" Caitlin faced into the swirling mass of the breach. "is wait for him, with open arms." She wrapped her arms around her daughter's form tightly. "You happy, baby?"

"I am. Really happy, Mom." Frankie smiled and leaned against the front of her mother. She turned her head to the side, one eye pointing at the mechanical engineer who kept pacing. "What's with Cisco? He's pacing like he's preparing to take on a marathon up a long staircase."

"Mystery for another day, honey." Caitlin leant down and kissed the top of her daughter's head. "How about you go up and check on your Uncle Matt? He might thinking of how to help Barry or something like that. And he could need an extra pair of hands, or tendrils."

"Alright, Mom." Frankie dislodged her arms from her parent's waist and walked to the small staircase. "See ya, Cisco!" she called out after passing through the threshold of the door.

"See you, Frankie!" Cisco called out without looking in the direction of her passing. He then asked Caitlin as he turned to her, while she walked up to the computer on the platform. "Oh, hey, I know I keep asking, but have you read any reports or anything recently about a Birdman attacking anywhere?" he asked after stepping closer to the doctor.

Caitlin smiled, he told her about his vibe earlier today. One about a man with large feathery bird-like wings before his eyes, during his date with Kendra Saunders, which he had to end abruptly. "There's no such thing as a Birdman, Cisco." She tilted her head knowingly. "At least, in our universe. Think there's one in Seth's universe. Though, that one was called Angel, I think."

Cisco gave her a dry look. "Okay, like that's a stretch in this city? I mean, we had a guy who turned into metal, just like theirs, a Birdman is entirely possible, Caitlin." He said before adding. "Look, I know what I vibed." Caitlin returned to her work as he continued his thoughts. "It was a man with these big, wide wings. It was crazy."

The doctor's head perked up, the sound of a high-pitched ringing ran through her head and the words uttered by her friend faded like background noise. But a series of strange images appeared before her eyes. Images of masked doctors appearing with syringes and scalpels.

A series of those images continued in her head. And she found herself… bound. Like strings attached to her limbs and as well as her mind, covering Caitlin's own thoughts… her control even and her facial expression was cleansed of any emotions.

"It was an angel."

Cisco's words of hopefulness didn't reach her ears, more images continued to flood her mind and she couldn't help but feel like her will… was not her own, like her free will had been shut off and locked inside of an iron mental vault. Her brain was shut off, screws unscrewed somehow and allowed something to come into her.

And new thoughts entered her mind like an avalanche hurling into her mind…. Burying her own mind underneath piles of something more… animalistic.

"It was an angel." Cisco confidently stated and his smile was wide. He noticed the lack of participation from the doctor and asked. "Caitlin?" She remained still like a statue. Thinking the reason behind her stillness was due to his words, he said. "Okay, come on, like that's a crazy idea."

He watched as Caitlin turned around and faced him and stepped closer to him.

_PUNCH_

Cisco didn't have time to react when Caitlin reeled a hand back before launching it forward and slamming it into his face. He grunted in pain and held the side of his face with his hand. All the while his friend walked to the exit. "What is wrong with you?" he exclaimed from the ground.

But like a mindless drone, Caitlin continued to walk out of the breach room.

X

While Matt and Frankie were in the Cortex, working on the mutant's suit they thought, Detective Joe West and his daughter were walking through the corridors with saddened expressions. Even though the mutants have lessened their hate of the speedster, Barry was still in a state of despair and self-hate after losing to the overwhelming strength of Zoom.

"Just don't know what to do about Barry." Joe voiced his thoughts to his daughter as they walked through the corridors. "I mean, all the test results say he's fine, but it's like there's something holding him back." He couldn't come up with a better way to speak his thoughts. "I keep trying to talk to him, but I can't get through. Maybe Matt was right. Something's going in his head, and no one can get through it."

A flash of inspiration fell over the reporter, and she stated. "Then maybe we should get the person who can."

The smile on her face gave Joe some confidence. Enough to let her handle it, hopefully paving the way open for the speedster let down his barriers again. His phone began chiming and he received a phone call from his partner, Patty Spivot.

He knew that this was about what they found at Vaughn Pharmaceuticals. A biochemistry engineer, Dr. Jeffrey Shore went out of control and stole tanks of a serum, called Cortexin from the lab storage cooler, hurt his colleagues out of the blue, and was found splattered on sign above ground level and found dead. He was also the second lab worker to be found in this kind of state. Joe found it strange that a serum used for treating encephalopathy, a blood disease in the brain, was stolen.

When they investigated the crime scene, Patty found a bunch of weird-looking hairs. And found out that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head… a lot of it, too. Because of that, an eerie feeling sprouted within his guts.

Pointing a finger at his daughter, he said. "We can talk about that when I see you at home. I gotta take this, okay? Okay. Bye, baby." He bid farewell to his daughter and he got the same. Accepting the call, he put it to his ear. "Patty, what's up?"

"_Turns out our dead scientist cases are linked._"

Those words did not spark any happiness to the detective. "Okay, hit me." He allowed her to continue.

"_Well, the other scientist stole a large quantity of a racetam drug, typically used to treat patients with Vertigo._" Patty revealed.

Connecting the dots, the senior detective stated. "Okay, so we got two stolen drugs, one for blood disorders of the brain, and the other one for Vertigo. What's the connection?" he asked his partner.

Patty answered. "_Well, they are both nootropic drugs, used to enhance intelligence._" The detective elaborated through their connection.

Once again the eerie feeling erupted in him and he said, "Hey, did you get results from the hairs you found?"

"_Yes, I did._" Patty said. "_Uh, apparently they were all over the other crime scene too. The weird thing is, they're not human hairs. Uh, they're hairs from a…_"

"From a gorilla." He finished off her sentence, already knowing who did this to the two scientists.

"_How… How did you know?_" Patty's confusion was lacing her every word.

"Patty, I gotta go." Joe didn't answer her question. He quickly hung up and rushed through the Cortex, as only one thing could have done this.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Matt was holding the left gauntlet of his suit while he was on the private lab on the right side of the Cortex. The entire suit itself was placed on the table in front of him as he used a screwdriver to adjust the repulsor on the gauntlet. "Think this should do it. Now to check on the Arc Reactor…" he stated his next instructions and turned to his armor again.

His eyes widened when seeing that the entirety of his Iron Knight armor wasn't on the table that he placed it on. "The hell…" Matt asked himself when looking around the private lab. "Frankie did you-" His question was stopped halfway when seeing the young metahuman attached to the ceiling and spinning her fingers around.

Looking up to the ceiling himself, he found his Iron Knight armor again. Though it was strangely enough, acting like some kind of salamander and crawling on the ceiling in a circular formation. However, as he saw it crawling with one arm… reminded him of the times he saw "Rings". Facing his niece, he said with narrowed eyes. "Really, Frankie?"

She shrugged uncaringly. "I was bored, Uncle Matt. And this is kind of funny." Frankie twisted her fingers around, the suit lashing out its limbs and the helmet spinning around its place on the armor's torso. "And cool, Uncle."

"You really are like your father." Matt stated as he saw his suit wave is singular hand at him. "The creepiness is a tad too much, though."

Barry rolled over to the entrance of the private lab and saw the armor clattering around its way on the ceiling. Turning to the nanite mutant, he said. "Think Caitlin might give her less TV time."

Matt nodded his agreement. "Yeah, she's definitely a "Ring" fan."

"It's a good movie." Frankie admitted with a smile.

"**_Walking Dead's better._**" Came the response from the symbiote within the magnekinetic, followed with a long mental lick of her shark-like teeth, licking up the saliva. Magenta could envision the tasty organs ripped out of the innocent survivors' stomachs. Lungs, intestines, hearts pulled out of their bodies with ease by walkers who chowed down on them like it was their first meal as they accepted their new lives as zombies.

They then heard a series of rapid feet touching down on the floor and the three turned around to look into the Cortex. They saw Cisco walking around the main console with his hand on his cheek. "Did Caitlin come through here?"

"No. Why? What's wrong, Cisco?" Frankie asked as she stood up from her chair.

"And did something happen to your face?" Matt asked, pointing a finger at the native engineer's face.

Pointing a finger to his own face, Cisco exclaimed. "Caitlin just hit me in the face and ran away."

Frankie's hand fell down, as did the suit on the ceiling, the armor falling down on the table and it's pieces falling off and clattering on the ground. "Mom? My _Mom_ hit you, Cisco?" Her disbelief was reaching the skies.

"Yo!

This time, all four looked to the entrance and saw Joe rushing in with a fearful expression. His fears were let known when he stated out loud. "Grodd!"

"What?" Cisco said with a confused expression.

"Grodd's back." Joe revealed.

Frankie's face paled. "Mom."

"Shit. Caitlin." Matt stated and pressed the chest plate of his suit, the Arc Reactor installed in it shining intensely before swarming into nanites and ran up his body. Adapting to his body, they formed the Iron Knight suit.

"That must be why she was acting like that." Cisco deduced.

Frankie's hands clenched. "Grodd's mind-controlling her." Her clothes changed color and turned into a symbiotic mass that enveloped her entirely. Donning the form of Magenta, she sharpened her claws. Her mouth splitting open, "**Cisco, where is she?**"

Cisco quickly went to work, and his fingers pressed the keys on the keyboard at lightning speed. Passing by a few security camera footages, he stopped as he found a security camera… filming Caitlin stepping out of the building.

"**Mom.**" Frankie grew worried at the sight of her mother walking away like a robot.

But then their eyes widened at what happened next… the mountainous form of the hairy meta-gorilla… Grodd… walked past a corner and… in the same direction as Frankie's mother. "**MOM!**" Magenta screamed before shooting out her arms and stretching them out, her hands grabbing hold of the rims of the skylight and pulling on them as she shot through it.

Surprised at her missile-like speed, the nanite mutant exclaimed. "Frankie!" before his mask materialized over his face and he jumped into the air, taking flight and following the magnekinetic.

Joe turned to the others. "Let's go!" he took out his firearm and ran after them with Cisco and Barry limping behind them.

X

But even through, they managed to there quickly, they couldn't find her anywhere. Because of that, they were all left with sadness and hurt. The most overwhelming, however, was without a doubt, fear.

Fear that the large meta-primate would hurt the doctor.

After seeing that and seeing his niece's eyes leaking tears of sadness, Matt called his wife back to the facility. He couldn't be the only one to console their niece, not while she was like this. After that, he went to help Cisco who got Harrison Wells from Earth-2 to come back to S.T.A.R. Labs and help them after informing them of their current predicament.

Olivia rushed through the entrance to the Cortex, surprisingly so with Felicia. The psychic faced her husband. "Grodd really came back?"

"Yeah." He walked closer to his wife. "And for some reason, he kidnapped Caitlin." The words he uttered were spoken through a whisper for the sake of his crying niece.

"Seriously. A big-ass Gorilla with telepathic powers kidnaps Caity? Oh, he's gonna regret that." Olivia cracked her fists loudly.

Felicia looked to the private lab with Frankie. From this distance, she could clearly see the tears trailing down the sides of her young disciple's face. "Is Rose doing well?"

"No." Matt shook his head. "First Seth's gone in another universe and now Caitlin's taken by a massive psychotic gorilla? She's not doing too well. Pretty much on"

"Want me to talk to her?" Felicia asked them both.

"Sure thing." Olivia nodded and her husband nodded as well.

Nodding her gratitude to them both, the infamous thief walked over to the private lab. Leaning against it, she whispered and the young metahuman looked up to her. Felicia quipped, "Now, I think roses are supposed to _be_ watered. Not watering themselves with tears."

"Hey, Felicia." Frankie saw her mentor through the tears cascading down her cheeks. A wave of emotions was trying to soothe her from within, but the hurtful feelings trumped those helpful feelings with ease. She tried wiping away more tears, but it didn't do much as even more took their place. "Aunt Liv brought you along?"

Chuckling, she said. "Try not to sound too excited, Rose." She walked closer to her young disciple and wiped the tears away as best as she could. "Tears really don't suit you either, you know."

"… You think Mom's okay? Or-"

"She's not dead, Rose." Frankie snapped her head to her mentor in confusion and shock at the confidence of her words. "Caity's alive and well. Well, as well as she can be with King Kong Jr."

"Why do you think she's alive? And that's she's not dead?" Frankie wondered seriously.

Felicia held confidence in her face. "Your Dad and Uncle Iron Jr. told me about their first little visit from King Kong Junior. Funny thing, the monkey likes your Mommy. And he needs her for something now, and she has to be alive for the monkey's plan to work."

"You really think that or just hope that?" Frankie asked in concern, parts of her wanted to know what her thoughts were.

"I _know_ that." Felicia ruffled her disciple's head. "I mean, Ace does have a strong thing for strong, tough women like your Mommy." Frankie smiled warmly. "Don't worry about your Mom, alright? Me and your Aunt will get her out of this pickle."

Olivia heard her words and walked closer to them. "You gonna help us, Cat?"

"Yeah, I am. Besides, us cats does know how to always land on their four legs. And we always stick together to scratch each other's necks." Felicia smirked and got up from her chair. Nodding to the nanite mutant who stood behind Cisco with Harry, she said. "Let's see what the geek squad has for us."

Frankie, Felicia and Olivia walked into the Cortex and heard the nanite mutant say. "So Grodd decided to find a new venue, he's nowhere his old territory."

"Guess, sewers weren't up to his taste after his last unwanted guests showing up on his doorstep." Felicia quipped with a chuckle.

Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm continually amazed by the similarity between our worlds."

Joe grimaced. "You got talking gorillas on your Earth too?"

"Oh yeah." Harry let out. The mutants swallowed their disgust.

"Remind me never to go there." Joe said with a soft scoff.

Olivia scratched the back of her head. "What the hell is wrong with this part of the multiverse? I mean, a shit load of Earths here has a creepy fetish of experimenting on animals."

Frankie chuckled. "Gorillas specific. I mean, why not, a racoon or something?"

Facing his niece, Matt gave her a weird look. "You find a talking racoon anywhere, sweetie, I will gladly make you a suit like mine."

"Promise?" Frankie smiled happily.

Not taking heed of the jokes going back and forth between the two family members, Harry directed his question to Cisco. "Ramon, why would this…. Grodd abduct Dr. Snow?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make sense." Cisco said. "She was always so nice to him."

"Could be revenge or a rematch, maybe." Matt had to the one to say and the eyes of the others came to him. "Last time we saw Grodd, he went up against Seth, Livia and me, and had to run away. Maybe he took her to draw us out again, or maybe he thinks he can get Seth to come up and face him, mano a gorilla." He added at the end.

"He might not know Ace isn't here?" Felicia suggested.

Though those thoughts did make sense in the detective's mind, other scenarios were birthed instead. "He mind-controlled two lab technicians to steal chemicals that enhance intelligence. He wants her for something."

Cisco got a disappointed look and said. "Well, looks like Matt was right. He left his bachelor pad in the sewers."

Lashing his hands out, the detective said. "Grodd's a big-ass gorilla. He can't just waltz through downtown in the middle of the day without anybody noticing."

"Right, and if there's been sightings, then we might be able to approximate his location." Harry suggested.

"I can call CCPD. They can access the tip hotline, send over files of Grodd's recent attacks." Joe stated his plan.

"Me and Felicia check out some high vantages points in the city, see if they're any cameras that we can hack into." Olivia offered.

"And me and Jarvis can hack into them from here." Matt said as he moved to the main console. "Frankie, you go with your aunt and Cat. Your extra senses can help them a lot out there."

"Will do, Uncle." Frankie instantly said with a determined look. Determined to find her mother again and back home to her.

"Good." Cisco got up with a steadfast expression. "We gotta get her back."

"We will." Harry faced the young metahuman. "We'll get your mother back, Frankie."

"Thanks, Wells." The magnekinetic stated before her form was swarmed by the symbiote and she jumped out of the skylight. Olivia followed her niece with her own suit materializing over her body and Felicia followed her with her grappling hook attaching to the edge of the skylight before pulling her through it.

Cisco and Harry went to do their work with Matt. Joe faced his adoptive son who had his eyes pointed downwards at the cane in his hands. "Barry." When not getting a response from the speedster, the detective raised his voice. "Barry!"

"Yeah?" Barry faced his adoptive father.

"You can't blame yourself for this. There's nothing you could've done." Joe tried too ease his mind.

As though he was struggling to breath, he said. "I still don't have my speed. Without Seth here, how are we supposed to save her from Grodd?"

"You may not have your legs just yet, and we don't have our crazy psycho elemental demon, but you still got that brain and mutant friends here as well. Use it. Help us figure that out." Joe suggested to the speedster and walked to his side. "Plus, if Seth does come back and hears what happened here, he might just kill Grodd and you."

Barry's faced paled as he heard the shockingly joking voice that Joe used to speak to him. As he felt him pat his shoulder, he gulped again in rising fear of what might happen if the elemental were to learn of this. Cause Seth would have been pissed beyond the normal limits of humans.

Which would probably lead to him being peeled like a ripe orange.

X

The inside of the tower was abandoned. The tower-like structure's top level was left with boxes of tools around the floor. Ropes attached to the ceiling with one end and hanging down till they piled on the floor. White sheets covering various large objects on the floor. Light shining through the windows and hitting the reflective surfaces of the dozens of large chains spread on the floor.

The light bouncing off the chains hit the form of a sleeping beauty. It was the only light source that connected with her form that was hidden within the corner of shadows, on top of an old mattress. Her eyes slowly opening. Blinking a few times, she pushed herself up and took in her surroundings. Her mouth opening and letting out short gasps of shock as she didn't recognize any of the things around her to be usual environment.

Dr. Caitlin Snow looked around and saw various objects. Even noticing a very large gear. But that's now what she found the most curious about the surroundings within her field of vision. Narrowing her eyes, she focused her vision on the scribbles on the walls and windows. While she kept them narrowed, she saw what the scribbles were.

They were chemical formulas and chemical equations. Pretty advanced stuff even actually written on the walls. A genius must have written them down on the walls, especially the ones higher up the wall surfaces. Drifting her eyes to the side, she saw dozens of large keg tanks piled on top of each other. Her confusion was climbing higher and higher up a mountain of bewilderment at the sights being taken in.

"_Caitlin._"

Hearing the growling voice echo in her head, finding it strange and familiar before instant realization fell over her. She heard how Seth felt like during and after the mind-control. Caitlin remembered how he would describe the voice as a growling beast grunting gruffly whenever the beast would send out his heinous commands.

"Grodd?" Caitlin softly called out. Her eyes trying to peer into the shadows and look for the meta-gorilla. "You… remember me?" With slow movements, she got back on her feet again. Hearing rumbling sounds coming up above, she looked up in the direction of the ceiling.

The familiar large form of the meta-gorilla landed on a support beam and used its natural animalistic mobility to swing from that beam to the one below, landing on it before jumping off it and landing in front of the frightened doctor who once took care of him.

Grodd faced her and sent thoughts to her mind. "_Caitlin… always… kind…_"

Parts of her wanted to run away, but against a primate with human intelligence? She wouldn't get far.

So Caitlin asked another question. "Why did you bring me here?" she stepped closer to the gorilla.

"_Need… help…_" Grodd telepathically informed her.

"I… I don't understand." She said confusedly.

With his gigantic fingers curling, Grodd stated his query. "_How did I become Grodd?_"

"Oh." She quickly realized the reason behind her abduction. "That's a long story, Grodd. Um…" Caitlin had to think of how to start. "The dark matter from the particle accelerator explosion? That's how this happened." She could feel the Karambits knife in her pocket but didn't dare to reach for it.

Stepping closer to her, the meta-gorilla said. "_Repeat._"

"Repeat?" she was confused.

Grodd growled and she stepped back in fear. With a wave of his large hand, he gestured to the chemical tanks. "_Need to repeat Grodd._"

Now it all became much clearer to the doctor. "You want me to make more like you? I don't know how to do that."

Leaning his head down to meet hers, close enough that their eyes were pointing directly into one another, the meta-gorilla growled his response. "_Learn._"

X

The shine of her psychic energy was hitting the surfaces of every buildings that she flew by. Angel Fury's head looked to the sides with a snap of her head in search. After finding high vantage points around Central City and finding no Caitlin, the three girls decided to split and search different locations of the city to continue their search for the abducted doctor.

Halting her flying, the psychic mutant hovered above the city streets and looked around with her soulless white eyes. "You can't be dead, Caity. Not you. If you are…" her knuckles cracked when she clenched them with immense force. "That bloody monkey is gonna wish he killed me and the others the last time, if he's even touched a hair on your head."

"Let me in on that slugfest, would ya?"

Olivia turned around and saw Black Cat walking over to the edge of the tall building on the mutant's right side. She jumped onto the ledge and walked on it with her arms stretched out to the sides like she was playing on the ledge like a kid not fearing the danger of falling into running traffic.

Chuckling the psychic said. "Funny, how you're still who you are even in another universe. Dozens of months passing, and you're still Black Cat."

"Thank you." Felicia gave a mock bow. "But you're not that different yourself than when you were back on our home turf." Even though she was wearing her mask, the burglar knew there was a confused look behind it. "Come on, Livy. You're smarter than that. Back home, you were a loving incredible aunt to the one little goofball that Ace adopted. Here, you're still a loving incredible aunt to one little rose."

".. You think so?" She asked in doubt and confusion.

Hearing the confusion and doubt didn't sit right with the infamous thief. "Why are you talking like that? Doesn't sound very… "Fury"-y." She quipped.

"A monster attacked Bucky and Stef and killed them; I couldn't stop that from happening." The psychic started. "Over six hundred universes away from home, and now a monster kidnaps Caity, and I can't do squat about it. And…" She slammed her hands together. "No matter how much, I wish for it to happen, I'm still not strong enough to protect my friends and family from danger. I hate it."

"Have i ever told you how much you and your hubby are alike?" Felicia surprisingly said.

"What do you mean?" Olivia stated her question.

"You forget who knew Stef longer than you, even longer than Ace." The burglar said. "She used to say that the two of you were the perfect match. Because you kept becoming stronger and stronger to take care of each other. To protect your family, to be strong enough to protect Seth from harm." She flipped on her hands and landed on her feet again before stepping backwards and deeper into the rooftop. "Anyone could see that was your motivation for always training and getting stronger."

"Still don't get your point, Cat." Olivia said.

"I mean, you two fight better together than separately. And that's your real strength." Black Cat said with a smile. "The source of your strength is your family. Right now, Livy, you're out here to protect the mother of your niece, and you're willing to even slaughter that gorilla."

Olivia gained a steadfast expression that pierced through her mask and revealed itself to the infamous thief. "Nothing and no one is gonna get away with harming my friends and family. I'm erase em if I have to."

"That's a Fury for you." Felicia admitted. "And that's what our Caitlin Snow needs right now, so she can get back home to her beautiful daughter… and wait for that Ace to get his ass back home."

"Oh yeah." Chuckling the psychic asked. "You remember when you started calling him that nickname?"

"You mean when, Stef took the two of us, Ace, herself and Bucky out and play mini-golf?" This time Felicia had to laugh as well. "God, can't believe he actually destroyed the entire course with his club." She remembered it like it was yesterday.

The entire group had some time off from their usual work, so a little family trip for some fun was what was on the agenda back then. The entire group planed a trip to the local mini-golf course to play. It was fun. The ladies were enjoying themselves with a couple of wine glasses and taking photos of each other while being a bit tipsy. Seth was with Bucky the entire time, enjoying the time to its fullest to forge greater bonds with his son.

He even let his at-the-time 2-year old son hold his club and swing it to hit the ball. Bucky even managed to get the ball into the hole after a few small tries.

The same could not be said for his old man, however.

Seth had difficulties whenever he would try to hit the small white ball with his club. His anger spiked back then when he heard the ladies began giggling at his embarrassment. It increased tenfold when the infamous thief called him "Ace", because he could never get an ace in the hole no matter how hard he tried.

Which led to him to, in a fit of rage, increased the strength of his muscles with earth before swinging the club blindly again and again and hit everything around him. When he finally stopped and calmed down, he and the others realized that he had destroyed the entire course.

Thankfully SHIELD destroyed any and all footage of an unorthodox doctor wreaking havoc on a mini-golf course… with a golf club of all things in the world.

Felicia looked at her. "How long did it take for him to finally talk to us again?"

Olivia smiled behind her mask. "Two whole weeks. God, that brother of mine can be more stubborn than a thick-headed bull." Donning another serious expression, she turned to the thief. "Let's get back in the game and find Caity."

"Right behind you, Angel." Felicia shot out a hook from her wrist and hooked onto the top of a building before leaping off the rooftop. Using the hooked grappling hook, she swung to the other building before detaching and swinging again.

"Behind me, my ass." Olivia said with a quip and shot forward to follow Black Cat like a hack on a mission.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Treadmill Room)**

Once again, the speedster was back on his feet and on the treadmill again. Running and running with all of his might, with every cell of his body pushing themselves through the barriers of his limits. The yellow lighting residing in him erupted from the back of his body and the back of his limbs.

The lightning erupted from his body and he gritted his teeth and panted through his teeth. He struggled and fought through the pain of his horrific memories of his fight with Zoom. The fight with his memories of that battle was storming over his efforts and threw them overboard of the ship that they tried to remain on.

But it was a losing battle and the fight with his memories forced his lightning to dissipate. Pain took the form of a raising tidal wave and reached the skies before crashing on top of the speedster's inner work. Barry reached for the panel beside him and pressed the panel. Slowly the treadmill's speed decreased and began to stop.

Bending down, he put his hands on his knees and breathed out heavily. His entire face riddled with defeat and self-loathing from both his incapability to reach his ultimate speed… and from losing to the menacing speedster from Earth-2.

Thankfully… he wasn't the only one to witness those feelings on his face.

"Keep that chin up, slugger."

Snapping his head to the entrance into the room, Barry widened his eyes at the shock of seeing… _him_…

Barry Allen saw… his father… Henry Allen standing there with a smile. "Dad." The speedster said with shock at the sight of him. Within a moment, he rushed off the treadmill to meet his father in an embrace.

"Yeah." Henry caringly breathed out as he held his son and patted his back.

Perking his head up from his father's shoulder, he watched the reporter, Iris West standing there with a loving expression. Loving that the speedster was bringing down his barriers and let someone in. She gave him a nod and walked away.

Iris walked over to her father who stood by the exit with proud smile of his daughter's decision. "That was a hell of an idea you had, bringing Henry here."

The detective reached her father's side, throwing a quick glance at the direction of the treadmill room before saying. "Well, he may not have his mother, but he's got two amazing fathers." She made eye contact with Joe. "Seemed like he needed both."

"Hmm." He hummed bemusedly before wrapping an arm around her. "Good girl." He said after kissing the side of her head.

The two West family members walked out of the Cortex, decided to leave the Allen members to rejoice in this reunion.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Cisco's workshop)**

Inside of Cisco's workshop, the native engineer, the weapons expert from Earth-616 and the infamous founder of S.T.A.R. Labs on Earth-2 were working on a way to find the meta-gorilla's location.

Harry looked at Matt before drifting his eyes to Cisco. Temporarily stopping his work, the otherworldly scientist asked out loud. "How did Grodd become sentient?"

Cisco was the one to answer with his eyes meeting Harry's. "A few years ago, S.T.A.R. Labs had this contract with the military to research and awaken latent mind-reading capabilities for "interrogation purposes"."

Matt then added while typing on the computer, "Smart as you are, Wells, you should already know who the lucky winner of Test Subject Lottery was?"

"Grodd." Harry deduced instantly.

"Right, but then Dr. Wells shut down the program, and we all thought it was to save Grodd from all the crazy mind-control experiments, but it was really so that Dr. Wells could use the accelerator explosion to create a 1,500 pound mind-controlling gorilla that he could manipulate." Cisco said.

"Cause nothing says "house pet" better than a huge-ass gorilla that can dig into people's mind like they're his playthings." Matt followed bluntly.

The otherworldly scientist narrowed his eyes on the man and asked. "You said this Grodd fought against you and your wife, correct?"

"And Frankie's father, Seth Fury. Olivia's big brother and my best friend and brother-in-law." The nanite mutant stated. "Grodd might be looking to get some payback now."

"Why?" Harry asked with a tilted head.

"Grodd took control of Seth once." The nanite mutant started, surprising Harrison Wells. "That gorilla use his telepathic powers to take control of Seth, and he forced him to fight us, fight me. I was about to be killed by my best friend, but Frankie called out to her dad. And Grodd was forcing him to attack his own daughter, but that son of a bitch Seth managed to break through the monkey's control and give that bastard animal all hell."

Harry rubbed his chin. "What kind of metahuman is he?"

Laughing shortly, he revealed. "I thought Caitlin had told you all about him before?"

"She did. But sounds like you have known him much longer. Wanted to pick your brains." Harry leant against his chair.

"Remember we said that we are from another universe? That we are mutants, a species of powered beings from another universe with powers from a special gene in our bodies?" Harry nodded to his question, Caitlin told him that as did the strange beings, mutants a while back. Matt continued as he made eye contact with him. "Seth is a mutant elemental, an anomaly in our world. A different type of elemental. One that store various elements through absorption and manipulate the elements stored within his body. He has seven elements inside of his body."

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but the nanite mutant held up his hand and stated. "I can't say how he got those. I know how, but it's his choice to say that, not mine. And not just that he's got a symbiote like Frankie does."

"What is the name of his… heroic alter-ego?" Harrison asked the mutant.

Cisco laughed and the otherworldly scientist watched him gain a smile. "Hero… is not what most people would think when they see him." he spoke honestly.

His honesty did not go unnoticed and the scientist asked curiously. "What do you mean?"

"That, you're gonna have to see for yourself, otherwise you're not gonna believe it, man." Matt smirked. "But he's name… is Venom, an anti-hero."

"Venom?" Harry repeated and was shocked inwardly to hear a renowned hero on this Earth. The heroes he's heard of never had such a vile name. A name better suited for a villain than a hero. "And this man, is currently protecting my daughter." He chuckled.

"Seth's not gonna let anything happen to your daughter, Wells. Trust me. No one's better at this than him." Matt assured him confidently.

Returning to his work, Harrison said. "Guess I will have to take your word for it, Stark."

Cisco walked closer to the otherworldly scientist and saw his work. "What kind of algorithm is that?"

Smirking, as though he was impressed by his own work, Harry said. "It's an algorithm meant to extrapolate Grodd's location from places we already know he's been." In almost an instant, the algorithm came up with three circled areas that Grodd's been seen at in Central City on the monitor. The three circles connecting at a single point and the three men knew what that singular point meant. "Hello."

The native engineer glanced at Matt. "There we have it."

The nanite mutant smirked menacingly. "Think the ladies will be up for a gorilla hunt?"

X

Inside of Caitlin's private lab, Henry Allen was watching the large monitor before his eyes. The large screen on wheels displayed the internals of his son's body. His eyes running up and down the 3D image Barry's spine. The speedster himself was sitting on the gurney behind his father who was examining the screen.

"No spinal cord edema." Henry inspected. "I don't see any subacute hemorrhaging. Bone fused beautifully." He pointed to it. "You're all good, Barry. I'd give you some physical therapy," he faced his son. "but you don't need it."

The speedster chuckled. "I'm really glad you're here, Dad."

Henry smiled. "Me too." He put his hands in his pockets. "You know, I tried to call, but you can't get a cell in Granite Peak National park, so…"

Barry got confused while his father stepped closer to him. "Granite Peak… what are you…You went camping by yourself?"

His father nodded. "Yeah, yeah. I got a tent. I went fishing every day." He patted his son's leg. "I have had my fill of largemouth bass for a while." Henry admitted with a chuckle and saw his son dip his head downwards. "Sometimes you have to slow down… to get back to where you want to be."

Knowing what he was going for, the speedster said. "Yeah. Dad, look."

"Yo, guys." Matt let out as he entered the Cortex with Cisco behind him. "We found Grodd and his not-so-lucky captive."

"Yeah?" Barry and his father rushed to his side.

Cisco showed Harry's algorithm on the main console. With the eyes of the Allens on the screen, he explained. "Grodd has to be in one of these three bell towers. The only reason we couldn't find him on any cameras underneath the city before is 'cause he updated from a bachelor pad to a penthouse, like a baller."

"Yeah, this bastard's gonna have his hands full with us now." Matt threatened. "The girls are coming back to get the locations too so they can help us check them out."

"Yeah, we know where he is. We still don't know how to get Caitlin." Barry said.

"Actually, we got a plan for that." Cisco confessed.

"What plan?" Barry wondered.

"We use me."

Barry turned around to look into the corridor… and found a familiar concealed form that have brought him nothing but pain and torment…

… The Reverse… Flash… standing there and looking at Barry.

Seeing red the very moment he placed his eyes on him again, the speedster sped forward. Despite his body not erupting any yellow lightning, he still slammed into the evil speedster and pinned him to the wall with his forearm pressed to his throat.

Cisco saw it and exclaimed urgently. "That's Harry! That's the other Wells!"

"Barry." Harry spoke while donning the mask of Reverse-Flash.

"Let him go." Cisco tried to pry his arm away from Harry's throat.

"Let him go, Barry." Matt said and walked to the speedster.

Peeling the cowl off his face, Harrison Wells from Earth-2 breathed heavily as the speedster spoke. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He was let go immediately.

"Told you this would happen, a bad idea. I was about to tear off his face before when I saw him." Matt told the native engineer with a gesture to the otherworldly scientist.

"Thanks for that." Harry said rubbing the back of his neck, still feeling some strain there from Stark's grip on his throat in the Time Vault.

"It's not a bad idea." Cisco argued to the mutant before elaborating to Barry. "We found another suit in the Time Vault."

Henry was wearing disbelief on his face. "I thought he was dead."

"Accurate." Matt commented.

Barry nodded and gestured to him. "This is… This is Harrison Wells from Earth-2."

Disbelief now mixed with shock and confusion. "Earth-2?"

"I'll explain later." Barry said.

Cisco continued. "If we can get Harry to convince Grodd that he's Wells, that he's his father, maybe we can convince him to let Caitlin go."

Barry understand their plan and stepped closer to Harry with a worried expression. "I'm not gonna be able to help if anything goes wrong."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take." Harrison admitted adamantly. "Besides, I feel like I will have the aid of a couple of deadly women on my side."

Matt tilted his head. "Yeah. An infamous thief from another universe, my fiery and fierce wife from another universe, and of course my magnekinetic and cannibalistic niece."

Henry's eyes threatened to explode out of his eye sockets.

"I'm sorry, "cannibalistic"?"

X

After a while Caitlin had begun to work on her quest, she had begun checking the chemicals she's been given and now was holding a writing pad. Grodd was there behind her and watching her movements and listened in on her thoughts birthing.

Strangely enough, the meta-gorilla found… thoughts of anger in her mind… which was unlike Caitlin.

As she checked her chemicals, the doctor stated. "So, one of the main differences between ape and human brains is the white matter and connectivity in the brain cells." She faced the large gorilla, Caitlin said. "The chemicals that you were treated with as an infant were meant to overcome those differences and cause an explosive growth of both… similar to what humans experience in their first few years of life."

Grodd seemed to her understand her words and the doctor turned back to her work. "Maybe these chemicals can be used to duplicate that growth, and then we don't need a particle accelerator explosion."

Tilting his head unsurely while questions kept bugging his mind, he finally inquired of the doctor. "_Caitlin…_" his growling thought caught her attention. "_Caitlin… Angry… at Grodd? Why?_"

Strengthening her mind and spirit like a sword being sharpened on a whetstone, she put on a serious expression and said. "Grodd… You almost killed my daughter."

The large meta-gorilla was confused. Back when he was under the care of S.T.A.R. Labs and under Caitlin's care, he didn't recall the mention of the caring doctor to have a child. "_Caitlin… a daughter?_"

"Yeah, I have a daughter, Grodd." Caitlin began. "Remember Venom? Demon? The girl you had him attack, was his daughter… and mine." Grodd's face paled with fear. "You know, I can't forgive you for that so easily."

Pointing his dead downwards, the ape said through his thoughts. "_Grodd… is sorry, Caitlin._"

"Like I said Grodd," she turned her back to the ape. "not easy to forgive."

Grodd looked saddened when hearing those words. He didn't expect the caring and kind doctor that once took care of him to change feelings and began to develop feelings of hate towards him.

Before he could continue the conversation with her, the sound of a door opening behind him. Grodd turned around and saw to his surprise…

… his father… Reverse Flash standing there…

"Hey, buddy." "Reverse Flash" greeted the gorilla. When he heard the gorilla growl at him, Harrison said. "Easy, buddy. It's me." His eyes briefly drifted to the surprised doctor who was unharmed. "I'm back."

"_Father, you died._" Grodd exclaimed in shock at the sight of his living and breathing father.

"Reverse Flash" shook his head. "No." He began walking. "No, buddy, I didn't die. I just went away for a while."

"_Keep him talking, Harry. Liv and the others are en route._" Matt replied to him through the comms.

He didn't reply to the nanite mutant, but instead he directed to the gorilla. "But now that I'm back," Wells pointed a finger at the female doctor. "we don't need Caitlin anymore, do we, buddy?" Caitlin didn't dare to speak. "So you can let her go." Harry faced Grodd again. "Come on, buddy."

Walking closer to the doctor till he stood only a few inches away from her, he continued. "Let me get her out of here." Turning a single eye on him. "Please."

Caitlin got a grateful expression on her face, thinking that this plan would work and she would be able to return home and spend some time with her loving daughter again. Practically hug her in a vice-grip like a beartrap.

But a swift glance to the gorilla's face told her that it was not meant to be. Grodd. through gritted teeth stated. "_Father never ask. Father take!_"

Hearing those words and seeing the confidence on Harry's face take a skydive, Caitlin stated urgently. "Run." Taking her advice, she ran away herself and tried to make a break for the exit.

But a high-pitched sound rang through her mind and echoed in her head as Grodd ordered her to stop. The gorilla then faced the man wearing the suit and the face of his father. "_Who are you?!_" He growled his words and swung his left arm for his head, hurling him into the air and into a table. His body collided against it and fell to the ground with a thud.

Cisco ran into the room quickly and saw Caitlin standing like a statue. Taking out a pair of earbuds, designed to prevent telepathic intrusion and mind-control, she put them in his friend's ears. The moment they found their place in her ear canals, she found herself out of Grodd's control. "Oh, Cisco, thank God." She expressed her gratitude. "Frankie's not here, right?"

"Trust me, she's waiting for you and we better get out of here before we're caught in the crossfire." He urgently grabbed her wrist and pulled on her.

"Crossfire?" Caitlin managed to get out before she was dragged out of the room.

"_Wells, you gotta hold out for a while. Just hang on._" Wells heard the paralyzed speedster tell him. He wasn't at S.T.A.R. Labs to see a flash of inspiration come over Barry's face. "_Wells… an overdose of the drugs that Grodd stole will shock his brain. Okay, just hit him with as much as you can. Just for a while. Help is on the way._"

Grodd walked closer to the table and growled in anger as he sent his thoughts to the man with his father's face. "_You are not him! You are not Father!"_

Hearing the growling thoughts enter his mind again, the man from the other world dejected the gorilla's thoughts. "I am father. And you hit… father. Grodd." Grodd faced another direction and Harry used this chance to grab hold of three syringes with the stolen drugs. While he rose himself to his full height, he demanded. "Look at me. Look at me!"

Finally, Grodd got a saddened expression while facing his father who stepped closer and closer to him. "I would never leave you here alone." He kept the three syringes behind his back. "Grodd, I made you a promise." Standing near the primate, he looked into his hurt eyes. "I have bigger plans for you. Remember? One day this city will be yours." Grodd calmed down. "I promised you. I intend to honor that promise."

The meta-gorilla seemed to believe that the Wells before him, believe with all of his heart that this man is indeed his father that he thought to have perished in a battle for his way back home.

But he received the cold-hard truth when the man before him slammed the needles of three syringes into his right hairy thigh. Grodd let out a pained howl as he felt the liquid contents within the three needles travel through his body.

Harry turned to the exit and saw both Cisco and Caitlin still standing there. "Go!" He tried to run but Grodd was swinging his arm for the man with his father's face.

Another howl of pain had to be forced out of his mouth when sharp metallic blades wrapped around his raised wrist. Feeling the blades dig into his skin, he felt his hand pulled backwards and forced his head to point to the back. His eyes widened at the sight.

"Remember me, Groddy?" Angel Fury said with another powerful pull of her razor-whip and had the Grodd staggering towards her. The primate growled as he was closing on her. "You don't touch anyone I care about and leave without a scratch, you stupid ape!"

Before Grodd could respond with either thoughts or growls, he felt a small foot slam into the side of his head followed by a blur of black and white. The kick was quickly followed by a pair of sharp claws grabbing hold of the top of his head. Next, a pair of feet slammed into his face and caused him to stagger backwards as Grodd noticed the absent feeling of the claws digging into his head.

Performing a spin in the air before she landed, Black Cat flicked her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder and looked at the gorilla through her red visor goggles. "I know I expected to find a gorilla here, since you guys said gorilla. But you never said anything about an ugly gorilla."

"What can I say?" Yanking her adamantium razor-whip back to her, she wrapped it around her right arm. "Thought you'd like the chance to see Grodd's hairy ass just once before making any assumptions."

The infamous thief smirked. "Trust me, he's worse than anything I imagined."

"_Angel! Cat!_" Grodd still staggered, but he managed to pound his chest like a true gorilla readying for battle. "_Must die!_"

"You're certainly welcome to try." The psychic said with her neck craning from side to side.

Cisco, Harry and Caitlin watched the large meta-gorilla growl before charging the two women with staggering movements.

Grodd raised an arm and brought it down like a sledgehammer. However, at its current speed as it came for the women, they were able to dodge it with easy and saw the fist cracking the wooden floor.

Angel Fury spun around in a jump and landed on her feet before shooting forward with an aura of psychic energy around her entire being. Her whip-armored fist reeled back before sent forward to slam into the gorilla's face. The impact pushed him back again.

With his back to her, Black Cat charged. She lashed out with both clawed hands and slashed the gorilla's back, causing him to roar in pain. His left arm came her way, swinging for her head. But using the out-stretched arm as a platform for her footing, she jumped backwards and stretched out her hands to the ceiling.

Both of her grappling hooks shot out and wrapped around the ceiling pillars above her head. The two hooks reeled in and pulled the infamous thief to the pillars. Landing on them with a flip, she lashed out both hands again, thrusting the hooks out once more.

Feeling himself disoriented from the drugs still affecting his body, Grodd tried to dodge the two hooks. But it was unnecessary because they passed by his form and hooked into something else. Despite the dizziness of the drugs continue to course through him, he managed to gain a smirk and looked at the thief. "_Missed._"

However, a similar smirk formed on Felicia's face. "Think again, monkey."

Skipping backwards, she dropped down from the ceiling and the grappling hooks followed her descending form. Pulling on a large empty chemical container, it was lashed forward and slammed into the back of Grodd's head and threw him forward to land on the ground.

The collision with the primate's head forced the hooks to get out of the container and retract back to her clawed hands. "You should really learn to look around, Grodd. You never know what might hit you from behind."

Grodd growled again, roaringly so. "_Grodd… will… END YOU!_" He screamed in her head, using his telepathy to dig into her head to infiltrate her mind and break her down from the insides.

But not a single thought that he projected to her mind, didn't make it through in the least. Like something was blocking his efforts. Blocking his very force even. "_How?_" Grodd demanded to know from the thief.

Felicia pursed her lips and feigned surprise with a hand placed in front of her mouth. "You can't seem to find your way into this old' thing?" she tapped the side of her head. "Well, I know a telepath. She's just a tad better than you. Oh yeah, and a bit pissed."

Grodd's eyes widened and swung his head around to face the psychic mutant. His eyes widened when seeing the psychic energetic aura around her body intensifying and circulating around her razor-whip armored arm. Angel Fury peered her white eyes into the animal's. "Miss me, Grodd?"

A single second passed after she said those words and the mutant launched herself like rocket to meet him. Standing even closer to him now, she thrusted out her arm. With the force of a meteor, she slammed her fist into the gorilla's stomach and hurled him into the wall. Pieces of the wall were sent flying and fell over Grodd's large form. His eyes slowly closing shut as he lost consciousness.

"He's out. Good." Olivia let out and unwrapped her whip from her arm and back to her hand again. "Time to finish him off." She reeled the whip back and about ready to crack it into the gorilla's head.

"Liv! Don't hurt him!"

She stopped and saw Caitlin with clear distress on her face. Both Felicia and Olivia looked shocked at her words, as did the two men beside the doctor.

"What? Why?" The infamous thief asked. "Caity, the gorilla tried to hurt you."

"I will tell you back at S.T.A.R. Labs, when I'm with my daughter. Please." Caitlin pleaded.

Even though she was wearing a mask, the infamous thief was able to see that the psychic was having conflicts within her mind. Sighing to herself, she turned to the mutant. "Livy, we got Caitlin back. We get her back to Frankie, then we can come back later and take out this gorilla. Rose's more important."

"Fine. Let's go." Olivia nodded and ran to the natives with Felicia behind her.

As they rushed through the exit, Caitlin looked at Grodd's downed form. Finding sorrow and hurt in her core at the sight of the meta-gorilla's state.

Cisco quickly rushed back and grabbed Caitlin's forearm. "Come on." He said urgently and dragged her once more.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

"Mom!" Frankie rushed to her mother and hugged her tightly. Her aunt and mentor told her to continue the search for the gorilla's alternative hideouts, going to the other tall vantage towers in the city while the other women fought against the gorilla himself.

She didn't like it but had to do what she was told. But she then heard that her mother had returned, she put in extra effort to swing back to the facility. When she jumped through the skylight, she saw her mother applying bandage to the otherworldly scientist who was damaged from the plan.

"Hey baby." Caitlin spoke caringly with her arms wrapped around her daughter's form. "Sorry, I worried you like that, sweetie." Bending down, she pressed her lips on top of Frankie's head and kissed her.

Frankie's smile widened and looked over to Harry on the gurney. "Thanks for bringing her back."

Caitlin chuckled and face him as well. "Thank you for rescuing me." She then faced Cisco and the two women from Earth-616. "You two as well. Thank you, both."

Felicia gave a mock bow. "What can I say? I couldn't stand to see Rose sad."

"She's right. Promised to find her mother, and so we did." Harry admitted and got their attention. "We're a team, right?"

Barry smiled and said. "I'm impressed. I think we all are."

"Without a doubt." Matt agreed and saw his wife have narrowed eyes on Caitlin.

"Yeah, well, we need to do something about Grodd." Joe stated.

"Like what?" Caitlin asked suspiciously.

Olivia crossed her arms and said. "Think he means getting rid of that psychopathic monkey once and for all."

"You mean kill him?" Caitlin clarified.

"Considering how many people's killed, yeah." Joe confirmed and pointed at the psychic. "Liv, didn't you have the chance to get that ape to drop his shoes?"

"Yeah, I did. Caity here stopped me from having a big-ass monkey coat that I could use as bonfire material." Olivia answered with a gesture to the doctor.

"This isn't Grodd's fault." Caitlin surprisingly said in defense of the meta-primate. "He's only like this because Wells made him this way."

"Caity, what are you talking about?" Felicia asked. "Sure he had a crazy childhood, but the guy kidnapped you."

Matt nodded his agreement. "Cat's right. You could have died, Caitlin."

"I know." Caitlin said and patted her daughter's hair, comfortingly running her fingers through her hair and along the pink streaks in Frankie's hair. "But you didn't see what I saw. Grodd's getting smarter. He's lonely and sad. He wants mores apes like him."

"What are you saying? He wants kids?" Cisco asked, Caitlin giving an unsure look while he quipped. "'Cause I'm pretty sure one telepathic Grape Ape is more than enough for this city."

"Yeah, Central City isn't exactly ready for Zootopia: Psycho Ape Special." Matt quipped.

From within her young host, Magenta raised an eyebrow. "**_What the hell is with those two and these strange comparisons? They're really stupid._**"

Olivia chuckled and thought. "_You and me both, sister._" She projected her thoughts into the young magnekinetic's mind. Hearing the squeal of shock from within, the psychic added with a smirk. "_Oh yeah, still here. Creeping in everyone's noggin without care._"

"**_Oh boy._**" The symbiote said with a scare.

Harry put on a shirt and stated at the same time. "I know somewhere we could send him."

Iris narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about? Where?"

Pushing his arms through his sleeves, Harry explained. "When the Singularity exploded and I discovered the breach in S.T.A.R. Labs, I ran similar tests and discovered the same thing," he walked into the Cortex. "51 additional breaches."

"Breaches, like those wormholes on our universe after the portal exploded?" Felicia directed to the nanite mutant.

"Yeah. Just less "sucking everything into them like a vacuum."" Matt answered.

"Sounds fun." Felicia chuckled.

Harry walked over to the main console, "The difference being the breaches in Central City are scattered all throughout the city whereas counterparts in my world most definitely are not." As he spoke, he put the breaches' locations on the monitors around them.

Frankie tilted her head. "And you know where they lead?"

The otherworldly scientist faced her with a smirk. "Well, I was in the process of figuring all that out when your mother so gallantly convinced me to stay," Frankie giggled and her mother smile. "but if I am correct, this breach is gonna get Grodd" On another monitor, a specific breach was shown. "as close to home as he's likely to get."

"Okay, even if you're right," Joe began. "how do we bait Grodd to go through it?"

"We shoot that bastard through the breach." Matt suggested.

"Not a good idea." Joe stated. He knew that Matt's weapons tend to leave one hell of a mess where he flies. And he was tired of writing reports for Captain Singh on how much property has been destroyed by Iron Knight.

Henry faced his speedster son. "My son'll do it." All of them watched the former inmate of Iron Heights gain a fatherly proud smile. "Won't you, Flash?"

"So how are we gonna do this now?" Felicia asked with her right hand putting her goggles back over her eyes.

The psychic turned to the doctor. "Caity? You wanna jump into the fire again?"

"Yeah, I will." Caitlin looked down to her daughter's face. "And I am gonna come back again. Promise."

"I'll be there too, Mom." Frankie assured her mother with a smile.

X

After a while, they had got their plan ready and ready to execute it.

"So the plan is to get Caitlin to call out to Grodd, and then Flash, Magenta and Black Cat are gonna lure Grodd back here?" Olivia had to be sure she understood the plan as she watched Matt and Harry paint a circle around the breach's pinpointed location.

"Yeah. And then we're gonna have Cisco blast him with the Speed Cannon and send Grodd's hairy ass straight to Earth-2." Matt stepped slowly as he formed the circle. "Wonder what Seth would do if he found out Grodd was on Earth-2 like him."

Olivia chuckled. "Probably go bonkers and scour through the entire planet to find that bastard ape and roast him on a spike."

"Sounds like Seth alright." Matt chuckled. "He's raising gell on another Earth and we're here, waiting and hoping he's gonna come back here. I hate it."

"You know I can hear your thoughts still. I know what you're really thinking, Matt." She walked over to him and crouched down beside him. "You hate that we have to wait for him."

"Oh yeah." He didn't want to continue this conversation, his wife hearing those thoughts, while he faced Cisco. "How's it looking for our speedster and our girls?"

"_Oh, I'm your girl now, huh Knight? Careful, your wife might get jealous._" Felicia quipped loudly with a teasing voice while the sound of her running reached their earpieces.

"Not what I meant, Cat!" Matt shot to his feet with his correcting words.

"**_Please don't give me nightmares!_**" Came the response from Magenta.

"_Yeah, don't wanna see Magenta get nightmares here, guys._" Barry admitted through the rushing of wind slamming against his speeding body. "_Cisco, almost there. Are you ready?_"

"I'm in position." The native engineer answered.

Harry painted the last bit of the circle and said. "Now, once you turn on the Speed Cannon, the quark matter will stabilize, stretching the breach about so big, so anywhere in this circle will suffice." He finalized before he and Cisco walked to the stabilizer rings behind them.

"And worse comes to worse, me and Livia will take of things." Matt put his Arc Reactor on his chest and the nanites swarmed out of it and formed his Iron Knight suit.

"Either blast his ass through the breach or just blast a hole through his guts." Olivia's suit formed as well. Forming the armor of Angel Fury over her body. Seeing that a bright light of yellow lightning emitting from the bridges over their heads as well as two forms flying with hooks attached to buildings, the psychic said. "Right on time." Both she and her husband jumped into the air and hovered in the air.

X

_WHOOSH_

Barry sped into the area and his acceleration decreased greatly, stopping himself and looked around in search. As he noticed that the two girls had decided to stay hidden for this, he also noticed. "Okay, come on. I don't have eyes on Grodd. Does anyone see him?"

None of the people near him had to answer. The sound of enraged animalistic growling emitted from above their heads.

Swinging his head to the direction of the sound, he saw the large primate grab onto the railing of the bridge and swung his body downwards. With the force of his swinging body and the velocity of from his descent, he aimed for the Scarlet Speedster.

However… Barry did not feel like becoming the gorilla's doorstep.

_WHOOSH_

He sped away and dodged the attack. But the gorilla faced him and stepped closer to him with menacing steps. "_Where is Caitlin?_" he demanded to know of the speedster. Grodd found some interesting thoughts inside of his head and infiltrated the metahuman's mind.

Barry felt the familiar psychic attack and felt it bring out horrible memories again. His eyes were clenched but were riddled with the images and sensations of his fight with Zoom again. Every crack of his bones returned tenfold. Every menacing glare hitting his mind like a freight truck. Every painful moment from that fight hitting him like an endless meteor shower at point-blank.

With the Flash still disoriented from his psychic assault, Grodd lashed out his arm and swung his fist into the speedster's form and hurled him into the air. He rushed forward to get him again.

But a blue repulsor blast from behind him shot right in front of his feet. Grodd swung his head back to them and his eyes narrowed as he hissed at the hovering forms of Angel Fury and Iron Knight. "_You two!_"

"What? You expecting Santa Claus? He's not here to give you presents, Grodd." Angel Fury quipped with her clawed hands flexing enticingly at a rematch with the ape.

"We're his replacements, monkey." Iron Knight raised his hands, both palms shining with repulsor energy. "And you just got yourself on the naughty list."

Grodd roared in anger and charged for them both. The two mutants shot to the sides when seeing the gorilla jump into the air after them. Grabbing onto the pillar on the right, he climbed up on it and leaped off again, dodging a pair of repulsor blasts again.

Seeing the gorilla intertwine his hands and forming a hammer with them from above, Matt placed both hands together and formed a large rectangular shield. Grodd brought both hands down on his shield and the force sent him flying down to the ground. the earth cracking from the impact. The ground cracked more when the primate landed on top of him.

Tearing his arms from each other, he lashed them upwards and formed elongated repulsor cannons, aiming them at Grodd's face, he fired repulsor blasts into his face. The combined blast of two repulsor blasts pushed him away from his body.

The thrusters on his feet flared, pushing the nanite mutant off the ground and flipping him back to his full height again. He looked up, and through his visor, he saw the gorilla hitting his chest like it was a drum as he is readying for a battle with the mutants. "Come here, you fucking ape!"

Grodd charged again and swung his hand for the nanite mutant again. His right hand lashed out, forming a circular shield with the nanites coming out of his gauntlet. Blocking the attack with his shield on his right hand, he reeled back his left hand. Nanites swarmed over it and formed a semi-circular blade charged with repulsor energy.

He swung it upwards, once again aiming for the gorilla's head. But Grodd reeled his head backwards, dodging the attack and grabbed Matt's forearm. With a roar, he swung the mutant around before letting go, throwing him in the direction of the pillar.

Forming wing stabilizers on his back with more nanites, he stopped himself from flying into the pillar and formed ion cannons again. "Son of a bitch!" He exclaimed his insults and unleashed an array of repulsor blasts after the gorilla.

But Grodd jumped onto the pillar again and used its form as a platform to jump off. The gorilla leaped off the underside of the bridge again, attacking the mutant from again with a clenched fist. This time, however, Iron Knight increased the power of his thrusters, shooting him out of the way and avoiding the attack.

Landing on the ground, Grodd peered at the flying knight. "_Knight!_"

"Don't forget my angel." Matt said with a smirk behind his mask.

"He means me!"

Grodd felt his throat tighten, and it wasn't because of his choices.

No. No. It was because of the feeling of cold steel wrapping around his throat from behind, tightening around his air canal with an energetic aura around its long form. Managing to turn his head, he saw Angel Fury with her hand around the handle of her razor-whip.

"Wanna dance, Groddy!" she lashed out her free hand, sending out a psychic blast that hit his back. Roaring in pain, the gorilla lashed out with arms to the sides and his entire front was exposed.

Iron Knight saw the same and shot forward with both hands forming small repulsor blades. The stabilizers on his back blazed with energy and he crossed them over his front when meeting the gorilla's front.

However, before he could even connect with his blades, Grodd slammed both clenched hands into both sides of his helmet. Matt screamed in pain and the primate used that moment to grab his entire head with both hands.

"Matt!" Olivia screamed when seeing the gorilla swing her husband around before releasing him and throwing him in her direction. Releasing her whip from Grodd's throat, she encased her entire being with psychic energy and braced herself for the moment when Iron Knight's body connected with her body, landing in her arms.

"You okay?" The psychic asked him in concern.

"Been better. And might have a concussion right-"

_SMASH_

The nanite mutant was unable to finish his words as the meta-gorilla charged into them with his shoulder like battering ram. His crashing ram into them, sent both mutants flying off the ground and into the ground, rolling on the earth before they were separated from each other.

Olivia rolled onto her back and looked up. She couldn't speak when Grodd returned to her field of vision and slammed his foot into the center of her stomach, pushing her down and pinning to the ground.

Matt rolled onto his stomach and looked at Grodd, pinning his wife down on the ground with his foot. "Angel!"

Leaning his head down closer to the other psychic, Grodd roared into her mind. "_Where is Caitlin, Angel?!_"

"Sorry to tell you, Groddy. But she's taken. And you're not exactly worth her while, you know." Olivia quipped despite the pain of the foot on her stomach. Giving the animal cold eyes through her mask, she continued. "And you won't hurt her, cause when Venom comes back, and he will… he will make you beg for death, you fucking stupid ape."

"_Demon's dead!_" Grodd stated.

"Guess again. He's coming back." Olivia clarified. "Wait till he sees you again, just an overstuffed pinata. He'll be whacking you even when you're guts and pieces and blood, Grodd."

"_Where is Caitlin?!_" he roared again.

"Right here." Caitlin called, gaining Grodd's, Matt's and Olivia's attention.

"Caity, get out of here!" Olivia screamed; further words were halted when the meta-primate added more pressure on her core.

Seeing her state, Caitlin demanded. "You need to let her go, Grodd."

"_Flash is my enemy. Knight is my enemy. Angel is my enemy._" Grodd growled. "_Now, you too._"

"No." Caitlin assured him, stepping forward with her hands held down. "They were trying to save me from you. We didn't understand what you wanted, and they thought you were gonna hurt me just like you tried to hurt my daughter, but now we understand." She stopped and saw that Frankie and Felicia were above her heads. "I can give you what you want. I can give you a home. You just have to trust me."

Somehow, the doctor's words managed to go through the gorilla's barriers, and he got a softened expression. He removed his foot from the downed psychic's stomach and walked in the direction of the doctor.

Using his thrusters, he flew over to his wife and landed beside her. Placing his hand on the back of her head and around her waist, he held Olivia up. "You okay, Livia?"

Olivia chuckled. "Really thought I had gone over the entire "damsel in distress" thing."

"Even heroes need heroes sometimes, right?" Matt quipped and ran an armored hand through her floating crimson-red hair.

"And right now," she and Matt faced the direction of Caitlin and Grodd. "Caitlin's my hero."

"Ready to flip the switch?" Matt asked Harry and Cisco when seeing Grodd stepping past the white circle and stood within it.

"_Yeah._" Came the response from Cisco.

Using his HUD screen to construct a quick 3D imagery of the current situation, he saw that the primate was standing right before Caitlin now. Establishing a connection with the speedster's comms, he stated. "Now, Barry!"

The moment the nanite mutant let out those words, Harry and Cisco activated the Speed Cannon. The ring unleashing a swirling mass that shot out towards the large primate like a spinning mass of a whirlpool shooting out. In response to the activation of the Speed Cannon… the breached opened up behind Grodd.

_WHOOSH_

Barry heard the knight's cry and rushed into the targeted circle, picking Caitlin up and away from the swirling mass of energy. At the same time, Grodd felt himself being pulled from behind by the pull of the breach. But the gorilla wasn't fully pulled through the breach yet. He was merely feeling the pull of it.

Matt and Olivia landed beside the speedster and doctor. Pressing the side of his helmet, the mutant sneered. "Cisco, full power!"

"_It is._" Cisco answered with a fearful voice.

"Matty, you might wanna add some kind of overload function to Cisco's toys." His wife said.

"Jarvis, put that on my agenda for tomorrow." Matt said to the AI.

Much to their dismay, they saw Grodd fighting against the pull and walking forward. Despite having been raised by a genius of a time that have not yet to be formed, he was still an animal in his core. And right now… that very animalistic strength and ferocity was brimming right now, his will putting everything into the escape from the breach's pull.

They weren't the only ones to see that.

"_Barry,_" they heard Henry speak through the comms. "_you can't let Grodd get free. Conquer your fears, son. Believe in yourself._"

"He's right, Barry." Matt added. "You can't let yourself be dictated by your fears anymore. They're walls. Others climb them, but you can run up them." He made eye contact with him after opening up his helmet. "We forgive you for what we thought happened to Seth. I forgive and so does everyone of my family."

"He's right." Olivia pitched in. "Seth's alive and he's gonna come back. We forgive you Barry Allen."

"**_Time for you to forgive yourself, Flash!_**" Magenta shouted.

They were right… now wasn't the time to be burdened by the crimes he's been forgiven for now.

Now was… the time to run…

_WHOOSH_

He ran away in a bolt of yellow lightning.

"_Does that guy know anything else than running away from a fight?_" Felicia asked the two mutants.

Matt chuckled. "It's what he does best, Cat."

_WHOOSH_

In a flash, he returned with a veil of air around him as he launched himself from the ground with a leap. With his hand stretched out front with a clenched fist. He slammed it into the gorilla's torso, the supersonic punch was unleashed and was what was needed to send Grodd into the eye of the breach, capturing him in an invisible hold.

"Come on, come on, come on." Barry chanted hopefully.

He and the others saw Grodd's form pulled deeper within the breach. Deeper and deeper… til his entire being was swallowed up by the gateway to Earth-2.

"Yes!" Olivia jumped up and down in excitement before she embraced her husband in a bear hug. "We finally got rid of that fucking ape!"

"Hell yeah, we did!" Matt wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer for his lips to connect with hers.

Frankie landed down with Felicia. One taking off her goggles and the other one's mask slithered off. The metahuman stated to her uncle and aunt. "Come on, really? Now?"

"Get a room, you two. There's kids here." Felicia gestured to her disciple.

Caitlin walked to her daughter. "Close your eyes, sweetie." She said in mock disgust as she embraced her child in a motherly hug.

"Haha, funny, Caity." Olivia said after disengaging with her husband. "Thanks for saving me back there."

"You're welcome."

Cisco rushed over to them and saw that all of them were unharmed, more or less. He did notice Matt holding his head with one hand. Smiling, despite that, he turned to the speedster. "Welcome back, Flash."

Smiling himself, The Flash held out his hand and shook hands with Cisco. "Thanks, bro."

Thanks to the aid of the two mutants, their niece and their infamous friend of a thief, a mad gorilla… The Flash had returned once more to the battlefield.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

All of them had complex feelings about watching the mannequin before them. Despite all the harm its previous wearer had done to this team, not to mention the entire city itself, the Reverse Flash suit itself have now proven itself to be useful for the sake of the team.

To say that they were surprised… would be an understatement.

All of them watched the suit. The only ones not there are Felicia Hardy and Matt Stark.

Caitlin continued watching the suit with her hands on her hips and said. "I can't believe something good finally came from that suit."

Frankie tilted her head to the side, placing it on the side of her mother's waist. "Yeah. A surprise that Thawne's suit would actually be useful."

Barry agreed with Seth's daughter. "First and the last time."

"Can't believe that we're just watching this thing right now." Olivia admitted. "All the things this suit has brought us, it's just a nasty reminder." She noticed that her husband was nowhere to be found and looked suspiciously around them.

"You're right." Cisco frowned in disgust. "That thing still gives me the creeps. We should destroy it."

Mentally agreeing with the engineer, Barry held Thawne's Reverse Flash Ring. "Let's do that, but see if you can figure out how to get it back in this ring first." He threw the ring to Cisco. "Might be nice to have something like that instead of carrying around a bag all the time."

As he fiddled around with a pen in his hands, Harry stated. "I can help with that." Everyone watching him like he's crazy. "What? I know a thing or two about micro-technology."

Frankie put a hand over her mouth. Fake coughing, she let out. "Show off."

Caitlin pinched her daughter's cheek. "Little troublemaker." She playfully said.

Cisco chuckled. "Yeah, you know a thing or two about a lot of things."

Henry smiled and walked to him. "Well, as long as what he knows keeps my son and these good people safe, the more you know, the better." He stood before the man and held out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Harrison. Again."

Harry grabbed his hand and shook Barry's father's hand. "Dr. Allen."

Henry smiled and turned to face Caitlin. "Good to see you and your daughter too." Both of them waved their hands. "Seth would have been proud of you both." Now they both smiled happily at his words. Facing Olivia, he said. "You too, Olivia." The psychic winked at the elder doctor who turned to Cisco. "Cisco." The engineer nodded his head in acceptance.

"Let's go." Barry told his father before they both moved to the exit.

Caitlin smiled and then walked over to Harrison. "So, Dr. Wells, this place on your Earth that we've sent Grodd, what is it exactly?"

Harry held up his finger as he walked to the computer. "It's a refuge where gorillas subjected to lab experiments, like Grodd, can roam freely." They saw him show a map, that was revealing the location of a tropical rainforest.

Seeing the face on her mother's face, Frankie asked. "What's wrong, Mom? We just gave Grodd an easy way out and a home on top of that. It's not a bad deal."

"I know it's for the best sweetie," Caitlin began. "but I still feel like I betrayed him."

Hearing her words, Cisco comfortably said. "No, don't say that. You didn't betray him. Instead of having two friendly, and at-times-not-so-friendly, mutants make him look like an animal meeting a guillotine," Olivia raised an eyebrow. "you gave him a better life."

"What's this about us "not being friendly at times", Cisco?" Olivia coldly asked with her hands cracking loudly for empathizing her words. Cisco shivered and wanted to run away, inwardly hoping a lightning bolt would hit him and give him superspeed to escape her wrath. Having just his thoughts, she said with projected thoughts. "_Try to run, and I will hunt you like a bloodhound, pal._"

This time all colors left him...

Frankie faced Harry with a query coming his way. "I still don't understand, though…" she had trouble forming the question properly. "Why do the breaches on our Earth lead to different places on yours?"

"I don't know yet, Fury," he took out the flash drive from the imports. "but I do know we have to close them all, after we figured out how to get your father back, and I don't know how to do either of those." Frankie looked hopeful.

"You don't have to it alone anymore. Any of it." Caitlin assured him. "Together, we defeated Grodd, and if we stay that way, we fill figure out how to close the breaches, get Zoom, get you your daughter back and get Seth back here in one piece."

"Thank you." Harry smiled.

"Honestly, I am more worried about Earth-2's condition after Seth's done there." Olivia faced Harry. "He might leave it worse for wear, you know."

"Sounds like a walking disaster, that Seth guy." Harrison admitted.

"That's one word our Dad have repeatedly used before when describing Seth." Olivia confessed.

Looking around in search, Frankie asked out loud. "Where's Uncle Matt? He went away the same time Felicia went home to change clothes."

"I know where he is." Olivia said and walked to the exit with a sigh. "If you guys hear something that sounds like a building falling apart, then it's probably me beating some sense into my husband." She finished off.

"Wait, Liv!" Caitlin managed to stop the psychic from walking onwards. "Wanna meet up later at JC's bar? Just for a drink. Felicia's coming too."

Olivia smiled. "A girl's night out, is exactly what the doctor orders. Sure thing. Meeting at JC's bar, right?" Caitlin nodded. "Cool. See you there then."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Breach Room)**

Standing before the large swirling breach with crossed armored arms over his armored chest and green eyes uncovered. Each eyeball showing a determination unlike anything that's he's ever shown before. At least on this Earth.

When he was still a young child and was kidnapped by the human army of his world, he showed a similar wrathful flame in his eyes. Whenever a pair of guards would walk through the doors of his cell back at that hellhole, he would always glare daggers at them and still struggle in their grasps when he would be brought to a new section.

Despite the times he felt the cold steel of a operation table touch the front of his body when he was placed on it, despite the times he could feel scalpels of various sizes cut lines on his body before pulling flesh away to reveal his skeletal structure… despite the times he would feel his own bones being punctured by inhumanely big injection needles… injecting boiling warm and melted adamantium into his skeleton…

He had to grit his teeth and bite his tongue during those horrific… "treatments" as the doctors said… but he still showed that defiance no matter what. But when those scientists called… called him by that name that wasn't his…his wrath took on the form of rising inferno and he wanted to tear them all just for calling him by that name.

Matt hated that name above all else in this entire world… it wasn't his… it was only the name that the scientists called him. Stryker didn't. Merely to give the mutant and the two others a false sense of humanity in a place of hell.

But Matt's determination was unlike anything… it had to be. He had to have that to survive a place like that. Because he was waiting for the chance to use his very new and experimented powers to break out of whatever hold the facility had on him and kill every single person in front of him. That was the will of the nanite mutant back then. And it was only intensified now.

Matt was rescued by Seth, his best friend, and that was only one of the countless times. It wasn't even the beginning of the times. Because of him, the nanite mutant was once again able to see his best friend and the girl he loves. Because of him, he was able to enroll at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters after his powers manifested and after his parents committed suicide. Because of him, he was given a better life that lead to him training at SHIELD Academy before officially becoming a weapons expert and engineer of their organization. Thanks to him, he was married to the woman of his dreams… on the grounds of another Earth.

Thanks to Seth Fury… Matt Stark was able to become Iron Knight. Son of Tony Stark, Iron Man. Agent of SHIELD.

Uncrossing his arms, the nanite mutant breathed in sharply and said. "Time to save that parasitic bastard." His helmet materialized quickly, and he walked closer to the breach while wings formed on his back. "Let's go." His thrusters flared and he shot up from the ground and flew towards the breach.

"Oh no, you don't!"

His flight into the breach was halted by pink psychic energy forming a large wall in front of him. The nanite mutant was too late to counter it and he collided into it. His form bouncing off it and slamming down on the floor with his suit emitting loud clangs.

Facing back to the breach, he saw a brightly shining wall of pink energy blocking his path to the breach. "Come on." He faced the platform and saw his wife walking down the stairs till she stood on the same floor as her husband's downed form. "Livia, what's the big deal?"

A vein popped above her shining right eye. "That's my line, Matty!" She exclaimed. "You know, I was just agreeing for a girl's night out with Caitlin up there and then I found out my husband's trying to jump into another universe to find my big brother. Both of you guys, really know how to be a pain in my ass."

Matt gathered energy in his repulsors with clenching hands. "Don't stop me, Livia. I'm going to Earth-2 to get Seth back."

Olivia smirked daringly. "I could stop you pretty well on my own, Matt. The only way for you to actually stop me… is if you stop holding back."

The nanite mutant unclenched his fists, the energy dissipating and returning to their original course in his armor. "You know I would never do that."

"I know that, which is a bitch." Olivia annoyedly stated. "What's on your mind? I won't read your mind now; I want the answer to come out of your mouth."

"Shrink 101: Get the patient to own up to their own problems without having the psychologist set them on the path, right?" He deduced out loud with a chuckle. "Dad used to call it that when I told him about your profession back when we were still training at SHIELD Academy." When he didn't hear the absence of laughter from his wife, the nanite mutant faced the giant breach once more. He felt his wife's blue eyes peering into his back and looking into his heart, only intensifying the weight on his.

Sighing once, he spoke. "No matter how much I wish for it, even if I have trained for it my whole life I still have to be saved by Seth. I can't save him once. Even when he was mind-controlled by Grodd, I couldn't do shit." Matt finally turned back to his wife. "All my life, I've been protected by Seth and I can't protect him myself. Heck, the only reason I'm standing here and able to call myself Iron Knight is because of your brother, Livia."

"Because he saved us from Stryker's facility." She walked to his side. "I can still remember the times those scientists called us… those names." Olivia felt like she was swallowing poison when saying those words. The memory of that hideous name still grinding her heart and mind till it was turning into dust.

"And Seth saved us from that." Matt looked to her. "How am I supposed to protect you, Olivia? I'm a knight, I wanna be _your_ knight. One who would take up arms for battles to come to protect you. You don't need my help every time, but I want to be that guy."

"You _are_ that guy, Matty." Olivia stroked the back of his head calmly. "I don't know what to say to make you realize that right now, but you really think that you're like that?" He didn't do anything. Neither a nod nor a shake of his head being made, which was everything the psychic needed for confirmation. "Thought so. In that case, there's only one thing to do then."

"And what's that? Cause the only thing I can see right now that's gonna work is rushing into that thing," he pointed at the breach. "and drag Seth back home again."

"Good Plan B." Olivia joked. "But here's my idea. Get stronger and protect his family, his girlfriend and his daughter so they're safe when he comes back to them." She spoke seriously while revealing her inhibitor to her husband. "With this thing around my neck for so many months, my telepathy is still resetting in my brain so I'm not at full strength, yet." She clutched it tightly. "We get stronger. Angel and knight together till the end. Tomorrow we begin retraining ourselves. Get stronger."

"Together?" he asked her with a single word.

Olivia intertwined her fingers with her husband's armored ones. "Together. But that means your armored ass's gotta stay here and protect this universe. Promise me that."

He turned around and his suit dematerialized, till he stood before his wife. Cupping her face with both hands, he stated. "I swear, I'm gonna stay here with you and protect this world… as your knight." He leant down and kissed her lips. Both of them closing their eyes and enjoying the kiss between them, the moment between husband and wife.

Disengaging from him, Olivia clapped her husband's armored torso and said. "Now that that's settled, I have a girl's night to enjoy." She turned around, walking up to the platform to reach the exit.

"Enjoy yourself, babe!" Matt exclaimed. With his wife passing through the exit, he faced the breach again. "Get back Seth. We need you."

X

"Pardon me? Did a frigging talking gorilla of all things in Central City kidnap Caitlin?" JC asked out loud in disbelief from what she heard from the thief and psychic from Earth-616. "Are you serious?!" The bartender didn't have to worry about costumers hearing voice as only she, Caitlin, Olivia and Felicia are present.

"Yeah, it's official." Felicia poured whiskey into her tumbler. As she rose it before her lips, she continued. "Caity here attracts all the crazies in town. The wrong type of crazy apparently."

"Hey!" Caitlin slapped the thief's leg in mock offense.

"Yeah, no kidding." Joan Celia stated in agreement and sipped on her drink. "No offense to your brother, Liv."

"None taken. I've called him something far worse than that. Even to his face." Olivia admitted with a smile. She looked to Caitlin. "Really glad to see you back with us, Caity."

"So am I." The doctor replied with a smile. "When Grodd captured me, all I was thinking about was Frankie. How she must have felt when I wasn't there with her. I was scared beyond anything I've ever felt before. I'm really glad to be back here again. With Frankie and you guys."

"So are we." JC nodded in agreement with a smile.

"Yeah, and thanks for saving my ass before there, Caity." Olivia expressed her gratitude. "Seth said you always had a hero inside of you. Back there, under the bridge and with us, you proved it to us all. You showed us your inner hero."

"Rose got to be a proud little daughter right about now." Felicia chucklingly said. Her chuckling increased when seeing the doctor smile with a blush. "Olivia you got to be proud of your little niece, too?"

"More than I could have possibly thought." Olivia got a serious expression and looked to the thief. "You're still training Frankie right? As her mentor." Felicia got a serious look too and nodded her confirmation. "Think you can add one or two more on that list."

Those words caused the infamous thief to cough on her drink. And Caitlin and Joan had eyes shooting out of their sockets when registering the psychic's words. Felicia put down her drink, wiping away the spilled alcohol from the corner of her mouth before confirming. "You want to train with me and Frankie? Why?"

"I need to get stronger. I had my inhibitor on for months, remember? I need to make up for all that time." Olivia revealed. "And if that makes getting training under your wings, I guess." She faced Caitlin. "I managed to punch Grodd, knock him out cold. There was a time, I could maybe punch a hole in his stomach. But my powers been weakened from the inhibitor's effects."

"You want to grow strong enough that you don't have to feel weak again." Joan deduced.

"Yeah, specifically so I don't find myself staring upwards and into an incredibly ugly gorilla's face again." Olivia quipped and the girls laughed at her pain. "But also for my family that's gonna need me." She looked upwards, giving the others the impression that she's peering into the ceiling for some reason. "Also for that jackass."

"Seth's gonna come back and find you to be much stronger than you ever were, Liv." Caitlin cupped her hand. "I know that."

"Thank you, Caity." Olivia smiled. "And I will be stronger. Me, Matt and Frankie will all get stronger. So when Seth gets back here, he's gonna have a few more rivals."

"That reminds me." JC got their attention. "Liv, you told me about this thing Cisco does, vibing. And in his latest and greatest, he found about Seth and saw him using some big and crazy-looking sword right? How does one guy, mutant or not, a stranger in a world that looks similar to this one, find a sword like that?"

"No idea. Strange thing, I never heard of a sword having a crystal-like blade." Caitlin admitted.

"It's a different world, one that's gonna have its fair share of problems with Seth running around there." Olivia confessed.

Chances of that world not having problems with Seth Fury in it is… not even a chance, it's a guarantee signed on a contract with blood-written words.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

With a sigh escaping her mouth, Kendra Saunders was finally done with all her final tasks at the coffee shop. She was ready to return home from a busy day at the office. Grabbing the shop keys and her jacket from behind the counter, she made her way to the exit.

Only to stop in surprise at the sight of who was on the other side of the entrance door.

Standing on that side of the door, was none other than Cisco Ramon. Wearing a goofy but apologetic expression on his face and his arms raised high up with his hands holding the sides of a basket above his head. A smile spread widely over his mouth when seeing Kendra's eyes on him from within the coffee shop.

She opened the door for him, Cisco bringing his hands down to his sides and he greeted. "Hi."

"Hi." Kendra greeted back and stepped to the side, allowing the man to walk inside.

"I didn't know if you liked flowers or chocolate, so…" Cisco put the basket on a nearby table and looked to her. "I got you both."

Kendra looked downwards. "Well, I'm allergic to chocolate, and I think that flowers are a waste of money." As she spoke through her words, a huff had come out of her mouth.

"Um…" He didn't know what to say and felt like a senseless idiot at this moment. "I have lollipops in my car?" he unsurely and sheepishly offered, hoping to the high heavens that those suckers would pave the way back into Kendra's good graces.

The Jitters barista could no longer keep herself from laughing, letting out the expression of amusement to the world. "Cisco, I'm joking." She assured the man with a wide smile.

"Oh, God." Cisco breathed out in relief.

With fingers outstretched from shock on her hands, she walked closer to the basket. "This is great. Thank you."

Wearing a saddened expression, he explained to the barista. "Listen, I wanted to come over here and say I'm sorry… for bailing the other night." Kendra looked at him with shock. "I… I'm a liaison with the CCPD and there was an emergency, and I had to be there."

"The CCPD?" Kendra asked.

Cisco answered. "Yeah."

"Wow, that's really cool. And very brave." Kendra confessed.

"Thank you." Cisco expressed.

Pointing at the basket, Kendra added. "And this is very, very sweet, Cisco." She put her jacket on the chair near the table and noticed something in the basket. Pulling it out of the woven container, she directed at the CCPD liaison while holding the small metallic device that she found. "Um, what is this?"

"Well, see, that right there." Cisco pointed at the device and Kendra hummed agreeingly. "That's a digital movie projector. I've loaded all of "Princess Bride" on there." The barista giggled. "Mm-hmm, that's right. So, all we need," he spun around on his feet and gestured to their surroundings. "or, you know, some place where we can pick up our date where we left off."

Gaining a mock coy expression, she walked to him. "Well, if we're gonna pick up _right_ where we left it…" Kendra put her hand on his forearm and leant closer to his lips, placing a kiss on them.

Once again, a vibe came over him.

X

_Once again, the figure in golden brown feathery armor with large feathery brown wings appeared._

_Spinning around to reveal a helmet on her head, the sides of it accompanied with sharp feather-like edges. Her body was clad in a tight brown suit and her shoulders were clad in feather patterned shoulder pads._

_For some reason, the vibe appeared to direct itself to the armored winged woman's lips. Cisco found them to be familiar somehow. Her eyes too… appeared to be familiar to the vibing metahuman too._

_As welcoming and worth exploring as It was, the vibe ended in a series of flashing lights._

X

Her lips dislodged from his and he opened his eyes again, finding that he was staring into Kendra Saunders's eyes. Shock and disbelief still fused into his cells and making him let out. "Whoa."

Kendra got a worried expression. "Whoa what? What's wrong?"

Cisco didn't say anything for a few moments, the feeling of shock and disbelief blowing away like the flame of a candle weakening from a small and weak breeze. "Nothing." He said, fully purged from whatever was left behind by the vibe vision. "You're just a really amazing kisser."

Giggling at his words, Kendra said. "Okay." She took the jacket. "Let's go watch "Princess Bride."" She said slowly and walked backwards.

"Let's." Cisco agreed wholeheartedly while taking the basket by the handle.

"There's a great wall up on the roof." Kendra pointed upwards.

Cisco was butting his clenched fist with shock on his face as he walked after the barista to the rooftop. This date was officially…

RESCUED!

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**As Barry was still dealing with wounds and damage left by Zoom's claws, trouble kept brewing **

**Grodd had returned and kidnapped Caitlin, on a quest to make more apes of himself, to not be alone anymore. But that plan was foiled by Team Flash and Black Cat. And strangely enough, the psycho gorilla's return was the Scarlet Speedster needed to get back on his feet again.**

**Barry thought that he had lost Matt and Olivia's friendship forever as he was thought to be responsible for the death of Seth Fury. But as the revelation of him still alive have reached them, the two mutants and their young niece have decided to lay off their hate on the speedster and finally forgive him.**

**And now Harry decided to put his faith in Caitlin who believes with all of her heart that Seth will do anything in his power to protect Jesse as he roams the limits of Earth-2. Despite the fact that he still believes the elemental is a nutjob.**

**And now something different is gonna happen in the next two chapters. **

**Normally the following chapters of an Earth-1 chapter would be an Earth-2 chapter. But instead the next two chapters are gonna feature Earth-1 chapters, featuring the Flash & Arrow Crossover "Heroes Join Forces" with the menacing Vandal Savage in the mix.**

**And don't worry. Following those two chapters, are gonna be two Earth-2 chapters with our favorite elemental again.**

**So until next time, Folks!**


	17. Chapter 17: Legends of Today

**And now another bedtime story for you guys out in the wide world.**

**Once again, sorry for the long wait. Busy guy here.**

**As I announced in the latest chapter, this chapter as well as the next one will be Earth-1 chapters, focusing on the crossover Heroes Join Forces with Vandal Savage as the big bad wolf on the heroes' doorstep.**

**There's gonna be some changes, more scenes and longer fights.**

**I really hope you guys are going to enjoy these chapters.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 17: Legends of Today**

Even though the sun was dazzling and touching every inch of the shore near the Waterfront, not a single person from Central City was witnessing the actions taking place there. The waters near the waterfront rippling violently from the shockwaves emitting through the clash of fists and energy blasts by the two beings. Ground shaking as well, cracks opening up and small pieces of rocks flying off the earth.

One armored being flying into the air after jumping backwards with a blaze emitting from his feet thrusters and his hands. Spiraling around, Iron Knight opened his shoulder pads, revealing a series of missiles, with crossed arms over his chest. His HUD screen beeping and chiming with a target circle locked onto his target.

With his forearms covering his chest plate, the light in his arc reactor was shining brightly with energy converging to it. "Take this!" He exclaimed and uncrossed his arms, the missiles launching themselves from his shoulders and the unibeam blasting out of his chest.

Angel Fury stood her ground, digging her feet deeply into the dirt. Psychic aura erupting around her entire body, she crossed her arms over each other and unleashed a pulse. The pulse manifested a thick psychic barrier around her. More of the psychic energy spread around the barrier, increasing its strength.

The missiles met the barrier and exploded against the thickness of the psychic wall. The barrier withheld against the launched projectiles. Then the unibeam connected with her shield, pushing against the psychic wall and pushed the psychic back. Cracks appeared around the dome-like surface of the psychic wall and the aura around Olivia's form was decreasing.

"Come on, Livia! You can handle this!" Matt encouraged and flexed his back, panels opening up and shooting out levitating ion cannons. They flipped open and pointed at the psychic mutant, each and every one of them charging with repulsor energy. "You didn't want kid gloves, then you're not gonna get them. Come on!"

A piece of the shield fell off and landed on the ground, shattering like glass and dispersing before touching the ground. Olivia smirked under her mask. "Thanks, Matty!" She uncrossed her arms and the shield expanded till it shattered, scattering the unibeam. With her hands free, she put them together and gathered energy in them.

"That's the spirit." The nanite mutant placed both arms beside each other, forming elongated ion cannons with spiked energy tips at the end of the barrels. Energy gathering in all cannons, both the ones on his arms and the levitating cannons increased their power intake before shooting out a combined repulsor beam that came for his wife.

Olivia lashed out both hands, shooting out a blast of psychic blast that connected with the nanite mutant's blast. Resulting in an explosion that dug up a giant piece of the ground and a massive smokescreen to fall over them all.

The two mutants didn't pay much attention to the smokescreens, their masks preventing the smokescreen from touching their faces and being inhaled.

Their third party however did not wear a mask and coughed repeatedly. "Come on guys, I just had my hair done today!" the voice of Black Cat let out when more dust fell near her face, using her hands to wipe away any excess dust from her face.

Grabbing hold of her face plate, the psychic pulled off her mask to look at her. "Hey, you wanted to train us here, Cat. You reap what you sow."

"Remind to never help you crazy pants again." she jumped off the pillar she used as a seat. Felicia walked to them and asked. "So how did this, number 13th sparring match, right, go?"

"Better." The nanite mutant replied with his mask dematerializing. Twisting his wrists around, he said. "Think these matches have actually increased my reaction time."

"They have." Felicia confirmed with a tapping of her finger on the mutant's chest. "Remember, don't scan with your suits. Sometimes the eyes can give a much better result than your tech, Iron Junior."

"She's right." Olivia said agreeingly. "I could feel more energy spiking in my body right now."

"Think Ace used to say something like this. "With the right reasons and the right heart, then your powers can really blossom."" Felicia played with a strand of her hair. "Boy should have become a poet."

"Sounds like the stuff of nightmare." Matt confessed. "You got anything else for us to try out."

"Maybe some close-range combat would be nice." Felicia watched the two mutants gain confused looks. "Know you both know how to use that, but not against… _each other._" They gained wide-eyed expression, strangely enough at the same time. "You two are soulmates. Creepily made for each other."

"Thank you." Matt said with a quip. "But why fight against each other?"

"Because, Iron Junior, your greatest weakness is fighting full strength against your wife." Black Cat pointed a finger at the psychic, the armored mutant scoffing annoyedly at the truth. "You need to learn how to fight against her at full strength. Once you overcome that little wall, you'll be much stronger than before." Suddenly, she shrugged. "At least that's what I think anyway."

"Convincing." Olivia breathed out with a hand running through her hair. "Let's go again. 14th's bound to be the charm."

"Definitely." Matt agreed and formed his helmet again. facing his wife, he said. "Let's go!" he jumped backwards in a spin, hovering in the air with long swords forming on his arms.

With her mask forming again, and her hand enveloped with psychic energy, Olivia pulled her whip handle to her hand and pressed the button, the razor whip shooting out and cracking in the air. "Time to rumble."

"And now, Hell continues!" Felicia made a mock announcement as the two mutants charged each other.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

"He just hit 1,375." Caitlin commented as she, her daughter and Harrison Wells from Earth-2 watched the speedster running on the treadmill in the other room with everything he has. Everything in him to train his body to surpass the velocity of Zoom.

"That's pretty fast…" Frankie noted halfway, she stopped when seeing the blank expressions on Harry's face.

Looking back through the glass to Barry's speeding form and asked. "What's the fastest Barry's run?"

Quickly thinking back, Caitlin responded. "Little over Mach two, when he ran back in time."

Harry shared a look with the doctor. "That's not good." He noted before pressing the microphone to talk to the speedster. "That's good, Barry." As Barry stopped running and stepped off the treadmill, the otherworldly scientist continued. "We have our work cut out for us."

Panting and heaving from his training, Barry walked into the room with them. "I'm not getting faster, am I?" he asked them

"Well-"

"No, you're not." Harry interrupted Caitlin's attempt to say the words.

Frankie raised an eyebrow. "Don't sugarcoat it or anything, Wells."

"I didn't." He countered and Frankie felt like slapping herself in the face from his casual words.

"All right, well, let's fix this, right?" Barry hopefully suggested. "I mean, I can't beat Zoom at this speed. It felt like I was standing still next to him."

"That's because you practically were." Harry casually stated. "Zoom is at least three, four times faster than you at this point."

"Geez, Wells. You really need to know how to hold back." Frankie commented.

Harry turned his eyes to her. "That's not how I built my company, so no. I won't."

At that point, Frankie felt like cutting him in half. "**_Don't! Waste of juicy meat!_**"

"_Ew!_" Frankie thought back to Magenta who kept licking her teeth within her host's mind, the host came to regret thinking of killing the otherworldly scientist instantly.

Caitlin stated her question. "How is he so much faster than Barry is and Jay was?"

"Mom. We don't actually know how fast Jay was, we've never seen that guy run before." Frankie told her mother.

"True." Caitlin agreed with a tilt of her head.

But nonetheless, Harry answered. "Physiology, form, strength, could be a number of things. Attitude, diet." He added quickly.

Barry narrowed his eyes at those last words, feeling like they were insults aimed at him. "Okay, all right, well, there's got to be something we can do about it, so let's just figure it out…Fast, okay?" his phone began to vibrate, and he pulled it up to see it. "All right, I got to go. I'm meeting Patty. I'll see you. Thank you." He finished off before walking away.

Harry turned to Caitlin who titled her head in question. "So how are we going to help Barry? I'm out of ideas, Liv and Matt don't know anything, and Seth's personal notes don't have anything in them about enhancing Speed Force, and we've tried everything you've suggested."

"Well, not everything." Harry smirked.

Frankie didn't know whether to like that or not.

X

The S.S. Tithonus had docked a while back, coming back from a long trip.

And the police chief was eagerly waiting the captain and his crew to step onto the docks. And so they did. The Captain was the first one to walk over to him. "Welcome home." The police chief welcomed the man back with a handshake. "Any trouble?"

"Nah." The captain started. "But believe it or not, we got ourselves a stowaway."

"He give you his name?" the police officer asked when seeing three crew members bringing up a man with black hair and black beard in a blue shirt and matching trackpants. His wrists held together by the handcuffs.

"Didn't say. Sat in the brig silent for three weeks." The captain answered. "He was all decked out in this when we found him." He handed the officer a coat. The insides of it was overwhelmingly holding dozens of knives. Too many for the officer to even count.

"Jeez, how many are there?" The officer asked, still in awe and shock of the many, many knives before his eyes.

"32." Came the response from the man who had been quiet in three weeks. "And I'll polish them all in blood before long. I've waited a long time for this hunt, and you have brought me very close to my prey." He bowed his head with closed eyes.

The captain walked to him slowly. "Mister, you're not going to do any hunting in those handcuffs." He walked till he stood in in front of his prisoner.

"Oh, but, Captain," The strange man smirked. "you're wearing the cuffs." To prove his point… he raised his hands and revealed that no constraints kept his hands together.

And they were around the captain's wrists now.

Slamming his shoulder into the captain's chest, sending the man to the ground as well as walking out of the crew members' grasps. The officer took out his gun and aimed it at the strange man. "Who taught you that? Houdini?"

"Actually, I taught him." the man said.

Pulling the trigger, the police chief fired a bullet. But it was easily dodged, hitting one of the crew members' sides instead. The strange man quickly took the officer's hand and twisted it around. With the gun still in his hand, the strange man slithered his hand through the gaps and found the trigger.

_GUNFIRE_

_GUNFIRE_

_GUNFIRE_

Applying pressure on the officer's finger, the trigger was pulled three times, forcing it to unload into its owner's stomach. Letting go of him, the police chief was brought down to the ground. reaching down for his long coat, the strange man pulled on his coat, feeling complete now with it clad on his body.

Three of the crewmembers were too shocked to even more. The quick killing of two men, one armed nonetheless was causing them stand there in a paralyzed state. They watched the strange man pulled out a knife from his coat, an ancient hunting knife by the looks of it. He was examining it for a short moment before he threw it into one of the crewmember's chest.

All of them were distracted by that attack. Too distracted to notice the strange man rush forward and pull the knife out of his chest. Using that same knife, he slashed the throat of one member. While still stained with the blood of that crewmember, he stabbed the last crewmember's heart.

Pulling it out, he watched the three crewmembers' lifeless bodies fall to the ground. The strange man walked forward with an uncaring expression, not in the least bit caring about the three men he just mercilessly slaughtered. Flipping the knife around in his hand, the blade pointed upwards.

Nearing the police chief, he quickly bent down and pierced the down officer's heart with his knife. With a yank, he pulled it out. His eyes glancing the big city within his eyesight, soulfully piercing the tall buildings in the far as a familiar feeling of needing to be here.

"Soon another sacrifice will be made." He stated...

The vision of an armor-clad female being with wings appeared in his mind.

Intrigue fell over the long-coated man. "I feel you out there." He sneered hungrily. Hungry for what was gonna happen… what was gonna happen to _her_.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

It was that time again.

The time for Cisco Ramon and Kendra Saunders to go on another date. They once again used the popular coffee shop as a local for their date.

Kendra was the to open the door into the coffee shop with a twist of her key. She held them with a triumphant expression. "Advantages of a trusting manager." Cisco and the barista laughed together.

Cisco put his hands in his pockets. "Oh, a lot's gone down in this place." The lights turned on and he smiled. "Nice." He and Kendra walked deeper into the shop, the engineer asked. "So what's up? I thought we were gonna go to dinner."

The barista didn't reply directly with her words. Instead, she had a wide grin on her face and pointed a finger at the middle of the shop, pointing towards a table with wine glasses and steel covered plates like it was a reserved table at a restaurant. Even two bottles placed beside the covered plates. "Whoa." Cisco let out in impressiveness. "What's going on here?"

Smiling widely still, the barista admitted. "I couldn't decide which restaurant to go to, so I thought we could create our own." Kendra removed the cover of one plate. "Voila. Short rib, Yukon gold puree, and asparagus." Cisco was shocked to hear that incredible menu. "Got to have a vegetable." She added playfully.

"This is nice." Cisco praised.

"I like to cook." Kendra revealed. "I didn't know if you like red of white, so…I got you both." She nodded to the two bottles.

Forming a mock concerned face, Cisco said. "Ooh, two bottles. That's kind dangerous, don't you think?"

Kendra tilted her head. "You're not gonna run away all of a sudden, are you?"

"Trust me, I'm staying by your side as long as possible." Cisco instantly responded.

"Good." Came the just as quick response from Kendra. She threw her head down for a moment before saying. "You know, it's been really great hanging out these last few weeks. And it's helped make the move a lot easier, so…" She had already walked around the table and when she stood before him, she placed her hand on top of his. "Thanks."

"You're very welcome." Cisco said and the two moved in for a kiss.

Their lips connecting and-

However, both of them were forced to separate from their brief kiss when hearing the voice of a man talking in a foreign language. Facing him, they saw that he was a man with a dark blue coat. Brown eyes and black hair on his head as well as on his face… all the while his menacing eyes pointed themselves at Kendra's form…

… her _latest_ form…

Kendra looked at him shockingly. "Sorry. How did you get in here?"

Cisco faced him too. "Hey, man, this place is closed."

The man didn't pay any mind to what Cisco said… as his attention was solely devoted to Kendra. "You are just as beautiful in this life as any other, Priestess Chay-Ara."

"Priestess?" Kendra repeated confusedly.

"You're going to have to go, dude." Cisco stepped in front of Kendra.

"Oh, not without her…" the strange man pulled the sides of his trench coat open, showing the dozens of knives on both sides. "…dude."

"Oh, my God. Cisco." Kendra fearfully let out. Her fear increased when the strange man took out a knife. "I don't understand. What do you want?"

"I believe I was clear." He flipped the knife around.

Thankfully, Cisco had his hand around his phone and pressed the screen, sending out a distress call to a pair of heroes. But he had to stall for now, to ensure that both of them would be here in time. "Kendra's not going anywhere with you, Highlander."

Smiling viciously, the man pointed his knife at the woman. "Oh, is that your name now? Kendra? Quite boring." Once again, he flipped the knife around. "I believe it allowed you to blend in for a while." He continued to flip the knife around. "Now, give her to me, and I'll make your death fast."

"It ain't gonna happen." Cisco defiantly said.

The strange man smirked interested. His hand reeling back, preparing to throw the knife-

_WHOOSH_

But thankfully that was not meant to be thanks to the Scarlet Speedster slammed into the strange man with his shoulder.

_SLAM_

The strange man was knocked further back when a flying form slammed conjoined feet, shining with repulsor energy, into his form. Iron Knight backflipped, landing on the ground and aimed both hands at the man. "Place is closed, read the sign!"

"You are done here, pal." The Flash stated and walked closer to him.

"So is he!" The strange lashed out his hand and launched his knife… towards Cisco…

Matt faced him and focused energy in his palms, ready to blast the knife into pieces before it would ever connect with his friend's form. But the moment he faced that direction, he registered The Flash having his hand around the knife handle.

"Thank God." The nanite mutant let out in relief.

He and the metahuman snapped around, looking back in the direction of the strange man. Much to their dismay, he was no longer here. "Fucking hell, jackass's gone." Iron Knight said displeased.

They heard a loud exclaim of relief and looked to Cisco who walked to them, placing a hand on both Matt's shoulder and Barry's shoulder. "Thank God you and Matt came, Barry."

"Dude, come on." Barry said displeased that the name of his secret identity has been let out… so easily.

"Are you shitting me, Cisco?!" Matt voiced his displeasure… much louder.

Whilst the shock of this was reeling in, Kendra had eyes wide as saucers.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

"I can't believe you're The Flash." Kendra said with her eyes pointing at the mannequin wearing the Flash suit in S.T.A.R. Labs. She saw the whole team there and the other heroes too "And that you work with The Flash." She faced Cisco with disbelief. "And Iron Knight, Angel Fury and Magenta."

She couldn't believe that she had made drinks in their names this whole time… even served them.

"Yeah, let's keep that on the DL." Cisco said sheepishly.

Olivia looked to her husband with an inquiring look. "So, our secret identities? Are they just available for anyone this day and age?"

"You'd think. Cisco didn't have a problem with saying our names before." Matt threw a glare to the native engineer.

"Again, sorry about that." Cisco apologized.

Frankie looked displeased. "I should go invisible more." She said to herself and her mother ruffled her hair.

Barry then got their attention, pointing to the knife that he stopped from penetrating Cisco's body. "This is the same knife that was used to kill the men at the docks." Earlier he informed them of the killings of four crewmembers, their captain and a police chief. All of them done by a single blade wielded by the same man. "Residue's a perfect match."

"So it is the same guy?" Joe's question came out as a statement.

"Definitely." Barry confirmed. "But the thing is, these blades are old, centuries old."

Olivia walked closer to the blades. "No kidding. I mean, did this guy go grave-robbing or something?"

"Where? In an _Indiana Jones_ movie?" Matt joked.

Iris looked to the barista. "Do you have any idea why this guy would be after you?"

"No, I've never seen him before in my life." Kendra revealed with a shaking head.

Gesturing to her, Cisco added. "Well, he was certainly acting like he knew you. He kept calling her Priestess Chay-Ara."

Harry turned his eyes to him. "That's Coptic."

Caitlin frowned with a tilted head. "You mean Egyptian?"

"That's right." Harrison causally said.

Kendra looked confused, even more so than she already was. "Well, I grew up in Wisconsin, and I've never even left the States, so…"

Matt took notice of the look realization dawning on Cisco's face. Like he knew what was going on here, or at the very least had some idea to what's going on here.

Barry then said. "This guy, he's clearly incredibly dangerous, so I need you to at least let us try to protect you."

"I can put a detail on her." Joe suggested.

"Not gonna do squat against that him." Matt dejected.

Cisco nodded. "You didn't see this guy, Joe. Not offense, but I don't think a cop is going to be able to protect her."

"Yeah, he took a hit from my suit and he still managed to back on his feet." Matt said.

"Yeah, but we do have a few friends who could lend a hand. But we're gonna have to leave Central City." Barry admitted.

"And go where? Hogwarts? Dangle Draco Malfoy in front of him like bait on a fishing hook?" Olivia quipped.

"No somewhere better." The psychic wondered if he really admitted that there was a place better than Hogwarts. "Star City to get Green Arrow's help." Barry confidently stated his answer.

The psychic raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

X

**(Star City, Argus Base)**

Whilst his two co-workers lie dead on the ground, the very life force in them sucked out of their bodies like juice squeezed out of a juice carton, his body was slowly about to enter the same state. And it would be done so by the hands of the pale terror in a black suit, Damien Darhk.

Well, hand.

Damien's men, Ghosts, were standing like loyal soldiers, not showing anything or saying anything as they watched their boss mockingly make the same reactions as his victim he was draining. All of them looking through their black headgear, goggles and masks to see the victim's struggles lessen.

Still, though ARGUS had fallen to their boss's powers, the men were ready in full tactical armor and guns and everything to ensure that they got what they were looking for.

Once all life force was sucked out of the man, his body fell to the ground. Right beside the two other dead ARGUS agents. "Oh gosh, that's fun. I really could do this all day." He walked forward and over to the large truck in front of him. His Ghosts following him to the cargo truck. "Open it up."

His men pried the doors open and revealed the contents of the cargo to their boss. Showing Damien Darhk the large black container. A container with a very delicate and dangerous weapon. Damien laughed. "They could've at least tried to hide this chemical bomb. Serves them right, it getting stolen and used against them."

Suddenly the familiar sound of a string pulled back a moment reached their ears. A second later, the sound of a sharp edge piercing the ground reached their ears as well. Turing around to the direction of it, they found a familiar green arrow embedded into the ground. A green arrow with a metallic device around the middle of its shaft.

Looking upwards, they found their answer and narrowed their eyes on the three standing on top of the cargo.

To the left side, a small woman was standing tall and confident. Clad in a red Kevlar-laced leather suit with a red hood over her head. Her eyes looking through her red eye mask with anger pointing at the Ghosts and their boss. Her back equipped with a quiver, filled with arrows. Her left hand clad around the handle of her compound bow. A scabbard behind her quiver, holding a sword that was nothing short of a blade in the fiery red hands of the scarlet archer, Speedy.

To the right side, was a tall dark-skinned man. His face covered by a silver helmet. One with a visor going across the eyes and nose and stopping near the mouth. Protective black leather clothing, lined with Kevlar, clad on his body, allowing the darkness to be one with him. One hand around the handle of his gun. Spartan was ready to for action.

In the middle of them both, stood the emerald archer. Standing tall in a light green suit, was the Green Arrow himself. A suit more advanced than that of its predecessor's, the Arrow suit. Like the red archer, he too has his left hand wrapped around his compound bow and his back equipped with an arrow-filled quiver. His head covered by a light green hood and a dark green mask over his eyes.

Damien looked in mock surprise, not at all surprised to see that the meddlesome vigilantes have come to try and foil his plans again. "Oh, you brought arrows to a gunfight."

"What guns?" Green Arrow said his quip with the voice modifier and pressed the side of his suit. The arrow that he fired off earlier released a magnetic pulse that forced the guns out of the ghosts' hands, forcing them to gather around the arrow.

Surprised by the magnetic arrow's function, Damien said. "Oh, that was actually pretty clever." He shortly chuckled before ordering his men. "Kill them." He walked away… just as the three heroes jumped down from the cargo truck.

Green Arrow slammed his fist into the nearest Ghost soldier, sending him down to the ground. And that was start of a massive fight. The Ghosts charged the three vigilantes.

Legs lashed out to deliver kicks. Arms thrusted forward to send hurtful punches. Bows slammed into the sides of enemy faces. Arrows taken out of their quivers to stab into the nearest enemy. A sword swung to slash through the armor of the soldier-like criminals. Guns shooting out of sleeves to send out lead projectiles and puncturing flesh on the various enemies.

Oliver Queen dodged the incoming fists of two Ghost soldiers. But his concentration was somewhat divided when he heard his girlfriend speak through the open line in their comms devices… mimicking his voice.

_""__Felicity, the magnetic arrow gag will never work._"" Felicity Smoak chuckled in her seat in front of the computers in the new and improved Arrowcave. Oliver managed to grab one Ghost's arm and hurled him to the side. "_Yes, it will, my love., because I am really smart. And guess what, Oliver? It did work." _

Grabbing the other Ghost criminal by the back of his neck, Oliver slammed his head into the hood of an army jeep… all the while sheepishly speaking to his girlfriend… at the worst possible timing. "Felicity, honey, it's a little hard with you doing that in my ear." He repeatedly slammed the Ghost soldier's head into the hood of the vehicle till his body slid down because of his unconsciousness.

He could hear the inaudible shocked gasp from Felicity in the bunker. "_Oh, I totally forgot that this was an open line. Keep doing what you're doing. Make smart decisions._" She quickly said before cutting off the line.

Smart decisions were made with the Emerald Archer lashing out his foot and knocking away a Ghost soldier. Twirling around, he blocked another from attack with his bow and thrusted out his other hand, slamming it into his face. He saw how the others were faring against their share of soldiers.

Speedy was doing well. Kicking one Ghost and spinning around to deliver a roundhouse kick. The two kicks knocked him down to his knees and she slammed her bow into his face a few times before sending out an uppercut, knocking him out.

Spartan parried the fists of an incoming Ghost, pushing them away and spun around. Using the momentum of the spin, he appeared before another Ghost. Blocking a fist with his forearm, he punched the criminal in his face, pushing him away and in time to John Diggle to grab an incoming fist from behind with one hand and use the other one to deliver a punch to the first Ghost he attacked. This attack sending him down to the ground.

The other Ghost swung with his fist, but Spartan crouched and dodged the attack. With the low position, he slammed his fist into the Ghost's stomach. This impact knocking the criminal down with hands around his stomach.

Green Arrow saw a Ghost running over to him and he spun around, using the velocity of the spin to kick the criminal towards Spartan who delivered a kick of his own to the man's face. Oliver smiled under his hood and thrusted his fist into one Ghost's face.

Using that same hand, he wrapped his digits around his throat and slammed him into the ground. Getting back on his full height, he turned around-

And came face to face with Damien Darhk. The leader of H.I.V.E. instantly placed the palm of his right hand on the side of the emerald archer's chest. Feeling the effects of the life absorption powers he has, Oliver was paralyzed. "Ooh! You know, I got to be honest. I really thought we'd be doing this dance a lot longer. Night-night."

He watched the life draining from the archer's face… paling by the second as he continued to have his physical contact with his body. Damien knew that this was gonna be one victory that he would savor for the rest of his operation in Star City.

_WHOOSH_

But a flash of yellow lightning dragged the archers and the armored man away.

Damien exclaimed shocked by that sight. "What was that?"

X

Meanwhile, the two archers Green Arrow and Speedy were still standing disoriented by the sudden escape and running at the speed of sound.

A flash of yellow lightning returned and The Flash stood before them… while a disoriented Spartan looked around in shock. That shock was instantly replaced when he felt something ugly making its way up his lungs. John pulled his helmet off and bend down.

_VOMITTING_

Barry winced at the sound of the former soldier vomiting, mostly because it was his fault. "Damn it." John Diggle sighed. "Every time." He wiped away any excess vomit from the corners of his mouth with the back of his sleeve.

Speedy, Thea Queen, looked shocked to see the Scarlet Speedster before them. "It's The Flash." Oliver nodded to her statement. "Did I know we knew The Flash?" Thea was still in shock and her elder brother nodded. "We know The Flash. Okay. I didn't know we knew The Flash."

"Oh, you found them."

The Star City natives looked upwards and saw Iron Knight descending to the ground. He walked up to the speedster and said. "Took a while, didn't it?"

"Had to look all over the place, yeah." Barry admitted with scratch of his neck.

"It's Iron Knight." Thea said in shock. John nodded to her statement. "Did I know we knew Iron Knight?" Thea knew she was reciting her own words with a few changes. John nodded again to her words. "We know Iron Knight. Okay. I didn't know we knew Iron Knight."

"Calm down. I'm not that big of a deal." Matt assured the red archer.

"Okay." Speedy said, but to her he was a pretty big deal.

"Thank you." Oliver directed to the speedster. He gained a serious expression as he shifted his gaze between them both. "But I don't think you guys flew and ran all the way here to protect us."

"Nope. Sorry, but it wasn't to protect you guys." Matt answered.

"We need to protect a friend." Barry finished off.

X

The Arrow team showed the metahuman and the mutant the entrance to their bunker. They were trustworthy, despite Oliver having harbored feelings of distrust towards the nanite mutant during his last visit to their city. Now they all waited in the elevator together.

Matt looked to Barry. "Did you know they got a new hideout?" His helmet was still covering his head.

"No." The speedster replied and then pointed to the nanite mutant's helmet. "Dude, why are you wearing your helmet in here?"

"Oh yeah." Matt let out. Arching his neck, the nanites forming his helmet dematerialized and retracted into his suit. "Sometimes it feels natural to wear that in unknown territories."

Oliver glanced at him. "Wouldn't that mean, you don't trust us yet?" the nanite mutant didn't answer and narrowed his eyes on him.

"Ollie." Thea chastised her brother. Now she was not wearing her hood, letting her short brown hair and green eyes be shown to the two from Central City. Turning to the mutant, she said. "Sorry, my brother has a nasty habit like that."

"Nah it's okay." Matt glanced back to the elder Queen sibling. "Pretty sure your brother here doesn't trust me yet anyway." Oliver didn't answer and turned to face the elevator doors again. The nanite mutant chuckled and outstretched his hand to the red archer. "Forgive my manners. My name's Matt Stark."

"Oh." Thea let out and held out her own hand. Grabbing his, they shock hands. "Thea Queen. Oliver's little sister."

"You gotta tell me how it is to have such a hard-ass of a brother later." He made sure it was loud enough for the elder Queen sibling to hear and he could hear his teeth gritting.

"Maybe if you tell me how you don't feel stuffed in that armor of yours." Thea quipped with a gesture to his armor.

"Ventilation is God's greatest gift to this world." Matt said. He noticed John looking at him intently for some reason. "What's with you, John? You look like you've seen something of this world."

Gulping loudly, the former soldier said. "Oliver told us that you… somehow got a… larger suit… out of your body." He spoke slowly and pointed to the mutant's body.

Matt gaped his mouth in realization. "Oh yeah, my VenomBuster suit. That one took a while to make. But yeah, what about it?"

"How does that not hurt?" John asked, referring to how the nanites swarmed out of his insides.

"It does hurt." Matt indifferently stated, like it the most normal thing in the world.

And that actually shook the former soldier's core.

The elevators opened and they all walked into the new Arrowcave. Matt remembered that Cisco had been helping Felicity with setting up the bunker under the building. He saw a large array of computers around the lair. In the middle of the lair, he saw a platform there. Two areas with computers and between them a large rectangular computer monitor attached to a stand, appearing to be connected to the two sets of computers on either side of it. A very fine and large lamb hanging above the platform. The lighted panels under the platform floor was a nice touch. Looking around again, the nanite mutant found training facilities. He even found strange cases to the right side of the lair.

His mask forming quickly to scan the cases' materials and found polycarbonate in the casings. Further scanning showed him biometrics keyed to specific users only as well. "Not bad." The nanite mutant admitted impressed with his mask deforming again.

Barry nodded and took in the sight of the bunker. "Nice new digs." Oliver smiled in appreciation of his friend's words. The speedster then took a look at Oliver's suit and noted. "Also, I just noticed, no sleeves. Don't you get cold?"

Oliver said. "I spent the better part of five years on an island in the North China Sea. I don't get cold, Barry."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Show-off."

Hearing a pair of small feet walking towards Barry and Oliver, the mutant saw Felicity Smoak coming to them with a smile on her face. "Barry, it's so good to see you." she greeted the speedster.

"Felicity." He wrapped his arms around the expert hacker. "Good to see you, Felicity." He smiled happily.

Once their arms were unwrapped from one another, the hacker punched the speedster's chest. "How come you didn't tell me Zoom broke your back?"

"I-"

Felicity cut him off with another hug. The mutant scratching the side of his head in confusion while the hacker told the speedster earnestly. "Oh, I'm so glad you're okay."

While still in the embrace, Barry shifted his head to the archer who smirked. "So this is what it's like dating her?"

"More bruises from her than from Deathstroke." Oliver quipped.

The nanite mutant chuckled and showed a holographic screen from an opening panel on the gauntlet on his left forearm. John saw the screen appearing out of his arm and walked over to him. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing when our other friend and our protectee are gonna be here." He answered… with a lie. Looking up to the platform, he saw they have already arrived. "And here they are."

John saw Cisco walking up to the platform with an attractive young woman behind him. The engineer was watching the equipment tenderly. Kendra looked around the place and admitted. "Okay, S.T.A.R. Labs is impressive, but this is…"

"This is completely wrong!" Cisco loudly voiced his disapproval of Team Arrow's tech. Felicity looked shocked at his words and faced him while Matt looked interested with crossed arms. "Did you guys even look at the specs I sent over? This a tragedy. I'm mourning for the death of engineering. Matt you agree, right?" he looked to him.

However, Matt surprisingly shrugged. "Guess it is good for them and their operation." Felicity looked hurt at him and Cisco looked at him disbelief. "Guys, I work for a governmental operation that makes ARGUS look like an upstarting kindergarten. Heck, we don't have a base like you guys, we have a Helicarrier in the skies that goes invisible when the director orders it to. And it's manned by hundreds of agents."

"A flying base?" Kendra asked curiously. And he nodded, making the barista widen a smile. "That is definitely better than this. And cooler."

"Yeah we can compare bases later." Cisco said to the mutant and faced the hacker again. "But remember: copper wiring to handle the processing speed from the Palmer Satellite, or else your system is gonna overload."

"Yeah, but that hasn't happened." Felicity defiantly said. "I mean, it hasn't happened since last week."

"You mean, it happened yesterday, right?" Matt knowingly said and the hacker threw him a shocked look. Shrugging uncaringly, he revealed. "I wanted to see their setup so I did a quick scan is all and found more than a few errors."

"Hi." Kendra broke the ice and stepped forward.

"I'm Felicity." The hacker greeted.

"I'm Kendra Saunders." She walked down the short staircase to shake hands with Felicity. Oliver giving her a suspicious look. Glancing at Cisco, she added. "I'm Cisco's…" she stopped herself from speaking, having no idea on how to explain her relationship with Cisco at this current moment.

Seeing her look at him for guidance, the mechanical engineer sheepishly answered. "She's, uh, my, uh, new, beautiful friend who kisses me occasionally." He got series of strange looks from everyone around him.

"Cisco." Matt got his attention. "Want me to get Livia to get you some kind of mind scrubbing, kind of like she'd try to set it right or something like that? It would probably help you out in these kind of situations."

"Might actually be a help." Thea chuckled. "Right, Um, I'm Thea." She introduced herself before pointing to the grinning former soldier. "This is John Diggle and my brother."

"Oliver Queen." Kendra already knew who the man was.

"Hi." Oliver shook hands with her with a smile.

"Wow." Kendra let out before stating. "Okay, first to meet The Flash, Iron Knight, Magenta and Angel Fury and now the Green Arrow." She looked to Cisco again. "Do you have any other surprises for me?"

"Please, no more surprises." Cisco hopefully muttered.

"If that's her reaction to us, what's it's gonna be when Venom comes back?" Matt joked.

Cisco's faced paled. "She might just get a heart attack."

"Wait?" Felicity rushed to the nanite mutant. "I thought Barry said he died."

"Oh yeah, we thought the same. But apparently he's doing well… just away from here." Matt said with a chuckle.

Gaping her mouth in hurt and shock, the hacker slapped his armored chest. "Why didn't you guys ever tell us that?" Her other hand wrapped around her slapping hand that was hurting from the contact with his suit. "Ow! That's hard."

"It's an armor meant for a battle. Not a saddle for My Little Pony. It's supposed to be hard, Felicity." The mutant quipped seriously and then said. "And about Venom and all, it's a long story, we'll get into it later. Promise." Felicity looked content with that response, but still held her hand tenderly.

"For now…" Oliver faced the barista from CC Jitters. "Barry and Matt said that you need our help. Somebody very dangerous is after you."

"Yeah, and I have no idea why." Kendra said.

Thea looked worried. "What does this guy even look like?"

"Hold on." Barry stated and walked over to a sketchbook lying on a table. Opening it, he withdrew a pencil. Using his superspeed, he went to work and began to draw. Matt narrowed his eyes, briefly wondering if the speedster was seriously doing this to show off right now to the Star City team. Especially since, the nanite mutant had already taken a photo of the man himself during their fight.

Which he told Barry of.

Finally done with the drawing, he returned to them and showed an exact drawing of the man himself. "Okay, this is him."

John leant against a pillar with a shocked expression. "Yeah, see, that's something I would never think of."

Felicity looked at the sketch. "Hey, kind of rocking that Dothraki look…" she took the sketchbook in her hand. "Hot." They gave her looks like she had two heads. "Let's see if facial recognition can find a match." She walked to the platform.

"Jarvis give her a hand." Matt said to his gauntlet and lashed out his hand. The top panel of his right hand opened slightly to shoot out a small device that attached to the back of the computer. The device began to shine a bit with a blue shine.

"Nice shot." Thea impressively said.

"You and your big bro aren't the only long-range fighters here, Thea." Matt quipped. "Jarvis, help her."

"**Affirmative, sir.**"

Thea and Kendra gasped. John withheld his shocked gasp from hearing that voice. The red archer faced the knight. "What… Who is that?"

"Jarvis, an AI from where I'm from." Matt said before looking to Felicity. "He's gonna help you, Felicity."

"He sure is." Felicity said without making eye contact as she fully devoted to her work. "Mind if I borrow him for a while?"

"Yes." The nanite mutant replied instantly. "Yes, I would mind you using him."

Felicity returned to her work with speedy fingers. Thanks to the combined work of both the AI and the expert hacker, they were able to bring up a matching image. Even though the image was in black and white, Kendra was able to see that it was clearly the face of her attacker. "That's him."

"**Mr. Stark, I believe we have come across an error that appears to not be an error.**"

"What do you mean, Jarvis?" Matt asked while walking behind the Star City hacker.

Felicity nodded in agreement. "Yeah, strange. This picture's from 1975."

"Which would make him about 80 years old right now." Barry deduced.

"Okay, what else can you tell us?" Oliver asked.

Kendra looked unsure of what to answer. "He said we've known each other for ages, but I've never met the man before."

"Well, there has to be some kind of connection." Oliver stated.

"Not one I can think of." Kendra regretfully said. "I just moved to Central City six months ago."

"Why'd you move there?" Oliver continued with the questions.

Matt narrowed his eyes; this was quickly taking the form of an interrogation.

"I just felt drawn to the city, I guess." Kendra said.

Oliver persisted with the interrogation. "Kendra, there is a reason this guy's after you. Think."

"Hey, Queen." They all heard Matt's raised voice and watched him cross his arms over his chest with a stern expression on his face. "This ain't an interrogation. Stop treating it like it is. And stop treating it like it's Kendra's fault."

"Matt, you're an agent for an organization like ARGUS, maybe better even, then you know these are standard questions to ask anyone who's targeted by some mysterious guy like this." Oliver felt like reminding him.

Matt then reminded him back. "And last time, I checked. You're not an agent of any organization, Robin Hood. Don't act like you know any better than me." His tone was sharp and cold like steel.

"Look, man," Cisco continued, "we just came out here to hide out for a bit until we figure things out, so you can just take it down…" he used his fingers to mimic the amount he needed to tone down.

"You came here because you need our help." Oliver reminded the engineer sternly. "This is what my help looks like."

"You call treating friends and allies like enemies help?" Matt scoffed casually; his tone didn't sit well with the green archer. "You're one messed up fool, Green Arrow." His words got the archer to clench his hands into fists while they were placed on the sides of his stomach.

Barry saw the same and reminded his friend. "Oliver, I just saved you guys from whatever the hell Flock of Seagulls was about to do. The least you can do-"

"Barry, none of us have superpowers." Oliver cut him off. Barry and Matt scoffed and Felicity showed them an apologetic look. "You brought Kendra into our world without knowing who she is or what this dude that is after her is looking for. You made all of us unsafe. So maybe you ask the questions."

"Aw." Matt mocked a coo. "Don't tell me you're afraid now, Ollie? A little shaky in your pants, huh? Because of a guy you've never met or is it because of this soldiers Barry told me about."

Oliver saw red and wanted to take down the mutant. However, the hand of his girlfriend on his shoulder while she made eye contact with him from her chair. With a quirky smile and a gesture to all around, she said. "We're all friends here, right?" the green archer hummed. "Why don't we go back to our place and have some drinks, and we can talk?" she suggested hopefully.

Shrugging the speedster agreed with a simple. "Cool." He looked to Matt who looked disapproving. "Matt?"

"Guess we could use some liquor to get into a more… cooperative mood." Matt agreed with a glare to the archer.

"Perfect!" Felicity let out with hands lashed to the sides. "Remember to bring your girlfriend too."

"My wife." He clarified and the hacker's mouth gaped again. "Yeah, we got married a while back."

Felicity shot from her chair and slapped his chest again. "Why didn't you invite us?" she had to hold her hand again with her other one from slapping his armored chest… again.

X

**(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

With Frankie out swinging above the city streets as Magenta to find the infamous thief, Black Cat and inform her of what have here in case her powers were needed, Caitlin remained seated in her seat before the main console. Her eyes looking over the screen in front of her.

She smiled happily at the sight of the photo revealed on the computer monitor. The entirety of the screen was displaying the latest and greatest photo that she, Frankie… and Seth took. It was shortly after she and the elemental got back together again.

It was from the night that they went out with their friends to a restaurant that Felicity Smoak and Ray Palmer had arranged for them. That night was certainly hectic because it was also the night that bees from Bug-Eyed Bandit, Brie Larvan, wanted to get revenge at Tina McGee for ruining her career.

But it turned out great nonetheless, because before they separated from the rest there, the three of them snuck away and found a nice white background for them to use so they could take a few photos to remember this night. And so they did that very same night after apprehending the mad scientist.

Caitlin smiled at the picture still… and at the memory of it… because it was without a doubt…

… one of her fondest memories…

X

**(Flashback)**

_"__Come on, Cait!"_

_"__Okay, alright!" Caitlin finally agreed to let the mutant drag her and Frankie back to the restaurant. All three of them had gotten back into their formal clothes of that night… well actually it was just the mutant and his daughter that had to change back into their formal clothes of a suit and a dress. Caitlin was already in hers._

_Frankie lifted an eyebrow. "But how did you get them to let us back in here, Dad?" she curiously asked her father._

_Showing a slick smile, the elemental stated. "Come on, honey. Do you know anyone who can say no to this face?" He pointed a finger to his own face while wearing a goofy expression._

_Despite how funny it truly was to see the serious-at-work Seth Fury wear a funny expression on his face, Caitlin couldn't help but narrow her eyes with crossed eyes and asked suspiciously. "You didn't threaten the manager now, did you?"_

_As they were let through the entrance door, the mutant threw up his hands. "Come on Cait. I would never…" he trailed off when seeing his daughter join in with the suspicious looks. His demeanor falling to pieces and he confessed. "I asked Ray Palmer to get us back in here just for tonight."_

_"__And he agreed?" Frankie asked as they walked into the large dining hall again by waiters._

_"__Yup. He said it was his version of a "Welcome-back-to-life"- present." He answered with quotation marks. His girlfriend and his daughter both giving him wide-eyed looks. "Don't be surprised guys, we're talking about Felicity Smoak's boyfriend here. She's bound to find someone as screwed-up as herself."_

_Caitlin laughed. "Someone to match her crazy."_

_Seth smirked and pulled Caitlin close to him with his arms around her waist. "Yeah, I know the feeling."_

_Gaining a mock hurt expression, she inquired. "You calling me crazy now, Dr. Fury?"_

_"__Oh yes, I am, Dr. Snow." Seth smirked and leant closer to her lips and kissed her with closed eyes. The female doctor wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to the embrace, both of them closing their eyes to enjoy the kiss they shared with one another._

_Frankie blushed embarrassedly as she watched them kiss. "Seriously? Now?"_

_Disengaging from his girlfriend, her father reached over to her head and ruffled her hair. "Fine, Ms. Thing. Let's get down to it." He stepped backwards till his back hit the wall behind him. "Perfect spot, right?"_

_"__For what, Dad?" Frankie wondered._

_She got her answer when Seth used a black tendril to pull out a camera. "Thought it would be nice to have more photos of all three of us back home. It's not every day that we get to dress up fancy, so it'd be memorable."_

_"__So that was your genius plan, huh?" Caitlin stepped over to him till she stood beside him. "But it's a good idea, yeah."_

_"__Yeah." Frankie agreed and stepped over to her father's side. "Let's do it!"_

_Seth wrapped an arm around his daughter's head and pulled her close, making her laugh embarrassedly. His other arm wrapped around his girlfriend's waist again, this time pulling her to his side and her head facing his own that met hers. _

_The tendril holding the camera stretched itself longer without worry, knowing that the staff were in the personnel areas working. It split into two tendrils to hold the camera and focus on the three of them. _

_Frankie was smiling happily while in the embrace of her father's arm. _

_Seth was looking soulfully into Caitlin's eyes. _

_Caitlin was matching his eyes, with a soulful gaze of her own._

_The two leant closer to one another… and their lips once again met in a passionate kiss that was full of nothing but the love that the two feels for each other._

_The camera flash appearing the next second didn't appear to disturb them in the least… as it went completely unnoticed. _

**(Flashback End)**

X

Placing her fingers on her lips, she kissed them. Pulling them from her mouth, she placed them over the image of her boyfriend's face. "I love you, Seth. Come back." She longingly said.

But she knew all too well that she didn't even have to say. She smiled at the memory from Cisco's vibe. Where he determinedly declared to the menacing speedster Zoom that he would not prevent him from getting back to her and their daughter.

That Zoom would never defeat him no matter what he threw at him.

Seth will prevail and charge head-on with his sword.

She found the sword intriguing and couldn't wait to examine it when he returns.

Hearing the sounds of keys on a keyboard being pressed repeatedly in her private lab, she perked up her head and saw Harry working on the computer there. Curiosity drove her to look into it and she minimized the photo and got on her feet.

Walking up the small staircase to her lab, she asked him. "What you working on?" she walked closer to him and saw him working on the computer… a simulation possibly.

Glancing at the native doctor once, he said, "This is a formula meant to increase a speedster's velocity that I've been developing since Zoom showed up on my Earth." Caitlin pursed her lips curiously as she listened. "Ironically, this was meant to help out Jay Garrick."

"You want to give Barry a drug to make him run faster?" Caitlin quickly deduced.

Harry cocked his head. "Temporarily enhance the Speed Force in his system, yes."

Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "So you're trying to make nitrous oxide for speedsters." She cheekily compared.

"Good analogy." Harry smiled. "Yes, I tried. Five times I fried. Five times I failed. That's what you get when your background is technology and not biochemistry."

Caitlin scoffed confidently. "Well, then you are lucky I am here."

"What does that mean? Did your husband have notes on this subject?" he inquired at her words.

"First, Seth's not my husband, he's my boyfriend." Caitlin corrected him firstly, though she was blushing by the thought of Seth as her husband, as she took a seat beside him. "Second, you've doing this the wrong wat. You've been thinking of this as a mechanical problem, not a biomechanical one."

"And what does _that_ mean?" Harry recited unsurely.

Taking over in front of the computer, she informed. "When a speedster runs, they consume an extraordinary amount of oxygen," she put in the formula of nitrate on the computer simulation and began reconstructing it as she spoke. "so we just need something to give an extra boost of oxygen during that time."

"Like an oxygen generator." Harry caught on.

"Exactly." Caitlin agreed. "So we just need a chemical that's rich in oxygen that would release it as a nearly pure gas as it decomposes… something like…"

""Sodium chlorate."" The two reached the same conclusion in unison.

Caitlin then continued. "Then all we'd need is heat to release the oxygen."

"Which a speedster generates naturally in the form of lightning." Harry added instantly.

The native doctor smiled happily. "I think something like this just might work." She and Harry looked at the computer simulated pieces of drug.

"You think you can help me figure it out?" Harry asked Caitlin.

"I can certainly try." Caitlin confidently replied.

The name… "_Velocity_" written at the bottom of the screen.

X

**(Star City, Thea Queen's Loft)**

Thea Queen's loft was definitely impressive.

With a view over the city, it was worth standing out on the balcony with a drink in hand to take in the nightly skies of Star City. Turning around, the nanite mutant walked into the loft again to retake in its interior beauty.

Two staircases on both left and right of the loft, both leading up to their own sections of the upper floor. Separated and assumingly leading up to bedrooms upstairs. Two couches on the ground floor, right in the middle of the room. A section to the right side was holding the kitchen area, right under the staircase leading to the right section of the upper floor. A section to the left was secluded for a wall with a large television there with a couch in front of it.

There was also a small fireplace covered by glass that shined over the small table with alcohol and drinks and glasses. Which happened to the nanite mutant's next destination. Matt refilled his glass with more scotch. "Ice?" A steel bucket of ice cubes was held out in front of him.

Looking to the direction of the hand holding the bucket, he saw that it was Felicity who holds the bucket. With a chuckle, he accepted. "Thanks." He took the tong and placed a few cubes in his drink. He took the bucket for her and put it on the table. "Nice place Thea has."

"Yeah, it's the bomb." Felicity laughed before gesturing to Oliver and Barry. "About how Oliver was acting. I'm sorry for that."

"You're not responsible for his actions, Felicity. Your boyfriend is a grown man. If he regrets his own words, he can apologize for them himself." Matt drank from his drink. "But seeing as he's not apologizing, he's not regretting it."

"Well, you did go pretty far yourself back in the bunker, you know." Felicity pointed out.

"Only because of your boyfriend who gets scared by a problem he's not seen yet." Matt added.

"Oh, he doesn't get scared so easily." Felicity proudly bragged.

Matt smiled. "Guess he and I does have something in common then." He gestured to the others who in deep conversation. "Let's see what the fuss's about."

"We shall." Felicity agreed with a nod.

They walked over to the others. Felicity separating from the nanite mutant who walked over to the other couch and saw on the other end of it, adjacent to Thea. The red archer gave him a look before saying to Cisco. "I'm not changing my nickname. I like Speedy."

"Speedy's your name?" Thea nodded to Matt's query. "Sure, you're not just hoping to become a speedster." The younger Queen sibling glared at him before laughing herself. Barry, Oliver and Felicity listened as they conversed.

"Are you familiar with my body of work?" Cisco asked, getting their attention and Kendra smiled. "If you are, then you know I can come up with something so much better than Speedy. Tell her, Matt." He wanted the mutant's help.

"Sorry, but your naming sense has it's ups and downs." Matt admitted with crooked smile.

"Wait, did he come up with yours?" Thea directed at the mutant.

"Nah, that's my own design." Matt calmly said.

Thea nodded with an upheld head and faced Cisco again. "Why don't you get a haircut? And then maybe we can talk about it."

Cisco narrowed his eyes. "I think you're just mad because my conditioner game is on point." He took a few locks of his hair to empathize his point.

"God, you're way too proud of your hair, man." Matt leant against the back of the couch and heard Barry and Felicity converse.

"So the CEO of Palmer Technologies is living with Oliver Queen." Barry gestured to the secret archer. Felicity smiled. "It's insane how much life can change in six months?"

"Which you would know better than anyone, considering Seth was thought to be dead, there's another Flash, another Dr. Wells, from another Earth… which is where Seth is right now and alive." Barry hummed agreeingly. "I mean…"

"Yeah. No, it's been trippy lately." Barry said. "Oh yeah, Matt, his wife, his niece they all hated me for a while."

"Already apologized once, you're not getting any more from me, Speedy." Matt pitched in.

"Hey where is your wife and your niece?" The hacker asked.

Matt cocked his head. "Livia's on her way here, Frankie's in Central City with her mother. They need a protector while their residential speed-freak is on vacay."

"Wouldn't call this a vacay, man." Barry disagreed. "Besides, they got Jay Garrick and Dr. Wells over there too."

"One's powerless and only got his brain working, the other's a douche. My money's on my niece." Matt admitted.

Felicity narrowed her eyes curiously at the mention of the doppelgangers. "I wonder what Oliver's doppelganger would look like. Bald, pot-bellied…." She and Barry faced the archer at the bar table. "agreeable." At that point, she almost sounded hopeful.

Matt tilted his head and thought to himself while drinking his scotch. "_Seth might get along with that one. Maybe._"

"You seeing anyone?" Felicity wondered of the speedster.

"I am, actually." Barry answered.

"Good." She said.

"Patty is her name." He revealed. "She's amazing."

"You deserve someone amazing." Felicity sincerely told him.

"Thanks."

_CHIME_

"The pigs in a blanket." The hacker let out happily at the sound of the oven chiming. She instantly rushed over to take care of the heated contents in the oven.

"Can she cook something that's safely edible?" Matt joked as he got up from his seat to stand beside the metahuman.

"Yeah… I think." Barry chuckled.

"Hey guys." Oliver said as he walked to them.

"Oliver." The mutant greeted.

"Hey, Ollie." Barry sighed before confessing. "Um, look, sorry that we laid all of this on you. I know that it wasn't fair."

"But it was Barry's idea and he thought it would be the best way to make sure that Kendra's safe from whatever the hell this dude with a knife fetish is." Matt added casually and emotionlessly.

"It's okay." Oliver surprised them with his words. "I'm sorry if earlier I was a little…"

"Snippy?" Barry wondered.

"Hard-ass-y?" Matt added.

"I have been called worse." Oliver admitted after hearing Barry and Matt state those words. They chuckled with grins. "No, but I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad you reached out. I would have thought your other friends like Matt would have been enough, but it shows a real maturity, and I would know that because I've never been that mature."

Matt knew that the archer was only speaking to Barry at this point. The speedster looks up to Oliver. And has been for so long. He would even continue to do so for a very long time….

"I'm always here for you." Oliver said honestly. "For both of you." he told Matt.

"Thanks, Oliver. And sorry for being an ass myself back there." Matt said.

"It's okay." Gesturing to the others, the archer said. "Think the others liked that you were a bit of an ass towards in the bunker."

"I did." Barry admitted and gestured to the others as well. "I got to say, this isn't the same Arrow team I'm used to seeing or the same Oliver Queen. You seem really…" the speedster was unsure of what to call Barry.

"Happy?" the archer asked.

"Yeah, that's it." Matt stated. "You seem happy, more than before." He was different for sure, not willing to accept any outside and unknown help without a thorough investigation.

"Because I am, I am happy." Oliver genuinely smiled, surprising the mutant. He wasn't used to seeing the secret archer smile so brightly. Usually, he would resemble something like a dark ball of darkening anger. Like Seth was. "I finally have everything that I've ever wanted. Being with Felicity has given me a real sense of peace, something that I haven't had in a long time."

"Didn't you tell me that guys like us don't get the girl?" Barry chucklingly asked with a gesture to Oliver, Matt and himself.

"Yep." Came the quick response. "I was wrong." Just as quick as he spoke, he quickly walked away.

"That was weird." Matt admitted and the speedster agreed with a nodding head and the two followed the archer who stood before the others in the middle.

"I would like to propose a toast." Oliver got everyone's attention. "I wish it wasn't just the dark times bringing us together."

_WHOOSH_

With lightning speed on his side, Barry rushed past Oliver and landed beside him… with the archer's drink in his hand. While everyone was chuckling and laughing as they watched Oliver's face sorrow at the loss of his drink. "But it is friends like you that make those dark times worth having."

"What a guy." Oliver chuckled as he took back his drink. "Steals my drinks, steals my words. As I was saying, it's good to see everyone."

"Yes." Barry agreed.

"Back at ya." Matt agreed with his own glass held up.

"Cheers."

Everyone said the same as they reached toasted to this gathering despite the darkness that was looming over Kendra's head.

And at the thought of that darkness, Cisco got up from his chair to go over to the small kitchen area of the loft.

Matt saw the look on his face and walked over to him. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Cisco placed his glass on the table.

Giving him an eyeroll, he said. "About the little sad cloud hanging above your head." Cisco's worry grew tenfold. "Look, don't worry. We'll protect Kendra, all right?"

"Yeah, I know." Cisco faced him. "There's something I never told you. Barry knows this, but you don't." Matt gave his full attention. "The first time I kissed Kendra… I got a vibe."

The nanite mutant frowned with disgust. "Downstairs? Upstairs? Where are we talking? Just be clear if its former, I don't want to know anything, and I will walk away immediately."

"Not, not like that kind of vibe." The native engineer shook his head, assuring the nanite mutant instantly. "Like, I vibed vibed."

"Yeah, think Frankie said something about a Flying Man or something, right?" Matt started. "You think this has something to do with Kendra?"

Cisco nodded and shook his head out of the blue. "It wasn't a man…. It was Kendra. She was, like-"

""A bird."" The two said at the same time.

"How'd you know?" Cisco wondered.

"Basic deduction." Matt shrugged. "But I've seen people with wings before in my universe before. Though none of them usually kept their wings inside their bodies." The mutant looked at him again. "You think that Kendra's a metahuman?" Cisco shrugged unsurely of what he was feeling. "And you told Barry? Hurtful."

"Well, I didn't think it was related, but I guess now it has to be." Cisco added.

"She know about your powers?" Matt inquired.

"No." Cisco inhaled. "Look, I don't want her to know about my powers." Both of them looked at the laughing barista who was conversing with Barry. "It's not like with Bette. I have this great thing going with her. She laughs at my jokes, and she loves movies, and…." Cisco gained a loving expression. "I felt like this with Better, but at the same time I just… I never felt like this before, and I don't want to sabotage it."

"I get the feeling, sort of." Matt never kept anything from Liv. Sure there were times he did almost make decisions without her consent, but that was only for her safety or the safety of her family. "But Cisco?" He hated being the one to tell his friend. But someone had to.

"Yeah?" Cisco grew worried at his expression.

Steel-hard seriousness. "I know it's hard to hear. But Bette broke up with you because you distanced yourself from her. It was because of whatever Wells' particle accelerator did sure, but you were the one to keep those memories to yourself and not share with her." Cisco looked down. "My point is, tell your loved one about this. Better from you than anyone else."

"Maybe." Cisco breathed out.

Kendra was talking with Barry and then saw something out of the window. "Look!" she exclaimed with a paled face, pale as a ghost.

_SHATTER_

Before anyone had time to look at the source of her worries, the sound of glass shattering echoed within the walls of the loft. Cisco and Matt threw their eyes to the broken glass and saw that it was the same man who had attacked the mechanical engineer back in the coffee shop in Central City.

His menacing eyes turned to face the scared barista, the presences of the others not worth his attention. "I will always find you, Chay-Ara."

_WHOOSH_

In a flash, Barry sped out to retrieve Oliver's bow and quiver and gave it to him. Once he was armed and had an arrow reeled back on the arrow shelf, he ordered. "Don't move."

"Then how will I kill you all?" he asked in mock confusion. Seeing something in the corner of his eye, he held up his right arm and blocked the brass-armored hand. The strange man narrowed his eyes intrigued by the person with steel-determined green eyes. "A fine will you show, young man."

"Compliments from a bad guy? Guess I can cross that off my bucket list now." The nanite mutant quipped while pressuring his fist into him.

"Oh don't worry about crossing off more items, young man. You will be departing shortly." The man smirked evilly and the mutant widened his eyes.

The man outstretched his elbow, slamming it into the side of the brass knuckle. The strike from that trajectory forced the brass knuckles to slide off Matt's unclenching fingers and down to the ground. Spinning around, he appeared behind the mutant with his left hand around his opponent's left hand while his right hand retrieved something in his coat.

"Shit!" Matt exclaimed when realizing what his plan was.

"Matt look out!" Cisco exclaimed.

_STAB_

It was too late for him to register the words spoken when Matt felt the sharp knife pierce through his flesh and dig into his spine. He felt the man chuckle and twist the sharp weapon around within him. "It was shame. You would have made an excellent opponent." The man said with a dark chuckle and yanked the blade out of his body before pushing away to the side, sure that he was dead.

"Oh no!" Felicity gasped with her hands over her gaping mouth.

"Matt!" Thea exclaimed in fear.

Both Cisco and Barry shared a look.

The man faced them all. "Appears that this one was not a favorite amongst your gathering. Truly a shame." He said and not even a second later, he reached into his coat with his other hand and launched both hands, throwing five knives after them.

While time slowed to a crawl, Oliver managed to fire an arrow and the speedster sped in front of his friends. Grabbing the five knives from the air before they could hit any of his friends. But time returned to normal next as the metahuman felt a knife embed into his back.

Oliver snapped to the man again, firing another arrow again. But like his first one, his second one too was caught. The archer rushed to the man and swung his bow for him like a melee weapon. Dodging it by leaning backwards, he was hit by Oliver's fist but shrugged it off as it was too ineffective.

The man flipped the arrows around in his hands and then exchanged blows with the archer's fists. One of his attacks were blocked by Oliver's forearm, but it showed an opening that he took advantage of. The knife-wielding man lashed out his foot, hitting the archer's side. Following up with another kick, Oliver had to lower his shield and got another kick that pushed him to the ground.

Letting go of the arrows, falling to the ground, the man reached into his coat again and pulled out another knife and threw it.

But Barry grabbed with a single hand and said. "Yeah, I can do that too."

Oliver got on his feet again, his right hand pulled back the string before shooting another arrow. The man didn't even flinch and used a Japanese war fan to deflect it. And so were the other arrows coming from the green archer.

Barry put his hand on Oliver's shoulder and gave an assuring look, his expression wordlessly telling him to not fire anymore. Trusting his metahuman friend, he let up and it surprised Thea who jumped back to the with her own bow and quiver.

Still holding the war fan in his hand, the man narrowed his eyes. "Is that all you could offer your guests? It saddens me to say this, but the only thing that could satisfy my hunger…" He pulled out another knife with his free hand. "…would be your deaths!"

He reeled it back to throw it-

But the man felt something sharp wrap around his wrist and it was sharp metal digging into his flesh.

"Sure I can't be a better appetizer?"

The sound of that strange distortive female voice, the two men from Central City smiled while the enemy turned around to see her. The form of the psychic hero, Angel Fury with her razor whip around the man's wrist.

Thea looked shocked by her appearance. It was the first time that she had ever been so close to the female hero from Central City, and it was truly a menacing form to have. She wondered how some in that city even felt assurance when seeing that form.

Felicity looked at her with saddened eyes. "Angel… Matt… He killed Matt."

"Matt?" Her voice was not of sorrow or hurt, but confusion and curiosity? Angel Fury looked to the right side and saw his body shaking beside the couch. Sighing, the psychic called out. "You okay?" She widened her eyes when hearing those thoughts brimming in his head. "Matt? You're gonna lay around there the entire time?" She asked with a joke, knowing that the strange enemy did a stupid thing by stabbing his back.

Raising a hand to the armrest of the couch before him, the nanite mutant pushed himself up. The enemy and the natives of Star City and Kendra were shocked to see the man get back on his feet, even though a knife penetrated his back a short moment ago.

"I'm not really okay." The nanite mutant said with his eyes placing themselves on the enemy's form. "I'm pissed." He sneered out and his skin began to waver like ripples running through an ocean.

While the strangely trench-coated enemy was still in shock of the sight of the man he killed return to his full height, the next shocking thing happened.

With his jacket falling off his arms, both of the mutant's arms were revealed. Everyone watched as the skin on his body opened up with holes around his limbs. They watched as metal orbs, like insects crawling out of their nests, swarmed over his arms and made their way to his hands. Assimilating together, each of his hands were now holding a long sword.

Both hands spinning around, twirling the swords around while the nanite mutant's daunting green eyes looked at his killer. "Big mistake you made, old man."

"What, pray tell, was this mistake, you speak of?" The strange man asked while eyeing his returned victim and the woman with the horrifying form.

Crossing the swords, he said with a growl. "Stabbing my back, you bastard."

"_Been a while since I saw you like this, Matty._" The psychic thought to herself with a smile. "Let's go, Matt!"

"Ladies first, Angel!" Matt said and used the couch as a springboard.

The enemy waved his war fan, about to use it to intercept the mutant who jumped off the couch. But the razor on his wrist unwrapped from his wrist and cracked against the war fan, pushing it back. The man was forced to use to his knife to intercept one of the swords.

While the other hand swinging the sword around, he spun around to stab with the sword from the side. But his opponent leant backwards to dodge it. Matt anticipated it and used his other sword to glide up the knife to swing for his head again.

But it was avoided by leaning further back. Feeling a presence behind him, he turned around with widened eyes when seeing Angel Fury standing there and swinging her fist for his face. He used the blade of his knife to block the attack.

His back was exposed, and Matt swung both of his swords from high above. The man foresaw an attack from behind and swept with his left foot, hitting the mutant's foot and forcefully changed the trajectory of his swords. The enemy had to grunt in pain when feeling the sword in the nanite mutant's left hand pierced through his left thigh.

"Insolent insects!" the opponent growled and twisted his hand around the female hero's right hand and swung her away. His war fan, like a blade, swung for the mutant again.

Changing the hold on his sword, the one still embedded into the man's thigh, he let more nanites shoot out of his hand and wrapped around the handle of his sword. The nanites adapted to the handle and elongated at a phenomenal rate into a blade of a sword. The second blade on the sword was formed to act as a shield to block the war fan.

A dangerous smirk formed on his face, as Matt pulled the bloodied double-edged sword out of his enemy's body. With a spin, he swung both swords for him and the man dodged it with backwards jump, the mutant's body leaning downwards to avoid the feet.

Mimicking a smirk, the enemy swung from low with his fan. But he failed to notice the two clawed hands place themselves on Matt's back and pushed up the female mutant who leaped over her husband. With her foot outstretched, she kicked the side of the man's face.

While he was pushed back, the psychic spun around on one foot and kicked the opponent's side with her other foot. Utilizing the momentum of the spin, she thrusted her fist into his stomach and quickly followed up with her other one.

Olivia expertly avoided the incoming slashes of either his knife or war fan. Her eyes shined brightly with telekinetic energy as she commanded her whip to wrap around her right hand. Reeling back her armored right hand, she thrusted it into the enemy's stomach.

Coughing up bile, the man was too distracted to even register the psychic place a hand on top of his head and while still have his hand embedded his stomach. Registering the grunts coming from the woman, he saw the woman's entire body shine with pinkish energy.

Angel Fury increased the strength of her muscles with telekinetic energy, to the very point where she could hold the enemy up in the air with both hands. "Get out of here!" She screamed in rage and threw the man towards the windows again.

The man however, put all of his weight in his feet and landed on his feet and looked back up at the mutants. One spinning one sword in one hand and the other hand spinning the double-edged sword, the other one cracking her fists together before taking a battle stance.

He smiled at their readiness. Finding it delightfully impressive and invigorating.

"Impressive, both of you." The man praised.

_SHOOT_

Before either of them could say anything themselves, they saw a pair of arrows pass between them and hit the shoulders of the man. Each arrow pushing the man backwards, and closer to the balcony. Both mutants turned their heads around to see the young archer Thea pull back an arrow and aiming for the enemy.

Olivia widened her eyes in shock of what she heard from Thea's head. Those thoughts… they were like something out of an animal on a hunt. No… not a hunt. Something unnatural. Something darker even. Something out of this world…

… A bloodlust…

"Thea, no!" Oliver exclaimed. But his words fell on deaf ears because Thea still fired off the arrow.

The arrow traveled through the air and hit the man again. The velocity of the third arrow was enough for his body to be pushed over the balcony railing… and they all saw him fall over.

The two mutants faced the panting archer again. Her older brother stepping closer to her from behind. "What did you do?"

"I ended it." Thea adamantly said.

"Was that really the same guy who attacked you, Matt?" Olivia directed to her husband. But she saw him hold the side of neck, the tips of his fingers running over something there. Walking over to him, she put her armored hand on top of his arm, gaining his attention in the process. "Are you okay? I know where he stabbed you."

"… sorry. I didn't want you to see me like that, ever again." His fingers tightened their hold on his neck. "Brought back loads of bad memories that I just didn't want to remember."

"Hey, hey, hey." She chanted softly and cupped his face. Her armor didn't even matter the least to him, he could still feel her love and care through them, as though it were her actual hands touching his face. "It's okay. We all have bad days. Ours might just feel like something dragged out of hell because of our past, but it's okay. We're there for each other, right?"

"Yeah. We have to." Matt chuckled. "Or die trying, right?"

"Yeah, Seth's gonna kill you for still stealing his catchphrase like this." Olivia laughed through her mask.

Oliver gained an angry expression. "This is why we ask questions." The archer walked past the married couple with Barry beside him to the balcony.

The mutants followed and the four of them looked over the balcony. However, they were all surprised to see not find the damaged form of the man they sent over the building. "Wait. W-Where did he go?" Barry asked in search.

"Oh, boy." Oliver let out in discomfort.

"Great, this guy can pull a Houdini act too!" Olivia screamed in dismay.

Matt used the blunt side of his sword to tap the side of his neck. "Guess, we got another strange one on our hands."

"Oh yeah." Olivia said as she and her husband walked into the loft again.

Thea looked at the female hero. "Who are you?"

She shared a look with her husband. Getting a confident nod as her response, the psychic nodded her gratitude. Shaking her head, the nanites disassembled form her helmet and retracted into the suit. Her long magenta-colored hair flowing down her back and her blue eyes pointing to the young archer who was shocked by her beauty.

"Name's Olivia Fury." The psychic introduced herself.

"Olivia… Fury?" Oliver asked from behind and got the female mutant's attention. "Who?"

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Who the hell are you?"

That question surprised Thea, Kendra and Felicity… knowingly of his past.

X

**(Arrowcave)**

Everyone returned to the Arrowcave, where once again Felicity and Jarvis ran a facial recognition on the strange man that had just assaulted the home of Thea Queen. John Diggle had been called to hear about the situation at hand. Like the Queen siblings, he too was surprised to meet the psychic, Olivia.

Even more surprised to hear that Rogers was not her real name nor her brother's. Only a name to ensure that no one would retaliate against their father, Nick Fury through them.

While her boyfriend was speaking with the Police Captain of Star City Police Department Quentin Lance, Felicity was searching for anything that resembled their attacker. She paused and looked to the psychic who looked over their base. "Pretty cool, right?" She directed to the mutant.

Olivia shrugged unsurely. "Like the entire underground base theme, sure. But the thing about having your suits in display cases? It's not a museum, guys."

"It's a nice touch." Felicity defended.

"To each their own, I guess." Olivia walked closer to the hacker.

The Star City hacker poked the side of the mutant's stomach and in mock hurt said. "You lied about your real name."

"So I did." She said casually.

"And you're not sorry?"

"No, I am not." The mutant said with a smirk and laughed along with the hacker.

"Okay." Oliver said. "Thanks." He hung up on the phone and faced the others. "All right, Lance is gonna call if he gets any information on…" He gestured to the photo of their attacker. But not a single thought came to mind on how to describe him. "whoever that is."

Olivia walked to her husband and whispered. "Why don't we just ask Cisco? He could vibe us a few answers right here and now."

Matt looked to her and whispered his response. "He doesn't want Kendra to know about his powers. He's worried that those might just ruin what he has with her right now."

"Poor guy." the psychic admitted.

Barry put his hands in his pockets. "I know where we can get some info."

Matt knew what he was referring to. Or what who. Facing the mechanical engineer, the mutant stated. "Cisco."

Cisco got a sorrowful look. He really didn't want to cross this bridge; it could mean the end of another great relationship he's had. And he didn't want to be the reason for another failure of a relationship. But Matt was right. He had to be the one to tell Kendra about this.

It was his responsibility.

Looking to her with a heavy heart, he began. "Kendra, I have powers." Confusion came over everyone who didn't know about this development, containing solely of Star City natives. "I get these vibes from people. They're visions of metahumans… and I had one of you."

Felicity had to sum everything up. "So, A, you're saying you're a metahuman," A finger pointed at Cisco, "and, B, she's a metahuman?" She shifted the finger to point at Kendra.

"I don't know." Cisco revealed, shocking the others with his words. "In these visions, you could fly. It was like you were some a bird of some sort."

"A bird?" Kendra wanted confirmation.

"Yeah."

Kendra shook her head. "What else did you see?"

He then shook his own head and said. "That's it… just you… with wings."

"Oh," Felicity threw her head back. "I did not see that one coming."

Hearing a range of other thoughts in the room, Olivia exclaimed. "Everyone, look out!"

The lights suddenly shut off. The moment they turned on again. Everyone saw a group of armored men. All of them wearing identical clothing. Protective dark-green and black suits that resembled that of the Star City Emerald Archer's suit, utilizing Kevlar. Aside from a single one in the front, all of them had black face masks covering their mouths and noses. Hoods covering their heads and only their eyes visible for others to see.

Matt looked at their weapons. All of them were wielding all-black PSE Chaos AD Compound bows. And all of them having utility belts around their waists and quivers attached to the slings around their bodies.

The one in the front was a man with white skin and black hair and brown eyes. He had his eyes facing the blonde hacker and said. "Oh, I think there's a lot of you didn't see coming."

John Diggle and Oliver Queen had their guns aimed at the man they had met before. Thea, Felicity and the Central City residents were shocked to see that man so silently appear here. Olivia had her eyes shining with energy and her curling hands raised, Matt pointing both elongated cannons on his arms at them as well as four levitating ion cannons.

"Great. More surprises. Who the hell is this?" Cisco voiced his shock.

"It's my Dad." Thea said with disgust.

"Ra's!"

Hearing the voice of one of his men, Malcolm Merlyn, Ra's Al Ghul himself, turned around and raised an eyebrow at the sight. Without him noticing it, all of his men were suddenly wrapped in some pinkish energy and their hands placed around their own throats, as thought they were trying to suffocate themselves.

Looking back to them, Malcolm Merlyn shifted his eyes to the woman with magenta-colored hair who emits the same color of energy in her eyes. "I assume this is your doing?" he pointed a thumb backwards to his suffocating men.

With a shrug of her shoulders, the psychic asked sarcastically. "Do you have any better response for random people showing up in an underground base? Not to mention, people with bad fashion choices."

"You'd do well to lower my men to the ground again. Unless you want the wrath of the Demon's Head on your shoulders." Malcolm threatened and the Star City natives looked curious as what her response would be.

"Just the head, huh? Bitch, please." Olivia smirked daringly. "I fought against a real demon my entire life and almost lost my life more than a few times. I ain't scared of a single head."

Matt charged his weaponry for empathize before stating. "She's not the only one."

Felicity wondered right now if the married mutant couple were willing to take on the entire League of Assassins just by themselves. And she prayed that was not going to happen right now.

X

**(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Frankie was fidgeting around in her spot as she was crouched on the ceiling. She looked down on her mother and Harry as they continued to work on what Caitlin said was something of a speed-steroid for speedsters.

She crawled around on the ceiling on all four and crawled directly above the two scientists' heads. After she told Felicia Hardy, who informed them that she would come if she was needed, Frankie went back to the facility and checked up on her mother's work.

Feeling the eyes from above, Caitlin looked up to her. "Are you bored, Frankie?"

Looking downwards to meet her mother's eyes, her long brown hair falling down from the gravity of her high position, like it was hanging from her head, Frankie said. "A bit. But it's okay, Mom."

While working on his end, Harry wondered. "Doesn't she have friends?"

"I do have friends." Frankie answered. "But they're busy right now or out doing their own things." She replied sadly.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Caitlin knew that she had friends, but some of them were bit harsh on her daughter. Now that she was fatherless. Her school thinks that Seth is gone and using his expertise as a doctor to help things in other cities after the Singularity's eruption in the skies. But a lot of her classmates thinks that he just ran away and left her and his girlfriend alone.

Some of the girls in her class even thinks that it's just a poor lie from an orphan as they've never seen the mutant before in real life.

Felicia managed to put some of them in their place, but that only lasted a while. Caitlin thought about doing the same, but it would probably end up escalating things.

Worse was that Frankie lied about it so much that she thought she had fooled both her mother and her mentor.

Caitlin returned to her work with a heavy heart, knowing that even if she were to ask, she would only get a lie in response. With the computer still running the simulation of what would be the speed-enhancer, the female doctor input more data into it. Adding the chemical structures of other elements into the combination to see how well they would adapt with one another.

Seeing an interesting result there she perked her head up. "I think I did it."

Getting interested, Frankie detached from the ceiling and landed on the railing beside the computer. "You really did, Mom?"

"I think so, at least." The doctor replied to her daughter.

Harry walked over to take a look at the work. "What do you know, Snow?" He started impressed by the work. "I think you did do it." Caitlin smiled proudly and her daughter hugged her with an equally proud expression.

"**_Someone's coming._**" Magenta noted when feeling a presence coming through the corridors. Feeling her host take on a battle-ready expression, the symbiote slithered under the clothes of her partner.

Facing the direction of the entrance, she saw the form of the Earth-2 citizen Jay Garrick walk into the Cortex. Her mother and the otherworldly scientist heard footsteps, looking towards the same direction and saw the former speedster standing there with confused expression.

His eyes pointing at the screen and read the words. "Velocity-6?" Harry smiled and rubbed his hands together when seeing the former speedster arrive in response to his urgent call. Both Caitlin and Harry were too happy to notice the look of distraught come over the man's face. "This is what was so urgent, Harrison? You get me to come here so I can take your speed drug?"

Harry pointed an excited finger at him. "That's right." He said seriously.

Shifting his eyes to Caitlin, he asked. "You knew about this." His words came as a statement.

"Of course she did." Harry assured him with a finger proudly pointing at the woman. "She figured it out."

Frankie cocked her head. "Didn't you guys make this to help Barry?" Caitlin's expression was one of agreement and shock.

"It is to help Barry," Harry assured the mother and daughter. "which is why we need to do test runs on subjects who once had the Speed Force in their system." He gestured to the man himself.

The anger on Jay's face was amplifying by the second as he let Harrison's words sink in. "The Speed Force doesn't work like that. It's not something you can create in a lab."

"How do you think you became The Flash, Garrick?" Harry stepped closer to him. "By me and _a lab._ Science is what did this to you, to Barry, to Zoom, and science is what we need to stop Zoom, and this is our only option."

"Find another." Jay adamantly stated his demand. "The Speed Force can't be replicated or enhanced. It's a living thing." Garrick felt as though the very idea of making a speed drug was an insult to the very essence that had him running faster than the speed of sound for a long time. The very gift that granted him the powers to even become a hero. "It's a gift that was given to me. That drug? You have no idea what it's gonna do. I'm not going to let another one of your experiments mess with me again, Harrison."

Both mother and daughter looked at each other with worried eyes, worried about the former speedster who was voicing a raging anger from within. Jay continued, his anger still blazing strongly. "You find someone else to be your guinea pig." He went to move away.

"Jay." Caitlin called out to him.

"Jay, please." Frankie got off the railing. "This might help us bring my Dad back."

Jay saw the pleading look on the girl's face but put a stop to her hopes, as well as the hopes of her mother, with a shake of his head. "I'm sorry, Frankie. But Caitlin, keep that serum away from Barry." The former speedster walked out of the Cortex, this time fully leaving them alone.

Caitlin threw her hands to the sides in confusion and astonishment. "Where are you going?" she heard her daughter direct to Harrison who put on his cap and walked to the exit.

"To pick up what we need." Harry replied with his head pointing at her.

The female doctor was even more shocked and astonished by what she just heard. "Wait. Jay just said we shouldn't give it to Barry."

"Yeah, so what's the plan then?" Frankie followed up.

Harry, with a determined face, stated. "We're gonna do what we need."

Frankie looked to her mother with a hand scratching her hair. "Why are Earth-2 people so unwilling to work with us?"

"Think it's because of your father's influence on this world. He wasn't exactly much for working with us in the beginning." Caitlin admitted.

The young metahuman nudged her mother's side with her elbow and corrected with a teasing smirk. "You mean, he wasn't willing to work with Barry. Dad said he was always willing to work with you, Mom."

The magnekinetic was sure that her mother's face was glowing like a lava lamp from the level of blushing she just did. Lava's redness wouldn't even come close to her mother's level of blushing.

X

**(Star City, Arrowcave)**

Unclenching both her hands, Olivia dropped the assassins down to the ground. Each and everyone of them had to cough repeatedly as they finally felt air travel down their throats. Oliver and John removed their fingers from the triggers and pulled their firearms back. Gaining a nod of confirmation from his wife, Matt lowered his hands as well, both cannons returned to their former state as hands while the flying cannons retracted to his back.

Malcolm Merlyn looked to the psychic and offered a small bow. "Thank you for releasing my men, would have been a pickle to drag a bunch of corpses through the city by myself."

"Well, I could kill you as well, then we can have someone drag all of you out of here." The psychic gained a serious expression. "And don't get the wrong idea. I know you know something about this guy we're fighting right now. Whether you get to live or not next, depends entirely on how what you have to say. So don't lie."

The Demon's Head of the League of Assassins smirked, intrigued that this young woman was able to figure him out without what looked like an effort. There was more than meets the eye to this one. Malcolm faced them all and stated. "The man you're looking for is Vandal Savage."

Putting his gun in his holster, John replied. "Vandal Savage? Never heard of him."

Felicity looked to the mutants. "Do you guys have someone like him on your Earth?"

Matt then said. "Don't expect us to know that. And our Earth's people are different than yours in ways you'd never think possible."

"Yeah, it's pointless to ask them, they're 600 universes away from here, remember?" The speedster told the Star City natives before looking to Malcolm again. "Well, who is he?"

With a blank look, he said. "Some say he was the most trusted advisor to Genghis Khan. Others say he guided Julius Caesar through the Gallic Wars. But one thing the League knows for sure… He was there for all of it." Everyone in the bunker looking absolutely confused by what was going on now. A man to be there through massive events of history and come out looking like he's always been.

"So what are you saying?" Cisco asked in confusion. "He's like a vampire or something?"

"Please, don't jinx it, Cisco." Matt said urgently, not wanting to face off against a vampire of all things. He'd choose strange and dangerous metahumans everyday over them. Anything to escape something as farfetched as supernatural beings.

"Not a vampire," Malcolm assured them, the nanite mutant breathing out in relief. "an immortal."

"Okay, I know we just saw metal come out of Matt's body before, but we've officially stepped into crazy town." Kendra stated her thoughts at the mention of immortals walking amongst them. "Immortality?" she shifted her head around to the others in the secret base.

"Wait." Thea said. "No, no, no, this makes sense. This explains why he looks the same as he did in 1975." Barry nodded his agreement.

"This can't be possible." Kendra said again.

"There's nothing you can do to save her now." The Demon's Head stated adamantly.

"Wow, thanks for the pep talk, you can leave now." Olivia bluntly said while the others looked down at the words he said.

Barry didn't look down and looked to Kendra who was distraught from the words the leader of the League of Assassins spoke. "Kendra do not listen to him." he comfortingly told her.

Kendra held up her hand. "I-I just need some air." The Jitters barista walked out of the bunker. Cisco gave a glance to the others and walked after her to help her through this trying time.

"Hey." Barry walked closer to Malcolm. "We're gonna do whatever we have to keep Kendra safe, whether you think we can or not."

"Besides," Matt got their attention. "Who the fuck ever said we should take the words of a man who thinks a tacky old ring makes him a demon?"

"Careful. This demon has an army." Malcolm gestured to the assassins who lightly drew their swords.

"And do I look scared of them?" Matt said with a cold look.

X

"Kendra!" Cisco sprinted after the barista who was still in a state that was yet to be named. What exactly is the name of a mood that was birthed because of the fact that an immortal psychopath was out for her life?

Without even looking at her, Cisco knew that she was absolutely out of her mind because of what the man from Arrow's past had said. Increasing his speed, he closed in on her and stood in front of her. "Hey. You gonna be all right?"

"It's just a lot to take in right now." Kendra breathed out.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about me before." Cisco said. "I didn't want things to be different between us."

"It's not that, Cisco." While he felt assured by her shaking head, he knew there were more to it. "If what everyone's saying is true, and it's beginning to seem like it is, my whole just changed, and I so not ready for that."

"I hear what you're saying. I do." Cisco knew he had to draw experience from an old friend again. "Someone I knew a while back, she got powers herself. I didn't really understand her situation until I got mine. When I first learned about my powers, I remember feeling that exact same feeling, like you and her, and sometimes I still feel that way, and all I can say is…" he looked unsure of his own words for a moment. "every day gets a little bit more normal."

He cupped her hands together and assured her calmly. "I promise you."

"Thank you." Kendra calmly said. She was inwardly thankful for Cisco being her for her like this. He was the shoulder that she was leaning on now, he was holding her up throughout this entire time. And he knew what this overwhelming and surprising time was like, to suddenly have their life turned upside-down by a situation that was too much for anyone to bear alone.

"You're so welcome." The metahuman told her.

The barista narrowed her eyes on him. "About this other one you just talked about? A woman, right?" Cisco nodded. "Was this maybe your ex-girlfriend?"

"Yeah." Cisco inhaled sharply. "I kinda distanced myself from her after I learnt of me being a meta. Bit of a trying time, you know. And Bette, my girlfriend at the time, she tried to reach out and I still kept putting distance between us like an idiot."

"Because you were scared of your powers." Kendra knew what he was saying. "You can't put that on yourself, Cisco. You were scared of yourself and didn't want that to affect your relationship with Bette."

"And it still did anyway." He hollowly chuckled. "It was my fault and I couldn't let my past mistake repeat itself… Not with you, Kendra."

"Thank you." She said with blushed cheeks and leant in to kiss him.

But a strange sound emitted from behind them… Like something more in unison… like flapping?

Both she and Cisco looked in the direction and to their shock, saw something… a man in golden brown armor descending on them… with large dark brown wings. And in the blink of an eye, his arms were wrapped around Kendra and pulled her into the skies with screams coming out of her.

"Kendra!" Cisco screamed after her as she was kidnapped by a flying man of all things.

As if things couldn't get any crazier than this.

X

Kendra was too scared to look down and was forced to look at the strange winged man that kidnapped her from the ground like a hunting hawk wrapping its talons around its prey. His wings continued to flap and flap, holding both him and his…

… soulmate… in the air…

The flying man saw a roof to the left and headed for it. Landing on it, he immediately felt his soulmate push herself out of his arms. Giving her latest form a look over, the man took off his helmet. A pale man with short dark hair, dark stubbles.

Now that they had touched down, Kendra was able to look at the armored and winged man much better than before when she was quickly plucked out of the ground. She saw that it was brown armor with golden plates at some parts of it. He has a gauntlet around his left forearm, brown armor with golden plates on the top of it. Brown steel pads on his shoulders. His helmet had a feathered pattern on either side of it with the eyes and nose area resembling like that of a hawk's face and beak.

She was utterly shocked by the presence of this man, wondering why in the world he kidnapped her. Maybe he was in cahoots with Vandal Savage? It would explain the similarity in ancient armory and weaponry they both wield.

While admiring her, he finally admitted. "You look as beautiful as ever." He took a step towards her, but she instantly did the opposite, stepped away from him. Noticing her reaction, he assured her calmly. "Chay-Ara, it's me, Khufu."

At the mention of that name… it was Kendra's mind was being assaulted with strange images… visions that felt like memories even. His face, Khufu's face, on a body similar to the one he has now, but in strange clothing. White and golden jewelry like something meant for royalty.

Another vision came over her eyes. Khufu returned there. But he wasn't alone no more. He was with someone else…. One with her face and body? And like him, she was wearing strange and foreign clothes with royalty jewelry as well.

And… she was embracing Khufu in a kiss… a passionate kiss of love that felt like it would last for eternity.

Another set of quick visions came over her mind again. Quicker than the previous ones, visions of her and this man, Khufu, before her in bed. Both embraced in a moment of passionate love and kissing and so much more.

"Do you remember?" The flying man asked her as she was silenced after the mention of his name. "Look at me." He asked and she turned her confused eyes to him. "You need to wake up."

"What are you talking about?" The barista asked with fear and confusion. "I don't know who you are."

"You will once you emerge." Khufu assured her. "Until then, you need to stay by my side so that I can protect you."

"Protect me?" Kendra felt like his definition of "protecting" was completely wrong. "From what?"

Khufu gained a serious look. "The man who's hunting you, Vandal Savage." He saw the look of confusion and fear expand on her face. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you sort of just kind of have to trust me on this. I-"

He was cut by a blue energy blast that connected with the ground before his feet. "Think the lady just said no, pal."

Kendra sighed in relief when hearing that voice and looked to it. Khufu did as well and both he and his soulmate saw Iron Knight have his gauntlet point his repulsor at him. "You know, Robocop, I'm kind of busy here."

"Yeah, whatever you say, you perv. Get away from the girl and put your hands on the ground and your head behind your wings." Matt demanded.

Kendra looked confused at him, like he was having a stroke or something. Khufu rolled his eyes and told the woman. "Just one second. Stay right there." He put on his helmet and jumped into the air with his wings stretched out as he took flight.

"Flying away from me, huh?" Matt growled. "As it that's gonna be enough." Facing Kendra, he said. "Don't worry, my wife's coming. Me, Barry and Queen will take care of Kentucky Flying Chicken there." He flew after him with his thrusters blazing and shooting him forward in his pursuit after the flying man.

X

Khufu looked back, seeing if the Iron Knight was behind him. But he wasn't there and most have decided to rendezvous with the others. Khufu knew that Central City's Flash was in the city and with the Green Arrow of this city.

However, he had no idea about Iron Knight having entered the fray now. It was an unexpected hindrance for him to encounter now. especially as Khufu was seeking to protect his soulmate from the walking terror known as the immortal Vandal Savage.

And nothing would prevent him from protecting High Priestess Chay-Ara. Be it Iron Knight, The Flash, Green Arrow and Vandal Savage… though that immortal madman had succeeded before in previous ages.

"Found you!"

Khufu didn't have a chance to look as he felt a pair of feet slam into his back. Upon impact, he felt something much harder touch down on him, harder than human skin could ever be. He was sent flying down but straightened himself and ascended once again, he saw the armored knight hovering above him.

He flew higher up in the air, till the flying man was in front of the mutant. "You really don't know how to take a hint."

"Comes from the pervert who kidnapped a woman who just told him she didn't want anything with you." Matt countered blankly with nanites swarming around his left gauntlet.

"I'm not a pervert-" Khufu was interrupted when the mutant launched himself and swung his short energy blade. Forced to dodge the attack, the flying man looked at him with an angered look. "Hey, listen when I talk, damn it!"

"I don't get paid to do that." He bluntly replied and lashed his arms to the sides, wing-shaped thrusters formed on his back while an unibeam shot out of his chest. The flying man spun to the left and dodged the repulsor beam.

With another powerful flap of both wings, Khufu launched himself away from the armored knight.

Matt tapped the side of his helmet unsurely. "This guy is really good at getaways." He saw the flying man fly lower and dive down. "Jarvis, he's trying to attack someone. Who's coming in his direction?"

"**It appears to be Mr. Queen our flying culprit is about to intercept. Mr. Allen is on his way as we speak.**" The AI informed the mutant.

"Let's see if that green archer needs help." Matt's thrusters, feet and back alike blazing and shooting forward.

X

Passing a corner while riding his motorcycle, Green Arrow looked upwards and saw the flying man flew around a building. "I got eyes on him." Khufu saw the green archer and charged for him with a mace in his hand.

Oliver took out an arrow from his quiver and put it on the arrow shelf on his bow. In rapid succession, he fired off a series of arrows for the flying man. Some of his arrows were sent off course by another a powerful flail of his wings. Others hit a wing but were shrugged off.

Green Arrow kept charging for him on his motorcycle, but Khufu spun around and threw his mace. The spinning weapon collided with the front wheel of the vehicle, forcing the archer off it and hitting the ground with his entire body rolling painfully upon impact on the asphalt.

Khufu landed on the ground, right before his mace and saw the green archer get back on his feet. As he saw that, the flying man retracted his wings and picked up his mace once more.

"Give me the girl." The archer's voice modifier was activated so his voice was still too deep to be recognized.

"Not gonna do that, Robin Hood." The flying man replied casually.

"You're making a big mistake." Green Arrow replied.

"I'll take my chances." He said with a smirk.

"Wanna try that again?" Iron Knight got his attention with his words and his hands forming short energy blades. With so many cars around them, his repulsor blasts could end up causing explosions that could damage everything around them.

"Fun, a real party." Khufu joked and flung his mace at the archer. Oliver used his bow to repel the mace, sending it flying off to the side. And watched as the man charged him. Green Arrow spun around with his bow, swinging it and it was immediately blocked, followed by the man punching it out of his hands.

Kicking him in the middle, the flying man pushed the green archer away from him. Hearing the sound of metal from behind, Khufu twirled around and saw the armored mutant launch himself with both blades reeled back.

In unison, the energy blades were thrusted forward at the same time and the flying man had to lean backwards to avoid losing his head. But he was forced to dodge another series of incoming slashes. He was able to raise an arm, blocking the slash before grabbing his opponent by his arm with his free arm.

But he had to let go once the armored mutant used the thruster on his right feet to shoot his knee into his guts. Matt grabbed hold of his back and raised his blade before slashing from upwards. Managing to struggle his way, Khufu shifted to the left and dodged the blade. Thrusting a clenched hand into his face, he pushed the mutant back.

He had to turn around and saw Green Arrow get on his feet again. Khufu growled in annoyance and swung his hand. Oliver crouched, avoiding the fist. Raising himself to his full height once more, he let his fists fly and punched the flying man a few times.

Wrapping his hands around the archer's head, he brought his knee into his stomach. The force of the knee strike forced him to stagger backwards and the flying man unleashed a kick and pushed him even further back, sending him to the ground.

Before he could bask in the glory of his attack, the flying man felt metal hands touch his shoulder. The sound of energy shooting out of Matt's back thrusters echoed and he brought the hawk-like man into the air. With the energy output increasing in his thrusters, he spun around and threw the flying man away.

Raising his hands again, while hovering in the air, he blasted a series of repulsor energy blasts at Khufu, each blast sending him further back and against the road. His wings shot out in an instant and fluttered with a wingbeat, shooting him into the air. Using the force, he landed on the ground again with a backflip.

"Why do you want Kendra?" Matt demanded to know coldly.

"What part of "not your business" don't you get, Robocop?" He said angrily with his wings retracting once more.

"Huh? Guess we have to gut this fish to pick at its brains." Matt's HUD screen showed that a familiar yellow lightning was running through the city and was immediately nearing their area. "Take him out, Flash!"

Khufu saw the lighting running towards them from the back. Emitting a battle cry, the man took charge and rushed. As the Scarlet Speedster neared him he jumped into the air with his wings outstretching before he leaped into the speedster, tackling him into the air by flying.

"Oh, come on!" Matt said annoyingly at the sight of the flying man charging into the metahuman and dragging him into the air with ease. Green Arrow got up as well. They watched Khufu reach a certain point the skies and let go of the speedster, basically letting him free fall to his death. "Oh, he let go." The mutant let out uncaringly, like it was expected to happen.

Green Arrow pulled out a grappling arrow and shot it into the side of a building. Flash managed to see it through the darkness surrounding them from the night sky. Wrapping one hand around it, he glided down the rope. Adding his other hand to it, he gained better control and slid down till he stood beside the mutant and the archer.

"We need to expose his wings." Oliver said.

"I'm open to suggestions." Barry said.

"_Now_ you guys are listening to me?" Oliver said.

"Your city, Queen. Your rules. Say something." Matt pointed a finger to the flying man again who charged them in flight. "Otherwise, you're gonna have a human-sized fried bird man."

"Hold that thought. We might need it." Oliver joked, but something told him that the armored mutant was smiling hopefully behind his helmet. Chuckling, he looked to the flying man. "All right." He shared a look with Matt.

Nodding his consent, the two long-rage fighters stepped forward and both began shooting. One shooting arrows with his bow rapidly like an automatic firearm. The other one swiftly shooting repulsor beams from the arc reactors in his palms.

Though the array of various attacks was forcing the flying man to dodge to the left and right, he was able to close in on them, nonetheless. And spun with his mace before swinging it.

Using the thrusters on his back, he blasted himself in front of the native archer and raised his right arm. Nanites swarmed around the limb and he quickly formed a large white shield. Forming foot clamps on his feet, he anchored himself to the ground and took on mace strike. Shifting his shield, he deflected the flying man's weapon, and therefore himself, to the side.

Straightening himself the flyer returned to the skies again. Barry lashed out his arms and spun them around, unleashing a pair of wind vacuums that connected with Khufu's body when he tried to dive in for a strike. And as the speedster continued to unleash the vacuums, they kept their enemy from trying to come closer to them and forced him to remain airborne.

Seeing the two vacuums himself, Matt lashed out his arm. Panels opening up along his appendage and revealing small missile launchers. Locking onto the vacuums, Iron Knight said. "Barry, keep the vacuums in check." The speedster nodded and watched as the mutant clenched his hand, the small missiles, the size of marbles, shooting out and let themselves be carried by the force of his vacuums.

They all neared the flying man as they spiraled around in the wind vacuums. As they closed on him, they shined and Matt smirked. "Kaboom."

_EXPLOSION_

A series of explosions pushed the flying man and he grunted in pain from feeling the explosive force of the mini explosions connect with his body. Oliver saw an opening, shooting an arrow that pierced his left shoulder. The trick arrow unleashed a thick cable that wrapped around the flying man, forcing his wings back in and forcing him down to the ground.

"Flash!" Iron Knight called out with his hands forming cannons in case his plan failed.

_WHOOSH_

Barry instantly worked. He ran around the bound flying man in a circle. Khufu managed to wrestle out of the trick arrow's rope and got up on his feet. Both he and Oliver Queen got a confused look as they watched the speedster run around in a circle for what was probably the fiftieth time. But it was probably above the hundred numbers.

The Flash stopped and time slowed down to a crawl once more. The energy, the lightning he generated as he ran, passed over his body and latched onto his right arm. He was withholding the war cry in him as he swung his arm for the flying man, shooting out the bolt of yellow lightning… like Zeus hurling a spear of lightning.

The flying man was rolling on the ground from the lightning blast that knocked him out. "Not bad, Barry." The armored mutant praised the speedster, greatly impressed with Barry's lightning throw.

Motioning the same movement as Barry performed, Oliver said astonished. "That's new."

Barry smiled. "Yep, comes in handy."

"So…" Matt said and crouched before the hawk-armored man. "Wanna gut this pervert?" he said sadistically with his arm forming a large energy blade.

And the heroes of this universe thought that the elemental was the sadistic one in their team of three.

X

**(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

After watching the otherworldly scientist continue his work on the speed formula, Caitlin couldn't help but hear Jay's words repeat themselves in her head.

"_The Speed Force can't be replicated or enhanced. It's a living thing._"

Her crossed arms tightened their holds as she thought what could happen because of a speedster taking this speed drug. The costs of artificial enhancements could be too great for anyone to pay. While she and her team, her family even, have dealt with them for a year, metahumans still remain an unknown territory with far too many unknown variables.

One wrong move it could very well be the falling domino brick that brings the entire row down.

Frankie also looked unsure of what this drug might do. Her thoughts were running along the same line of thoughts as her parent's thoughts. Her arms were crossed too and worriedly looking at the injection needle that was sucking up the Velocity drug into its barrel.

While worry was still engraved on her face, Caitlin said with a determined face. "We can't use that serum on Barry."

"That's up to him, isn't it?" Harry replied casually while detaching the barrel from the needle. "If Barry wants to stop Zoom, this is what he needs." He put the barrel into the injection gun.

"And knowing Barry, he will accept it no matter what. If it meant Barry defeating Zoom he would accept in a heartbeat." Frankie stated, by now she already knew how the speedster was thinking. For that matter, _everyone_ on the team knows how Barry thinks by this point.

Caitlin worriedly said next. "Jay said it could hurt Barry."

"Well, Jay's a coward." Harry bluntly admitted.

Frankie scoffed. "Anyone who's willing to go out and fight for others, are no cowards, Wells."

"We're talking about the same guy who escaped to another universe to escape Zoom. So yeah, a coward." Harrison reminded them.

The female doctor then jumped to the former speedster's defense. "Jay's a scientist who knows a lot about speedsters."

"You're a scientist, Snow." Harry said with his eyes pointing at her. "You've been watching Barry, not to mention mutants from universes afar from this one. You know he's nowhere near as fast as he needs to be. This other mentor, this other Harrison Wells, did not want him to reach his full potential. I do."

"Yeah, he did too. Because he wanted to get his ass back home, just like you want your daughter back right." The young magnekinetic stated.

Caitlin nodded and admitted. "You know, you're really starting to sound a lot like him." she gives him a quick look over. "Frankie help with some things in the lab, will you?"

Frankie looked unsure of whether to accept that request or not, feeling like she couldn't risk letting the man from Earth-2 be alone. Feeling like he would do something rash and irreparable. But she then heard. "**_Frankie, help your Mom. It's better than driving yourself crazy over one man's crazy science experiment._**" Magenta told her.

"_I know. But this entire thing… I just don't trust it._"

"**_I'm the same. It's too dangerous to rely on something that's still too unknown._**" Magenta added.

Turning to her mother, Frankie gave a nod. "Sure, Mom." She followed her parent into the lab and began to help her.

Harry looked at them for a moment, wondering briefly he was able to have the same kind of relationship with his daughter… after she was pulled out of the world that Zoom's been plaguing.

"Put your hands in the air."

Harrison Wells spun around to see an unfamiliar woman walk towards him with a firearm pointing his way. "Who are you?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

"You're under arrest." Patty Spivot said cautiously. "Dr. McGee was right. She did see you."

"Christina McGee?" Harry wondered.

"At Mercury Labs. You're Harrison Wells." Patty kept her gun trained on him.

With the injection gun still in his hand, Harry got an annoyed expression as he realized what she meant. "Yes, I'm Harrison Wells. I'm not the Harrison-"

"Stop!" Patty ordered him. "You move closer, and I'll shoot."

Raising his injection gun to point at her gun, Harry said. "Give me that-"

Mistaking it for a real firearm of his own, Patty's instincts kicked in and took action.

_GUNSHOT_

And that action was a reflexive action that led her to pull the trigger of her firearm, projecting a bullet through the air and penetrating the upper left side of Harrison Wells's chest. The bullet shell from her fired bullet clattering on the ground.

The next sound to be echoed through the Cortex was the sound of Harry's body falling to the ground.

Both Caitlin and Frankie heard the sudden sound of the gunshot and rushed into the Cortex. "Oh, my God," the doctor let out in shock and horror before facing the detective. "what have you done?"

Frankie got down beside the man and shook his body. "Harrison? Harrison, stay with us. Come on."

"Stay with me, Harrison." Caitlin said as she applied first-aid, placing her hands. "Stay with me, Harrison, come on. Stay with me." She snapped her head towards Patty. "Why did you shoot him?" In the corner of her eyes, she saw her daughter use her symbiote partner's tendrils to try and seal the open wound.

Patty gestured to the injection gun, still in Harry's hand. "I thought that was a gun. I'm sorry. I'll call 911." She reached for her phone.

"No, don't!" Frankie roared like an animal, shocking the detective from taking out her phone.

"W-Why?" Patty stuttered her response.

Caitlin kept holding her hands over the wound. "Because this-" She stopped herself for a short moment, trying to quickly come up with an explanation for this strange situation. "Didn't Joe West explain this to you?"

"No." Patty let out hectically.

"Just call Uncle Joe!" Frankie roared again.

"Okay." Patty quickly dialed his number and called her partner to tell her of this entire weird predicament.

X

**(Star City, Arrowcave)**

Back in the Arrowcave, everyone watched the chain-bound form of the man who kidnapped Kendra Saunders before. Matt watched him with his wife beside him, both of them armed with energy blades and razor whip, respectively. The bound man was unconscious right now, the aftermath of the fight on the streets still affecting him.

"So this is the strange guy with wings who kidnapped Kendra before?" Olivia examined him with her blue eyes. "And why haven't we killed him yet?"

John looked at her curiously. "Do you have any ideas that does not involve killing people?"

"Not at the moment, no." She replied with a shrug.

Felicity widened her eyes. "Wait, Liv can't you read his mind while he's like this?"

Olivia nodded. "Yeah, I can."

Thea looked worried. "Wait, you can just read people's minds?"

"Yeah. Think of it like people's minds are an open library for me and I'm the only who can check out the books in them." Thea found it weird how she could speak so calmly about invading others' minds like it's a normal thing. Olivia walked closer to the man. "But it's harder with Barry around, because his mind and thoughts are like on fast-forward. Kinda of like an audiobook that's too damn loud for anyone to actually listen to."

"Heh, sorry." Barry apologized with his hand rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Aw, it's good training for me. Don't worry, Barry." Olivia placed her hands the bound man's temples. "Let's see what's inside of his noggin." Her entire being shining brightly with pinkish psychic energy and she let the energy travel up her arms till they connected with the sides of his head. Blue eyes instantly became shrouded with a curtain of psychic falling over them.

Everyone watched as the energy took on the forms of small threads and slithered into the man's head.

Oliver still held his arms crossed as he watched the psychic dive into their prisoner's mind. Turning to the other mutant, he asked. "Your wife does this often?"

"Beats interrogation." Matt replied knowingly, the archer rolling his eyes.

"And there's no side effects of this?" Felicity wondered, her boyfriend's ears perking up at the question.

"Depends on what the hell this guy is." Matt nodded to the bound man his wife was telepathically invading.

"You don't think he's a meta?" John was the one to inquire.

"No idea. Something about him… feels different." Olivia said while trying to infiltrate his mind. Her eyes widened at what she found. "The hell…" she said with disbelief and had a baffled expression as she tried to figure it out but with no success.

"What's wrong, Livia?" Matt grew worried.

"What did you find?" Cisco asked, hoping that whatever she found would give them some answers to this dilemma.

The psychic energy that went inside the man's head slithered back into the psychic's mind. The energy around her body faded away. Running a hand through her long magenta hair, she sighed. "The hell's wrong with this guy? For that matter, what _is_ he?"

"What are you talking about?" Thea asked in confusion.

Matt narrowed his eyes. "What did you find in his head?"

"Precisely that." Olivia said and question marks appeared over everyone's heads. "There's something really weird about this guy." She faced the others again. "He doesn't have one set of memories."

"I'm sorry. Set of memories?" John wanted an explanation and parts of him knew that he would regret his own words.

"Whatever a person experiences in a life, good and bad alike. They're automatically stored in your mind, memories." She began. "And when you experience a lot of them, be it your first ice cream, picnic with family, first kiss, the family you start with your loved one, they pile on each other. That's a process that repeats itself every day of your life, ending up with forming a lifetime's worth of memories. A single lifetime's worth of memories, I call them a set of memories."

"And everyone has only one set of memories?" Barry asked.

"Yeah they do." Gesturing to herself, the mutant replied. "Psychics are a bit of an exception. Depending on their skills, they're able to copy others' memories and even store them in their own or others, something I can do. But an entire set… an entire lifetime of memories is bit harder to copy." She looked at the bound man again. "And for some reason, this guy has more than one set."

"So he has two sets?" Oliver wondered.

However, she shook her head and stated. "No. He has dozens of sets, and for some reason, they're not put there via telepathic powers."

"What? Does this mean he's experienced more than one lifetime?" John already regretted his words.

"No fucking idea." Olivia swore angrily as her confusion reached the stratosphere. She faced the bound man. "Let's ask Sleeping Beauty himself."

_SLAP_

The Star City natives winched when they saw the psychic abruptly slap their prisoner. The blow got the man to stir awake and Khufu's opening eyes snapped open at the feeling of metal chains constricting his movements. Even though there were a bunch of chains around his body and keeping him bound to the iron support pillar, he still managed to shake them with his struggles.

"_He's more than human._" Olivia thought to herself. There was something more to this guy than meets the eye. Whether it was good or not was yet to be decided.

Their prisoner looked to them all. "Where is she?" he growled his question.

"What's your name?" Oliver said, unfazed by the growling he continued to emit.

"You're putting her in danger, and I'm the only one capable of saving her." Khufu continued to fight his chains.

Thea gained a hollow and humorless expression. "You have a very interesting perspective on what the word "saving" means."

Khufu looked at her. "She's the love of my lifetime, sweetheart. I was not gonna hurt her."

"So you're not just a flying pervert. What an improvement." The psychic let out sarcastically.

The bound man rolled his eyes. "Not a pervert. You need to let me go." He paused his struggles as he saw someone walk out from the side of a corner. It was Kendra Saunders who was watching the bound man with curious eyes. "Chay-Ara."

"My name is Kendra Saunders." Kendra corrected him.

"In this life." The flying man corrected her, the others looking confused at his words. "And I am… _was_ Carter Hall, but that is not who we are."

"Come again?" Matt said.

"What does that mean?" Kendra still asked baffled.

Feeling déjà vu, Carter Hall took the easiest explanation. "You're Priestess Chay-Ara. I'm Prince Khufu. And we're lovers." Cisco didn't like that. "Soulmates." The engineer _really_ didn't like that. "We've been partners for 4,000 years. We're drawn to each other in each life, and after we die, we reincarnate to find each other again and again and again. And now that I've found you, we should really get out of here." He empathized his words with another struggle in his bounds.

"Okay, Romeo," Cisco stopped him from continuing with his hand with a scrunched face. "why don't you pump the brakes?"

Carter didn't react to the engineer's words. "These people cannot protect you from Savage any longer."

"Why do I get the feeling that you know more about this Savage guy than you're letting on?" Olivia stated her inquiring words.

"Do you?" Oliver demanded to know as well.

The question seemed to form a saddened expression on Carter's face. "In every lifetime, he hunts us down and kills us."

"That explains the dozens of sets of memories I've found in Carter's head before." Olivia said with realization.

"He's done it 206 times, and I'm not planning to make it 207." Carter admitted.

"_Killed 206 times? God, how much training do these two need to actually put up a fight._" The nanite mutant thought to himself.

"Why does he kill you?" John asked.

"His life force is tethered to ours." The reincarnate stated. "Every time he kills us, he becomes more powerful. You do the math."

"You're 0 for 206, and you still think you're her best bet, hmm?" Cisco had to stop himself from laughing.

"_You _do the math." Matt said and he flying man looked like he was stung by their words. "You think we don't stand the chance against Savage. How about yourself? Right now, you're the ones who lost their lives to him, multiple times. We haven't."

"Okay, so what we need to do is just find Savage and get rid of him." Barry suggested.

Matt cracked his fists. "Sounds like a plan."

Carter laughed at their optimism. "Well, you can't get rid of him, my friend."

"We're not friends." Matt said sharply.

"Watch us." Barry dared him.

Olivia turned her eyes to a dark corner. "Think it might be a bit harder than we think. Isn't that right, Malcolm Merlyn?" she heard his thoughts a mile away.

Chuckling, the Demon's Head stepped out of the shadows with his men and revealed his presence to them all. "If I didn't know any better, I swear that you could hear my thoughts." The mutant didn't do anything, be it make an expression or smiling or anything. "You're certainly a warrior in your own category."

Barry looked shocked. "Is that the only way this guy knows how to enter a room?" Oliver held up his hand, knowing that it was futile question to inquire.

Malcolm Merlyn then revealed his information to them all. "My associates tell me Savage left Star City a few hours ago."

"Where did our immortal madman run off to?" The psychic mutant wondered.

"We're not quite sure." He said. "But I assume after his run-in with you, he realized he needed something more powerful to complete his mission. We think he's trying to locate the Staff of Horus."

While Carter seemed to pale with realization at the name, Thea was the one to ask the question on everyone's minds. "Sorry, what is that?"

"It's a relic from our past, an ancient and powerful weapon." Carter revealed before looking to them. "If Savage gets his hands on it, it's going to be nearly impossible to stop him."

Cisco widened his eyes. "Since when did our lives suddenly become an "Indiana Jones" movie?"

"Maybe it's because we have an immortal of our own." Felicity pointed to the nanite mutant.

"Not immortal, just have a really good healing factor that lets me survive various fatal attacks." Matt said, but they still looked like he was trying to simplify rocket science. Sighing he said defeatedly. "Forget it, it's a drag to explain."

Oliver nodded his agreement and looked to his girlfriend. "Felicity?"

"Yeah?" She said.

"Think you can find it?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's probably at some museum somewhere." Felicity suggested. "I'll, uh, work my magic, see what I can find." She walked away.

Matt opened a panel on his gauntlet. "Jarvis, help her and check to see if this Staff of Horus thing is some rich bastard's basement. Rare and valuable relics are usually bought at some shady private auctions."

"**As you wish, sir.**" The AI responded.

"We're running out of time." Carter said and looked to the latest reincarnate of his soulmate. "You need to emerge now." Barry and Matt and Olivia looked to Kendra with narrowed eyes. "Come on, what is it gonna take for you to believe me? You saw my wings."

"Which you used to kidnap her; you perv." Olivia reminded him.

"Still not a perv, just tried to protect her." Carter reminded them. "I know you know this is true. Please, just let me show you how."

Matt looked to Kendra. "Kendra." He got her attention. "What do you want to do? It's your choice whether you want to believe him or not. We'll back you up and kill him if he does the wrong thing."

Carter paled with fear… he also saw the psychic form a menacing smirk at the thought of ending his life.

X

**(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Joe West rushed to the facility when getting the distress call from his partner. Hearing that she had was unbelievable. Shooting the man she thought was Harrison Wells of this world in the chest… it was a mistake. But he couldn't blame her too much as he almost did the same when he laid eyes on Harry Wells.

However, Patty did in the same facility as his niece and her mother. He hoped that neither of them were there to witness the shooting.

He saw Caitlin Snow working on the downed man in the middle of the Cortex. He was already attached to the breathing machines and placed on a gurney with various patches taking his vitals. Her daughter wiping away any excess sweat or blood on the man's form. She heard him and looked to him the moment he asked. "How's he doing?"

Caitlin formed a saddened expression before saying. "He's losing oxygen."

Joe looked around and placed his eyes on his partner. She was wearing a sorrowful expression as she watched the doctor work on the man she thought was dead and returned to this world to rob from Mercury Labs. Pointing a finger at her, he demanded. "I need you to leave."

"Joe, I-" she walked closer to him, trying and hoping to get out an apology.

"Patty, go." Joe interrupted her and pointed to the exit. Patty walked to it with crossed arms and regret painted all over her face.

Seeing the detective leave, Frankie asked her mother. "Mom, what's the situation now? Is he gonna be alright?"

"There's a bullet in a branch of his pulmonary artery that's blocking off most of the blood flow from the left lung." Caitlin informed to the detective and her daughter simultaneously.

"Are we able to get the bullet out?" Joe asked urgently. "I mean, Seth was able to do it with his tentacle things, can't Frankie do the same?"

"Not without causing too much damage. And Seth's a doctor. Pulling out bullets with his tendrils of people were his specialty." Caitlin said before admitting. "I need Jay's help."

Joe nodded and reached into his pocket to take hold of his phone. Frankie looked to her mother, knowing what she was thinking. "You really think Jay is gonna help us out now? You think he will take Velocity-6?"

"I hope so." Caitlin gulped and looked at Harry again. "It's Harry's only hope now."

X

**(Star City)**

"You're joking, right?" Matt asked out loud as he stood on the ledge of the very tall building. He looked downwards, the same as baffled Kendra, confident Carter, skeptical Cisco, Barry and Oliver looking downwards in disbelief.

They heard the wind whooshing and colliding with the other nearby buildings around them. But Matt was definitely not agreeing with this plan that Carter proposed. He doesn't care about his past reincarnations or even this one for that matter, he just didn't want Cisco's girlfriend to be put in danger.

And freefalling from a tall building was definitely dangerous.

"So…" Kendra stepped away from the ledge and Carter and Cisco looked to her. "you just want me to jump."

Carter shifted his head around. "Fall, jump, swan dive, whatever suits you. Just, uh, do it."

"This is a horrible plan." Matt jumped off the ledge and walked to the others.

"Okay, this isn't the X Games." Cisco stated.

Oliver then pitched in. "And this is how she emerges? She just falls towards her death?"

"Yep, 4,000 years of experience says that's exactly how. Just watch and learn." Carter told them.

Cisco looked to Matt, hoping for something that he would bring reason into this mess. "Matt, come on. You know more about powers than any of us. Tell us he's wrong."

"Sorry, I can't." Matt shook his head. "Life or death situations have the advantage of bring people to Death's doorstep. And when one steps on that doorstep, an enormous amount of adrenaline shoots the body. For normal people, it can be those flashes of one's life before your eyes."

"And for powered people it can be a type of power activation. Like mutants experiencing moments of distress." Cisco knew where he was going with this.

"Yeah." Matt looked shocked. "How'd you know?"

"Seth told us something similar when his powers went dormant for a while, after fighting Blackout." Barry said.

"Oh yeah. Bastard told me about that a while back. Can't believe he went through that." Matt chuckled.

"No, I'm sorry. What are we doing?" Barry looked around his friends in disbelief. "Why are we listening to this guy?" he asked them while the barista kept looking over the ledge. The speedster faced Oliver. "Come on, Oliver, you're supposed to be the one who asks questions."

"Okay." Oliver reluctantly nodded and slowly. "But after what we saw, after what Cisco said, after what Matt just said," he looked in disbelief at his own words that he uttered next. "I cannot believe I'm going to say this, but it…kind of makes sense."

Matt felt like he saw Oliver struggle with his own words. Like he was struggling to even swallow inhaled air itself because of those words.

And the mutant understood why. This wasn't metahumans, he had faced before. Nor was it mutants that the knight had faced before. This was a supernatural territory, elements known as reincarnations and immortals belonging to this area.

"A crazy world we live in." Matt kinda missed the days of Earth-616, where he had to be a SHIELD agent and only think about the next mission that was waiting out there in the world.

While the men talked intensely, Kendra made her decision and got up on the ledge. The men looked at her with expanded eyes. "Wow, wow, are you serious about this, Kendra?" The nanite mutant asked in fear for her safety.

"Yes, she is." Carter spoke for her and pushed the barista off the ledge.

_SCREAM_

Kendra's screams reached the high heavens as she was plummeting to her death.

"Barry!" Cisco exclaimed to the speedster before rushing to the ledge to see her falling.

_WHOOSH_

Barry sped into action and ran down the side of the building to pursue her falling form. Matt looked to the flying man. "You suck as a teacher."

_WHOOSH_

The speedster appeared beside them on the rooftop once more with Kendra, safe and sound. "What the hell was that?" He demanded to know from Carter.

"Saving her life." He said calmly. Carter looked at his reincarnated soulmate. "You should have emerged. Something is blocking you. Well, we should just try again and see what's-"

"No way in hell!" Matt screamed.

"No!" Cisco screamed.

"No, no, no, no, no." Barry chanted. "We're not doing that again. Kendra, you don't have to do this." He told the barista. He shifted his gaze between Oliver and Matt. "Oliver, Matt, we can stop savage, okay?"

"Barry." Oliver got his attention.

"What?" Barry growled like an enraged animal.

He felt a hand take hold of his shoulder and looking to the person, he saw that it was Matt wearing a sharp and cold expression. "Let's have a talk." The mutant's words came out as an order and he pushed the speedster to the archer who waited for them. "Cisco, keep an eye on Carter. He acts fishy, shout and I'll toss his body over the building." Cisco nodded his agreement.

With another push, he pressed him to the speedster till they stood before Oliver. "What is going on with you?" the archer demanded to know of the metahuman, seeing that he was acting more and more agitated.

"I'm trying to keep her alive." Barry replied immediately, as though Oliver didn't know of their current mission.

"Bar, if we really want to save, then maybe we should let her jump." Matt stated.

"Matt's right." Oliver agreed with the mutant.

"Are you guys kidding me?" He said in shock.

Oliver knew what was going on. "Barry, I get that you're desperate to help and you want to be the hero and you want to save her yourself, but I think she has to have a part in it too."

Barry looked around in disbelief, even greater than what he wore before. Much greater even. Like it was disbelief itched into his very heart. "Barry, what the hell's going on with you now?"

"It's just-" he stopped himself and confessed. "The rules keep changing. One day I have to run through time, I lose a friend and his family hate me, the next day I'm fighting a telepathic gorilla, a-a-and now we're what? We're chasing down an immortal madman on a rampage against a reincarnated warrior priestess?"

"Plus a fucking annoying piece of shit prince." Matt added humorously.

Barry looked over Star City from the high spot briefly before admitting. "I just never thought I'd have superpowers and feel more powerless than I ever have in my entire life."

"That part I understand." Oliver pitched in understandably. "But you have already helped Kendra. You have kept her alive. So now let's help her get her wings, and then she can give you and Matt a lift back to Central City."

"Over my dead body, Queen." The nanite mutant said. Oliver looked to be in deep thoughts as the mutant looked to Barry. "And Barry, as heroes and scientists, we're always gonna be face-to-face with something strange and unknown. It's part of the job description. We face the problem once; we probably fail and then we strike back in teams. Being a hero isn't about going at it alone, not always of course. Sometimes you must learn how to ask others for help, every once in a while."

"I thought Seth was the wise one in your trio." The metahuman joked.

Smirking the mutant said. "Who do you think told me those words?" Barry reared his head back in realization.

"Central City." Oliver got their attention with that single word before walking over to the others again.

"Where's he going?" The knight asked.

X

**(Arrowcave)**

The group arrived back in the Arrowcave and the knight saw his wife looking at him curiously before walking towards him. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Think Queen's using his brains." Matt quipped and they walked onto the platform.

Oliver looked to his girlfriend. "You need to check Central City for the staff."

"What exactly makes you think it's Central City?" the psychic asked.

"It's what Kendra said before." The archer revealed and looked to the barista. "Kendra, you said you were drawn there." She confirmed it with a nod. "I think you're drawn to things that destroy you the same way you two are drawn to each other."

Felicity pointed a finger to her computer screen. "That's why it wasn't in any museum or private collection, because it was consecrated eight months ago at St. Mark's in Central City."

"We've got to get it before Savage does." Barry said.

"Then we have a plan ready." Matt said.

Oliver nodded his consent before looking to Carter. "Carter, stay here."

"I'm not going anywhere." Carter told them.

The archer nodded. "Call Thea and Dig, and we'll have them hold down the fort in case Savage shows up."'

"Shouldn't Liv or Matt stay here too then?" Felicity asked the mutants.

"Sorry but I wanna face this immortal bastard again." Olivia smirked villainously. "He's like an unending sandbag. Perfect for tearing apart thousands of times and will still be alright no matter how much you rip them apart. I ain't passing up a chance to take him on at full strength."

"I have some revenge of my own to dish out." Matt rubbed the lower part of his neck. "If he thinks he can get away with killing me then he's dead wrong."

Barry looked to Kendra. "Kendra, last year, I lost my powers. Not just me, but also a friend of mine, the man who's Venom. The only way we could get them back was if we just forgot about everything happening around us and focused on who we were. Just believe in yourself, and your true self will emerge."

"Thanks." Kendra smiled happily.

Felicity took hold of Oliver's hand. "Hey, are you sure that you want to do this?" he didn't answer and continued to look at her. "If this guy's immortal and Merlyn's right about how powerful this staff is..."

"Don't worry, Smoak." Olivia said with her entire body being enveloped by the nanites swarming out of her box on her chest. With a swing of her head, she let them adapt to her head and long hair. Angel Fury looked at the hacker. "We'll be fine."

The speedster agreeingly nodded. "Kiss her." he told the archer while watching the nanites from the Arc Reactor sending out the nanites to form his Iron Knight suit.

"We'll be fine." Oliver assured his worrisome girlfriend before kissing her on the lips.

The two mutants watched as the archer and speedster walked to the display cases, two of which opened up to reveal their respective suits.

Nudging her husband with her elbow, the psychic said. "We are never doing that."

"You can kill me if we do." The nanite mutant told her.

X

**(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

While their heroic friends and family were suiting up for a battle with an immortal madman, Caitlin and her daughter and Joe West were dealing with a battle of their own as they desperately fought to keep Harrison Wells from Earth-2 alive. His blood flow was still struggling to flow with the bullet still embedded in his system.

Caitlin saw something in the corner of her eye and saw Dr. Wells stirring wildly while in the gurney. Frankie saw the same. "Now what?" she asked in fear.

Rushing to look at the monitor displaying his internals, the doctor noted. "His systolic pressure's dropping. He's gonna code." Frankie staggered back in fear and her hands over her mouth.

Thankfully, the next person to walk through the entrance of the Cortex was Jay Garrick. The others saw him and he asked them. "How bad is it?"

Swinging her head to him, she informed. "There's a bullet in his pulmonary artery."

Jay walked closer to the hospitalized man and examined the man himself with his eyes. "Can you close the wound if I get it?" he asked the native doctor.

"Yes." She replied immediately.

Unbeknownst of everything they have worked on in here, the detective asked confusedly. "How are you going to do that?"

Jay looked hesitant and all color drained from his face as though he had witnessed a ghost. He really hated how he had to use Wells's drug. It would mean going against everything he said before and manipulating with the gift that he lost.

Caitlin grabbed the injection gun, filled to the brim with the special speed-enhancing drug.

"What is that?" Joe asked as the gun was held in front of Jay.

"It's a serum called Velocity-6. It could give Jay temporary speed." Caitlin said. "He can phase through Doctor Wells's chest and remove the bullet."

"Yeah," Jay confirmed but his hesitation remained strong with his gaze pointing at the injection gun. "but I told you, I have no idea what's gonna happen if use that." He told the native doctor.

"It's our only option. If you don't do this, Dr. Wells will die." Caitlin told him pleadingly.

With the help of her "other", Frankie was able to feel the hesitation brimming with the former speedster. And then watched as Jay took hold of the injection gun and pressed it against his pulse on his wrist. Pulling the trigger, the barrel shined brightly with a blue light.

They all watched as he let go of the gun and put it on the bed. Jay leant forward, both hands pressing on the bed railing.

The others didn't see it, but his eyes were riddled with yellow lightning… as a familiar feeling of lighting crackling against every cell in his body.

The sudden feeling of that sensation caused his body arch with a grunt. And it was then everyone saw his right hand… as it was turning to a blur.

"It's working." Joe said astonished by the serum's effects.

"Come on, Jay." Frankie said and they watched as the Earth-2 man dived down.

His hand still blurring, and his body not used to the powers of this serum and it phased through the man's chest. They all watched with bated breaths when it was still inside Wells's chest and hoped that he had found the bullet.

They got their long-awaited answer when Jay pulled out his blurring hand out of the man's chest…holding the bullet that was once resident in Wells's body… which the monitor registered and showed that once again the blood was flowing.

Caitlin walked to the monitors herself with her daughter. "BP and oxygenation is rising. Blood flow's returning to his lungs." She felt her daughter wrap her arms around her waist. "Looks like we're still stuck with Wells, honey."

"Yeah." Frankie turned her head to face the exhausted Jay Garrick. "Thank you, Garrick."

He held up the bullet and smiled at the young metahuman.

X

**(Central City, St. Marks Church)**

The four heroes entered the church. Angel Fury standing ready with her razor whip in her hand. Iron Knight have his blades and cannons ready. Green Arrow kept his hand on his bow. The Flash looked around, ready to speed into any direction when an attack would come.

Oliver got confused. "What's going on?" he directed to the other heroes, all of them looking strangely around this place.

"Nothing." Barry started. "I just like to speed into rooms, usually."

"And we just fly into rooms and start shooting people." Matt said.

"Not me. I fly into rooms and crack my whip like a crazy monster." The psychic stated.

"Huh-uh." The archer said unsurprised. "Where do you think we find this thing? I haven't been in one of these places in a while."

"Guys." Matt got their attention. Pointing a finger to the ambo. They saw that it was cracked in the middle of it, the location of the Staff has been found and the staff itself have been taken. "Savage beat us to it."

"We're too late." Barry noted.

However, Olivia did not agree with those words as she heard sinister thoughts brimming. "Shit."

"Something you're not used to saying very often, I'd imagine." Vandal Savage announced his presence with his hand around the Staff of Horus. A long golden staff with a golden bird on the top of it. A golden hawk.

Green Arrow pointed an arrow at the immortal who scoffed. "You tried those arrows once before, remember? They didn't quite finish the job, now, did they?"

"I'm not gonna make that mistake again." Oliver growled.

Savage couldn't help but smile at their bravado. His interest was piqued when turning to the two mutants. "I see you are still standing, young knight. And the menacing angel too? Perhaps this trip will be more worth than I anticipated."

"Careful now, pal." Angel Fury shot out her whip. "We're not known for being kind."

"Then we have something in common, my dear." Savage made eye contact with the knight again. "I see a fire burning with you, young knight. Perhaps our fight earlier brought back some unpleasant memories."

"Good guess. How about I give you some bad ones myself." He reformed his cannons into blades.

"You're gonna leave Kendra alone." Barry demanded.

"I can't do that." Savage told the speedster defiantly. "While my destiny is to live forever, Chay-Ara's is to die, as is yours now." He raised the staff and blue energy gathered around the golden bird before shooting out a massive blue energy beam.

Barry sped away and Olivia jumped into the air and took flight. Oliver dodged the beam before firing off an array of arrows. Matt stood his ground and formed a circular shield on his left hand and took it on. The force of the beam pushed him back, his feet digging into the floor and pushing up pieces of wood.

Reeling back her hand, Olivia sent her whip flying and it cracked against the Staff of Horus, cancelling the madman's attack on her husband. Savage faced her and projected an energy blast for her. She dodged it and another one before using her powers to launch herself for him.

Savage was prepared for that and lashed out his staff, forming a blue energy barrier around him. Blocking the psychic's attack, who then used the barrier as a footing to jump backwards and land on her feet again. Cupping her hands together, she quickly gathered psychic energy in them and blasted it into the barrier.

However, Savage swung his staff, twirling the energy barrier to deflect the psychic blast before cancelling it again. With his barrier down again, he rained down a barrage of blue blasts for the female mutant who was hurled back from them.

With her pushed away, he fired other beams for the male heroes. Barry kept dodging the attacks by speeding around the rows while Oliver kept firing arrows. Matt flew forward with his wings blazing once more. While dodging the energy attacks, the armored mutant opened panels on his shoulders and shot out a barrage of missiles.

All of them were forced to meet the blue energy barrier once more. The collision with it caused an explosion around Savage's field of vision and a smokescreen. Swinging his staff once more, he blew away the smokescreen while deactivating the barrier.

With the barrier gone, he saw the armored mutant pointing both his palms at him. Energy gathered in them were instantly fired into repulsor blasts that neared the immortal. But with the staff gathering energy of its own in the bird figure on the top of the staff, Vandal Savage swung the staff for the two repulsor blasts. Cancelling them out before lashing it out and firing a surge of blue energy into a beam, hitting the knight in his torso.

"ARGH!" Matt screamed and was forced to be sent flying into the wooden rows. His heavy body smashing through them like a bulldozer.

"Matt!" The psychic let out and used her telekinetic powers to lift her husband and herself to the other side and landed between some rows to dodge the energy blasts.

"Any ideas?" Oliver asked as he jumped behind a row.

"Oh, now you'll listen to me?" Barry wondered.

"It's your city." Oliver stated.

The psychic looked to her husband. "Are we chopped liver or something?"

Between the destruction of the rows with each energy blast connecting the words, Matt said. "That's what you get for working with people in spandex."

Olivia gave him a narrowed eyed look. "I don't think you had much of a problem with tights and spandex when you worked with my Aunt Carol."

Blushing embarrassedly behind his mask, the nanite mutant let out. "You're never gonna let me live that down."

"Learnt from my brother after all." The psychic winked.

Another energy blast was fired and caused the four heroes to lower their heads. "God, he's pissing me off now." Matt let out in annoyance.

"All right, let's just try to get the staff." Barry suggested.

"Fine. We can draw his fire. You and Robin Hood do something about his staff." Olivia stated.

"I'll help with distracting him." The mutants nodded their consent to Oliver. "All right, on my mark." They all nodded again. Green Arrow shot up and fired arrows. Matt and Olivia jumped into the air, flying and rapidly fired off repulsor blasts and psychic spheres.

All the fired attacks and projectiles met the energy barrier. The moment the barrier was deactivated, Barry saw an opening and sped forward like a striking lightning bolt. The speedster wrapped his hands around the staff, but Savage gathered immense energy into the entire staff.

The energy came out in a burst, unleashing a pulse that send the speedster into the air. But managed to catch The Flash before he could connect with the rows again.

Oliver walked forward between the rows and send more arrows for Savage, but all of them were met with the barrier's force and bounced off. The immortal concentrated energy again before lashing it out and pushing the archer back with another energy pulse.

The two mutants then shot forward. Olivia swung with her clawed fingers and Matt lashed out with his energy blades. Both close range attacks, blocked by the Staff of Horus. The immortal madman gathered energy into it again, filling the entire length of the staff with the blue energy.

Pushing them away lightly with the staff, the immortal raised his staff over his head and spun it around rapidly. The blue energy surging through the staff intensified before swinging it again. Savage slammed the golden bird into the armored mutant's torso, the pulse bursting into his body and sending him flying. Using the back of the bird, he slammed it into the psychic's body and hurled her into the air with another pulse.

Both mutants straightened themselves with their respective powers and flew over to Oliver and Barry.

As they did so, Vandal Savage spoke in an Egyptian tongue. He then said in English, telling them his compliments. "In all my countless years, I've never encountered anybody with your capabilities. Astonishing!" he raised the Staff of Horus much higher again, blue energy gathering around him like he was in the eye of the storm of pure energy. All the energy converging to the golden bird on the top of the staff.

All the heroes looked worried and prepared their weapons. The next blast would be worse than the previous ones. Much more powerful.

But for some reason, the energy Vandal Savage gathered around him faded away and he breathed out. "Chay-Ara." He could feel it. Even though she was a city away. He could feel it as it has happened in a plethora of lifetimes.

The moment she would fully emerge… and her wings would once again sprout.

Vandal looked to them. "I used to enjoy slow deaths. Now… I just find them boring." Blue energy gathered on the golden bird once more.

"Barry, get us out of here!" Matt exclaimed to the speedster.

Using his superspeed, Barry grabbed hold of both Oliver and Olivia. Matt took flight… at the same time Vandal Savage slammed the Staff of Horus into the ground… unleashing an explosive pulse of blue energy that spread and impacted the entire church.

X

Matt flew out of the church just in time to dodge the explosion following the pulse. Barry had already run out with the psychic and the archer. But the pressure of the explosion sent all four down to the ground.

The knight got on his feet at the same time his wife flipped herself up to her full height again. "That was massive. Thanks, Barry."

"Yeah, of course." The speedster assured the psychic.

They all watched the church burn with the flames still blazing strongly within the establishment. Barry then asked his friends. "Any chance he blew himself up in there?"

"Not likely." Oliver was the one to answer.

"So that's, like, a tie, right?" Barry said.

"Seems like it." Matt rubbed the back of his head with the gauntlet on his right hand.

"I'll take it." Olivia said. "But why the heck did he stop before?"

"My guess." Iron Knight looked in the direction of Central City, where he had a feeling of what happened there. "Our little birdy jumped off the nest and finally learned how to fly."

And the nanite mutant thought that this must have involved Cisco somehow.

X

**(Central City, S.T.A.R. Labs)**

The next day, Caitlin and her daughter walked into the Cortex again to check on Harrison who hadn't woken up yet from his slumber despite the bullet removed from his body. Jay was there too and watched the downed doctor as well.

"He's still down for the count?" Frankie asked her mother in shock. Seeing as though the bullet was removed, she expected him to wake him within a few hours after the removal.

"Might not be long for him to come back now." Caitlin said to her daughter as she stood on the right side of the bed and looked over the monitors again. She then heard a sharp intake of air and looked down to see the man open his eyes. "Dr. Wells?"

Wells opened his eyes wider and looked around, seeing that he was on a gurney. "You're gonna be okay, Wells." Frankie assured him calmly.

"That's good news." He commented happily.

Caitlin then said sadly. "You will probably be very sore for a little bit, though."

"Sore is better than dead." Harry said hoarsely.

"Definitely beats the alternative." Frankie said with a chuckle.

Giving the young metahuman a strange look, the otherworldly scientist told the doctor. "Snow, your daughter is very strange."

"Hey!" The magnekinetic let out offendedly and slapped his arm. Harry took in an intake of air as he was still sore, and the slap from the young symbiote-bearer was not helping in the least.

Her mother laughed and said. "She got that from her father, trust me. Not me." Her daughter pouted in hurt and crossed her arms. Caitlin walked around the bed and over to her, hugging her daughter tightly. She and Frankie walked over to the private lab on the right side of the Cortex, leaving the two Earth-2 men with each other.

Harry noticed the former speedster not looking at him and asked. "How are you doing, Garrick?"

Jay looked to him. "Your serum's out of my system… and I will never take it again." He turned around and walked to the exit.

"Jay…" Harrison Wells stopped him with his words. "Thank you."

Turning around to look at him, Jay said. "You can thank me by keeping that Velocity-6 away from Barry." He stated his request and walked away.

Leaving the facility… and the scientist to think about the usage of Velocity-6 serum in the future.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

With Vandal Savage retrieving the Staff of Horus, the immortal armed with a weapon capable of laying waste to a church like it was nothing, everyone in Star City moved to Central City, the current location of the immortal madman.

It was great as the two mutants were able to spend time again with their niece. Now they decided to get some coffee from Jitters. Matt, Olivia, their niece and Oliver and Barry waited in line for them to reach the counter. The physic and her niece were embraced tightly in a hug as they waited in the line.

Once disengaging, the magnekinetic metahuman said. "Felt weird without you and Uncle Matt here, Aunt Liv." Frankie noted as she looked to her aunt's face. She noticed the small scars around her face and neck. Whoever this Vandal Savage is, he's very strong. "Aunt Liv, are you okay?"

"I'm more than fine, baby." Olivia assured her niece calmly. "Just a few scratches, nothing I can't handle." She petted her head gently.

Matt chuckled. "Our little niece was worried for her uncle and aunt the entire time the entire time, such a good girl she is." Frankie blushed embarrassedly and let her uncle hug her.

Oliver laughed at their family fun and then looked around. He saw various menu cards on the tables and screens on the walls promoting their new and various superhero coffee drinks. "Since when is that thing?" With his grinning head, he gestured to the various promoted superhero drinks on the menus around them.

"About eight months." Barry smirked. "Maybe if you save Star City, you might get one too."

"All fun and all true, but we still have to deal with Savage." Matt stated.

"We'll get him." Oliver assured them all.

A young boy then walked between Oliver and Barry, bumping into them both and his toy fell out of his hand. Oliver leant down and saw that it was a figure of The Flash. "Watch yourself, buddy." As he brought the toy closer to his face, he smiled upon eye contact with the speedster. Looking back to the young dark-brown haired boy, he said. "You don't want to lose this guy."

As the boy was handed his action figure back, he expressed his gratitude. "Thanks, mister."

"Yeah." The archer said back and watched the young boy run away. Briefly following the boy, Oliver got the shock of his life when seeing who the boy was talking to.

Samantha Clayton… a woman of his past who said that he might be more than the man he was… kneeling before the young boy and straightening his small hoodie in a caring and parental manner.

Right before kissing him on his forehead… like a mother would with their child.

**To be continued…**

**And that's one half of this crossover, folks. **

**The next one is gonna be about the big fight with the big bad immortal that everyone are to face. An immortal was thought to be something out of a loony tune, but it's true. **

**And so is the possibility of reincarnated beings with wings, humans who have lived through two-hundred and six lifetimes and only to be vanquished by the same evil madman who's been stuck in the same manic cycle of murder that binds them. **

**0 for 206 with Vandal Savage, and Carter still thought he was the only one capable of defending his soulmate, Kendra Hall. Now that Kendra's wings have sprouted, fully emerged as Hawkgirl now, it means that she's accepted that there's a bigger destiny in wait for her, and it was just dropped into her lap out of the blue.**

**While the others were dealing with the encounter with Vandal Savage, Caitlin and Frankie were busy with helping Harry Wells to construct a serum to enhance the Speed Force within speedsters, the infamous speed-drug Velocity-6. **

**They didn't have any way to test it to begin with, but after Patty Spivot accidently pulled the trigger of her firearm, shooting a bullet and it being stuck within the man she thought had robbed Mercury Labs, Caitlin found a way to test the drug.**

**It did involve the aid of the powerless speedster, Jay Garrick, who in the beginning refused to take the drug as it would be manipulating with the gift that he was gifted with, but had to take it reluctantly as he was the only one able to harness the full capabilities of superspeed and allow his hand to phase through Harry's body to pluck the bullet out.**

**Thankfully, it was a success, granting Harry more time to enjoy life and the chance to hopefully reunite with his daughter, should she return safe and sound. But Jay demanded that the speed drug was nowhere near Barry, making Harry promise himself to not use it anymore.**

**Caitlin's goal with helping the otherworldly scientist was solely because she thought it would lead to her boyfriend coming back home to her and the rest of their family.**

**But only the future will be able to decide whether it will be used or not?**

**So stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	18. Chapter 18: Legends of Yesterday

**And now another bedtime story you wonderful people in the world.**

**Once again, very, very sorry for the long wait. With everything happening around the world, it's been a bit hectic, to say the least.**

**I hope you all are safe and healthy wherever you might be. And while it is hard, please be cautious about cautious in regards to human contact with either friends or family or significant others. It's for the reduction of the Corona virus, guys.**

**More importantly, it's for the better of everyone around you and yourself. So please, stay safe and stay health, ladies and gents.**

**Now to the other stuff, mainly to this story:**

**This is the second chapter of the Flash and Arrow Crossover: Heroes Join Forces, featuring Vandal Savage as the big bad wolf that's trying to find the three piglets…**

**Or two birdies, in this case. Or reincarnations of warrior priests.**

**As mentioned in the previous chapter, there will be changes, more scenes, friction between characters and longer fights.**

**Once again, I hope you guys are gonna enjoy this chapter.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 18: Legends of Yesterday**

With the brimming threat known as Vandal Savage still at large, the two teams from both Central City and Star City had to take action. Meaning that they had to set up a temporary new base of operations. Thankfully, they found one thanks to John Diggle's wife, Lyla Michaels who gave them a secure location whilst they deal with this immortal madman.

The two teams were placed in different vehicles, both filled with equipment and people. One is a small car with Oliver, Thea, Laurel Lance and Felicity. The other one was a large cargo van with John behind the wheel. Caitlin was seated beside him. In the cargo trunk were Kendra Saunders and Carter Hall with Olivia Fury and Frankie Fury.

The female reincarnate looking to be sleeping with closed eyes and the male reincarnate watching her sleep.

As they continued to drive, John looked in the rear-view mirror and looked at the psychic mutant while shifting his gaze between the front and the back. "Olivia?"

"You know, my friends call me Liv." She joked with her eyes looking at the rear-view.

John chuckled. "Are we friends?"

"Depends on your next question." Olivia stated.

The former soldier couldn't help but chuckle at her statement. "I was just wondering where your husband is, that's all."

"That's a surprisingly boring question coming from the man who's working with the Robin Hood rip-off." The psychic joked with a humorous tone. "Matty's with Cisco and Barry for the moment, think he's helping them carry their stuff here."

"So Uncle Matt's been demoted to transportation services?" Frankie joked.

Caitlin chuckled. "Sounds about right, sweetie."

"Strange world." John muttered.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin heard his words.

"I'm in a van with a normal human doctor, her metahuman daughter with an alien inside her, two reincarnations of hawk-people and a psychic woman from 600 universes away." John chuckled, he recalled the days that the strangest he's ever heard or seen were miracle drugs giving people enhanced physical abilities… plus driving them insane.

"Not to mention, Frankie's a cannibal and I'm a mutant." The mutant reminded with a chuckle.

Caitlin could swear she could hear the color draining from John's face at the mention of her daughter's cannibalism. Gulping, the former soldier said to the doctor. "Your daughter is a cannibal?"

Rolling her eyes at his question, surprising him greatly, Caitlin assured him. "She doesn't eat people anymore. She only did it once." Those words didn't exactly calm him down.

"Don't worry, Mr. Diggle, I don't eat people. As long as I eat chocolate, it's fine." The young metahuman told him.

But then John's mind tried to work up a reason that would explain how chocolate was a possible substitute for human… failing instantly at it, he felt like he would get a headache.

"John." He turned his attention to the psychic via the rear-view mirror. "The world is always gonna be stranger and stranger. People like us, heroes or whatever the hell you want to call us, we have to adapt to it."

"Easier said than done." John said.

"I never said it would be easy, Johnny Boy." Olivia stated and leant back. "It's something that takes time and effort. You just have to go through it with the right people, friends and family, and then you'll come out of the storm with only a few scratches and nothing serious. The world of heroes is a wasteland of storms appearing out of the blue at any day and time, you just have to learn how to tackle them through team effort."

"Sounds easier, yeah." John agreed. Thinking that was definitely easier to understand than what he was thinking before.

"Are we there yet?" Frankie whined childishly.

With a chuckle, Caitlin threw a glance to her daughter. "_Now_ you choose act like a child?"

Olivia laughed and ruffler Frankie's hair. "Leave it to Seth's daughter to be a complete weirdo at the strangest of times." Her niece pouted and placed her head on the psychic's shoulder.

Her mind then sparked at the thoughts Olivia heard. Recognizing the voice that followed the thoughts, the psychic looked to Kendra and saw her stirring. Without showing it on the outside, the mutant homed in on the female reincarnate's mind.

But the only thing she could get were faces… her own… Carter's face… Vandal Savage's… from an olden time…

Kendra snapped her eyes open and inhaled sharply. She turned her head to the side and avoided eye contact with Carter Hall, knowing that she just felt a memory from a previous life resurface to the front of her mind. "You okay?" Came the question from the male reincarnate.

Caitlin and Olivia shared a look, the doctor knowing that the psychic had probably already read the flying woman's mind. Kendra looked to Carter and said. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just have a headache." The other women knew that it was lie.

Carter looked unsurely at her. Having experience with what she is going through, he asked. "Are you sure? Usually, that's a sign of your memories returning."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Kendra continued to lie. "I can't remember anything yet."

As they followed their road, the young metahuman noticed that they were nearing a farmhouse. "A farmhouse?"

Olivia looked out the front window and noted in her thoughts. "_Reminds me of Barton's._" It reminded her of the times she was asked to babysit Clint Barton's children. Couple of troublemakers those boys, his daughter was sweet and easy to manage… except for the times when Seth looked after her, then she would be a hellhound.

As they reached the farmhouse's driveway, the various people got out of the vehicles and took out their bags. Thea closed the door and commented. "A bunch of superheroes in a farmhouse? Feel like I've seen that in a movie before."

"What kind of movies do you watch?" Frankie curiously asked.

Oliver then stated. "We need a secure location." He closed the trunk after getting his duffel bag with his suit and other small items. Felicity had already gotten out of the car and Laurel was picking out her stuff

"What's wrong with S.T.A.R. Labs?" Caitlin asked the archer when walking past him.

"Well, I mean, absolutely nothing," He started sarcastically. "if you forget about the revolving door you guys installed so the bad guys can come and go as they please."

With a quip, Caitlin inquired. "Remind me again what happened to your old lair?" she shifted her head and added. "Or the one before that?" While Frankie laughed, Oliver didn't answer to the quip.

But his girlfriend was more than happy to take care of that. "Well, lair number one was comprised by the police." The two Queen siblings gave her dry looks while Frankie and Caitlin smirked victoriously. Registering the dry looks, the hacker said. "And I will stop helping."

Olivia walked forward and Felicity. "I am beginning to like you more and more Smoak." The hacker smiled happily at the comment.

Oliver then briefed the others while they walked towards the entrance door. "Savage only let us live because he felt Kendra start to emerge as Hawkgirl and went after her. He can sense her and Carter's presence."

The psychic understood the archer's plan. "And you don't want to make it easier for him by staying in the city limits."

With a chuckle, John looked to Laurel Lance who they picked up from her mother's home. "Bet you wish you stayed at your mother's place now."

Laurel couldn't exactly deny that and let it out with a shaking head and a humming. But parts of her were glad as she would finally get the chance to see the faces behind Angel Fury, Magenta and Iron Knight. She already knew that Barry was the Flash but those three would be nice to meet face to face.

Turning around she looked at the young woman with long magenta colored hair. She had never seen Olivia before so she was instantly curious about her the moment she saw her. Stepping backwards a bit, she met the psychic. "Hey."

"Hey." Olivia greeted back and looked her over. "I'm guessing you're part of Team Arrow?"

"Yeah." Laurel held out her hand. "Laurel Lance. Black Canary by night."

"Olivia Fury-Stark." Olivia introduced with her hand shaking the other woman's hand. "I'm Angel Fury whenever trouble calls in Central City."

"You were the missing sister that your big brother, Seth was looking for, right?" The mutant nodded. "The one from another universe and all?" She nodded to Laurel's question. "God. I never thought there would be a brother who would jump into a whole new universe to save his sister." Laurel couldn't help but look at Thea and Oliver, knowing what the elder brother did for his younger sister was impressive.

She never thought there would be such fearless siblings in the multiverse, and that says a lot considering what she did for her sister.

Unbeknownst to her, Olivia was using her psychic powers to dive into her mind, trying to get some information about a certain someone on the team.

Laurel's eyes widened with realization and looked to the mutant again. "And I can't believe you're Angel Fury. I've seen your fights before, you're a monster out there." She hoped that she didn't accidently insult the powerful woman.

While Oliver opened the front door, Olivia told the Star City native. "I'm flattered."

"Hey, I was just wondering, who made that suit of yours?" Laurel asked.

"That would be my husband. He's coming soon with Barry and Cisco." The psychic revealed.

Once the front door was fully opened, the two teams walked through the entrance. Frankie looked at her aunt and the district attorney of Star City conversing together before looking to her mother. "Looks like Aunt Liv is making new friends." She giggled.

"That's probably the most surprising thing right now." The parent let out with a short laugh.

They walked deeper into the house and Oliver stated their plan as he put his duffel bag on the nearest table. "We need to find a way to neutralize Savage's advantage." He looked to the back door and saw Barry and Cisco walked through with a cart. "Barry, you're late."

"Sorry." Barry started. "It turns out it's not easy finding the ass-end of nowhere."

"Yeah, for real." Cisco looked at his phone. "The roaming charges alone are going to bankrupt me."

Olivia looked between them. "Did you guys leave my husband alone or something?" She asked as though the nanite mutant was unable to defend himself. Even though he was willing blast anything and anyone with his repulsors without hesitation.

"He said he would come shortly, he had to pick up something from Felicia's." Cisco told her.

Felicity looked intrigued. "Who's Felicia?"

"An infamous thief from my home universe." Olivia replied to the question. "She's our friend here and is helping Frankie train." The young metahuman waved at the mention of her name.

The sound of metal clanging outside could be heard and then they saw Iron Knight walk through the back door with two metal suitcases. Laurel was shocked to see his armor and found it undoubtedly cool. She watched the suit disassemble into small metal orbs and converged to the shining device in the middle of the chest plate.

His helmet dematerialized as the last and Matt Stark looked around the people looking at him. "What you expecting pizza delivery or something?"

"What's in the suitcases?" Cisco asked with a gesture to the two cases he nanite mutant was holding.

Holding one of them up, he said. "This is one has some defense discs. I'm gonna place them around the farmhouse. After seeing what Savage did to the church with the Staff of Horus, I'm gonna have these serve as a defense barrier that pops up when a signature matching the same blue energy nears the house."

"Think it's gonna do much against an immortal's magical weapon?" Olivia had to ask.

"No idea, but I can fight easier with these around the base." Matt walked over to his niece who was standing by the table. With a smile he placed the second suitcase on the table. "And this one is for Frankie."

"For me?" She asked shocked at the SHIELD emblem on the top of the suitcase.

"Yeah, thought it was time I would spoil my niece some more." Matt quipped and looked at the shocked face on Laurel's face. "Hi, Matt Stark." He greeted.

"H-H-Hey. I'm Laurel Lance." She couldn't prevent herself from stuttering at the sight of his suit turning into metal orbs. "Wait? Stark? You're Olivia's husband?"

"That would be me. Pleasure to meet you, Laurel." Matt felt a shiver run down his spine and he turned around to meet Caitlin glaring ice-cold daggers at him. "W-What's wrong, Caitlin?"

Crossing her arms over her torso, Caitlin told him sternly, her eyes pointing to the psychic as well. "We're gonna have a talk about the two of you spoiling my daughter."

Chuckling fearfully, the nanite mutant let out. "I thought it would nice if she got this one thing from me." The Star City natives looked baffled to see the mutant speak in fear when conversing with the female doctor.

"What is it?" Frankie wondered if he took the joke about making her an iron suit for real. She loves her uncle but wouldn't want to wear something like that.

"Check it out for yourself." He stepped back and let her open it. Frankie did exactly that and watched the contents within. Her eyes widen at it. It was a suit, a black tactical uniform made of a jacket and pants. While running her eyes over the material, she took in the white piping and the pinkish detailing, so faint that no one would see it from afar.

Beside the clothing was a small deep area in the suitcase with three small grey canisters, all of them appearing to have liquid in them. Liquid metal, judging by their reflective capabilities. When seeing that Frankie returned her attention to the piping again and saw that it was small long tubes. On the middle of the chest, she found a SHIELD emblem there.

"What is this?" Frankie asked.

"It's a S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical suit." Matt said. "Felicia and I noticed that you tend to destroy property with your magentokinesis. To maybe lessen that damage, she and I came up with this suit. The canisters are filled with liquid metal that allows you to use instead of other metals around you."

"But how's it gonna work with her symbiote form?" Cisco asked while taking in the beauty of the suit. Simple but impactful.

Matt already took that into account. "Thought of that already, Cisco. She can have this suit underneath her symbiote's form, and the tubes on the suit allows the metal to flow out to her hands."

"Cool!" Frankie looked to her uncle and hugged him tightly. "Thanks, Uncle Matt."

"Don't worry about that, honey." He patted her head. "Go and try it on. Then we can see if you can still use it as well possible." His niece nodded and took the suitcase to walk to a spare room to change.

"That suit is surprisingly stylish." Olivia noted in slight surprise. Matt was good at styling suits, but this was something unlike his usual styling.

"Felicia's idea." Matt said sheepishly. "She said she wanted to be responsible for the styling, otherwise she would steal my suits again and sell them on eBay."

"She did that?" Barry asked seriously.

"Yup. Just as a prank." Matt breathed out in annoyance of the time he had to steal his suit back from the infamous thief. He looked around again and asked them all. "So what have we been missing?" He referred to Barry, Cisco and himself.

Oliver answered. "We're discussing how to take away Savage's new-found power."

"His magic stick thing." Felicity said with a mimic of a staff… or stick in her case.

Carter heard her unsure words and said. "Uh, Staff of Horus." The hacker looked at him gratefully for his correction.

"Oh that's gonna be fun." Olivia clapped in mock excitement. "But that means taking care of that annoying energy field that's protecting the staff."

"Yeah, she's right." Barry agreed with the psychic. "I couldn't lay a finger on it."

"Maybe wear mittens next time." Felicity joked.

Caitlin stepped to the blonde hacker; her mind inspired by the joke. "What if we made some sort of insulated gauntlets?"

Cisco heard their conversation while searching for bars and agreed. "Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The magnetic shielding could disrupt the-"

"Staff's magnetic polarity." Matt stated, catching onto their train of thoughts. Felicity, Laurel and Thea all gave him a strange look of surprise. Noticing the eyes on him, he explained briefly. "I'm an uber-nerd too, guys. Just more techy than your nerds."

"Don't think you can out-nerd me, pal." Felicity said with a finger pointing at him. It was though she was throwing down the gauntlet for a duel. She then twisted her head upon quick realization. "All right you probably could since you made that cool suit with lasers and missiles and whatnot. But let's see if that brain of yours works well with these brains." Like an announcer at a game show, she gestured to herself and the Central City scientists.

"Game on, Smoak." He accepted and let them lead the way. Matt thought about reminding Felicity about the face that he has been working with the scientists for a while now. But then decided against it, as this would be a nice challenge.

Olivia called out to her husband. "Matt, I'm gonna call you later, I'm gonna need a sparring partner to kill some time, alright?"

"I will be there, honey!" Matt called out his response and his wife smiled.

Oliver looked between Barry and Olivia and said. "Well, while the geek squad works…"

"Heard that, honey." Felicity called out to her boyfriend.

"Screw you, Queenie!" Matt shouted.

With a forced smile, one that Olivia noticed, the archer continued with a correction. "While they work to get the staff away from Savage, we need to know everything there is to know about him." He moved from the dining room area to the kitchen area with the two powered beings following him.

When getting into the kitchen area and living room, Olivia looked around for her niece but she was nowhere to be found. "Must still be changing, that one." She muttered as she did find Thea and Laurel unpacking their stuff. With her eyes narrowed on the red archer, she thought "_Gonna have to keep my eyes on that one._"

Thankfully, the mutant found no bloodthirsty thoughts in her mind… _now_.

Thea took out her phone and informed. "Well, I googled "reincarnated nutjobs" and came up with nothing."

Carter moved into the living room with a large chest-like case. "Uh, Kendra and I would be the reincarnated nutjobs. Savage is merely immortal."

""Merely"?" Laurel recited with widened eyes from his casual tone.

"Welcome to the new normal." Thea said.

"Immortals are not that bad." The psychic got their confused attention. "Come on, who wouldn't like an immortal sandbag that hits back."

"You do realize that this sandbag stabs back, right?" Carter reminded her.

"Just adds to the fun." Olivia said with a hollow chuckle, the chuckle sending shivers down his spine.

John Diggle stepped into the room. "Anyone who's been around for 4,000 years should leave a trail. I'll check with A.R.G.U.S. See if they have anything on him." He walked away and left them alone.

"Uh, Laurel and I can check police reports and stuff like that." Thea suggested and Laurel agreed with a nod, closing down the screen on her laptop before getting on her feet. The red archer turned around to look at Olivia. "Wanna tag along, Olivia? We might need a psychic."

"Thanks but no." Olivia spun her left arm around. "Being stuck in that van got my body all stiff, so I'm gonna stay here and train a bit in the backyard, I guess."

"Oh, we might join you when we get back." Laurel said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah? I'll be waiting then." Olivia accepted and then saw someone come through the other entrance into the living room. "There you are, Frankie."

They all looked back and saw that Frankie was now in her new unique S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform suit. Thea and Laurel noticed that the suit's styling was matching her Magenta form. Oliver and Barry saw that the suit have tubing along the sleeves and to the hands as the nanite mutant explained.

"Looks good on you, Frankie." Olivia gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks, Aunt Liv." The young metahuman flexed her hands, using her magnetokinetic powers to move the liquid metal in her cannisters to the tubes' entrance point and through them slowly. "Feels nice to have this."

"And then you could probably end up doing less damage than your father have ever done in his entire life then." Olivia joked.

Laurel looked at bit unsure and asked the psychic. "Is it a good idea for your niece to be here? I mean, she's just a kid."

"Yeah, wouldn't it be better if she was still at S.T.A.R. Labs or something?" Thea agreed with her fellow hero from Star City.

Pointing a finger at the young metahuman, Carter added as well. "Yeah, they're right. I mean, no offense to her. But Savage's an immortal, not exactly kid-friendly."

Facing the flying man, Frankie said. "From what I heard, you didn't stand much against Savage yourselves with your 0 for 206 losses, flying pervert."

"Okay, how I am exactly a flying pervert?" Carter had to ask.

Olivia bluntly stated. "You have wings and you kidnapped a woman off the ground." Thea and Laurel looked at her with widened eyes of shock. She then revealed to the others. "And while Frankie is a kid, sure. But she's probably stronger than Carter and Kendra, and the entire Arrow Team put together."

"Overestimating a bit." Carter said skeptically.

Frankie looked at him daringly. "Wanna put that to the test?" Carter stepped backwards in slight fear of what the girl might do to her.

"Careful, Carter. You might get three big problems if you mess with her." Olivia said and then everyone gave her questioning looks. "Me, her uncle and worst of all, her father… Venom."

Carter widened his eyes. "Venom is Frankie's father?" Frankie nodded and so did Olivia. "Shit… you're not gonna say anything, are you?"

"Depends on my mood." Olivia said. Carter continued to shiver and the psychic looked to Kendra, also noticing that Thea and Laurel had moved away. "Now that our birdy knows about her other half, shouldn't we see if she can use them?"

"Other half?" Kendra questioned.

"Olivia's right." Oliver agreed. "We need to find a way to utilize your new ability."

"My ability?" Kendra questioned again, directed to the archer this time.

"It might give us an advantage." Oliver reasoned with her.

Barry then pitched in. "Yeah. Whatever you do, don't let him train you." Oliver gave him a dry look and the speedster defensively said. "I'm sorry, but when it rains, I can still feel where you shot me with those arrows."

"You shot Barry?" Olivia didn't hear anything about the archer actually shooting the speedster before now. Oliver didn't say anything, but his thoughts spoke volumes. "Impressive." She admitted and Oliver smiled.

Walking around the kitchen area, Carter said. "I'll handle her training then."

"I can help if I have to." The psychic added.

Oliver accepted that with "Yeah" said softly.

"Oliver." Felicity walked over to her boyfriend.

But he took hold of her forearm and said. "I need to run something down. I'll be back as soon as I can." He walked to the exit in haste.

That haste brought question marks over the hacker's head and she rushed after him.

Olivia narrowed her eyes and took the back entrance.

X

Quickly reaching her boyfriend, Felicity asked urgently, the same amount that matched Oliver's urgency. "And what exactly are you running down?"

"Don't worry. It's nothing dangerous." He tried to assure her and shake her off as they walked down the small staircase.

"Well, are you okay?" She asked him in concern.

Oliver decided to throw a quip. "Well, we're up against an immortal madman armed with a magical staff, so I do have a few things on my mind." They reached the ground level.

"Yeah," Felicity knew there so much more. "but you were acting fine with everything while we were home." Oliver turned around to face her. "And now that we're here in Central City, you've just been not… you."

"Well, maybe it's too bright and sunny for me here." Oliver once again threw a quip. "There is something going on, and I'm going to tell you all about it. I would just like the chance to know what I'm dealing with first."

"Okay." Felicity accepted finally. She trusted Oliver more than anything and would continue to do so no matter what.

"Okay." Oliver expressed in happiness before walking away.

As she was left alone with the hacker now, Olivia decided to speak. "Yo." Felicity snapped around and was shocked to see the mutant on top of the roof and looking down on her.

"Liv, what are you doing up there?" She asked her from the ground.

With a quick shrug, she jumped off the roof, landing on the ground before walking to the hacker. "Not much, just chilling."

Crossing her arms, Felicity asked suspiciously. "You didn't by chance eavesdrop now, did you?"

"Forget that for the moment," Olivia got a serious expression. "I was wondering if you could shed some light on something for me?"

"Shoot." She was ready to reply to anything.

But her own words came back to bite her as the next question had her stumped.

"What's the deal with that Thea girl on your team?"

Felicity gulped at the psychic's question. "What do you mean? What are you talking about?" She tried to play dumb.

However, the SHIELD agent "Felicity, you know perfectly well that I am a psychic with telekinetic and telepathic powers. Don't insult yourself by playing dumb and act like you don't know what I am or what's going on with Thea."

Donning a serious expression herself, her defenses lowering quickly, Felicity asked. "How did you know about Thea? Or what _do_ you know?"

"Telepathy allows me to read others minds and dig into their minds as well in search for something." Olivia started. "I used it during the fight with Savage to try and stay ahead of him. But… when Thea suddenly stepped in and fired off her arrows… I heard her thoughts. And there was nothing but a bloodlust in her thoughts, almost like she craved to kill whoever her arrow pointed at." This time the psychic took on a darker expression, almost like her eyes were turning lifelessly serious. "And the last time I heard something so… dark and bloodthirsty… was from the bastard that killed my best friend and my nephew."

Felicity felt herself sweating increasingly so like a waterfall as the psychic stepped closer to her again. "So, once again, I am asking what's the deal with Thea?"

Knowing that it would be futile to try and divert the question with whatever means she could think up, the hacker sighed and confessed. "You know how your brother jumped into a totally different universe for you?" Olivia nodded instantly. "Siblings do a lot of crazy things for each other…. Like Seth did for his little sister, Oliver did something crazy and unbelievable for his little sister."

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked.

"Last year… Thea was stabbed through the heart with a sword by the last Demon's Head." Felicity revealed and saw the mutant's eyes widening bafflingly. "Yeah, she died." Her eyes wettened by the memory of Thea in a hospital gurney, a respirator helping her breathe back then. "And Oliver had to make a deal with the devil to save his little sister."

"He brought his sister back somehow?" Felicity nodded while wiping away her tears. "How the hell did he bring her back? It's impossible to bring someone back from the dead."

"Should be, but it's not." The hacker stated. "It was something called the Lazarus Pit, the waters can bring someone back from the dead…. But there were side effects." Olivia listened closely. "It changed something in Thea. Merlyn said it was something done to her soul."

"And it left her with this…"

"Bloodlust." Felicity helped her by finishing off her sentence. "Apparently, for it to subside, she needs to… _gulp_… take a life. She does, and she goes a month without killing, I think. That's what Malcolm said anyway."

"That's a seriously messed-up thing she has." Olivia noted. To have an insatiable bloodlust that was impossible to subside without any other choice than giving in to it…. Seemed like hell. To have it scream in their heads… like the voice of a devil in your ears…. To kill your target… to crave a kill…

Looking to Felicity again, the mutant asked. "Can she keep that bloodlust under control?"

"… Malcolm had her kill some of his men to… ease her situation or whatever, so she doesn't feel the need to kill anyone for a while." Felicity answered.

Olivia rubbed her chin and said. "I hope so. Cause otherwise, that thing she has… is gonna make her a liability in the field. Hopefully, your beau knows that." She finished off and turned around, about to walk away.

"Liv!" Felicity's word stopped the psychic. "What would happen if Thea couldn't control it."

"I would have made sure that girl was nowhere near my niece. And if she gets out of control, then I will happily be the one to stop her." Olivia informed without facing the hacker and continued her walk.

She wouldn't let anyone hurt her family no matter what. Their lives and safety were some of the most important things to her, and she would defend them like a fallen angel on a mission… with nothing to lose…

Other than its mission and her family.

X

The moment Cisco saw Kendra and Carter separate from each other, he instantly rushed to find the woman he cares for. Finding her walking through the grassy field in the backyard, he rushed to her side.

"Hey!" Kendra looked at him sprinting up to her side before looking forward again. Cisco came up to her. "You must be going through a lot right now." He was glad that he was able to talk to her without Carter Hall here. He was sticking to her like glue ever since he found her. The engineer was happy that the flying man was away to pick up something for Kendra to use.

"Yeah." The female reincarnate felt like that was the understatement regarding this entire situation. It was like a way of making light of a massively dire situation. "You know… we should talk."

That didn't sit well with Cisco and he voiced his thoughts. "Never in the history of romance have those words ever meant anything good."

"I just mean we should probably talk about everything that's happened." Kendra corrected herself. "That's happening."

"You know what? I'm just gonna suggest something radical here and say let's not talk." Cisco suggested and Kendra listened. "Look, you got a lot on your plate right now, and I just don't want to be that piece of very nutritious broccoli that you scrape off the plate to give to the dog." He knew that Kendra was smart and funny enough to know what his point was, but he still explained. "My point being, I don't think you can afford to be distracted right now."

As they gazed deeply into each other's eyes, trying to let their each other's words sink into their minds and cores, Carter walked up to his reincarnated soulmate with a large chest. "Let's go." He turned around and walked.

Cisco nodded. "Yes. Let's." He followed Carter.

But Carter shook his head disapprovingly. "Sorry, buddy. This is private."

The mechanical engineer stopped. "Private?"

"Yep." Carter confirmed while placing the chest on a bench.

Both reincarnates faced Cisco. He held up his hands as though they were pointing guns at him with his eyes before pointing a finger towards the other side of the backyard. "I'm just gonna go do some push-ups over there."

The moment he started walking away from them, Carter placed his right hand on the chest lid with eyes pointing at Kendra. "Open it."

"Why?" Kendra walked forward to him and the chest. "What's inside?" she stopped a few feet from him with crossed arms.

"Something we have to track down in each of our incarnations." Carter began. "Sometimes, I find it. Sometimes, you find me and we go look for it together. Four thousand years, 206 lives, we've seen about every combination there is."

Flipping the hasps open for her, he gestured for her to open the chest herself. Kendra sighed and walked over to the chest. With both hands on either side of it, she pushed the lid open and looked at the contents inside with a shocked look.

It was a folded suit that appeared to be like the one Carter wore. The first thing she noticed was a helmet like Carter's, the metal donning feather-like pattern on either side of it with the eyes and nose area resembling that of a hawk's face and beak.

Giving the suit a skeptic look, knowing what Carter was planning, the flying woman said. "I don't think I'm really-"

"Ready for this." Carter finished her words. As she gave him a shocked look, he revealed. "You say that in every lifetime." They looked to the chest again. "Look, as you emerge, as your memories come back to you, so will other things. Skills. Languages. Pieces of your prior lives." Turning to her, he tested. "Understand?" he spoke in Egyptian tongue.

"I do." She subconsciously replied in Egyptian, her eyes widening at her own words that came out like it was natural for her.

"There you go." Kendra just confirmed Carter's own words.

And she couldn't help but groan at what this meant. "Oh, this is nuts."

"It's okay. I'll help you through it." Carter supportive assured her.

Kendra had to resist the urge to scoff. "Yeah, well, the last time you "helped" me, I got pushed off a building."

Once again, Kendra proved his points and he bragged. "Yes, and after that, you, uh, you soared, if I remember correctly. And that is because anger, fear, adrenaline, those are the things that bring out the warrior within. Even the mutants agreed with me back on the building."

"Well, according to Savage, I'm a priestess." Kendra said.

Carter explained. "The clergy were warriors. Warrior priests. And that is the side that you need to remember." He continued as he reached into the chest to pull an item up.

Kendra watched the flying man examine her… the helmet she wore in prior lives and questioned. "And if I can't?"

Frowning sheepishly he said. "Well, then we'll, uh, both probably die… Again."

X

Later that night, Barry was speeding through the city to reach a meeting spot that Malcolm Merlyn had arranged a meeting with the immortal madman, Vandal Savage. Olivia and Matt, Barry himself and Oliver had been notified of this meeting and have been ordered to attend.

Apparently, the Demon's Head thought that negotiation is the only way out of this situation. He was convinced that Vandal Savage was going to decimate the entirety of Central City to get what he wants.

And the decimation of Central City would with no doubt end up killing his daughter, Malcolm Merlyn was willing to even make a pact a with a madman on a hunt like a bloodhound.

It was a thing that Barry hoped to be avoided…

But as he ran through the city…

… he didn't see the familiar light pulsating behind him… a blue-ish light.

Just like in the past… Barry didn't see it… but he did hear it.

An eerie feeling erupted in the pit of his stomach and he turned his head around to look at the source of the sound… his eyes expanded to newer limits at the eyes looking back at him… his own eyes…

A speeding and blurry… version of himself… with everything included, every detail included… the suit and the emblem… the yellow lightning generated from his running form…

Once again, The Flash met the eyes… of The Flash… of himself…

_WHOOSH_

The blurry vision of himself ran away in an instant. Barry looked away and as quickly as he ran, he stopped himself when realizing that he has reached his destination.

_WHOOSH_

He lightly panted when stopping and came into the meeting point. "Thank you for coming." Barry looked upwards to see Oliver looking at him in his Green Arrow suit. Matt and Olivia are present as well, both suited in their suits with Malcolm Merlyn too. "I know this is more than a little crazy." He threw a glance to the Demon's Head.

Matt chuckled and gestured to Malcolm. "Yeah. Well, your friend with the creepy and tacky ring asked so nicely."

Malcolm nodded to the psychic mutant and corrected. "I asked _her_ nicely, to be precise."

"Thanks, but I'm taken." Olivia quipped with a finger pointing to her husband who glared at the man through his shining visor.

Despite the strange sight he saw while running, Barry walked to them and hopefully asked. "Please tell me we're not going to negotiate with terrorists. Or, you know, 4.000-year-old bad guys."

Oliver then assured him. "Just think of this more as a fact-finding mission. Maybe Savage slips up and gives something that we can use to our advantage."

Laughing at the archer's newfound optimism, Malcolm said. "Thea said you were being a little bit more humorous lately."

A question appeared in the nanite mutant's mind and he looked to him. "Feels like an appropriate time to ask, but how do you know so much about Savage, anyway?"

Looking to him with a deadly serious glare, Malcolm answered. "I don't know anything about him, Mr. Stark. No one does. That is why I'm afraid of him."

Olivia shifted her eyes to the other end of their meeting spot. "Looks like the guest of honor decided to show his face."

""Guest of honor"? A title that haven't been associated with me before. Thank you, my dear for such caring words." Vandal Savage announced his presence to them all. He looked to the Head of the League. "And, I assure you. The lack of knowledge about me, is not the only reason to fear me." He greeted the mutants with a nod of his head. "Thank you for joining me."

"Well, the decimation of an entire city and its residents sounded like a pretty good incentive to come." Olivia quipped, and the immortal madman was still in delight of the fact that this woman was still holding onto her spunk despite losing to him before. Even as she is standing in his presence.

"What do you want?" Oliver asked.

With each step he took, Vandal spoke. "What all living things want. Not to die."

Barry narrowed his eyes. "I thought that wasn't a problem for you."

"Only if I take the life force of Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara." The immortal revealed.

Barry simplified it with the reincarnates' current names. "Kendra and Carter."

"The three of us are locked in a vicious circle played out over thousands of years." Vandal gave them a look. "None of your concern."

"That ship sailed a long time ago, Savage." Matt said. "We've made it our concern."

Oliver nodded and, in a flash, he fired off an arrow. The immortal madman grunted in pain as the arrow penetrated his right shoulder.

But just as quickly the arrow had pierced through his skin, he instantly pulled it out. Holding up the arrow to the widened eyes of his opponents. "Robin of Locksley. I taught him how to use a bow. He taught me how to not feel pain. I'm the enemy you can't defeat." He walked till he only stood a few feet away from them. "The only way for you and yours to live through this is to render unto me what is mine." Facing them all once more, he demanded. "Turn over Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara within 24 hours,"

He waved the arrow in front of Barry's face and the two mutants. "or I will lay waste to this city, killing everyone that you three hold dear." His heartless gaze was strong enough to make them know that he was speaking nothing but the truth. Savage walked to the archer. "And after that, I will travel to your home and do the same there."

"Awfully confident, aren't you Savage?" Matt dared him.

Walking back till he stood before the mutant, he said. "The fight I had with you was truly invigorating, young knight. As well as the fight, when your… wife, I presume," the psychic looked shocked but kept it hidden. "joined the fray and fought alongside you. Truly a fight that I will remember throughout my coming years. I hope that you all do not continue to stand in my way, as it will only serve to lessen the time you have with your beloved."

"Careful…" Matt sneered.

Vandal then recalled their previous fight in the loft. "I do apologize for the discomfort that I brought upon you when I pieced your back, young knight. But I do hope that the fire you fanned within you during our last battle will burn as just as brightly in our next fight."

"Careful what you wish for." Matt growled.

"All right, I'm just curious," Barry cut their stare off short. "did you rehearse that speech in a mirror this morning or is this all just off the cuff?"

Laughing at the speedster's humor for a moment, Vandal's humor faded. "Why would you risk the lives of your friends and family for two strangers? Two hundred and six times I have killed them. What hubris possesses you that kames you think you can prevent me from doing so again?"

Barry shook his head. "Not hubris. Hope." He corrected him.

"Hope that will vanquish your so-called desire to end Kendra and Carter's lives. Vicious cycle or not, you will lose to us, Savage." Olivia stated adamantly.

While he did find her spunk and will delightful, the immortal couldn't help but laugh at her willfulness. "I came to this meeting out of curiosity. It is now sated. Bring Khufu and Chay-Ara to Jurgens Industrials in 24 hours or I will see you dead and buried under the bodies of your loved ones." Vandal Savage turned around, dropping the arrow in his hand and walked away. It's clattering sound echoing

Oliver said adamantly. "We're not giving up Kendra and Carter."

"Agreed." Matt said in agreement with the archer and Olivia nodded approvingly.

"That's not your decision to make." Malcolm disagreed and walked after them all. "This is a cycle that hs played out for the last 4,000 years."

"Savage may be immortal, but he isn't a god." Barry pitched in.

"No. But he's the next best thing." Malcolm countered. "Oliver."

"What?" The archer faced the current Ra's Al Ghul.

Donning a serious expression, he said. "You better be certain that your stubbornness does not get my daughter killed. Because if that happens, I will come for you, and in a way that will make you beg for the likes of Vandal Savage." Malcolm turned around and left the four heroes.

"I like that guy." Olivia commented while they all thought about what should be done.

X

The team of four returned to the farmhouse to break the news to the others the next day. Olivia was the one to announce the horrific news. "We got a deadline now guys. Twenty-four hours."

Frankie nervously asked. "Until what?"

Matt then answered. "Until we are supposed to hand Kendra and Carter over to Savage or…"

"Savage lays waste to Central City." Carter finished the mutant's words.

In worry, Caitlin put her hands on the shoulders of her shivering daughter while the psychic directed to the flying man. "Is this a repeat of what he's done?"

"Yeah, we've been through this before." Carter asked. "1887, The Huang He flood, Savage killed nearly two million people to get to us. And he did."

Oliver looked to the male reincarnate. "We weren't helping you then. We are now."

"Which means, that we have 24 hours to come up with a workable plan." Olivia stated.

"No, this is insane." Kendra countered in disagreement. "My life isn't worth millions of people's lives." She walked away.

"Kendra." Carter called out to her, but she was already out the door. "I'll talk to her." He assured the others and went to walk after her.

"Hey, I got this." Cisco said and went to follow her.

But Carter faced him and reminded. "I said I'll talk to her." He resumed his walk and left the others.

Cisco looked at him with lingering hate and said. "Hey, here's an idea. Why don't we just toss him over to Vandal Savage?"

"Sounds worth exploring that idea, but for now just keep that in the back of your mind. We might have to resort to that one with Carter's shitty attitude." Matt agreed with a smirk. He looked to his wife and asked. "You still up for that spar?"

"Anytime and any day." Olivia excitedly said.

"Frankie?" The nanite mutant got his niece's attention. "You're coming with. We need to see if you can handle using that new suit with both your metahuman powers and Magenta's help. After me and your aunt are done fighting, you can spar with either of us. You decide who the lucky winner is gonna be."

"Okay, Uncle Matt." Frankie nodded and looked to her mother. "It's okay right, Mom?"

"Of course, honey. Just be careful." Frankie nodded to her mother's words and looked to Cisco. "Cisco, see if you can work on the gauntlets again. I'll stay here and help Felicity."

"Alrighty, it's better than watching Carter continuing to be an asshole while working with my girlfriend." Cisco said and walked out with the powered beings.

Felicity looked to the doctor. "You got to tell me what's motherhood's like? Especially with that little chocolate addict of yours."

"Wonderful. Her aunt and uncle, not to mention Seth are troublemakers." Caitlin smiled and Felicity didn't fail to notice the redness that took over her face.

"I didn't know about this till a bit recently… but you must be really happy that Seth's still alive." Felicity said.

"I really am." Caitlin admitted immediately with a wide smile gracing her lips. "And I can't wait for him to get back again."

X

Barry was pacing back and forth with his hands cupped together and pressed against his mouth. With what happened the last time he saw his own blurry version running past him before disappearing again, he knew that something horrible was gonna happen.

The last time he saw himself ghosting was when Mark Mardon used his powers of advanced atmokinetic properties to create a massively raising tidal wave that was about to vanquish the entire city. He ran and ran along the shore to make a wall of wind that would sap the energy out of the tidal wave. It was the final line of defense that would take on the tidal wave if Olivia and Matt and their nice were to fail against the tsunami.

But as he hoped and roared with determination to try and increase his speed, to surpass whatever limits he had back then… His adrenaline being pumped into him like a second heart frantically beating at Death's doorstep.

And that was the edge he needed. He broke through the barrier and travelled back in time… and got a second chance to rewrite the fate that would have been brought down on his hometown of Central City.

While it did succeed… time stroke back with a new fate.

That was the fate of the speedster when he…ghosted that time.

"Where were you?" Cisco got his attention.

"Hey." Barry walked over to his friend.

Walking into the shed, Cisco said. "You missed the whole "save the city or turn my girlfriend over to an immortal psychopath" briefing." he turned his attention to the gauntlets and commenced his work.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Barry chanted and revealed urgently. "Uh, dude, I- Last night, I, um, I ghosted."

Cisco stopped his work on the gauntlets and looked at him with horrifically widened eyes. "No."

"Yeah. I think I'm gonna-"

"Don't say it." Cisco interrupted the speedster.

But Barry continued nonetheless. "I'm think I'm gonna time jump-"

"I just you not to say it!" The vibing metahuman exclaimed.

"I'm sorry." Barry had no choice, feeling like he was gonna burst. "I don't know what else I'm supposed to do."

The vibing metahuman didn't feel the need to say it, but he had to remind the speedster himself anyway. "Barry, the first rule of time travel is you don't talk about time travel! Because by having this conversation, we're screwing history."

"Look, I know that time travel has consequences." Barry frowned. "I thought I was responsible for killing Seth, but instead I sent him flying into another universe. And I mean, the last time you vibed-"

"I saw Seth in a deathmatch with Thawne, lose an arm and dying after Caitlin became Lady Venom." Cisco wouldn't forget that anytime soon. And yeah, he tried. "Plus, I'm not vibing anything right now. Okay, um, all right, look, don't panic." He walked around the table and stood in front of the speedster. The engineer then listed. "A, you don't know that you time-jumped for a bad reason. It could have been a good one, right? B, now that you know you time-jumped, you might not do it, right?"

Barry looked a bit skeptic at those points. And the last time he time-jumped was because of a bad thing… well bad things. Seth did die. He time-jumped because of the dire situation at hand.

He turned his attention back to Cisco who continued his explanation. "So, knowing the future might change the present, which might change the future." He stopped suddenly for some reason.

"What?" Barry inquired.

"My head hurts." Cisco admitted, just by starting the process and trying to explain it… blew his mind to pieces.

X

Once again Kendra's rushing through the backyard with haste and a heavy mind and an even heavier heart. Her life or the lives of a million lives of innocent people… an entire city? She knew what she would do if this really was the choice.

However, the choice she would make would not sit well with her friends who are willing to put their lives on the line for her.

"Chay-Ara! Sorry. Kendra!" Carter corrected himself as he called out to the female reincarnate. "You shouldn't run off. We don't know if Savage is-"

"Do we ever kill ourselves?"

Kendra's abrupt question got Carter to stop and he asked for confirmation. "Excuse me?"

"In our prior lives." Kendra began. "Savage has to kill us in order to live forever. Do we ever kill ourselves in order to deny him that?" she looked to him in search.

Carter chuckled humorlessly. "You know, in our past lives, I'm typically the one that makes the plans. And I'm starting to think this is probably why." He walked closer to her.

Gesturing to the farmhouse itself, Kendra stated. "Everyone in there is willing to die to protect us, even that little girl, Frankie. You don't think that's a little bit insane?"

"No. I think It's noble." Carter admitted. "I think it's what makes them all heroes."

Those words weren't enough to quill the feelings that Kendra was harboring. "Yeah, well, heroes or not, I'm not letting anyone die for me." She turned around and began walking.

"Then don't." Carter's words halted her before walking to her from behind. "Be the person, the woman, the warrior you were meant to be." She hesitated for a few moments before turning to look at him again, her hesitation clads on her face like armor. "The one you always have been." He stepped backwards till he stood a few feet from her. "Come at me."

"What?" Her hesitation was replaced with confusion now.

He elaborated. "Hit me or… or try to."

"Yeah, well, as much as I'd like to do that," She admitted, "I'm really not in the mood right now."

"Oh, really?" He started sarcastically. "Well, I'll just tell Savage to come back when you are." He finished off sarcastically, hoping to light a fire in Kendra.

And it did because she charged for him the next moment. She swung for his head with her hand, but he couched and dodged it while using his foot to sweep her, sending her down to the ground. Upon impact, she let out a grunt.

Carter looked at her downed form. "Again."

Kendra got up again and rushed him. But Carter took advantage of her attack and used it against her. Using his hands, he added additional weight on her body and sent her down to the ground again. This time she rolled. Carter walked over to her as she tried to get back up, but he used his foot and pressed on the back of her right thigh, pushing her back to the ground again in an effort to fan the flame in her.

He turned around and walked. With his finger spinning in the air, he ordered. "Again."

This time, she got up again and glared daggers at Carter. Kendra arched her back and yelled in rage, her wings sprouting out in response. With her wings out now, she once again charged for him, this time much faster and the flying man was shocked by her utilizing her wings.

He grunted and coughed in pain after the flying woman tackled him to the ground. Carter looked upwards and into his soulmate's eyes. "Good." Her wings retracted and she calmed down. "Do you feel that? The rage? That's the key, Kendra. It's the only way of finding the warrior within."

Kendra understood that. The rage, anger… it was those things that brought her wings out to begin with. So that she could emerge. Fear add adrenaline are the things that brings out the warrior within her. Matt also stated that those were some of the triggers for powers' activation.

"Hey." The winged people looked up and saw Felicity narrow her eyes on them. "Sorry to interrupt… the weirdness." They separated from each other and got back up again while she continued. "Uh, John, Laurel and Thea are back, and they've got something."

"Alright, let's go-"

_EXPLOSION_

Carter's question was cut short when the three of them heard an explosion coming from the other side of the farmhouse.

Kendra looked to Felicity. "Don't tell me Savage followed us?"

"Oh no, don't worry." Another loud explosion erupted from the same side of the farmhouse and the winged people looked at her with dry looks. "Okay, maybe a little be bit worried. But don't worry, that's just the married couple."

"Are they trying to kill each other?" Kendra asked when hearing another loud explosion.

"I don't think so. But the two of you come with me, alright? Cause I do not want my mind blown off or my limbs shot off. And you two come back alive in good shape and all right?" Felicity turned around and walked in the direction of the training married couple.

"So it's okay we're getting killed all of a sudden now?" Carter wondered.

Kendra chuckled and looked at him. "No, I think it's okay for _you_ to be killed." The flying man paled at the thought.

X

John, Thea and Laurel heard the explosions too and walked out the house to see the shocking sight of the two mutants training viciously. Frankie and Caitlin were there too with Cisco, the two scientists watching the fight apparently.

Both of them were in their suits and they saw the psychic fly upwards like a bullet with an energy veil around her form.

Angel Fury reels her whip back before swinging it forward and wrapping it around the arm of her husband who was at higher altitude than her. The psychic energy around her increased and she pulled on her whip, pulling the armored knight to her.

Even though one arm was caught by her whip, Iron Knight opened both palms and used his repulsors to fight back her pull. Matt onto her form with his HUD screen locked. The panels on his shoulders opened, revealing series of small launchers armed with missiles.

John looked upwards at them in shock. "Wait, is he seriously gonna fire missiles at his own wife?"

"Yeah, he is." Cisco casually answered as though it was expected to happen.

Laurel looked between them. "And you're not gonna stop him?"

"No, not really." Caitlin surprised the Star City natives with what she said.

"Why not? Olivia's gonna die." Thea considered running for her bow and arrows.

"Don't worry." They looked to the young metahuman who kept looking upwards to her fighting uncle and aunt. "My Aunt Liv is really strong." Hearing the confidence in the magnekinetic's words, they looked back up again, but were still worried about what happen if the missiles connected with the psychic.

Matt noticed the growing audience. "We got spectators now, Liv! Give them a good show!" He fired off the missiles from his shoulder pads and they flew towards his wife.

"I'll try to do that!" She let out and waved her other hand to the side, emitting a psychic blast that hit the missiles from the side, causing them to explode. Two missiles were spared and continued their path to strike her. Olivia smiled. "I am getting rusty, aren't I?!"

Gathering psychic energy in her left palm, she compressed it into an orb before lashing it out and colliding with the two missiles. She caused another explosion that shot her downwards with the blast, her descend akin to that of a falling meteor.

Using her psychic energy around her to gain control again, the psychic flipped around and landed in a crouch on the ground. She grunted and looked upwards. Her vision was covered by the sight of her husband shooting down for her with his right arm forming a large energy blade, pulsating with repulsor energy. It was outstretched and coming down for her with increased velocity from his blazing thrusters.

The psychic energy around her body increased and she grunted in response and gathered it into her palms, enveloping both hands with her pinkish aura. The moment the blade was close enough to connect with her face, she caught it with both hands, holding with her palms pressed on either side of the blade.

Matt looked at his wife and through his mask, he smirked. "Not bad for a training session, wouldn't you say?"

"Could go without the gallery, if you ask me!" She shot up to her to her feet and let go of the blade, using her elbow to push it to the side and spun around. Telekinetically increasing the strength of her muscles in her legs, she outstretched one of them before slamming her right foot into Iron Knight's helmet.

The force emitting from her foot sent Matt off and rolling on the ground. Olivia looked around and saw her whip on the ground, she used her powers to pull it into her grasp again. With another swing of it, she aimed for his head.

But Iron Knight used his palm repulsors to shoot himself up and landed on his feet after a quick spin. He outstretched his left hand and caught the whip. "Think I'm gonna fall for the same trick again. In your dreams!" He pulled on the whip and had her lose her balance and pointed his right hand for her, his repulsor gathering energy before shooting at her.

"Thought as much." Olivia smirked and dodged the first blast with a spin. And jumped away to avoid the next blast. A third blast she managed to block with a psychic wall forming before her. Using her own wall as a footing, she jumped off it and into the air.

Spinning in the air, she pulled the whip and dragged the nanite mutant to her. While he swung his other arm with a blade, she placed her hands on his shoulders and dodged it by leaping off him. "_Gonna have to borrow Grodd's move._" She thought to herself and increased the strength in both arms before clenching them into fists.

Olivia slammed both hands into both side of her husband's head. While she knew her fists wouldn't be able to slam through his helmet, she knew that the shockwaves from her impact would be able reach Matt's head. And the grunt coming from him was enough to know that it worked.

The nanite mutant held his head in pain and the psychic used that chance to swing her leg for his chest.

Matt counted on his wife going for an attack when she would see an opening like that, and instantly fired off an unibeam. But Olivia avoided it by backflipping and let the blast hit the backyard, leaving a huge hole.

"The heck's wrong with those two?" John said with sweat pouring down his face.

"Yeah, are those two really married? They look they're just trying to kill each other." Laurel admitted in shock as well.

"They're both fighters, it's kind of like their way of chilling." Caitlin explained and watched as they're both readying for another fight.

"Oh come on." Frankie annoyedly said. Inhaling deeply, she then called. "Aunt Liv, Uncle Matt! When is it my turn?!" John looked at the young metahuman and hoped his daughter Sara wouldn't turn out like her, so eager to fight like this… Seemed like a real troublemaker to raise, to say the least.

Both mutants were hit with realization at their niece's shout. Chuckling at their own stupidity, their masks dematerialized, and they turned to their niece. "Sorry, honey. We got a bit carried away." Matt said and walked over to her with his wife.

"Carried… away?" Carter recited the mutant's words and looked at the damage left from the aftermath of their sparring fight. He could still see smoke emitting from the hole that he made with his chest beam.

Thea looked around at the damage as well. "You really don't hold back, do you?"

"It's sparring, there's no point in holding back against each other. Besides, I know my hubby, he's no weakling." Olivia said and turned to her niece. "So, honey, who's gonna be the lucky winner now?"

"You aunt Liv!" Frankie instantly said and looked to her uncle who was holding his head with one hand. "Uncle Matt might have a concussion now."

"Yeah, a bit maybe." He smirked and looked to his wife. "Thanks for that, babe. Really hurt."

Olivia giggled, "Sorry, Matty, but I had to be serious." Looking to her niece, she said. "Let's go, Frankie, time to put that suit to the test."

"About that…" they all watched the hacker cough sheepishly. "John, Thea and Laurel just returned a while back, and they might have something we could use."

"Really?" Frankie looked disappointed with annoyance riddled on her face.

Caitlin chuckled and put her hands on her child's form. "Frankie, this is important too. Plus, your aunt is not going anywhere, she'll be here and you can fight her afterwards."

"Fine." She whined like a child.

Matt chuckled and walked closer to the psychic. "She's probably the only one eager to fight the fiercest woman on Earth." Thea, Laurel and Kendra heard his words. Caitlin smirked as she heard the story from Seth and Frankie giggled having heard it from her father.

Olivia blushed up a storm and elbowed his ribs and looked at her husband. "You still remember that?"

"Never even forgot it." He kissed her check caringly and walked after the others into the farmhouse again.

X

Caitlin and Cisco looked to their teammates. The doctor then said. "I'm gonna go and help Cisco with the gauntlets again. Frankie remember to listen to your aunt and your uncle alright." She told her child like a stern parent.

"Mom, I know!" Frankie whined embarrassedly and her mother chuckled before kissing the top of her head.

"_Love how she can still act like a kid in this entire mess._" Olivia thought to herself as she saw Cisco and Caitlin walk away to continue their work.

Once getting inside, John looked around and noticed that two people were missing. "Where are Oliver and Barry?" he directed to Felicity.

With a quip, she replied. "Oliver's back in secret-keeping mode, apparently. Barry, I don't know. And we all saw Caitlin and Cisco leave to work on the anti-Staff gauntlets." She turned around to look at John, Thea and Laurel. "What do you guys have?"

Laurel lifted her hand and revealed a video cassette. "Video cassette?" Matt said. "The fuck, people still use those?"

"Nope. Just the old people." Laurel assured him and he overdramatically sighed in relief. "You really don't like those, huh?"

"Nope." He used her own words.

"Betamax. Aw." Felicity cooed. "Where'd you get this? Off of eBay?"

"Lyla hooked us up." John revealed.

Felicity hollowly laughed. "Yeah, well, it's gonna take a while to play, since we live in a digital world now."

Laurel then explained. "The tape came from a conspiracy theory group that's interested in Savage."

Frankie looked to the D.A. "Wait? Our immortal psychopath had a fan club?" Laurel sheepishly nodded. "Awesome."

"She's too much like Seth." Matt admitted at his niece's words. Olivia nodded agreeingly.

John then added. "The Pentagon had a file on Savage back in '86, but it's all been heavily redacted."

As they spoke, Felicity managed to patch a connection between her laptop and the TV screen and was able to put the cassette on the screen. "Got it." The screen flickered for a few moments before showing something.

Starting with the camera pointing at the torso of a man, a brown formal suit with a white shirt underneath the vest. "_Is this on? I hope so._" The man said and adjusted the camera, making it point directly into his face. Despite the connection still proving to have problems, everyone could see that it was a brown-skinned elderly man with white hair and a white beard. His glasses placed on the bridge of his nose, with his eyes pointing into the camera lens. "_My name is Dr. Aldus Boardman. I'm a professor at St. Roch University. The date is April 8__th__, 1957._" He started after checking the date on his calendar on the wall.

They all gave their full attention, watching the video displaying on the TV. "_I don't think anyone else knows this. And those that do… don't believe. He's a myth. An urban legend._" The ones in the farmhouse knew better. "_He's been compared to Machiavelli and Nostradamus. He's gone by many names. But I know him as Vandal Savage, and he will be the death of the world._" That didn't inspire any hope in the ones who are to face-off with him. "_But I believe there is a way to stop him._"

All of them looked with undivided attention, afraid to even blink. "_Savage is an immortal Egyptian priest. His long life is the result of an unearthly calamity. I believe that any object associated with this calamity… should be able to undo its effects and kill him. And I suspect that our precious, fragile would may one day depend upon us…_" Professor Boardman walked closer to the lens. "_…doing so._" The video ended immediately after he spoke his words.

"Well, that's the understatement of the year." Felicity commented. "Or, you know, the last 4,000 years."

John looked to the winged people. "You have any idea what he meant by these objects? This calamity?"

"No, I don't recall a calamity." Carter said.

Kendra then said. "The staff."

Matt turned to her direction. "The Staff of Horus?"

The flying woman nodded her confirmation. "Yes. I think the staff belonged to Savage back in ancient Egypt."

Giving her a suspicious look, Carter asked. "You remember?"

She then said, "It's a hunch." Her words were thought to be the truth, but it was lie as the psychic could hear her thoughts. "And if Professor Boardman's guess is right, that staff is how we kill Savage."

"So we're gonna turn his own weapon against him? Sounds like a plan." Olivia stated, happy at the plan.

Laurel understood and said, "Okay, someone needs to inform Oliver and Barry." Felicity nodded to her words, wordlessly volunteering to be the one to be that person.

"Great." Olivia looked to her niece. "Ready for that sparring, honey?" Frankie nodded.

Thea gave them a wide-eyed look. "Is this really the time for a sparring?"

"We got the time till our Speed-Freak and Robin Hood Knockoff comes back, we're gonna use it the best way we know." Olivia stated before walking towards the door with her niece, the hacker giving the psychic a look.

"I'll help Cisco and Caitlin again with the gauntlets." Matt said and walked over to their location.

Felicity looked to her teammates and told Thea. "Um… Thea? Can we talk for a bit?" The red archer nodded, and John and Laurel listened closely as the hacker told them of the conversation she had with the psychic mutant.

X

_ROAR_

Olivia didn't appear the least bit fazed by the roar that came from the young metahuman before her. Despite the demonic persona of Magenta wrapped around her like a second skin, she was used to far worse and was ready to take on her niece.

"Come on, Frankie!" she confidently called out to Frankie and watched Magenta jump into the air with her left hand morphing into a sword with sharp jagged edges on both sides. She spun around in the air and swung for her aunt's head.

Predicting the attack, Olivia crouched and watched the sword drive into the ground. Looking into her niece's pseudo white eyes, she said. "Frankie, you're supposed to see if you can use your metahuman powers with your new suit underneath."

"**Sorry!**" Frankie said and jumped backwards, withdrawing her blade from the ground. Landing on the ground, she clenched her hands. With her eyes closed, she focused completely on her metahuman powers, on the metal flowing up from the canisters on her belt and through the tubes.

The young metahuman shivered at the strange feeling of the metal flowing through the small tubes. It wasn't something she was used to her and the feeling of it moving through the tubes were a of a coldish sensation. It was enough for her to almost lose her concentration.

Having listened the thoughts brimming in her niece's mind, Olivia called out. "Frankie. Don't worry about that feeling that's new to you, the feeling of the cold metal running through tubes so close to your skin, kind of like ants crawling up every side of you. It's strange and not nice, but don't let beat you so easily. You can control metal and you are Magenta, Frankie. So what are you gonna do?"

"**Use the metal… and control it!**" Magenta said with her eyes snapping right open again, her hands shooting outwards. The symbiotic mass around her hands opened and metal was shot out of them. They came flying through the air like a speeding bullet penetrating through a thin layer of flesh as they quickly took the form of balls.

Worried for a moment, Olivia crossed her arms and formed a psychic wall before her and blocked the balls. The balls ricocheted off the psychic wall and shot into the ground, diving through the ground and embedded deeply into the earthy foundation.

Dispersing her wall again, the mutant looked at the holes in the ground. "_Normally, Frankie wouldn't be able to do that with just metal that she tore off the ground in the streets._" She recalls giving her niece giving them a shape. "_Giving them a form to match the visual image in their heads?_"

Landing beside her aunt, Frankie stated. "**Can't believe I did that? Is that wrong?**"

"No, it's the opposite." Olivia looked to her niece who was retracting her suit. "You did just an incredibly amazing thing. You gave them metal a form."

"A form…" She looked confused; her father didn't say anything like that when teaching her of her powers.

While she had spoken, the psychic brought the metal balls up from the ground again and placed them both in her hand. Fiddling with her hand, Olivia said. "You and I are the same. Like I can shape my psychic energy, you can shape metal with your powers."

"Like I can mingle metal into my symbiote form?" She asked.

"Exactly. You think of bringing the metal to your body and they melt together in a fight." Olivia threw the balls to her niece, who caught them with her powers. "Kinda of like in your fight against Carnage."

"That was scary." Frankie admitted.

The psychic patted her head. "You were incredible that day, honey. Fighting the one guy that your dad and many other heroes are afraid of in your first fight ever, and actually able to keep up with him? That's something incredible that can't be described."

"Yeah." She blushed embarrassedly.

Olivia was sure of one thing. With Frankie gaining more and more experience as she is from the countless training sessions and battles, past, present and future alike, she would definitely become stronger than her father in no time. Even stronger than Carnage himself. And she couldn't help but look forward to that time, knowing that her niece would be stronger than ever at that point in time.

"Hey!"

The psychic and the magnekinetic looked to the side and saw Thea rushing over to them with hateful eyes. John, Laurel and Kendra walked from behind. Narrowing her eyes curiously, Olivia asked. "What's wrong, Ms. Queen?"

Stopping in front of her, Thea said with clenching hands. "What is it about you not trusting me? Felicity told me." Her teammates and Kendra looked a bit nervous about the younger Queen sibling.

Frankie looked to her aunt and saw her looking at the red archer with emotionless eyes. "Had a feeling that Felicity would spill the beans. But…" she looked into the archer's eyes again. "Can you blame me for asking? With you acting the way you did, I had to be on the safe side."

"With the way I was acting…" Thea's hands turned white as she clenched them.

John crossed his arms and told the psychic. "Back off. You don't know what she went through."

"Actually, I do." Olivia stated to their shock. "I know she was close to dying, if not already dead. Oliver made a deal with the former Ra's al Ghul, whatever the hell that means, and brought her back. Side effect of that debacle, Thea is stuck with a bloodlust that makes her want to kill whoever's on the other end of her arrows so she can calm down for a while."

"And you don't trust her because of that?" Laurel asked in shock.

Having heard the loud voices coming from outside, Matt had decided to check what was going on and saw the Star City natives glaring daggers at his wife. Knowing who she was and trusting her, he wasn't really worried about what Team Arrow would do and he leaned against the wall to watch it from the porch.

"Guys calm down." Kendra said with hands lowering downwards repeatedly, as a slider lowering the volume of a video. This really wasn't the time for anyone to be fighting, especially for teammates to be fighting one another.

Olivia narrowed her eyes. "And if she can't control that lust, and it controls her, she might end going berserk and killing whoever's in front of her, innocent or not, enemy or alley, without a care." The mutant looked at the scorching eyes in Thea's eye sockets. "And that makes her a liability in the field, not to mention she might attack my family."

"You think I'm like that?!" Thea screamed with her blood boiling in her veins from her volcanic rage that kept getting hotter and hotter due to the mutant's words. "That I just attack someone without a single thought's hesitation?"

"Normally, no. I can see that. But I can also see that bloodlust affecting you right now." Olivia said. "_Frankie, step away and walk over to your Uncle, would ya?_" Her metahuman niece listened and walked over to her uncle on the porch.

Thea scoffed. "Sure you're not just using your powers? Cause I bet for a second you couldn't handle a real fight without using powers." Her teammates on Team Arrow hoped that Thea's words wouldn't set off the mutant.

Olivia didn't appear fazed by Thea's claims. "Sorry, little girl, but it's gonna take a little more than a little tantrum to get me angry." She leant closer to her face. "Plus, I learnt how to fight without my powers long before I began to integrate my powers into my fighting skills. And it was much longer than you did, little girl."

Thea saw red and swung her leg for the mutant's head.

"Thea!"

"Stop!"

Neither John nor Laurel's words reached her ears, not even Kendra's gasp of shock when they saw the red archer swing her leg for the mutant.

But they were speechless when they saw the mutant block the foot with her bare hand. All the while wearing an apathetic expression as though she wasn't just about to be attacked. Thea was shocked, and saw the psychic flip her hand around and pushed the foot away. The sudden force pushed the archer down to the ground.

Seeing the archer point her eyes upwards and into her blue eyes, Olivia asked. "Got it out of your system?"

Thea's hand clenched around the grass again, and she growled. "Don't look down on me!" she shot up to her feet and launched her right fist.

However, the mutant parried the fist with her left one and she then saw the archer continue with the fists, trying to hit her but never managed to connect with Olivia. Sighing through the barrage of fists, the psychic used her hands, pushing the opposing fists to the sides before slamming her right palm into Thea's stomach.

The archer held her stomach with both hands while hearing the psychic speak. "I've been training for years, Thea. I've been fighting on more war grounds than you have. I have more experience than you." She knew that her words is a fuel being poured over a flame, but she wanted to see if she could resist the bloodlust that was embedded into her body.

Thea faced her and began to growl in anger like an animal.

Seeing that, Olivia announced. "And don't think for a second, I would lose to an animal like you. It's gonna take more than a mindless beast to take care of me."

Laurel and John recognized what was happening. The former solider then said warningly. "Liv, st-" he stopped when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder. He looked to the side and saw Matt giving him an assuring look. "Thea might kill your wife."

"Did you guys already forget what Frankie said? My wife's pretty strong." Matt assured them and nodded to the two fighting women again.

Thea jumped into the air and lashed out her hands for Olivia's head. But they were dodged and once again, Olivia heard the bloodthirsty thoughts brimming in the archer's head. This time the thoughts were homed in on the mutant herself.

Smiling to herself, she blinked and her blue eyes were shrouded with psychic energy. And with a flex of her hand, she stopped the archer from moving, encasing her body with a thin layer of psychic energy. Laurel and John were shocked to see that.

They had seen the psychic use her telepathy and telekinesis in extraordinary ways before on television, but to see it up close were an incredible sight to witness. But they got worried when seeing the mutant step closer to their telekinetically bound teammate.

"Wait, Olivia!" Laurel said. But like John, she felt the nanite mutant place his hand on her shoulder.

With Thea still growling in anger and rage, Olivia placed her finger on her forehead. Thea's eyes widened when feeling the finger send out strange sensations in her mind. Like her mind was cleared and not burdened anymore, making it lighter.

"There all done!" Olivia announced and they all looked shocked and confused at her words.

The psychic casing around Thea faded and she was released from it. Feeling her head clearer than before, she looked into the mutant's eyes with shock. "What?" Thea looked at her hands and flexed them a few times. "What did you do to me?" Her hands placed themselves on her temples.

"Temporarily blocked your bloodlust or whatever it's called." Olivia revealed, to the shock of them all.

"Wait?" Kendra looked shocked. "I understand a bit about this thing, but you can actually block it?"

"Kind of." The psychic clarified. "It only blocks the bloodlust's effects on her mind, so she doesn't start howling like a crazy wolf at the moon."

Laurel looked confused and asked. "This was your plan the entire time, right?"

"Yup." Olivia simply answered.

John ran his hand down his face. "Why didn't you say this?"

"Like I said before, I had a feeling that Felicity would tell you guys about it and Thea would get angry. It would be a good chance to see her bloodlust myself and estimate how much I can block it." Thea smiled, but it faded when Olivia's hand was held out in front of her face. "I did manage to block it, but it's more of a mental thing, so the block is only temporary and can only last a few days, most likely two at best."

"But why did you do it?" Laurel asked the obvious question. She tried thinking up possible reasons for the psychic to do this. But she to no success.

Olivia raised an eyebrow. "You guys do know that I'm a psychologist, right?" Their mouths widened as did their eyes. "You guys didn't know that, huh? Cool. Well, I help people normally with my powers like that. Telekinetically blocking a strange sensation in the mind is something I've done before, just did the same to your friend here. And as I mentioned before, it kinda makes her a liability if we were to fight Savage with her like this. This way, she can fight with a calm mind."

"Calm as I can be when fighting against an immortal." The red archer joked. "But thanks for it."

"Don't worry about that. I should be apologizing for making you angry and all that, Thea. I'm sorry." Olivia apologized and walked around the group and let out. "Gonna go have a drink. I'm thirsty."

Matt laughed at her whine. "Sometimes, I forget the Fiercest Woman on Earth have a heart." He quipped.

Kendra looked at him with curiosity plastered over her face. "Why do you call her that?"

"It's an old nickname she got when she had just graduated from SHIELD Academy." Matt rubbed the back of his head and said. "Think she was maybe a year or two older than Frankie is and graduated and she was on her mission that took a swan dive down south." They looked at him curiously.

He then elaborated. "She had a mission to infiltrate a secret enemy base stationed at a fortified fortress with a team she was assigned with. But they were ambushed, and her entire team had been injured and they only had one medic that could treat them on site. Livia was safe, thankfully. The director of SHIELD, her dad, ordered her to retreat and try again with a larger group of agents. But despite being adopted, she got the director's stubbornness and disabled her comms so she could take on the enemy base herself."

"Seriously?" Kendra asked in shock.

"Yeah." Matt nodded. "She couldn't forgive the enemy for ambushing her team and went to do some old-fashioned payback, and absolutely destroyed the fortress without mercy. That's actually how the name "Angel Fury" became known throughout our world. And because everyone saw that it was a woman who stood on top of the ruined base with a demonic appearance, Angel Fury was later known as the Fiercest Woman on Earth in newspapers. Pretty cool if you ask me."

The nanite mutant didn't pay attention to the others giving him strange and bewildered looks from hearing of the origins behind Olivia's other nickname. His eyes were focused on the skies that appears to be darkening from the descending sun. Both hands clenched as he realized what this meant.

"Our deadline's closing in."

X

As the nighttime was slowly falling over the outskirts of Central City, Oliver Queen returned to the farmhouse with a heart heavy as a planet… or perhaps even bigger and heavier than that of a planet's weight.

He learned the truth today… That he had fathered a child… A boy by the name of William, to a woman that told him that she lost the baby.

But it was a lie that his own mother, Moira Queen, had initiated by tempting Samantha Clayton, a woman of his past, a past fling, with a one-million-dollar check.

It worked and Samantha moved to Central City and raised her son without Oliver none the wiser of his own child being raised without his father. Despite the woman of his past telling him that William wasn't his, he had met liars before and the archer was too sharpened to ignore the obvious facts.

So with polished skills, he managed to pick a hair strand from William's cap, a sample of his own DNA. Everything that would confirm his thoughts and doubts. He then asked Barry to run it against a sample of his own blood, unbeknownst to Barry himself. To see once and for all, if the child was truly his own.

It was a match as he suspected and went to confront Samantha about her lie.

At her house, the one where she showed him the check that Moira Queen wrote for her and showed that it was never cashed. Samantha didn't need that woman's money to know she didn't want her anywhere near her child. Or Oliver himself near William, for that matter.

Samantha didn't see it possible for Oliver to be part of William's life, to be his dad. Even like his dad. Back then, Oliver wasn't the best influence and not the best person either. With him punching out paparazzi and getting young girls knocked up left and right, it wasn't the right influence for her child.

And Samantha knew that Oliver was not that person anymore, with him running for mayor, following the footsteps of his killed mother. His friend Tommy Merlyn too. She knew that these events had made him a different man, but she honestly couldn't expect his life to be any less crazy. Better that their two worlds were to remain separated.

Worst of all… if Oliver wanted a relationship with his son… he had to keep this from the woman he loves…

… from Felicity…

He walked through the open white-picketed fence and was met with Felicity herself standing there in the night fallen front yard. She faced her boyfriend. "Everyone's waiting for you."

"Sorry, just something I had to take care of." Oliver replied as he walked past her.

"So I guess you're off the secret-keeping wagon." She quipped knowingly.

He shook his head. "That's not it."

"Then what is it?" She demanded to know.

He turned around, remembering briefly the conditions Samantha gave him before answering, with a lie. "I think Damien Darhk has someone operating in Central City. So I sent Barry to run down a lead."

What Oliver didn't know was that Felicity knew exactly what that lead was and she brought it with her. She found Barry in his CSI lab at the police department and saw him trying to hide a piece of paper. But she caught him putting it away and pried him enough till he finally revealed the paper.

Showing her a DNA test, checking to see if two DNA sequences are a match to find the father of a child. And she recognized one of those sequences at first glance.

She showed that very same paper, the one that Oliver saw back in Barry's lab, to Oliver again. "This kind of lead?" Oliver looked at it soulfully before looking back to Felicity's face. "He didn't know what he was giving me. But I've run enough tests on your blood to recognize your DNA sequence anywhere."

"You don't know-"

"You had him run a paternity test, didn't you?" Felicity interrupted him immediately.

And Oliver didn't make a single motion, neither nodding nor shaking his head at her question, not even giving her an answer. So instead she came to a conclusion herself. "Look, Felicity-"

"Stop!" The hacker interrupted him again with a raised voice. Raised, but a heartbroken voice was also raised to keep him from walking away. "I cannot hear another lie!"

Oliver didn't look at her, crossing his arms and said. "It's more complicated than that."

Felicity couldn't believe what she was hearing right now from him. "God, Oliver, you are the only person on this planet who considers the truth "complicated"." She walked around him till she stood in front of him once more to look into his eyes. "Just to be clear, I don't care that you have a child… I can't believe that you have a child that you didn't tell me about. I care that you lied to me just now."

Lowering his guards with her, he said with teary eyes. "Do you know that my whole world just exploded? And I think that I'm entitled to… a minute to process that by myself."

"You somehow managed to go to C.C.P.D. and track down Barry." Felicity said, her boyfriend didn't know what to say now. "You didn't keep it to yourself. You kept it from me. When were you planning on telling me?"

He didn't speak for a few moments. "I don't know."

She inhaled deeply, fighting back tears. "If you loved me… if you trusted me… telling you wouldn't be such a burden. It would be a relief."

The front door opened and both Matt and Barry walked through it and saw Oliver and Felicity in a heated conversation. They shared a look after hearing the hacker say. "But you don't trust me." Now the two powered men gulped. "You never will. And how can I be with someone who doesn't trust me?"

He didn't know about the speedster's thoughts, but Matt regretted walking outside now. They just stumbled upon something they shouldn't be hearing.

As she got no response from the archer, Felicity walked away and left Oliver to his own devices.

"Felicity…" Oliver softly called out for her.

Barry then asked Oliver in concern. "Are you guys okay?"

The archer was wearing a blank and emotionless expression and Matt asked. "Queen? What's wrong? What happened?"

He inhaled deeply. "Nothing. I'm fine." Oliver told them and walked to the front door.

When reaching them, the nanite mutant said. "Sure about that? You don't look fine. Actually, you look out of it?"

Oliver didn't give the mutant any attention and looked to the speedster. "Is everyone inside?"

Knowing that he couldn't pry into it further, Barry nodded. "Yeah."

Oliver walked into the house and Matt turned to Barry. "Think he can handle this?"

"I hope so." Barry unsurely said, he was acting unlike himself.

X

"We're coming up on Savage's deadline." Oliver announced when stepping into the farmhouse with the powered men coming behind him.

Laurel looked outside and didn't see their friendly hacker. "Where's Felicity?" Matt waved his hand, telling her without words to not ask about that subject.

"Are the gauntlets working?" Oliver asked the geek squad as he so elegantly put it.

"They're gonna have to be. We're out of time." Caitlin answered, but was worried that if they don't then her daughter might be in the crossfire.

While wearing the gauntlets himself, Cisco said. "I think they'll work." He looked at the gauntlets and quipped. "That staff's gonna go from _Can't Touch This_ to _Invisible Touch_."

Inhaling deeply once more, Oliver stated. "Savage doesn't know Kendra has access to her full abilities," he turned to face the hawk people, pointing at finger at the woman. "which makes you our ace in the hole. We're gonna put you up against Savage. You attack with the element of surprise. Matt and I will lay down cover fire. Olivia distracts him with close range fighting." The two mutants nodded in agreement while the archer looked to the speedster. "Barry, you speed in and…"

"Snatch the staff. I got it." Barry said in agreement.

John asked with a gesture to him, Laurel, Thea and Frankie. "Where do you need us?"

Giving them a look, Oliver stated. "This is me, Barry, Olivia, Matt, Kendra and Carter. We've got it."

"Ollie!" Thea tried to protest.

"What the-" Frankie's protests were cut short.

"No." Oliver sternly said. "We're not risking any more lives tonight than we have to." He gave Caitlin a look and said. "And I certainly not putting Seth and your daughter in danger, Caitlin. Not against a guy who's been destroying villages since before any of us were born." he walked away to suit up.

Caitlin looked shocked at the archer's thoughtfulness and thinking of her daughter like this. Especially as he didn't seem to care much about Seth the last time those two met face to face. And that he's not here, Oliver was caring about their child.

Even the mutants were shocked to say the least.

Olivia asked her husband. "What's going on with Queen?"

"No idea, suddenly he just turns cold after a heated conversation with Felicity." Matt revealed.

"What the hell did they talk about?" The psychic wondered.

Barry then took the helm of the ship and ordered. "Suit up."

It was time to head into battle now.

X

**(Jurgens Industrials)**

The Flash, Green Arrow, Iron Knight and Angel Fury were all ready for battle. They walked on either side of the two handcuffed hawk people, Hawkgirl and Hawkman. They walked deeper into Jurgen Industrials and all wore worried expressions.

Angel Fury looked to her husband and asked. "Think this will work?"

"We're going up against an immortal madman with combat experience than any of us combined. He managed to take on both of us before, killed me and even fought against the four of us together and still managed to stay alive." Matt grimly said. "Of everyone in here, in the entire city, he's the most dangerous one here. He can't be underestimated."

"You're right." Olivia understood his points.

"You brought them." Vandal Savage announced his presence, his hand tightly clutched around the Staff of Horus, his powerful weapon from his first life. "And dressed for the occasion, I see."

Oliver then growlingly said. "We're only doing this because two lives aren't worth two cities."

"Like you said, Savage." Matt followed up. "Two strangers' lives aren't worth our friends and families' lives."

Vandal smirked. "Well, in that case, you are wiser than I gave you credit for." He faced the mutants and pointed at them with his staff. "But I expected nothing less from the two beings that fought me so gallantly before. The two of you… have my respect."

Olivia shrugged. "Well, people have considered us more villains than heroes anyway."

The immortal chuckled. "My dear, you still have such humor that is out of this world." He noted and looked to the knight. "For what it is worth, young knight, I was hoping that you and I can could face one another again. You bear the title of a knight, yes, but you wield the skills of a plethora of weapons masters. An opponent such as yourself… are a rare species indeed."

"For what it's worth," Matt used his own words. "It's been educational fighting against you, Savage."

"I am pleased to add more to your repertoire, an expanding arsenal frightening to any inexperienced fools before you." Vandal admitted and walked closer to the hawk people. "It's been a lifetime. Still wearing those ridiculous outfits. I see." He chuckled at his own gesture to their suits. Scoffing, he looked to the four heroes. "You don't need to be here for this." he revealed the insides of his jacket, showing them all an array of knives. "The culling has a tendency to be unsightly."

Matt glanced at Barry's hands, seeing him wield the anti-staff gauntlets. "_If those don't work, it's the end of us all._" He thought darkly.

Savage looked again to the hawk people. "Your new friends betrayed you." He told them.

Carter said hastily. "Just do what you're going to do."

He smiled briefly before looking to the latest incarnate of Chay-Ara. "It's wonderful to see you again, my love."

Kendra shook her head defiantly at his words. "I will never be your love."

"I know." Vandal said, having heard similar words in the past lifetimes when he had to hunt them down. He withdrew a knife from his belt. "That always makes this easier." He inched closer to her and swung the knife around in his hand. "Chay-Ara, parting is such sweet sorrow." He went to stab her.

But Oliver grabbed his hand and slammed his bow into the immortal's side, causing him to grunt. Olivia jumped forward, landing behind Vandal and swinging her whip around. With a single crack on the ground, she lashed it outwards to wrap it around the madman's throat and pulled on it.

With his head pulled back, the archer repeatedly punched Savage's face with his bow.

Sharing a nod between them, Barry and Matt jumped into action. The Flash broke the handcuffs around the flying people and Matt jumped into the fight with Savage.

Blocking the fist coming from archer again, the immortal spun around, unwrapping himself from the whip. Spinning his staff around, he slammed the whip away before hitting the end of it against Green Arrow' thigh. Raising it high above his head, Vandal blocked the incoming energy blade from the armored mutant.

"And our fight continues, brave knight." Vandal smirked.

"Let's go!" Matt ignited the thruster under his left foot, aiming for his enemy's head with his knee shooting upwards. Vandal foresaw the attack and parried the blade and deflected the knee with his staff. Spiraling around, while putting distance between them, the immortal blasted an energy blast at the knight, shooting him away. He pointed in the direction of the speedster, blasting him away as well with a blue energy blast.

Olivia lashed out her claws, swinging them from downwards and swiping upwards for him. The immortal grabbed her wrist and hit her face plate with his staff. She remained strong and grabbed the staff with her other free hand. "_Now, Matt!_" she telepathically called out to her husband.

While still in the air, and having heard his wife's words, the armored mutant quickly gathered repulsor energy into his arc reactor on his chest. It was shining brightly with the energy transferred to it and he unleashed onto the immortal in an unibeam. The blast connected with Savage, sending away and his grasp on the staff was released.

Telekinetically increasing her strength, she threw the Staff of Horus away and following her husband's example, she fired off a psychic blast at the immortal. But it was dodged, and he threw knives after the mutants. Half of them were deflected from the archer's arrows that he fired off. The ones that came their way were enveloped with a psychic aura.

Olivia swung her hand around and sent them back to Vandal. They hit his body but were quickly pulled out, the immortal not even giving off an expression of pain at the feeling of his own knives pulled out of his flesh and bone.

Hawkman flexed his back and his wings sprouted out in an instant. He looked to Hawkgirl. "Now, Kendra!"

Mimicking his way, Kendra flexed her back too… but unlike him…

… her wings didn't sprout…

Her eyes were wide with realization as she realized that her training was wasted. She gasped in fear and shock as she looked to the flying man.

Oliver engaged in a fight with Savage, swinging his bow for his head. The immortal lowered himself in a crouch dodging it. As he returned to his full height, he drove his fist into the side of Oliver's stomach. Fighting the pain, the archer swung his bow again, but it was avoided as well and he was met with the enemy's fist connecting with his face.

The blow to his face brought him down to the ground and Oliver looked up to the madman, seeing him lash his foot into his face and sending him down to the ground.

Angel Fury lashed out her whip again, shooting it out for the madman from behind. But he predicted that and grabbed the bladed tip of the thong. Facing the psychic mutant, he pulled on it and brought her closer to him. He punched her throat before wrapping his hand around her neck. "Sorry, my dear, but I have business to attend to."

With impressive strength, he threw the psychic away, throwing her into the armored mutant's body and pushing him down to the ground.

Reaching into the insides of his coat again, he pulled out two knives and threw them after Carter. As he was still distracted from the sight of his soulmate not able to unleash her wings, he failed to notice the knives coming his way.

The moment they pierced his chest, Hawkman was forced down to the ground.

"Carter!" Hawkgirl exclaimed. A strange veil of white-ish energy came from the dead Hawkman's mouth…as though something had departed from his mouth.

Kendra saw red, driving her into a wrathful rage that left her unbalanced, making her blindly charge for the immortal in hopes of avenging Carter with the death of Vandal Savage. But her impetuousness backfired, in a way that was to be expected when fighting a man who have ended her life in the past lifetimes. The flying woman reached that same conclusion when Vandal Savage drove a knife into her body.

The sound of the knife tearing through flesh, muscles, fibers and blood echoed and the other four heroes saw their friend pierced by an ancient hunting knife.

"Kendra!" Matt screamed in dismay at the sight of Cisco's girlfriend being killed.

A similar white-ish energy departed from Kendra's face and to5 absorbed by the immortal madman.

As he slowly withdrew his knife from Kendra's body… Oliver fired an arrow at Savage. It bounced off him as though the flesh on his body had grown firmer and stronger.

Olivia looked to Barry. "Flash! The staff!" The speedster nodded.

_WHOOSH_

Barry rushed and picked up the Staff of Horus. The two mutants flew to Oliver's side where the speedster stopped as well.

The moment Barry stopped, he pointed the staff at the immortal madman, unleashing a violent beam of blue energy. But somehow, Vandal Savage was able to raise a blue energy before himself, blocking the beam from the speedster.

"I've got it!" Barry shouted as he continued the beam. Hope seemed to raise and the four heroes thought that they could avenge their fallen comrades.

"**Sir! The gauntlets are appearing to be malfunctioning!**"

Hearing the AI's exclaims, Matt looked to the gauntlets that appeared to be sparking violently. "Oh no!"

"What's wrong?" Olivia followed the direction of her husband's eyes. "Oh no!"

And just like that, hope was lost.

"The gauntlets aren't working!" Barry shouted, experiencing the same as the gauntlets became riddled with the same blue energy, like the Staff's powers were overpowering their capabilities.

Both mutants shared meaningful looks. Their masks opening up so their green and blue eyes could meet one another without any filter.

"Fight till the end?" Olivia asked.

"Or die trying." Matt confirmed her thoughts with the elemental's own catchphrase.

Oliver rushed to Barry's side, dropping his bow and took hold of the staff and continued the beam with Barry Allen. The two mutants snapped around and locked eyes with the immortal madman.

Olivia Fury enshrouded her entire being with psychic energy, eyes blazing with the pinkish energy and her hair shooting upwards from the immense power she was emitting from within. Her hands curling agonizingly slow as the psychic formed giant energy spheres in both palms. Her mouth opening, letting out a warcry, before thrusting both hands forward, exploding the spheres and converging their energy into one elongated psychic beam that connected with Savage's shield, pushing him back with Barry's help.

Matt Stark arched his back, launching ten levitating ion cannons from his back. All of them flipped open and charged repulsor energy. His arms forming larger ion cannons and pointing them at the immortal madman as well. All of the cannons lighting up and charging with repulsor energy stopped before firing twelve massive energy beams from his cannons. Converging them all to the Savage's shield.

But despite the three different beams firing against him, Savage's shield remained strong, stronger as he have consumed the lives of his prey. The beam from the Staff of Horus, despite being on the good guys' side, fought against the repulsor beams and the psychic beams.

Oliver reached the same conclusion. "Let go, Barry!"

Barry shook his head. "No, I'm not leaving you. Any of you!"

"You have to, Barry!" Matt shouted, increasing the energy output of his weapons to the max. He bit his lower lips at the sudden and new sensation of pain from his gauntlets heating up around his arms. It was like a drought that birthed an overheat, strong enough to be searing through his flesh to try and find his adamantium bones.

"Get going, Flash!" Olivia screamed as well. Like her husband, she increased the strength of her psychic powers and try to penetrate the shield with her psychic beam. It got to the point where the familiar and old sensation of pain from her head bursting with ripe pain emitted through her head. Blood began to flow down her nostrils. "_Damn it, not now!_" she thought annoyingly at the pain.

Oliver then said. "You're fast enough to get away. Go!"

"Guys, no." Barry said through the crackling of energy masses happening in the collision of energy beams.

But Oliver then said… knowingly of what was about to happen. "Run, Barry, run."

Barry let the words sink in… and the anti-staff gauntlets let the blue energy from the staff sink in and were only able to take so much… and they exploded from overloading.

The explosion sent him flying into the air and down on the ground rolling. The sudden explosion caused the staff's beam to disperse and the two additional beams collided. While Vandal Savage remained strong, he saw the two mutants falling to their knees.

He was shocked to see the armored knight's arms falling down to ground, hanging off his body and the pieces of his gauntlets falling off one by one. He saw blood flowing down flowing down from the psychic's nose and from her eyes as well. Reddening her pale-white skin.

The immortal shot forward and grabbed the staff from the archer, pulling it out of his grasp and pushing him down to the ground.

Matt looked to his wife. "Livia…" he mouthed the word to his true love.

Olivia looked to her husband. "Matty…" She mouthed the word to her true love.

And as those words were uttered by the married couple, the immortal madman spun around. With the quick spin fulfilled, Vandal Savage slammed the Staff of Horus into the ground, unleashing an explosive pulse of energy that spread like a devasting and destructive blazing virus.

Oliver was the closest to it and saw it… no… the first to experience it first-hand. The energy pulse instantly burning through his suit, his skin, his blood, his muscles… his organs and his skeleton in an instant.

The two married mutants kept their eyes on each other as the pulse reached them. Watching each other as the pulse burned through their suits like it was paper. Burning their skin, their hair, their blood. But they smiled to each other lovingly when pulse reached them.

But Matt was forced to see his wife die before his eyes, seeing her entire being reduced to dust before him because of that devasting strike. With half of his face and almost his entire body burned from the pulse, he turned to the speedster with half of his adamantium skull looking at him.

"Run you fool." He said hoarsely as the pulse reduced his adamantium skeleton to nothingness and ending the nanite mutant's life.

_WHOOSH_

Fighting back tears of sadness from seeing his friends and close comrades dying in front of him, Barry sped away and out of the building… but the destructive pulse continued to spread and blast Jurgen Industrials to smithereens.

As Barry ran, he realized that Vandal Savage was perfectly capable of destroying an entire city. The powers of the Staff of Horus in his hands were nothing like what Barry did when he wielded the staff. In his hands, it was only be an enlarged firearm.

But in the hands of the immortal tyrant, it was a weapon… capable of reducing an entire metropolis to ashes with a magical energy blast. Able to burn everyone and everything in its blast radius to ashes…. Man, woman, child…

… none would survive…

… even those on the outskirts of the city…

X

**(Outskirts of Central City, Farmhouse)**

It was like an earthquake was taking place now.

The entire farmhouse was shaking violently and the two teams of heroes were struggling to even stand properly as the entire house was shaking by whatever was causing this.

Frankie was keeping close to her mother.

And Caitlin kept herself close to her daughter as they shaking continued.

Cisco looked around nervously with John and Laurel.

Thea kept her eyes on Felicity felt the shaking too and got up from her table.

"Mom, what's going on?" Frankie asked with a feeling that took fear to a whole new level.

"It's okay, honey." Caitlin hugged her. "I'm here." She tried to speak with a calming voice, but her own fear was quickly overwhelming her attempt at kindness.

John, out of curiosity, looked out the window, upon hearing small explosions from technology out in the front yard, seeing that something blue was shining through the glass from the other side…

…and immediately came to regret that decision… at the sight of a blue energy blast wave coming towards… _them…_

He snapped around to shout its incoming, but it was useless… because the blast wave already connected with his body and Laurel's. reducing both of their bodies to ashes in an instant. Mowing through the farmhouse like it was nothing compared to its strength.

Cisco staggered backwards, and tripped. But before his body could land on the wooden floor, his body was hit by the blue energy blast, reducing him to nothingness.

Thea tried to reach Felicity. But the blast wave already touched them both, obliterating them both within an instant.

Caitlin hugged her daughter tightly, Frankie reciprocating with her own arms wrapping around her mother.

The two stayed in the embrace… as the blast wave reached them… and immediately…erased the mother and daughter… before either of them could ever get the chance to reunite with the elemental they love.

X

Barry continued running, trying with all of his might, trying to outrun the massive blast wave that was decimating his hometown so easily. He used his powers to the maximum power, trying to stay ahead of the magical blast.

His speed increasing with each second and each step he took. His lightning coursed through his entire body, crackling against every part of his being, right down to the molecular level and crackling against all of his cells like he was hit by another lightning bolt.

Like a lightning bolt striking down anything in its path, Barry stroke down his limits as he did everything, he could to escape the blast wave that was on his tail.

His determination and his will power to escape that blast wave came out in a roar.

_ROAR_

A flash of blue light emitted around his rushing form the moment he opened his mouth.

And he ran into it.

X

When he came out of the blue flash of energy, he looked around and found himself running through the city again, but this time in the opposite direction.

And rather than running through the decimating form of his hometown… he found himself running down the night streets of Central City.

A familiar sensation of confusion took over his mind, but he didn't stop running and looked ahead…his eyes looking to the right… and widening at the sight.

He saw his own two eyes… looking right back at him…

The familiar form… of a speeding and blurry… version of himself. Every single detail included… the suit and the emblem… even the yellow lightning coming off his body too…

Like he had done in the past with Mark Mardon's gargantuan tsunami, he was now looking into eyes of himself again.

_WHOOSH_

The blurry vision of himself ran away in an instant. Barry looked away and as quickly as he ran, he stopped himself when realizing that he has reached his destination… his previous destination, that is.

As he came to a stop, he panted heavily while snapping his head around in bewilderment at the locale that he had come to before. It was one that he recently visited… the very last day in fact.

"Thank you for coming."

His eyes widened at the voice… the voice of a friend he thought to have fallen to the immortal tyrant. He looked to the direction and did indeed find Oliver Queen standing there as Green Arrow again with Malcolm Merlyn beside him. He wasn't the only on there.

Olivia Fury was standing there as well. Alive and well, standing tall and proud in her suit as Angel Fury. She was standing beside her husband.

Matt Stark was beside his wife. Like he, he was also alive and well, leaning against the wall with arms crossed over his armored chest. His entire body geared up with his suit as Iron Knight.

"I know this is a little more than little crazy." Oliver continued with a glance to the mutants and the speedster, before throwing another glance to the Demon's Head.

Matt chuckled and gestured to Malcolm with a pointed finger. "Yeah. Well, your friend with the creepy and tacky ring asked so nicely."

Malcolm nodded to the psychic mutant and corrected. "I asked _her_ nicely, to be precise."

"Thanks, but I'm taken." Olivia quipped with a finger pointing to her husband who glared at the man through his helmet.

Barry finally realized what had happened… that he has once again travelled through time. And by doing so, he was blessed with another chance to prevent a horrible fate from befalling on his home and ending the lives of his friends and family.

Matt noticed that Barry was not speaking and looking at him and Olivia with wide eyes. Eyes wide from overwhelming surprise… and joy?

The nanite mutant grew concerned and looked at him. "Are you okay, Barry?" The speedster nodded without uttering any words.

Before Olivia could question him herself, she heard thoughts coming from the other end and announced. "Looks like the guest of honor decided to show his face."

""Guest of honor"? A title that haven't been associated with me before. Thank you, my dear, for such caring words." Vandal Savage announced his presence to them all. Barry clenched his hands in rage, seeing the man who decimated his home… who would decimate his home if he took the wrong course of actions.

The rest of the meeting went as it did before, following the same words and actions as they were yet to be done. But Barry kept his wits and quips to himself throughout the entire conversation, letting the others state their words.

"I came to this meeting out of curiosity. It is now sated." The immortal tyrant said, using familiar words that only the speedster has heard him utter before. "Bring Khufu and Chay-Ara to Jurgens Industrials in 24 hours or I will see you dead and buried under the bodies of your loved ones." Vandal Savage turned around, dropping the arrow to the ground and walking away.

Oliver, having noticed the metahuman's lack of conversing, asked him curiously. "Barry, you all right?"

Matt saw him. "Yeah, you look like you've seen a ghost." He worriedly asked him.

Barry shook his head assuredly, but inwardly… he was looking at the faces of three ghosts before him.

X

**(Farmhouse)**

Barry ran back to the farmhouse with superspeed on his side and Oliver drove to the house on his motorcycle. Olivia and Matt flew the way to them and landed on gravel-covered grounds with a clattering sound.

The two mutants saw that something was weighing on Barry's shoulders, like a heavy burden that forcing him deeper and deeper in the ground. It seemed to increase with him panting heavily.

Matt knew that the speedster's state of mind was important, but the fate of the city was in fear of absolute destruction and closing in. "We need to be brief the team."

Oliver nodded his agreement. "Yeah and come up with some type of counterattack." He took of his hood and walked.

Olivia saw Barry still standing there and looking to be struggling with something inside of him. "Barry, what the hell is going on with you? Something's bothering you, anyone can see that."

Barry steeled his nerves and announced honestly. "It's not gonna work." He said with a raised voice, shocking the archer who turned around and the two mutants.

"What do you mean, Barry?" Matt asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, all right. Never mind." Barry took off his cowl. "I shouldn't have said anything. I-" he saw that Oliver, Olivia and Matt stood around him and kept him from moving, barricading him from moving onwards.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked him.

"You're acting weirder than normally, Barry. What's on your mind?" Olivia calmly asked, but like her husband she was also suspicious of his strange behavior.

Knowing that the two mutants have dealt with him acting like this, experiencing sudden time jumps, he directed to Oliver. "Okay, look. This isn't going to make any sense to you, Matt and Liv have already seen this, but I…" he sighed and got a saddened expression. "All right, so I traveled back in time from when we tried to take out Savage. I mean, later, when we try to take him down, in the future, and… it doesn't work."

"You're right. That doesn't make sense to me." Oliver confirmed.

Olivia rubbed her temples. "You time traveled again?" the speedster nodded. "God, why is our world always the strangest."

"Wait." Matt walked closer. "You ghosted?"

"Yeah." Barry found it hard to look at the mutants, having experienced their deaths before his eyes was still lingering in him.

"Ghosted?" The psychic inquired.

"Last time, before Barry time-jumped, with that entire tsunami thing he told us about, he saw himself running beside him, appearing out of nowhere, like a transparent version of himself." Matt explained as best as he could.

"Okay, ghosted. Got it." Olivia simply said, not wanting to dive deeper into the scientific term.

Oliver understood his words and said. "Well, maybe we use that to our advantage. You say that whatever we do against Savage doesn't' work?"

"Yeah." Barry answered.

"Then we come up with a new and better plan." Olivia said.

But then the speedster shook his head frantically. "No. No, no, no. Okay, look, we can't. When I mess with time, it just… it doesn't end well."

"Barry, we know that time always finds a way to get back at you for messing with it, we know that." Matt told him. "But what you're telling us is that it already doesn't end well." Barry inhaled. "Barry, you know as well as I do, that people in our lives, this line of work, we don't always get second chances."

"Matt's right. And we need to take this one." Oliver said.

"All right." Barry accepted their words and their wills, their determination to bring about a better fate than the one that he saw few moments ago. "I hope you guys are right."

"Cool." Matt smiled and they all walked. "So let's begin with what went wrong.".

"Oliver did." Barry surprisingly stated and they continued walking as he elaborated while making eye contact with the archer himself. "When we go up against Savage, your head's not in the game. You're not yourself."

"Why not?" Oliver inquired. The speedster was hesitant and didn't look like he wanted to say anything, but the archer persisted. "Barry, why not?"

The four of them stopped, three of them looked to Barry with serious eyes as he tried to gather up the courage so he can say the words he's withholding. "Okay, are you planning on giving me a hair sample to run forensics on in the near future?" He already knew the answer to that question, that future had already been experienced.

"Yeah." Oliver nodded, he had retrieved a hair strand from the baseball cap that belonged to Samantha Clayton's son, William. With that, he was gonna have Barry unknowingly compare the DNA of the hair to his own blood to see if they were a match. The two mutants could see that something was weighing on his shoulders of a whole different magnitude, something very different from Barry's burden. "Yeah."

"Well, I did." Barry spoke of his actions in the future, the one he time traveled from. "And you were pretty shaken after the fact." The archer kept his eyes from widening. "And then Felicity found out. And you guys had a pretty big fight, and it sounded like it was over between you two."

"Must have been one bad fight." The nanite mutant said, saddened that the cause of a dark future was because of the couple breaking up.

Tilting her head, the psychic asked. "What was the fight about?"

Oliver briefly wondered if the mutant had read his thoughts or something as that was supposed to be his question.

Inhaling deeply, the speedster then revealed. "I'm pretty sure you're someone's father, Oliver." Oliver widened his eyes, gaping his mouth and took on a blank expression from the tidal wave of surprise that just attacked him.

Olivia looked to him and said. "Congratulations." She used her powers to hear his thoughts and found out about the age of the child. "_Nine years old, huh? Means that this kid was born before him and Felicity then._" She furrowed her eyes at the reminder of her brother repeatedly calling him "Cheater Boy." Though from what she read about the guy before, she knew that he definitely wasn't holding back when meeting a hot woman, be it the sister of his then girlfriend or the fiancée of his friend… at their wedding no less.

"Damn." Matt didn't expect the archer to father a child. He didn't seem like the father type. Perhaps that would change in the future.

"So when we go up against Savage, you're not focused." Barry told the archer. "And then Kendra can't access her powers and then the tech they're developing to counteract Savage's staff does not work." He sighed. "Everyone dies, Oliver." He looked to the mutants who looked shocked. "I saw you guys die before my eyes. You, Liv and even Matt."

"Why's that surprising?" Matt asked. "I can still die for God's sake."

"This time, you won't." Oliver got their attention with a determined expression. "This time, _they_ won't. This time, we do things differently." He walked over to the house and left the three powered people alone.

The speedster looked to the mutants. Recalling what happened to them, the armor plates around the knight's gauntlets falling off piece by piece, blood coming out of the psychic's eyes and nostrils like her brain was boiling and threatening to explode. "Can I ask you guys something?"

"Something to do about our death scenes in the future you just escaped from?" Matt quipped his statement and Barry clenched his hands with a saddened expression. "Thought as much." He noticed his reaction. "Sorry you had to see that, Bar."

"Sounds like we still have our work cut out for us, Matty." Olivia stated.

"I still can't believe that I saw what I saw back there." Barry shuddered at the fresh memory of his friends disintegrating before his eyes. "I saw you guys there… and something happened to you."

"What happened?" Olivia asked.

"With you, your nose and eyes were bleeding while you tried to break through Savage's defenses." Olivia widened her eyes at the speedster's words. "What was that? I don't think that's happened before with you." Barry said.

"I might have trained longer than you have Barry, have years of experience with my powers, but I still have limits myself." The psychic informed him. "And my powers originate from my brain capacity. If I go past that capacity, it lowers the strength of my powers, hurts my brains and I get nasty nosebleeds." She chuckled and placed her hand over her eyes. "I haven't bled from my eyes in years. I must have really gone past my limits and it backfired."

"It did. You tried with all of your powers to defeat Savage with Matt and Oliver and I, and it hurt you in the process." Barry said and looked to the nanite mutant. "Your suit began falling apart as well."

"Must have overheated." He placed his hand on his chin. "It used to happen a lot in the past with my prototype suits. Like Liv's brain capacity for her psychic usage, my suits have their capacity. And like her getting nosebleeds, my suits would fall apart from going past their limits and causing them to fall apart." Patting the armor plates around his body, he added. "Might wanna think about making some improvements to this one then."

"Yeah and Savage… he decimated the entire city with the Staff of Horus." The speedster gulped. "Matt, his attack destroyed you and your entire body like it was everyone else's."

"Barry. I might able to survive somethings that can kill a normal person, but I can still die." Quickly thinking back to how Seth explained his powers, Matt explained. "Every part of a powered being's abilities are like muscles. They have limits and if you overwork them then they tear and you can suffer drawbacks. The same applies to my healing factor, the thing that allows me to survive various attacks that would kill any normal people. It takes some time for my powers to heal the damage."

Matt narrowed his eyes. "But if I were to be hit by something that could attack me from every side then it could end up with my healing factor taking too long to heal and I would die. It takes time and energy for it to attack work and heal all my damage, that's why I didn't shoot back after Savage pierced my back. That's why I was decimated in your future fight with Savage, because my healing factor couldn't keep up with my body disintegrating rapidly."

"Never thought about it that way, I guess." Barry admitted.

"Yeah, thought as much." He noticed his wife looking down, and he placed his hand on her shoulder. "I ain't going anywhere, you know that right, Livia? It's gonna take more than a stupid immortal to get rid of me."

"I know that, dummy." She perked up and looked into his eyes. "I love you, and I'm gonna make sure that I'm here with you too." She leant up and kissed his lips lovingly. He returned it and wrapped his arms around her.

Barry looked around awkwardly and only stood there for a second before walking away and over to the farmhouse himself. He didn't feel the need to be a spectator to the two's romance.

X

The next day, in the workshop beside the farmhouse, Cisco was working hard in the woodshed. The gauntlets are an essential part of the plan to take down Savage. These gauntlets are the only thing that allows the heroes to wield the Staff of Horus.

He knows that these gauntlets will also be the important chess piece in the game that decides the fate of his girlfriend, Kendra Saunders. Cisco was unsure if he could still call her his girlfriend considering that in every one of her previous lifetimes, she's always been destined to find the latest reincarnation of Prince Khufu.

What chance he did he have against a reincarnated prince?

Shaking his head of those thoughts, he continued working on the gauntlets. While detaching a few cables from it, Cisco heard. "How're they coming?"

With a quick glance, he saw that it was Oliver Queen who came to his workshop. "For my first pair of anti-Gandalf magic staff gloves, pretty good, I think." He held up one glove for the archer who looked over his shoulder.

Knowing full well that Cisco is an amazing engineer and that this is his area of expertise, Oliver know that their current state is not enough for them to take on Savage. "Yeah, just double and triple check, okay? I'm a little worried about them not working."

After walking past the archer, Cisco came to a stop and inquired. "Based on what?"

"Call it a gut instinct." Oliver walked over to the engineer again. "Also, I need you to talk to Kendra."

Putting down the glove, the engineer sarcastically said. "Oh, I get it. You shoot arrows, you give love tips. It's like you're Cupid or something."

Fighting back a chuckle, the archer said. "What Carter is doing with her isn't working. We need her power to fight Savage, and we need her to be able to use it reliably."

Pausing his work, Cisco said, enragedly. "Carter's a jerk. But he's supposed to be with her, 'cause destiny says they're supposed to be together and he's supposed to be her soulmate. So I'm not even sure what I could say-"

"You need to do something, Cisco!" Oliver cut him off. "We need to reach her."

"Egyptian reincarnation is not in my wheelhouse." he told the archer.

Calming himself down, Oliver said. "What Kendra is going through is about accepting who she really is. Who better to help her do that than a guy who is clearly in love with her?" He made a gesture to the engineer himself before leaving him alone, hoping that his words were enough to have made his gears turn.

"I don't know if we're at the L-bomb stage yet." Cisco sheepishly called out to the archer, who stopped and turned around to face the mechanical engineer again. Seeing the dry looking directed at him, he said. "I'll talk to her."

Oliver walked away, finally getting the engineer to cooperate.

X

"You don't think that's a little bit insane?" Kendra Saunders directed to the flying man.

The barista had rushed through the backyard with haste and a heavy mind and an even heavier heart. Her life or the lives of a million of innocent people… an entire city? Maybe two even? She knew what she would choose if this really was the choice.

However, the choice she would choose would not sit well with her friends who are willing to put their lives on the line for her.

"No." Carter Hall lightly shook his head and admitted. "I think it's noble. I think it's what makes them all heroes."

"Yeah, that's nice." Cisco announced his presence when reaching the two reincarnated flyers. "I'm gonna talk to Kendra for a minute, He-Man." He pointed to his… the girl he's been dating.

Carter chuckled humorously like it was a joke. "It's Hawkman. Thanks." He patted the engineer's shoulder before walking away.

Stepping closer to the flying woman, Cisco said. "We should talk."

Smacking her tongue against the roof of her mouth, Kendra reminded. "I thought you were the one that said we should wait till this was all over." She walked along the wooden fence and Cisco followed.

Making sure he didn't misunderstand, he clarified. "Oh, this isn't that talk. This is the trying-to-help-you-sprout-wings talk."

"Yeah, well, according to Carter, I'm a warrior priestess, and rage is the hey to rediscovering myself." She said.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised Mr. Aggro thinks that, but I think he's got this whole thing twisted." He told her. "Instead of focusing on the warrior, focus on the priestess." Kendra looked surprised and shocked at the same time. "And the nurturer. The good-hearted person inside."

She then wondered with a quip. "How do you know I was so goodhearted 4,000 years ago?"

The two stopped before a bench and Cisco put his hands on her shoulders. "Because I know, Kendra, and some things don't change. I think you're resisting what Carter's trying to teach you because it means remembering who you were, and that is somebody else. Somebody who loves him." He said with a heavy heart.

She had to fight back whatever she thought would come when she heard him say those words. Kendra knew that this situation, Carter being here and what it would mean was hard for him as well as herself. But despite how hard it is, he acts like a good man and continues to be the shoulder that can she lean on.

"Ever since I emerged, I've been remembering our first life. In Egypt." Kendra revealed. "But I've been telling Carter I can't remember anything because… because I don't want to accept that I'm some reincarnated Egyptian warrior priestess."

Cisco put his hands on his sides and sighed. "Okay. Yeah, that's pretty heavy." He stepped a few away from her. "But it's also pretty amazing." She looked confusedly at him. "I've been through this. You know I have. And what you're going through right now, this is a gift. It's a miracle that most people don't even get to experience."

"Yeah, well, it feels like a nightmare." Kendra stated her true feelings on the matter.

"Yeah, but that is a choice." He walked to her again, standing before her as she took a seat on the bench. "You can choose the other thing. To remember who you are, or who you were." He kneeled before her. "Close your eyes." She looked hesitant. "Just close her eyes." He softly pleaded.

Kendra inhaled deeply before closing her eyes and listening as the engineer continued with his instructions. "Let yourself… Let yourself… remember."

He didn't say a single word as she kept her eyes shut. Cisco saw her eyes moving frantically behind her eyelids, like she was truly experiencing something. But he couldn't be sure.

"_She is watching something, Cisco._"

Cisco widened his eyes and looked to the side, seeing Olivia Fury sitting on the fence and looking at the two. Remembering that Kendra was in front of him, the engineer started his first mental conversation with the psychic. "_Is… Is she okay?_"

From her seat on the fence, the mutant nodded. "_Right now, she's watching Savage get into her… I'm guessing it's a bed chamber, pretty fancy but she was a warrior priestess at that lifetime so it must be normal._"

"_She's seeing her first life?_" The psychic nodded again to his mental question. "_Get through it, Kendra. I believe in you._" She heard him say with his eyes solely focused on the flying woman. Cisco widened his eyes and looked embarrassed at Olivia. "_You didn't, by chance, hear that did you?_"

"_It's adorable, Cisco._" Olivia could swear she could see him blush despite the distance between them. It was like seeing a lit lava lamp in the night.

Hearing the next thoughts coming to Kendra's mind, she listened closely to those thoughts. "_Horus, your children need you now. We need your protection. Shroud us in your wings._"

Olivia chuckled. "_Such is the birth of Hawkman and Hawkgirl._"

A while later, the flying woman snapped her eyes open and Olivia canceled her telepathy. She removed herself from the grassy field and let the two talk between themselves. Seeing his girlfriend get out of her trance and the mutant leaving, Cisco put his hand on Kendra's shoulder and said. "What? What happened?"

"I think I know how to beat Vandal Savage." Kendra revealed.

_EXPLOSION_

Cisco and Kendra looked in the direction of the sudden explosion's origin. The mechanical engineer lowered his eyes as he realized what was going on. "Think the happy married couple are having that sparring session they promised."

Kendra widened her eyes. "Is that safe?" She inquired in worry when seeing smoke raising high above and into the skies.

"Yeah, totally safe." Cisco assured her. another explosion came from the other side of the house. "But just to be sure, let's make sure they don't accidently blow up this entire farm. We can use Carter as a shield, no one will miss him. Maybe Savage."

X

A while later, a lot of things happened.

The married mutants had plowed through the front yard, blowing up holes all around the place throughout their sparring match. A few of their attacks almost Carter actually, which was funny… to some of them anyway.

Frankie was no different than her aunt and uncle. The moment she was allowed to fight, she resembled a ravenous animal on a hunt and tried to tear into her aunt. But the psychic expected that and fought her off. And though the point of a sparring was to train, their sparring was also to see how well Frankie would fair with her new suit that would allow her to manipulate metal in the cannisters attached to her belt.

Safe to say, the destruction was slightly more increased.

Their training came to an end when Thea Queen stormed into the field and stared into Olivia's passive blue eyes with anger in her own. The red archer had heard of how the psychic had been questioning her team about her sudden rage outbursts, her Bloodlust.

It led to Olivia revealing, straight to Thea's face, that she wouldn't let a liability like her out of her sight for even a second, knowing full well that she couldn't control it. And with someone like that in the field, it could very well lead to someone on their own side being hurt by her.

Thea didn't like that and engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, right to the point where her bloodlust manifested once more and she tried to attack her in a fit of a rage. But the psychic was more experienced than her and would not lose to an animal who fights purely in accordance to its prime instincts, and that was to tear into everyone on the other side of her fangs.

But the psychic used her psychic powers to restrain the younger Queen sibling. And after tapping the red archer's forehead with her finger, Olivia revealed that her plan with fighting Thea was to put up telepathic barriers in her mind. A helping hand so she'd fight with a clear mind in the upcoming fight with the immortal tyrant.

While it would only serve as a temporary help, only able to last a day or two, the psychic was confident that it would definitely help her along for the time being.

Now that nightfall had fallen over them, Cisco and Kendra walked through the back door and the engineer made eye contact with the green archer. "Oliver, you were right. I don't know how you knew, but you were right."

Giving the archer a strange look, the nanite mutant asked of the native engineer. "What did you find Cisco?"

"The gauntlets won't work. They're missing a critical element." Cisco informed.

John looked confused. "How do you know?"

"Think our little birdy knows that answer." Olivia threw a glance to the flying woman.

"You've been reading my mind, haven't you?" the psychic winked with a smile. Kendra chuckled and said. "He knows that because I remembered. I remember how Savage killed us the first time. Back in Egypt."

Carter narrowed his eyes on her form with narrowed eyes. "I've never been able to remember our first death." He admitted.

"Kendra finally let herself remember." Olivia looked to Cisco and gave a nod of approval, the engineer smiling happily. "But what did you see, exactly?"

"Well, these sky rocks," she shook her head and corrected. "meteors, they fell, and they completely destroyed the royal palace."

Felicity got up from her chair and stepped forward. "During the Middle Kingdom, Egypt experienced a high level of meteorite activity." Her team gave her narrowed eyes of shock and so did the youngest metahuman as well. "I know stuff."

Frankie turned to her mother and said. "Think we know who's the brain in that couple."

"Keep that to yourself, honey." Caitlin ruffled her daughter's hair.

Laurel smiled. "Which is one of the many reasons we love you so much, but also doesn't seem to help us stop Savage."

The young magnekinetic perked her head. "Meteors falling over a palace? Sounds like a calamity."

Caitlin knew what her daughter was going for. "It's the calamity Professor Boardman was referencing."

Kendra nodded in agreement with the mother and daughter. "The meteors, they had a glow about them. And Savage's staff had two gemstones with the exact same glow."

Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out his arc reactor. Quickly, placing it on his chest, he let the nanites swarm over his torso. When feeling the nanites adapt to the entirety of his right arm, he flipped his hand around and showed a blue holographic screen. The screen was displaying their fight against Savage back at St. Marks. Giving the AI an order, he stopped at the image of the immortal madman with the staff and holding it high.

The screen zoomed in on the staff's bird top, the bird emitting a blue glow. "Something like this?"

"Yeah." Kendra nodded in shock.

"You recorded our fight?" Oliver asked in shock.

"Thought I could see if the immortal bastard had some openings in his fighting." Matt revealed.

Barry walked closer to the image of the glowing stones in the staff's bird top. "Yeah, the gemstones might be made up of the same element as the meteorite."

Felicity got a look of realization. "The Egyptians would use meteorite in their craftsmanship."

Caitlin perked her head and pointed a finger. "And the minerals glow in proximity to each other." Felicity nodded in agreement and rushed to her computer.

Cisco snapped his fingers. "Like Sankara Stones." He threw a reference into the air.

Thea pointed a finger to the engineer while forming a confused expression. "Oh, wait, the _Indiana Jones_ reference is the only thing I understood." Oliver gave his sister a look as though he understood her.

"Two pieces of the same meteorite, like an Nth metal." Cisco looked to Matt.

"And right there, we have the key to counteracting the staff." The nanite mutant confirmed his thoughts.

Shifting his eyes between the two nerds, the green archer admitted. "Believe it or not, that isn't actually the craziest thing I've heard today."

Felicity found something on her computer and revealed. "There's a sample of the meteorite from the Middle Kingdom at the Keystone City Museum of Natural-"

_WHOOSH_

Barry disappeared off while Felicity spoke. "_And he's off._" Matt thought to herself.

_WHOOSH_

"-History!" Felicity finished her sentence with an exclaim as a wind gust hit her face when Barry returned to the farmhouse, with the meteorite sample in his hand.

Barry sighed and directed the meteorite sample to Matt's and Cisco's eyes. "Hopefully, I got the right one."

Cisco took the sample in his hands and the nanite mutant stated. "Cisco, you should be able to synthesize a compatible isotope out of that rock and coat the gauntlets with it."

"Yeah, you're right, Matt." Cisco examined the sample with his hands and eyes.

"Okay, do it." Oliver patted the engineer's shoulder. And made eye contact with the others. "Savage doesn't know about Kendra's gained access to all of her abilities. That makes you our ace in the hole." Kendra nodded and inhaled deeply nervously.

Olivia looked to her. "Don't worry, Kendra. It's time for you to fly once more, and you'll be able to, Hawkgirl."

"Thanks Liv." Kendra smiled.

Followed with a gesture to Laurel, Thea, John asked. "Where do you need us?"

Looking to them determinedly, he said. "Suit up."

"Aunt Liv?" Frankie directed to her aunt, wanting to know what her instructions were.

The psychic smirked. "Sharpen your fangs, Magenta. It's time for to let your demon loose."

At that moment, Frankie flexed her back and her entire body was instantly enveloped by the symbiotic mass of her partner. The lower half of her mouth split open to reveal her sharp fangs plus the serpent-like tongue that licks the surface of both the upper and lower half of her jaws. "**We're ready for battle.**"

Laurel widened her eyes at the sudden transformation. "Is that normal for her to do?"

"Her dad's Venom, normal was hurled out of the window months ago." Matt quipped.

X

**(Jurgens Industrials)**

The deadline had come. The time to deliver the latest incarnations of Prince Khufu and Priestess Chay-Ara to the mad immortal tyrant, so he could once more continue the vicious cycle of murder and live on with stronger powers in his disposal.

All of them have suited up and arrived at the meeting spot.

Green Arrow looked deeply into the empty space of Jurgens Industrials. Iron Knight and Angel Fury were watching with The Flash from behind. All of them ready for battle along with their friends and family also suited up for battle.

Inhaling deeply, Barry stepped forward and walked to the archer's side. "Ollie. Everyone's in position." Oliver nodded. "Are you sure about this?"

Turning to him, Oliver asked. "About changing the future?" Barry chuckled.

The mutants stepped forward next and they looked to the speedster. The knight asked with a hollow scoff. "Barry, answer me honestly? What can happen here that is worse than what already did?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be so worried." Barry answered.

"Whatever happens next…" Olivia started and curled her fingers. "We're gonna do it, together."

"Let's do it." Oliver walked forward.

Matt looked back saw the hawk people in their suits with the handcuffs on their wrists. "Let's go, Hawks." They nodded and walked forward. Following the heroes, they all walked into the middle of Jurgens Industrials with heavy steps, knowing that this fight would lead to either the decimation of the city or the deaths of the reincarnated hawk people.

"You brought them." Vandal Savage announced his presence to the heroes. He gestured to the handcuffed hawk people. "And dressed for the occasion, I see."

Oliver then growlingly said. "We're only doing this because two lives aren't worth two cities."

"Like you said, Savage." Matt followed up. "Two strangers' lives aren't worth our friends and families' lives."

Vandal smirked. "Well, in that case, you are wiser than I gave you credit for." He faced the mutants and pointed at them with his staff. "But I expected nothing less from the two beings that fought me so gallantly before. The two of you… have my respect."

Olivia shrugged. "Well, people have considered us more villains than heroes anyway."

The immortal chuckled. "My dear, you still have such a humor that is out of this world." He noted and looked to the knight. "For what it is worth, young knight, I was hoping that you and I can could face one another again. You bear the title of a knight, yes, but you wield the skills of a plethora of weapons masters. An opponent such as yourself… are a rare species indeed."

"For what it's worth," Matt used his own words. "It's been educational fighting against you, Savage."

"I am pleased to add more to your repertoire." Vandal admitted and walked closer to the hawk people. "It's been a lifetime. Still wearing those ridiculous outfits. I see." He chuckled at his own gesture to their suits. Scoffing, he looked to the four heroes. "You don't need to be here for this." he revealed the insides of his jacket, showing them all an array of knives. "The culling has a tendency to be unsightly."

Matt glanced at Barry's hands, both wearing the newly adjusted gauntlets, coated with the meteor component, theoretically allowing their bearer to wield the Staff of Horus. "_We're gonna win this. The future's gonna be changed, right here and right now._" He wouldn't their future be written in stone, it was never like that. He, his wife, his friends, nor his family won't die.

Not before they've had the chance to reunite with Seth Fury. Not before he's had the chance to defeat Venom with an overwhelming victory.

Savage looked again to the hawk people. "Your new friends betrayed you." He told them.

Carter said hastily. "Just do what you're going to do."

He smiled briefly before looking to the latest incarnate of Chay-Ara. "It's wonderful to see you again, my love."

"I will never be your love." Kendra dejected willfully.

"I know." Vandal said, having heard similar words in the past lifetimes when he had to hunt them down. With a scoff, he withdrew a knife from his belt. "That always makes this easier." He inched closer to her and spun the knife around in his hand. "Chay-Ara, parting is such sweet sorrow." He went to stab her.

Both Matt and Oliver jumped into action. The nanite mutant firing a pair of repulsor blasts at the immortal while the archer fired an arrow and pierced the hawk people's restraints, releasing them both and allowing to battle.

Olivia cracked her whip, swinging it for the immortal who deflected it with the Staff of Horus. Swinging it again, she aimed for his head. But with the staff spinning in his left hand, he jumped backwards and dodged the whip strike.

As he was now free of his restraints, Hawkman charged for the immortal who had plagued and vanquished his existence in the past. But with a quick charge of energy in the staff, Vandal Savage pushed him aside with a slam from the staff.

Savage used the staff to block the energy blade that came for his head. Pushing against it, the immortal's face neared and looked directly into the nanite mutant's fight. He couldn't keep the smirk from forming on his face and said. "And our fight continues, brave knight."

"Bring it on, Savage!" Matt's back quickly formed wing-shaped thrusters before flaring up, pushing him against the immortal's staff. Stretching out his free hand and lashing it to the side, he opened his palm and the repulsor blasted to the side, slamming it into the staff and pushing Savage away from him. With his thruster on his foot, the mutant lashed out his left foot and it blasted his enemy away.

Oliver saw that the nanite mutant was gaining the upper hand against Savage and shouted to Kendra. "Now, Kendra!"

Taking but a single step forward, the flying woman arched her back…

… and let her brown feathery wings sprout from her back, spreading out to the sides…

She pushed herself off the ground and took flight. Hawkgirl tackled from the skies, hitting Savage and sending him hurling into the ground.

A van drove in from the side, its tires screeching loudly as it neared the battle.

Savage pushed himself off the ground and aimed the Staff at the two mutants, the bird on the top gathering blue energy. But its trajectory was pushed off in the wrong direction after something was hit into it, the blast sent off and hitting a pillar.

Savage and the two mutants saw that the object that slammed into the staff was a pair of metal balls, the size of marbles. All three of them swung their heads in the direction of the balls and saw that it was the form of Magenta that shot them.

Both her hands forming into jagged blades as she looked at the immortal with a savagery look. "**Let's fight, old man!**" she said with crossed arms.

"It appears that there are still young ones in sore need of discipline." He swung the staff in her direction, shooting a blast for her.

Magenta dodged the attack, jumping onto the ceiling and running along the surface. While running on the surface, she swerved around and avoided the energy blasts he shot after her. Leaping off the ceiling, she swung both her bladed arms from above.

Spinning around, he blocked the bladed attack from the young metahuman with his staff raised above his head, holding it with both hands.

Frankie let out tendrils, wrapping them around the immortal's staff. With the strength of her tendrils intensifying, she had leverage and spun around like wheel. Her feet landing on the staff like a platform before she outstretched her hands, forming claws and swinging for Savage's head.

Registering the claws, Vandal Savage gathered energy into the whole staff and unleashed a pulse, pushing Magenta off him and into the air. Performing a spin, the young metahuman landed on the ground and reformed her blades into axes before taking charge again.

Savage aimed his staff at her again but widened his eyes when seeing that the girl had disappeared.

His ears sparked at the sound of clattering feet and he spun around, swinging his staff again. He didn't hit anything but the young metahuman deactivated her powers, revealing herself to him and swung both her axes. Jumping backwards, he dodged the attacks and the fired an energy blast.

Magenta dodged it by leaping backwards, the blast hitting the ground instead. Allowing a grunt of annoyance to come out of his mouth, the tyrant's ears then perked up at the sound of tires and spun around. He blasted the front of the van, causing it to spin around and the back of it points towards them.

The trunk opened up and out came the heroes from Star City. Spartan jumped out and began firing his gun at the immortal. Speedy began to fire her arrows as well. Black Canary in her black suit and a collar around her neck.

Her mouth opening up and allowing a deafening canary cry, a screech very much like a banshee. Savage felt the pain from the screech and grunted while deflecting the attacks from the two long-range fighters.

But even though, he was the enemy… he wasn't the only one to experience the affects of the sonic screech.

**_SCREAM_**

Magenta held her head with both clawed hands and her mouth splitting open, right to the point where it was trying to separate itself from her entire head. Frankie felt the sonic attack rippling through her body from the painful sound waves. Her symbiotic mass was shaking like water and looked to be on the verge of separating itself from her host's body.

"Frankie!" Angel Fury let out in worry and rushed her to niece's side.

"Canary, stop it!" Iron Knight shouted, considering blasting the collar off her throat.

X

A figure near the battlegrounds heard the deafening screech and the sounds of the young metahuman screaming in pain.

The figure frowned at the sound of her pain.

Raising a hand, the figure pushed a small blue button on a device in their hand.

X

Laurel didn't feel it, but crackles of electricity ran along the sides of her collar. Her mouth was still open, but the cry stopped abruptly. While her teammates continued their firing, she shook her collar, trying to it get it work but to no success.

Thankfully so. The symbiote reattached to her host's form but was brought down to knees. She would have fallen to the ground, had it not been for her aunt holding her close. "I'm here, Frankie."

"…Thanks… Aunt Liv." She spoke with her mouth reattaching itself again.

Savage fired off an energy blast at the three heroes, but they dodged it in time. Spinning around, he shot another blast for the mutant and her niece.

Iron Knight saw it and shot forward. Landing before his family and locking himself to the ground before crossing his arms, both swarming with nanites before forming a circular shield. When the blue blast connected with his shield, his body shook but he held strong and survived it.

Glancing to his family, he asked. "Are you both okay?"

"Frankie's still shaken out from that sound attack, but she's okay otherwise." Olivia nodded to the immortal who engaged in a battle with the Star City heroes. "Take him."

Confirming with a nod, he shot like a missile with his thrusters flaring.

Savage slammed Spartan to the side, pushing him down to the ground. He blocked the attack from Black Canary, pushing back before slamming the staff into Speedy and pushed to the ground.

Before he could continue his attacks on them. He felt a pair of feet slam into his back, pushing the immortal down to a knee. Iron Knight landed on his feet and raised his arms, both forming cannons that rapidly unleashed their fury on the tyrant. He charged his entire staff with blue energy again before spinning it around like a bo-staff, blocking each of the repulsor blasts.

The thrusters on his back flared and he pushed himself off the ground. Both hands returning to their normal forms before the mutant formed a circular shield and tackled the tyrant into the ground. His staff falling out of his hands.

Barry saw that and sped to it, picking it up from the ground and returning to his former position. "Stand clear!" he shouted to his friends. All of whom ran off to the sides or into the skies and dodged the blue stream of energy that Barry unleashed after pointing the Staff of Horus at Savage.

Like in the battle that would have destroyed them all before, Savage was able to form an energy shield to halt the attack.

But this time, Barry didn't feel the staff unleashing excess energy that caused his gauntlets to malfunction. "The gauntlets are working!" he shouted happily at that.

Olivia formed a psychic shield around her and her niece's form, protecting them both. She saw her husband descending to the ground beside them. He stood ready with cannons on both hands. He wanted to aid the speedster, but this time he would put his faith in Barry Allen.

"Come on, Barry." He muttered.

Oliver rushed to the speedster's side, placing his hands on the staff as well. Feeling like this would be the beginning of what happened in the timeline he time-jumped from, Barry paled. "No, no, no. Oliver, get yourself to safety!"

"We're not leaving each other!" Oliver dejected. They continued the stream of energy, the blast pushing against the tyrant's shield, pushing him back.

"Matty?"

He turned to his wife, who nodded to the tyrant. "Give them a hand, would ya?"

"Sure thing." Matt said and jumped into the air and hovered till he was near the immortal. Raising a hand, he gathered energy into the repulsor and said. "See you never again, Savage." He fired a repulsor blast into the immortal's back, causing him to grunt and his shield wavered.

The two heroes who joined forces, their powers put into wielding the Staff of Horus, took advantage of the mutant's opening and poured their all into the staff. Pushing it forward, the energy blast was amplified, breaking through the shield.

Vandal Savage yelled in pain as the blast connected with his body. His scream faded as his entire body… turned to ashes from the explosive power from the staff.

The energy unleashed from the staff returned to it and it… imploded, collapsing upon itself and disappearing.

The mutants walked over to them with slow steps. Olivia was holding onto her niece with one arm around her waist and her hand on her shoulder. Frankie was still holding onto her head with one hand. "Nice job, guys." The psychic praised them.

Oliver looked to the mutants and saw Frankie's condition. "Olivia, what happened to Frankie? Did something happen to her?"

"Yeah." Olivia nodded.

Then the other heroes rushed back to see them.

"Did we do it? Is he gone?" Hawkgirl rapidly asked.

John looked around and saw the tyrant was nowhere to be found. "Yeah, looks like."

"I knew you could do it." Carter kindly told Kendra.

"I'm having the strangest déjà vu." Laurel admitted and looked to the mutants.

Oliver sighed knowingly after glancing at the mutants and Barry. "You're not the only one."

Laurel saw Frankie's condition and asked. "What happened to Frankie?"

"You did." Matt revealed to their confusion with a finger pointing at the crier. "Frankie's a symbiote bearer, their partner's weaknesses is the host's weaknesses. Symbiotes are weak to sound attacks." Laurel widened her eyes while Oliver narrowed his eyes intrigued. "Essentially, your little sound collar just hurt our niece."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Laurel told the mutants apologetically before looking to Frankie. "I'm so sorry, Frankie. I didn't know."

"It's okay… I gotta learn to be more truthful to people and be more resistant to sound." Frankie chuckled even though she was still having a headache.

Thea looked to Laurel's collar. "Wait, did you stop because you knew you were hurting her?"

"No my Canary Cry just stopped all of a sudden." Laurel placed the tips of her fingers on her collar. "It suddenly turned off, I think. Maybe it malfunctioned."

Matt narrowed his eyes curiously and pointed his eyes to the collar. Via the HUD screen in his helmet, he scanned the device quickly, finding the cause of its sudden power loss. "It wasn't malfunctioning, it was hit by an EMP, a really small one with a powerful burst."

"Savage's never used an EMP before." Carter noted curiously.

"That's because it wasn't Savage." Matt looked around and called out. "You mind showing yourself, Cat?!"

"You really are a bother."

The heroes from Star City and the two hawks looked shocked at the sudden voice and saw a form falling from a ceiling patch. They all widened their eyes when seeing that it was a woman with platinum blonde hair and a black skin-tight suit with white accents. Her eyes were covered by a pair of visor-like goggles.

Thea and Oliver and John were about to draw their weapons, but Olivia raised her hand stopping them from that. Sighing she looked to the infamous thief again. "You could have told us that you'd drop by, Felicia."

Felicia Hardy chuckled and walked over to them. "And ruin my chance to see my little Rose bloom in a battle? No way." She looked to her disciple with concerned eyes. "Are you okay, Rose?"

"I'm fine." Frankie gave her mentor a thumbs up.

Matt laughed. "Thought I recognized that EMP signature somewhere. You've been messing around with Laurel's tech huh?"

"Wait you did what?" Laurel asked in annoyance.

"Trust me, sweetie, I did you a favor." Felicia assured the crier. "You don't wanna mess with the Furys and Starks because you hurt their family." She then added seriously. "Besides, I promised Caitlin that I would make sure her daughter is safe and that includes tampering with your tech if I have to."

"Understandable." Laurel agreed, inwardly happy that the thief stopped her sonic attack from hurting the young metahuman.

"Now that's been established," Matt lifted his niece in his arms and said. "let's blow this place." They all nodded and walked away, leaving Jurgens Industrials…as they have now slain the immortal tyrant once for all.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

While Barry and Cisco were seeing off the hawk people, Caitlin, Frankie, Olivia and Matt decided to return to the facility. The doctor walked out of her private lab where she placed her daughter on the gurney. The young metahuman was sleeping right now, having used so much energy left her greatly exhausted. She walked into the Cortex.

With a smile, she said. "Home, sweet home."

"Got that right." Olivia said as she walked into the Cortex herself. Her hands cupped around the two forms of cups with Jell-O and spoons. "Your daughter told me you like strawberry."

"What? Thought your brother and niece was the only ones with a sweet tooth in this family?" she mocked offense.

Olivia laughed as she handed one cup to the doctor. "No. I wouldn't be surprised if all of you had sweet teeth, to be honest. But I would definitely not wanna be your dentist." She began to dig into her cup of Jell-O. "It's good."

"Yeah." Caitlin swallowed her own spoonful of Jell-O. With a gesture to her private lab, she asked. "Did you come to check up on Frankie?"

"Yeah, I was a little worried about her after that sound attack." She looked over to the sleeping form of her niece. "Knew she would stronger, but I'm surprised by how much she's able to handle that sound attack. Much better than Seth did at her age."

"What happened when Seth experienced his first sound attack?" Caitlin asked, she couldn't recall Seth ever telling him of that experience.

"It was against a villain, calling herself Shriek." Olivia said. "She was able to project these massive sonic cries from her mouth. They would make Laurel's cries look like a bad joke. But she met Seth once after a robbery, and he was immediately hit by one of her cries. Back then he was a bit older than Frankie's age, but he lost consciousness afterwards and didn't wake up for a while, think it was around few hours."

"Frankie didn't lose consciousness; she just got a big headache after Laurel's cry." Caitlin looked to her daughter on the gurney.

Olivia nodded. "Magenta is the child to the clone Venom symbiote inside Seth. Every time a new symbiote is born, it's always bound to be stronger than its parent. Wouldn't be surprised if Magenta and Frankie might become stronger than Seth and Venom."

At the mention of the clone symbiote, Caitlin turned her curious eyes to her friend and asked. "About that clone part. I know that the experiments that happened to you guys were to make you biological weapons. And I know Seth's symbiote is a clone of the original Venom. But what were the changes done to it?"

"They tried to make a perfect clone of a symbiote, one that could overcome its own weakness. That's why they took Seth's blood regularly." Olivia remembered all the files from that filthy place and had read them together with her brother and her then-boyfriend. "They would dose the symbiote with blood to take on the advantage of utilizing elemental attacks, effectively giving it Seth's attributes. In the process, it somehow lowered its weakness to fire, making it more durable. In case of Seth resisting, my blood was thrown in too. Not a perfect clone, though, since it still takes damage from sound attacks, or if he's being attacked by something or someone that can overwhelm him."

"Has that happened before? Aside from Carnage, of course?" Caitlin asked.

"Fought against a green rageaholic and lost." Caitlin widened her eyes with shock and Olivia chuckled at the doctor's reaction. "Yeah, my brother's pretty incredible in a fight and not afraid of anything, but he's not invincible. He still has weaknesses, that few people know about. But he's strong enough to accept those weaknesses and try to fight through them."

"Looks like a family trait." Caitlin quipped. "I hope he comes back soon."

"Yeah…" Olivia frowned. "I'm actually a little worried."

"That's new." The quip came from the doctor.

Olivia looked at her and said. "Not what I mean. I'm worried about Earth-2 with my brother there."

Caitlin laughed at the mutant's words, knowing that the elemental would not go easy on that Earth. He would do everything in his powers to fight against metahumans under Zoom's rule and find a way back home to her and their daughter.

Hopefully, he would be able to find a breach and get back to them…

… to Frankie… and… _to her_…

**To be continued…**

**And that's the second and last half of this crossover, folks. **

**A catastrophic decimation has been prevented due to another time-jump by Barry Allen, preventing the deaths of an entire city, not to mention the lives of both his friends and family as well as a dozen of heroes were saved. **

**Even a psychic block made to keep Thea's bloodlust in check was made, despite Olivia having to resort to less-than-generous methods to keep her from becoming a liability in the field. Typical hazard for anyone who's been resurrected by a Lazarus Pit.**

**And because of his time-jump, Barry learnt the mistakes of their last attempt against Savage, and he was able to prevent that from happening again. the deaths of the mutants were prevented and Oliver losing his cool due to the revelation of his son didn't happen. But he still follows the demands that were given to him by Samantha Clayton.**

**The secret of him having a son… is to be remain a secret, even from Felicity. **

**Not to mention, future catastrophes, seeded by the immortal madman, have been prevented, thankfully, the moment the Staff of Horus had laid waste to Vandal Savage. **

**As previously mentioned to you guys, the next two chapters will be Earth-2 chapters, featuring our Lethal Protector fighting against the rival of Zoom, Blackfire.**

**Hope you guys are excited for that, I know I am.**

**Once again, stay safe and healthy and indoors and minimize physical contact. It's only for the better of yourself and the better of those around you. And let's cross fingers for this virus to end as soon as a virus have been made. Various countries are working full-time to do so, let's hope they succeed. **

**So stay tuned and until next time, peeps!**


	19. Chapter 19: Darkness in Central City

**And now another bedtime story for you wonderful people in the world.**

**Once again, very, very sorry for the long wait. Everything's still a bit crazy in these times.**

**I hope you all are safe and healthy wherever you might be in this wide world, and once again, please be cause with human contact.**

**But even in these hard times, it appears that good memories can still be forged by the blessings of life. The Flash star, Danielle Panabaker have welcomed her first child into the world. Thousands of good wishes for her and her husband's new-born child.**

**Now for this story:**

**This is the first chapter of the two-part story of Seth's adventure on Earth-2, a pretty long chapter, I might add.**

**There's gonna be characters from other Arrowverse TV shows, with different personas from their canon personas.**

**Also, this chapter is R-rated, featuring scenes of violence, crude language, mentions of human trafficking and sex trafficking, and forced scenarios. The people involved are different and random characters from the Arrowverse's TV shows and experience is taken from a Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show.**

**There's also a scene with short smut at the end.**

**Read at your own discretion.**

**Everything put in the story is only made for entertainment purposes, inspired by various TV shows I have watched.**

**I hope you guys are going to enjoy this chapter.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 19: Darkness in Central City**

_PUNCH_

_PUNCH_

_PUNCH_

_PUNCH_

The sounds of rocks being crushed from a metallic strike, causing a metal clanging to follow. Both sounds in unison were echoing and bouncing off the immense walls of Ascension Cliffs as they continued. Past the Woodlands, this place was rich with massive rocks and perfect for training.

But Seth Fury was using it for more than just training purposes. He was striking it viciously to try and get deeper into it, punching through the rocky surface with his symbiote-enveloped arms after turning them into adamantium.

And though this place the foundation to Zoom's hideout, he chose a spot very far from it to ensure that he wouldn't be interrupted by any of his henchmen or the speedster himself.

While he does have an alternative goal, he also has some frustrations to work out. As he continued to plow through the rocks, his dissatisfaction continues to grow.

His last fight against the flying woman Kendra Munoz Saunders left him with various questions. The fight was strange, and he thought that he'd gotten weaker because Hawkgirl was able to scratch his arms despite the fact that he turned both of his arms into adamantium.

Withdrawing his hands from the rocky wall, he looked at his own hands, flexing them and feeling every bone crackle with each motion. "What the hell happened there…"

"**_Something on your mind, partner?_**" Venom asked from within, he had felt the uneasiness his host has been harboring for a while now.

Knowing full well that his thoughts and feelings didn't go unnoticed by his symbiotic partner, the mutant stated. "What did you think about Kendra Saunders? That flying chick or whatever."

"**_Think we should have killed her._**" Venom stated, agreeing with the thoughts in the back of his host's mind. "**_But what was strange, was her sudden increase in strength._**"

"Yeah, her eyes glow red and she gains the strength of The Hulk." Seth rubbed his eyes with his clawed hand. "Something about her is different than other metahumans here."

Mentally raising an eyebrow, Venom asked. "**_What if she's not a metahuman?_**" Seth perked his head up. "**_As if that's something unlikely? We've faced beings who're not mutants or other powered beings, like artificially enhanced beings._**"

"Or something of a supernatural nature." Seth gulped in fear, the Y-incision scar on his chest itching with pain at the distant memory of the Ghost Rider. The demon bounty hunter was not a human or a mutant, but undoubtedly strong and able to use hellfire at any point he desires so. "Kendra's nothing like the Ghost Rider, but I'm sure she's not a meta."

"**_Yeah. But we hope we don't see that flying poultry anytime soon again._**" Venom growled his response, their last encounter with her almost costed Ruby her life.

"Agreed." He felt something hit his eyes via a shine and looked to the ground again. Smiling, he saw what he was looking for. "Back to work." Bending down on a knee he moved his finger between what he found. "You noticed how Iris just rushed out of the house before?"

Venom mentally nodded and used his tendrils to help his host move around in their findings. "**_She didn't say anything to us and just rushed out before we could say anything. Not just that, she looked horrified._**"

It's been a while since they heard from the detective and her husband while they were back in the household. While all of them were worried, they couldn't get anything done by just worrying all the time. Seth had the girls stay at home and just train, strengthening their own powers while he had to take care of something for himself at Ascension's Cliffs.

"I'm worried about her." He said sadly despite the fact he was finished with what he had to do. "It's the first time Iris has acted like this." Seth reached into his partner's pocket dimension and pulled out a filthy pouch. "Something she's not telling us, and I really don't like that." He admitted and took the findings and poured it into his filthy bag. "She's not the only one."

From their last conversation, Seth noticed that Iris was shrouded with instant realization when he inquired about the mutual friend between Mera and Kendra, the same one who's been sending out metahumans after him. She was hiding something alright.

Since she was a detective, maybe she's come across this person somewhere in her career. The possibility was high.

But another question was bugging the elemental. He didn't know whether this group had good intentions or not. Aside from Mera, he only knew that this person had various metahumans on her call. And she could very well be another villainous group like Zoom's trying to get his guards down before striking him down or otherwise.

Pouring the last into the filthy bag, he said. "Time to get back, I guess." He got up on his feet and walked. Stopping abruptly, he felt Atlantean-model phone vibrate in his pocket. Reaching into it, he pulled out the flip phone and opened it, seeing that it was Iris calling him. "The heck? Now she's up for a chat?"

Pressing the button, he accepted the call before placing it to his ear. "What's up, Detective West?"

…

…

Worry began to take over as he didn't hear a single word coming from the other end of the phone. Hearing a faint gulp, he asked in concern. "Iris? What's wrong?!" Seth raised his voice.

Another few moments of silence passed but he did register the sound of air being inhaled slowly. "Seth…" He noticed her pause and worry began to solidify within his core. "…Can you come to precinct soon?"

"Yeah, I'm in the Woodlands right now. But I can swing over there and be there in ten minutes." Seth announced and he enlarged the lower half of his body with the symbiotic mass, said mass crawled up his body and adapted to the rest of his body.

"Please. It's important. Come quick." Iris said before hanging up.

Using his enlarged finger of his large clawed hand he closed the flip phone and let the phone sink into his pocket dimension. "**Something's wrong.**" Venom and Seth said in unison before leaping into the air, his arms shooting out and unleashing tendrils. They wrapped around the largest branches they could find and pulled on them, sending his body flying through the woods.

"**We're coming.**" The anti-hero announced in haste when stepping on a branch. Combing wind and lightning around his entire body, he shot into the air again with greater speed, passing by seven trees in a single leap before swinging or leaping off more trees that met his path.

Something was happening with his friend and he would make sure that he would help her.

X

**(CCPD)**

The entire room with desks were filled with rushing officers and detectives. All of them in frenzy as to what have surfaced to their ears, the latest charred victim who met Blackfire's hands. They were worried and indecisive as well.

Either stand before Blackfire and meet a fate worse than death or get away while the opportunity was before them.

But not all of them were indecisive.

Detective Iris West was sitting by her desk. Sitting in her chair with a heavy expression on her face. It was already heavy and heartbroken when she arrived at the scene that was the leftovers of his latest victim. But now… her worry and the burden on her shoulders had skyrocketed and felt unbearable.

She had just asked Seth Fury, The Demon King of Central City, Venom. A hero from another universe to come and aid her and this city's second greatest problem…

Blackfire.

She gulped and looked to her desk again. Her eyes locking onto the framed photo of both her and Fred Chyre, the disciple wearing her police officer uniform and her mentor having a gaped mouth from laughing loudly. It was a picture that the two took together the day Iris officially graduated from the police academy and became a police officer.

Iris placed her hand over her mouth, covering the exit point of her heavy sigh. Her hand slid over the side of her face and to the front of her forehead. "I'm sorry, Chyre…. But I have to do this… if not… more like her are gonna end up on the streets."

The image of that charcoal-charred burnt body was still itched into her mind. It had been a while since Blackfire had left corpses like that, indicating that he was not in the city during that period. But it appears that he may have returned and left a body in his aftermath.

The coroner was still struggling to find match to the body, but hopefully he could so the family could be informed.

"Please… someone…" she looked down at the ground, her facial features paling with the quick drainage of colors. "Tell me I'm not just risking a good man's life right now."

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked up and saw Barry looking down to her in concern. "Hey, are you okay, Iris?"

"I called Seth." she revealed to her husband who must have dashed over to her in a haste, his breath coming out in a series of panting. Barry crouched down beside her and wrapped his hand around her intertwined hands "I don't know what I'm doing right now, Barry. If I'm doing the right thing right now, or if I'm just leading Seth into a deathtrap? If I'm wrong, then I will-"

"_We_ will." Barry interrupted her and squeezed her hands with his single one. Iris looked confused at him. "We're in this together, Iris. Through thick and thin, danger or whatnot, we're in this together. We're both asking Seth… because we both know that he's probably the only one in this city who can stop this monster once and for all."

Iris giggled. "Think you just outdid yourself, better than what you said in your vows." They both chuckled and "You really think, he's gonna be okay with this? Even if it meant hurting any and all chances he has for reuniting with his family again?"

"On that… we're gonna need to ask him." Barry admitted and gave his wife a comforting squeeze. "But we won't know without asking him first, so we gotta cross that bridge first."

"Yeah." Iris turned to her husband. "I love you."

"I love you too." Barry smiled.

This was a tough time for everyone. For families that have suffered from his actions. For families that are still suffering from his actions. For families that might be the next ones to suffer from his actions. One evil is still running wild in their home, but now another evil had come back to the battlefield. An evil that has risen in the shadows of their home of Central City, becoming strong enough to consider them a threat against The Crimson Comet and the evil menacing speedster Zoom's true rival.

Blackfire has returned.

These two evils menaces in their home are enough for them all to feel unease and worry about what might happen next… to either themselves or the ones closest to them. They're every action leads to the citizens, police officers even, to think of what might be the best and safest countermeasure against them.

Now Iris only had two…. Both phone calls and both done and called to the respective people. And both on their way here to the precinct.

X

_DING_

The elevator doors chimed when reaching the precinct lobby floor. The moment they opened, Seth stepped out of the lift with long strides. His strides came to an end as he was shocked to see what was happening. It felt familiar because he had seen a similar sight in the Central City he sacrificed his life for. Tried to, anyway.

He widened his eyes when seeing dozens… if not more… of middle-aged couples standing around in the lobby. Men fighting back tears with eyes closed to slits and punching the walls around them. Women crying and covering their faces with their bare hands, tissues proving useless against the flood coming out of their eyes. Some of them crying, others raging.

"What do you mean, "They're still under investigation"?!"

Seth snapped his head around to one of the reception desks, the source of that booming male voice with a darkening rage in every word becoming clear to him as he saw that it was a tall dark-skinned man and a dark-skinned woman beside him.

The dark-skinned man was clenching both of his hands and slamming them into the desk, glaring at the receptionist who shook at the display of anger. "I better hear something that's not some bull about this still being under investigation."

"Mr. Pierce, please calm down." The receptionist said.

"Come again?!" Jefferson Pierce said in shock of the worker's words. "You better watch what you're saying now man, otherwise I will knock the silly lights out of you."

The woman beside her gently pushed him back and looked to the receptionist. "I'm sorry to tell you this, Mister: but our daughters were just kidnapped by the same monster that's been doing the same to the other parents here." Lynn Stewart's words caused the other couples to experience more sadness and even more tears fell from their eyes. "And just like always, CCPD is not even moving a finger to get them back. We come to Central City for a trip, and we lose half of our family in an instant."

"Ma'am, please remain calm." The receptionist tried to calm them down.

Jefferson raised his hand, pointing a finger at the reception, "I swear, if I-"

"Hey, pal." Seth stepped over to him, gaining the attention of the couple and the receptionist. The third one shocked to see the elemental again in their precinct. "How about you calm down a bit?"

"Why? You don't look like any cop?" Jefferson told the man.

"Doesn't make a fucking difference if I'm a cop or not." Seth started, "But right now, you and your wife are causing all these other parents to cry and feel worse than they already do. Not sure about the situation here, but I'm guessing you're all in the same boat." The couple looked at him tensely. "So either calm down, let the cops work and see if they can help find your daughters, or find a room or go outside, vent out and come back again." He spoke coldly.

"A friend of mine is a cop here and she's gonna do everything in her power to find your daughters again. But you're only upsetting the other parents around you. Don't cause them more pain with your words, they tend to cut deeper than a knife." Seth continued, his eyes looking passively at the married couple, both freezing in their spot. "You know their pain and feel the same, don't intensify theirs."

Jefferson and Lynn shared a look. They both knew that the stranger was right. Right now, in this very moment, in this very situation, their pain that bursts out of them and laying their already angered words… are only succeeding adding more to the already painfully breaking hearts of the other parents in this very lobby.

Like their daughters, Jinnifer and Anissa were abducted, the other parents are also feeling this same unbearably pain that makes them feel like failures and not worthy of being called parents.

Because of that… monster…

Lynn swallowed the gathering of spit heavily. "Jeff, he's right." She aimed to her husband. "We can't just lose our cool like this. It's not fair to the other parents here."

"Yeah, I guess so." Jefferson breathed out reluctantly. "Fine, maybe we need some fresh air actually." His wife agreed and the two turned around, about to walk off to the elevators to step outside. But he stopped and turned to the strange man again. "For a young man, you sure look like you know what we're going through."

"Like I said, I have no idea what's going on here, pal." Seth faced him and honestly said. "But I'm a parent myself, I know what's it's like to not be with your child or lose them."

"Bit of advice, man." Jefferson scoffed. "Take your kid and get the hell out of this city. It's pretty damn close to Hell right now." He turned around and walked hand in hand with his wife to the elevators.

"Close to Hell…" Seth muttered and looked around. He turned to the male receptionist again. "Detective West? Where is she?"

"In the next room, by her desk." He informed while expressing his gratitude with a small bow of his head.

Seth nodded his own gratitude before walking into the room himself.

Instantly finding the couple by the detective's desk, he called out. "Guys?" The married couple looked up and saw Seth rushing through the group of storming officers and detectives and reached his friends. His worry and concern clearly displayed on his face like a uniquely formed mask. "What's going on here? It's like you guys are preparing for a war or something. And what's the deal with all the parents here?"

"Might as well be a war." Barry looked to his wife and nodded his consent.

She nodded back, agreeing with him and raised herself from her chair. The married couple faced the mutant with heavy expressions on their faces, both still unsure whether to ask of his aid. "Seth, we have something important to ask of you." The detective slowly said.

"You have my full attention." The mutant assured them.

Iris opened her mouth, about to speak.

"Iris! Barry!"

However, their conversation came to a stop when the sound of a familiar voice reached the natives' ears. Though the voice was familiar to them, to the mutant's ears it was strange and unfamiliar. The married couple looked past the mutant, who also turned towards the same direction, seeing that it was a man.

The married couple widened their eyes at the sight of him. Seth took in his features, registering his slim build of 6 feet covered by a stylish and expensive black tuxedo suit. His hair was dark brown to the point where it could be considered black, his eyes are dark green. Though he appeared to be a slim man, the mutant noticed that the sleeves of his suit, along with the part covering his torso, appeared to be straining against his body, indicating that he had been training his physical attributes a great deal.

Barry formed a shocked expression, followed by a glare and he said. "Bruce? What are you doing here?"

Seth looked to his friends after looking the stranger over. "You know this guy?"

"He's an old friend of ours from Gotham City." Iris looked like she was struggling to not sneer. "Bruce Wayne, well-known billionaire, philanthropist and owner of Wayne Enterprises." With a sigh, the detective gestured to the mutant and introduced. "Bruce, this is a friend of ours, Dr. Seth Fury."

Bruce Wayne faced the doctor and outstretched his hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Fury. Just call me Bruce."

Shaking his hand after grabbing it, Seth said. "Likewise, and call me Seth. I'm not formal enough to call myself Doctor."

Bruce nodded his consent and turned back to his friends, seeing that both were shooting him suspicious glares. "Guys, wanna tone down on the glaring daggers, please? They're starting to hurt. Feel em poking right now."

"Drop the jokes, Bruce." Barry said in angered tone, the mutant widening his eyes in shock as this would be first time that this Barry have become enraged. "Why have you come to Central City?"

"Last time you came here, it was to make an arrangement between your Crows and this department. Not one of our best moments, sure, but it still had some problems, for us." Iris stated and Bruce gulped. "What are you doing here?"

"You guys know why I'm here." Their faces paled at Bruce's words. "Blackfire's back and he left another victim. _Here_. In Central City, your home, Iris." With a gesture to the rest of the area with the desks and the panicking officers. "And your fellow officers are running around like chickens who've lost their heads. They don't know what to do now that that monster's back."

"And what exactly do you think you can do?" Barry asked. "Bruce, you might be a playboy with billions of dollars in your pockets, but what can you exactly do in this situation?"

Bruce bit his lower lip, not answering the question. Iris narrowed her eyes and drew her own conclusions, before asking with clenching hands. "What did you do, Bruce?"

"**_Looks like bad blood between them._**" Venom noted, surprised by the West-Allens' surprising spike of anger.

"_No kidding._" Seth was comparing the two to the ones he knows. "_They're fuming right now. Last time I saw this, was when Barry met Reverse-Flash again and when Iris found out about Barry keeping his Flash identity secret from her._" Those times were possibly the biggest times those two had experienced such anger. And the rage on their doppelgangers' faces were so close to that.

Inhaling sharply, Bruce revealed slowly. "I did… what I had to do, Iris. For the sake of your city."

_DING_

_DING_

To the surprise of the entire police department and the others there, the sounds of both elevators chiming after one another echoed in the building. All detectives and officers, singular mutant doctor and his friends, turned to the elevators.

Following the rich playboy from Gotham City, they all walked into the lobby to see what was going on.

Both elevator doors opened immediately, showing a bunch of armored men and women in black tactical suits, fully equipped with vests and armed with firearms and other weapons on their belts. Their black boots tramping on the ground as they walked deeper into the lobby.

Seth noticed something. Once they stepped out of the elevators, they immediately walked into a formation. "_Some formal group we have here…_" he deduced. "_Agency, maybe?_" The elemental saw that all their vests are wearing an insignia of sorts when they were within his eyesight.

An ascending bird with three lines under it, each one bended in the middle with their ends pointing upwards.

Shifting his eyes up again, he saw that a man in the same tactical wear as the others stepping forward. The big white letters on his vest, "Crows" showing itself to everyone in the lobby. He looked to be a war veteran with dark green eyes and dark hair.

Behind him three young women stepped close to him, all of them suited in the same tactical suits and equipped with firearms like the others. One was a young woman with short dark brown hair with red tips. The other one was a dark-skinned woman with long black hair pulled into a ponytail. The two of them stood in a formal stance while the third one, a young woman with pale skin and long blonde hair, looked around curiously with bored expression.

"**_Three lieutenants?_**" Venom wondered within his host's mind.

"_Second-in-commands, lieutenants, senior members of this group, could be anything._" Seth thought back while keeping his facial features. He could see that the third one of the young women was eyeing everyone in the lobby suspiciously, her eyes falling on him a few times. "_But, the four of them are definitely the highest-ranking members in their group._"

Iris gritted her teeth in anger and faced Bruce. "Really, Bruce? You brought the Crows here to our city?"

"Iris, I had to." Bruce defensively said, trying to reason with his old friend. "You know, full well that you and your police force have been unable to take care of Blackfire, your men are too scared. Even Captain Mendez agrees with that. He wasn't the one to tell us this, but you know it's true. I'm sorry for doing this behind your backs, guys. But it's for your city." He directed to both his friends.

The mutant was curious about this "Blackfire" person now. He's never heard of that name on the other Earth, meaning that this person is an original born in this universe.

Commander Jacob Kane looked to the detective after hearing his apology. Chuckling hollowly, he said. "Mr. Wayne, you shouldn't be apologizing. Unlike its own native officers, you actually wanna save this city, which you informed of us of this situation."

Barry glared at the commander. "Hate to break it to you, Commander Kane, but you and your Crows' help usually involves in innocent people being interrogated for no reasons." His own hands clenched.

The dark-skinned woman stepped forward and said. "What we did last time, was following protocols. We don't leave in any stones unturned, even though it might be, at times, rough for your citizens." Agent Sophie Moore sound like she was correcting the forensic scientist.

"Such fragile posh people you have here in Central City." Julia Pennyworth said with a british accent, mocking the lobby full of the city natives.

Seth noticed that a lot of the officers and detectives didn't like that, their hands immediately grabbing their firearms, almost like they were going to ventilate the foul-mouthed British woman.

Kate Kane sighed and told her colleagues. "Julia, Sophie. Drop it. We're here to help them, not mock them. Learn the difference." They stepped back, accepting Kate's instructions.

This time, Seth couldn't hold back and turned to his friends. "Okay, I thought I was only one with a bad mouth and foul attitude in this city, but these guys are giving me a run for my money here." The new group heard his loud words, and they narrowed their eyes at his insults. "Iris, Barry, who are these guys? Gotham City's Circus clowns? Or comedians?"

"Close enough." Iris quipped with a smirk before saying. "They're a security organization in Gotham City, calling themselves Crows Security."

"A security organization? You mean, like a security firm?" Seth asked.

Barry was the one to nod his agreement. "Yeah. They only offer their service to the wealthy in their city. It's like telling the ones without money, that they're not worth their protection."

"And that they can screw off." Seth added his thoughts, his words loud enough that the entire group of fifteen Crows agents and their commander could hear him clear as day. The mutant chuckled briefly, the three lieutenants and the commander got confused eyes, as did their client Bruce Wayne.

Facing the married couple again, Seth said. "Iris, Barry…" They gave him their full attention. "Why exactly are you guys pissed?" The Crows looked confused, as does the native officers and the married couple themselves. "You're CCPD, you deal with metahumans and other troublemakers daily. I mean, you guys seen Zoom's group of metas in here before, sure it had you guys were shaking, but you still fought back." Pointing a thumb back to the Crows, not even looking at them which angered them. "And a group of good-for-nothing glorified bodyguards walks and acts like they own the place, and they got you shaking? Come on, you're better than that, aren't you?"

Iris and Barry were surprised to hear him say that. All the officers and other workers in this very building have witnessed him take up his powers against them, after what they all had their guns trained on Evelyn and Ruby. It felt like a lifetime ago, but they remembered he looked ready to tear into all the officers.

It was before he returned to his form as Venom, but he still wore an expression that was like a beast from hell. A demonic warrior… before receiving its crown and ascending to become the king of demons…

The detective chuckled. "Guess it's kinda of silly being worried about them, considering what we have to face every day. Zoom's group makes them all look like whiny babies with an attitude." Her words got her colleagues to laugh and got the Crows to narrow their eyes on them.

Her husband nodded his agreement. "Yeah, you're right, Iris. It's pretty dumb to be afraid and worried about them."

"Yeah, and besides…" Seth turned around and faced the Crows agents. "I'm guessing their jurisdiction is this Gotham City, so if they do decide to rough up our citizens, I'm guessing that CCPD has a perfectly good reason for throwing them behind bars."

To hear the guy who stood before them and wouldn't allow a single one of them to shoot defenseless young girls, was definitely surprising to say the least. Especially to hear him say that in front of a large group of armed agents.

Barry couldn't help but a chuckle. "_You are nothing like the guys from this world, Seth._" he thought in appreciation.

The commander didn't like what he was saying. "Son." Seth turned his passive eyes to him, forming a smirk when seeing the clear sheer of annoyance on his face. "You do realize that you just complimented the very people who are too scare to even do something against the other monster of this city, not to mention insulting the very people who're here to help you with your problems." He stepped close enough to Seth's form, a sneer forming on his face.

Kate got worried her father was gonna do something stupid. "Dad, calm down."

"You might wanna listen to your daughter, old man." Seth said. "And I might not know the entire situation going on here, but I ain't scared of a group of bodyguards who only give a crap about those with big fat and deep pockets. They're usually the people I insult." He smirked. "And tell me what kind of problems do you exactly intend to take care of?"

"Blackfire…" Commander Kane started with another sneer. The name bringing confusion and shock to the mutant's face. "And… Venom."

Iris snapped her eyes open as did her partner and her husband. The detective stepped forward and said. "Why exactly do you have Venom on your hit-list, exactly?"

Bruce then stepped close and added, "Uncle Jacob, what's the meaning of this? I asked for your help only to take care of Blackfire?"

"Yeah. Venom looks like a demon, sure, but he's a hero who saved this very precinct and been saving this entire city ever since The Flash disappeared." Barry defensively said. "He doesn't deserve to have a target on his back because you fools can't see a hero, even if they were right in front of you."

"You don't have any rights or good reasons to go after Venom." Floyd Lawton exclaimed.

Seth smiled when hearing the three of them defend him so heatedly. It showed their genuine feelings of care and the friendship they feel towards him. He was happy.

And then… he was shocked.

"Yeah, he's a hero!"

"You mess with the Demon King; you mess with us and the entire Central City!"

"You go after him, we're gonna throw you all into jail, goddamn it!"

"He's Central City's hero, bastards!"

"Piss off to Gotham City, glorified bodyguards!"

The mutant didn't expect his eyes and ears to take in the words coming from the gatherings of other police officers, even various citizens. A few of the officers knew that the demon's real identity, knowing that Seth Fury was the unorthodox doctor and demonic king of this world. He was willing to take on their bullets, even did so once and have been given glares from them any and all times he's ever set foot in this precinct.

And now… he was being defended right now by those same officers.

"**_One day, you're considered a menace. The next, you're the appraised hero of a city in another universe._**" Venom chuckled within his host's mind.

"_Yeah looks like…_" Seth agreed and kept himself from smiling. "_It means that we can't let them down and go against their expectations, partner._" He got a growl of agreement.

"Venom might have a fan club in this precinct…" Jacob Kane got their attention. "But we can't allow someone with Blackfire's sword to run wild. It might not have been what we hired to do, but we'll gladly help this city with its two problems." He swiftly took out of his gun and raised it to the mutant's head.

Eyes widening around them, even the eyes of his subordinates who stood behind Jacob Kane.

"Maybe, I should take care of this one too? Sounds like a problem." Jacob admitted and was curious and shocked at the lack of reaction from the mutant's side.

Iris and her partner, as well as various officers drew their guns, pointing them at the commander of Crows. "Don't even think about it, Kane!" Iris exclaimed.

Julia smiled mischievously. "Finally, some fun!" She took out her gun from her holster, pointing them at the police officers.

Sophie remained strong with a passive expression and drew out her own gun. "Lower your weapons, now!"

"Guys, calm down!" Kate Kane shouted to both parts and focused her next words to her father. "Dad, holster your weapon! He's a civilian!"

"What can I say?" Jacob narrowed his eyes on Seth, who still remained unsurprised by the gun pointing at his head. "I see a problem; I take care of it. Plain and simple." He couldn't contain his boiling rage now. This young man before him was openly insulting the very security organization that he and his wife have founded together.

He wouldn't let that slide… This man's words were nothing short of poison in its most impure and lethal form.

Chuckling as he wasn't surprised by the commander's action, Seth raised his hand. Jacob watched him carefully, seeing that his hand was reaching the side of the gun. Thinking that the young man is gonna try to swipe it out of his hand, he tightened his hold around the pistol grip.

Jacob widened his eyes when Seth reached for the hammer with his fingers. Pinching it, he pulls it down for the commander, loudly cocking the firearm for him before retracting his hand. His subordinates widened their eyes and looked shocked, as does the native officers of this city.

"If you're not prepared to cock a pointed gun," Seth spoke coldly. "then don't pretend you actually have the guts to actually fire that gun at anyone, old man. It's like showing you're nothing more than bark and no bite." His words shocked the commander and his employees greatly.

And they're from Gotham.

"PUT THAT GUN DOWN, RIGHT NOW!"

This time everyone in the lobby snapped their heads to the other elevator. Shock fell over them all like rain pouring down on them from above. Iris and Barry smiled happily at them, as did most of the other citizens of this city. Commander Kane and his agents frowned annoyingly at the sight.

Seth didn't know whether to smile or frown, or even speak at the sight.

He was only beside one person, but he still stood tall and proud as though he was leading an army of thousands of armed soldiers. With a deadly glare on his face, he walked closer and closer. The golden medals on his uniform shaking and bouncing off his green uniform. Grey hair cut according to the standard military cut. He had his blue eyes pointing directly into the commander of the Crows.

Standing between the two men, the military general ordered the Gotham commander. "Remove your firearm from that young man's head right now, Jacob."

"What are you doing here, Eiling?" Jacob didn't listen to the general, keeping his firearm pressed against the doctor's head.

General Wade Eiling gave him a cold glare. "I got a call from an old friend of mine. She asked if I could come and help her out, seeing as an annoying pest have returned to our home." He glanced at the relaxing Detective West. "She didn't tell me that there would be two kinds of them, though."

Jacob narrowed his eyes, close to slits. "Still playing pet to the CCPD? How you've fallen, brother."

"_Brother?_" Seth thought shockingly. "_General Wade Eiling and this guy-_"

"**_Are brothers?_**" Venom continued his host's shocked thoughts.

"Better be what I am now than become a bodyguard for the fat and wealthy, like you Jacob." Wade shot back.

Seth noticed that the officers around them lowered their firearms slightly, as though the presence of the general was enough for them to calm down and let him take over this ship of chaos.

The person who arrived with her general stepped forward and took off her green military cap. It was perfectly matching with her green military uniform around her body. Her long crimson-red hair pulled into a ponytail and she perked her head up, facing the commander who kept his gun on Seth's head. "I believe my general asked you to remove that gun from that man's head." Her fingers began to shine with a purplish glow.

Once again, Seth's eyes widened at the sight of that familiar face. "_Bette?_" He thought to himself in growing shock of that voice that unmistakably that of the metahuman, Plastique, Bette Sans Souci in his new home universe.

What was even more shocking was the fact that she was standing right beside General Wade Eiling.

The Crows Commander looked to her and scoffed before turning back to his half-brother. "Still keeping freaks in your ranks, Wade? Must be a desperate time for the army."

"A mere bodyguard like you can't understand the will of those who've been granting more powers and chooses to do something with them, in the name of their country and the safety of their home." Wade defensively said before raising his hand and placing it on the barrel of the gun in his brother's hand. "Now, as my lieutenant just pointed out, remove that gun from that young man's head."

Letting out another, Jacob yanked his gun out of his brother's grip and holstered his weapon again before turning around, his agents holstering their own weapons in response to their commander's action. "Would be a waste of ammo anyway."

Feeling a vein pop on his forehead, Seth smirked villainously. "Can I get my words back then? I pretty much wasted them on you and your circus folk." All the Gotham natives looked at him with a glare, ready to tear into him and riddle him with bullets.

Chuckling for a few moments to himself, General Wade Eiling turned to the young mutant and said. "Iris did say you had a foul-mouth. But she didn't say anything about you having no respect for authority."

"I decide who gets my respect." Seth casually stated. "And Iris didn't say anything about her knowing an army general." He threw a glance at the detective in question, who chuckled sheepishly under his gaze.

"I'm an old friend of her mentor, Fred Chyre." Wade informed before looking to the group of talking Crows. "Just so you know, brother." He got Jacob's attention. "When I saw you in here, all your people pointing their guns at the officers of my city… didn't bring me much confident, much less trusting you to work without harming my city. So, as an insurance, I have contacted some of my men to supervise every move of your agents during your mission here. Everyone except for Kate and you are gonna be under watch."

"The army is being assigned babysitting jobs? That's sounds below their paygrade." Seth joked.

Wade remained expressionless and said. "If the Crows were to be trusted while roaming in my city, then it wouldn't be necessary. But after last time, it's impossible to trust them." Jacob walked to his group again.

Sophie looked to her boss and asked. "Commander, you okay?"

Jacob didn't answer and waved Agent Moore, Agent Pennyworth and his daughter closer and ordered them. "The man that I had my gun on before? I want the three of you to keep an eye on him, follow him if you have to."

Julia raised an eyebrow. "Why's that, Commander? That posh gent stuck a nerve?"

"No." Kate knew what was going through her father's mind and announced his thoughts for him. "How many guys at our age wouldn't be afraid of a gun pointed at them? Cocked or not, that's enough to scare anyone to pissing themselves and he still chuckled like it was nothing. He's not normal."

"A metahuman, maybe?" Sophie suggested.

"Maybe. But I want to know more about him. So check up on him. Do whatever it takes." Jacob ordered them while walking into the elevator with his three high-ranking agents, all three of them nodding their consent and following their commander.

Sighing his relief when registering their leave, Wade looked around and saw the distress on the various couples' faces. It was increased from the display that Crows Security just did. Turning to his lieutenant, he asked. "Lieutenant Sans Souci?"

Sighing herself, she told him. "General, you can call me Bette." It was something that she's told him various times in the past… or a few hours ago…. Minutes ago.

"You know me better than that." Wade chuckled. "Have the others in front of the building bring up the supplies that we brought and have it distributed to the parents around the lobby. After what they just saw, they're bound to feel uneasy. Some food in their stomachs would be good well for them."

"Considerate as always, General." Bette chuckled; Seth looked like he was astonished by the marvels of parallel universes once more". "But as you wish, sir." She saluted with a formal stance before walking to the elevator to take care of her assignment.

"I should really consider giving her harsher training, might keep her mouth shut every now and then." Wade said to himself before turning back to the young mutant. "Young man, you certainly have a mountain-sized amount of courage to not even flinch at gunpoint."

Seeing as this guy did try to help him, Seth decided to be polite. "Well, not the first time I've been at gunpoint."

"That sounds believable." The general admitted before looking to Iris and Barry who walked to her. "Mr. Allen, Detective West. What kind of trouble have you brought me this time?"

"Honestly, General, we didn't know about Crows showing up now." Iris explained.

"Well, my brother tends to show up at horrible times. But he only gives out his worst kind of help, regrettably enough." Wade said with another sigh.

"**_So he's like herpes?_**" Venom suggested. Seth tilted his head in thoughts before nodding his head in agreement with that statement.

"But we're glad that you came, Eiling. We have one massive problem now." Barry grimly said. His face paling like he was witnessing a horrible nightmare rewind in his head.

Seth saw the expression on his face. "_Blackfire…_" he thought. It was a name he's never come across ever since he took up arms as Venom in this world. It was strange that a name like this was able to bring such tear to a specific group of victims, parents. "_I have a bad feeling…_"

"I know that." Eiling told the forensic scientist. "But before that…" he turned to Seth and held out his hand. "Name's Wade Eiling. Military General Wade Eiling."

"A pleasure meeting you General. Seth Fury." He introduced himself and shook hands with the general.

"And an honor meeting you, son." The general said honestly.

"An honor?" Seth noted. "Bit much for someone like me."

"It was someone like you that jumped in front of a defenseless girl without hesitation, even though it meant being riddled with bullets." The general smiled happily and the mutant widened his eyes. "Iris kept me updated on your adventures as both a doctor… and Venom." He said in a whisper at the end.

Seth widened his eyes again and turned his attention to the detective. "He knows about me? And you told him?"

"You can trust Eiling, Seth. he's a good guy and a friend of mine and another friend of my mentor." Iris explained, this time her face souring at her own words.

Wade saw her expression falling and nodded. "Think it's time for us to get back to work." He looked to the mutant. "Come with us, Seth. it's time for you to know everything."

That serious expression on the general's face was just like the serious expression on the General Eiling he knew on his Earth. But unlike the one he knew; Seth know that this Wade Eiling was a person fighting for the side of good.

Otherwise, Iris wouldn't trust him.

X

"What?!" Lindy screamed in shock. Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop wondered why everyone in this place was so quick to scream, both of them covering their ears after hearing their boss scream like a vengeful banshee.

Having been the one to inform her friend, Mera was the first one to place her hands on her ears. As the scream died, she removed her hands from her ears and said. "Lind, you could give Black Siren a run for her money with your scream."

"How else should I react to what you just said?!" Lindy slammed her fists into her desk. In response to her bursting emotions, her hair, eyes and skin began to ripple into different colors. "Blackfire's back again." She and her group have received news of what the police had found…

… the finding of a completely charcoaled young skeleton…

"Thea might be dead!" Lindy screamed with fear and horror taking over her.

"Not necessarily." Kendra announced and explained when seeing their confused looks. "First, Blackfire's known for leaving his victims in that state. It might not have been a recent victim, it might have been one that's been around for weeks or even longer, maybe. It doesn't mean he's back."

"Yeah, Kendra's right." Marcus agreed with her logic.

"And secondly, we've seen photos of the corpse that the cops found." Kendra continued. "Not just that, we've all seen Thea in real life, she's much taller than that corpse. it couldn't possibly be Thea."

"Kendra's right." Mera agreed with the flying woman. Even though they were working together now and talking on better terms, the fight with Seth and almost killing Ruby still had the Atlantean distrusting Kendra. "Not to mention, Blackfire wouldn't honestly kill her now. Strategically speaking, what would he gain out of that, Lind?"

The technopath understood her logic and placed herself down in her chair again. She ran her hands over her forehead, all the way to the roots of her hair and then down her shifting hair. "I just don't know what to do now. I won't let Thea be captive to that animal any longer."

"We know that, boss." Tony sighed and stated steadfastly. "But I think we don't have to do anything now."

"What do you mean?" Lindy directed to her friend with the organic steel transformation. "You think we shouldn't get help?"

"What you thinking, brother?" Marcus followed up.

"I'm thinking that help will come to us." His words brought up question marks over his friends' heads. "Knowing Iris, she will probably ask her new roommate. The only one of the four who can help, anyway."

"You mean…" Kendra trailed off… her friend Mera smiling happily when reaching the same conclusion.

"Yeah. My money's on Iris making the call." Tony started. "And I'm betting my own life that her money's on the Demon King."

X

**(CCPD)**

Following Iris and Barry, General Wade Eiling and Seth were led into an interrogation room deeper inside the precinct. After they were led into the room, the three natives of this city walked out of the room and the mutant was left alone.

Leaning against the wall, he formed a curious expression and spoke to himself. "What's going on here?"

"**_We both know what's going on here._**" Venom growled his words.

"Yeah, they've been keeping something from us." Seth sighed. "Iris… Barry… Joe… Jesse, too most likely… Mera… all of them have been keeping things from us. But who the hell is this "Blackfire"? And how are they able to scare the entire precinct to not move and force another city's security organization to intervene like this?"

"**_Do you think he's an equal to Zoom?_**"

"Or maybe he's worse." Seth suggested unsurely. "I trust Iris and Barry, even Mera, but why the heck didn't any of them tell me about this? Are they…? Don't they trust us? The heck." He gritted his teeth, the image of the dozens of crying parents burned into his memory and he didn't like it. "What happened to those parents back there?"

All of these unanswered questions were bugging him, crawling around on the sides of his brain like ants and biting into the mass itself. Trying to dig tunnels through it and create pathways for more burning and infernal questions to dig into his mind after the torrent current of confusion have crashed down on him from the outside world.

"Someone explain what's going on here." Seth breathed out in anger of not knowing what's going on in this city. He was protecting it while he searches for a breach to get back home, defending it against Zoom. Against one evil.

But how he was able to protect it without knowing of the other evils roaming freely in the shadows of this city?

He was brought out of his trance when the door opened and he saw Iris, Barry and General Eiling walking through the door. With the guys walking off to the sides of the door, the detective was the last one to enter the room and locked the door after closing it.

Turning around to look at Seth, who saw her hold a folder close to her chest, her face still sorrow and paled. "Seth…"

"Iris." He stopped her, even though she trailed off for some reason. "I want to know what's going on here. And whatever it is, why haven't you said anything about it before?"

"Seth…" Iris shared a meaningful look with both her husband and the friend of her late mentor. Both nodded to her, telling her to proceed onwards. The detective appreciated their trust in her and letting her speak. "… Before I explain everything… I need to know something."

"What?" Seth stepped forward, stopping when reaching the edge of the table.

"Seth… I have to know if you want to know this." Iris tightened her hold on the folder, her hands and arms shaking vibrantly. "The moment you say yes… you can't take it back. It's not something you can take back. You have to be prepared for this. No take backs."

Steeling his conviction, he told her. "Iris, you and Barry, even Eiling here, know what I face out there in the city when I go out as Venom. I fight metas in a city I'm trying to protect, a city I don't even call home. So whatever problem this city faces, I will gladly take up my sword and fight like it's gonna be my last."

"Even though it's not a problem you've started or even knew about… even if it's been around longer than you've been here, Seth?" Barry asked in concern.

Nodding, Seth said determinedly. "The city's problems became my own the moment I set foot in it. Venom or Seth Fury, I will do whatever it takes to protect this city as it is my own. I swore to myself that I would protect it while I am still here. And I intend to keep that promise."

"I can see why you two speak so highly of him." The general admitted. If possible, he might consider scouting the mutant for the army.

Inhaling sharply, the detective said. "There's something we never told you about." Seth listened closely. "I didn't want you to know about this, because…" she inhaled sharply again before starting over. "My mentor, Fred Chyre, was a gifted detective. He a senior detective, one of the eldest, actually. In his officer days, he was considered a wild card and that remained true even he became a detective."

"He was a bit of a role model for all the officers here, especially those who sought to become detectives themselves." The general chortled and added. "Good man to the core, but in a poker game, he's the lousy cheater."

"Heard the same about you." Barry said with a chuckle. "But Chyre was one of the best guys on the force. He was friendly to all in the precinct. When someone was working overnight, he would buy coffees and Big Belly Burgers for them so they didn't end up falling asleep during important work."

"Sounds like a good guy." Seth admitted.

"He was." Iris said agreeingly.

"Any kids? Wife?" Seth asked.

"Never one to settle down, that fool." Eiling stated with a joke.

"But… He was truly a good man and would rarely get angry at anyone or anything…" Iris's eyes shook. "But he snapped when hearing of what Blackfire have done."

"I've been hearing that name for a while now today." Seth said. "But who is Blackfire, exactly? I've never heard of that name before."

"A man… who considers himself Zoom's true rival in this city." Iris's words caused the mutant's eyes to widen in shock. "My mentor, Fred Chyre heard of his operations within Central City and he snapped. Suddenly, he decides to drop everything, procedure and protocol alike, and goes after him single-handedly."

Seth looked passive, but inwardly he was shocked and kept it inside of him. His shock came out when he asked. "What kind of operations did Blackfire run?"

"Not _did_." She placed the folder on the table and pushed it to the mutant's front across the table. "Kind of operation he _does_ run." Iris corrected him and his worry intensified at an extraordinary rate.

Turning his eyes downwards, the elemental reached for the folder and opened it. He saw a criminal profile as the first thing. A photo clipped to the upper right corner of the file, displaying of a man with combed dirty blonde hair and a pair of dark green eyes. On the photo itself showed that the man wearing a confident expression, almost to the point he was cocky and uncaring that he posed for a criminal photo.

He looked over the photo a few times before shifting his eyes to the title beside the photo. Narrowing them on the title, he read the words typed in big black letters.

"**_Eric Frye…_**" The name read before he turned to the nickname lower on the profile. "…**_Blackfire…_**"

While the cocky expression on his face made the mutant grow concerned, his focus was then aimed at the list of crimes. Talking out loud, he listed them off. "Petty theft. Petty theft. Assault. These are pretty small crimes for a guy who's able to scare everyone in a police precinct, much less for someone who proclaims himself as Zoom's rival." He noted after seeing that the cycle continued, the same types of crimes committed over and over again.

"Read the next ones." Iris told him.

Raising an eyebrow, he returned his attention to the list of crimes again. The next one caught his attention. "Alleged murder of a police officer." Seth saw the date of said crime when typed into the profile. "That's a pretty big gap from what his crimes were before. Talk about going from small to big in a short time."

Barry knew that he was smarter than that, likely able to deduce it himself. But time was of essence. "Seth, something happened, that's why the gap is different. You know what it is, cause it happened on your Earth too."

Catching on the scientist's words, he announced. "The Particle Accelerator explosion."

"Yeah." Eiling was the one to speak. "We don't know the details, but somehow, Eric Frye was affected by the Particle Accelerator explosion and we know for certain that he turned into a metahuman after exposure to dark matter."

"Let me guess." Seth looked at them. "Guy who's able to project black flames?" He joked. His smile faltered when seeing their serious face and the hesitation plastered on their faces like a second skin. "Guys what's wrong?"

"We don't know what his powers are to be exact." Iris revealed to his shock.

"How come? If he's Zoom's rival, then you must have some idea as to what his powers. If not, at least witnesses who've seen it once." Seth said.

"Seth you don't understand." Iris said with another sorrow expression. "There have been people who've seen his powers… but they've all died at Blackfire's hands."

"…Dead men tell no tales…" Seth deduced. "But what the hell does this have to do with those parents out there before? The ones in distress and tears. What happened to them?"

Iris pointed a finger to the profile again. "Read the last crime on his profile again. Then you will immediately understand, Seth." her finger was shaking as it's pointing at the

Hearing her steadfastness, Seth turned back to the profile and looked at the list of the crimes this Eric Frye have committed again. His eyes running over the ones he's already seen before, running them down the list. When reaching the bottom of it-

…

…

His eyes expanded once more… and he took on a darkening look at the sight of the crime. Possibly the biggest crime he's seen this man do. And he couldn't keep himself clutching the table… like it was the throat of a disgusting monster that deserved to be exterminated through nothing but sheer brute force… at the hands of the Lethal Protector.

Seth took in the word again, and all of it finally everything fell in place and he understood those parents' distraught after a single meaningful look at the word.

"_Human and Sex Trafficking._"

Gulping heavily, Iris explained. "The entire precinct knows that Blackfire deals in human trafficking. He's been targeting a single group."

"Late teens, right? Teenage girls." Seth deduced, the detective gaining a surprised face. "The parents out there, they appeared to be in their late thirties, maybe early forties. The state they were in, it could only have happened because of something terrible happened to their loved ones… their children, specifically."

"Forgot that you're an agent." Iris said. "He's been kidnapping girls from families around the city. From families that comes to it for vacations or other reasons. His men do it all, but they kidnap them from either from cars, the streets, even their houses."

The darkness over his eyes grew stronger. "You're telling me, he's profiting off orphans and others who can't live a good life? And that his customers are sick enough to enjoying these kids' suffering?"

"Yeah." Iris said, disgusted herself of this fact. "I think the girls are the only ones who've seen his powers." Fighting back the feeling of vomit trying to crawl up her windpipe. "They're corpses found around the city, in the streets… charcoaled right down to the point… where they're nothing but burnt skeletons."

"Either it's fire powers… or something else that can burn through flesh…" Seth said, the natives never seen such pure darkness fall over his eyes. "They…They're kids. The kidnapped girls?"

Seeing that Iris was not able to bring herself to answer, Eiling answered in her stead. "It would appear so-"

_PUNCH_

_CRACK_

The three natives gasped and took in a quick intake of air. They had to. It was the only obvious reaction to have when seeing the mutant punch his right fist into the table, embedding the entire fist through the wooden top and cracking the area he impacted. Upon closer notice, the natives saw that his entire arm was enveloped with the black symbiotic mass, the white-spine extension wrapped around it entirely and dug into the back of his hand.

Following the black mass around his right arm, the natives looked to the upper part of his body. It wasn't just his right arm that was enveloped by the mass, it was also the right side of his face. Splitting exactly in the middle between his normal face and the face of his demonic alter-ego. Even the skull extension appeared over the right side of his face, his right eye red as a blood moon.

Turning his blue and red eyes to the natives again, he spoke. "**Th**e **he**ck **i**s **wro**ng **wi**th **th**is **ci**ty?" His morphed voice sent shivers down their spines. "**Child**ren **ar**e **bei**ng **pu**t **thro**ugh **he**ll… **An**d **th**is **ci**ty's **defen**se… **CC**PD… **ar**e **to**o **sca**red **t**o **ev**en **mo**ve."

"Because of what Blackfire sent us." Iris brought his attention back to her. "When we learnt that Fred Chyre went after Blackfire himself, it was too late. He… killed my mentor and sent his ashes to the present… in an envelope of all things." She said. Seth widened his eyes. "Because of that very thing he did to the best man in the history of the police force… the man who vowed to take him down once and for all and end the horrors of his operations…he met a horrible fate."

The symbiote retracted into the mutant's body, while the host himself removed his hand from the hole in the table. Seth inhaled and said. "Sounds like this guy's gonna have a lot coming to him."

"No argument, Seth." Iris said. She felt like the darkness clouding her friend's eyes was the first sign of his doubt manifesting. Barricading his will and conviction, blocking anything that drove him to take up arms right now. Like his determination was falling to pieces right now in this very moment.

It was a frightening sight for them to see. The Demon King losing his desire to battle.

"So how do I take him down?"

"What?" Iris said with her head snapping up to meet his eyes.

"What did you just say?" Barry had to know himself.

"What did you just say, son?" Eiling asked shockingly.

"I said, "So do I take him down?"" Seth repeated instantly.

"Seth. are you sure? Why would you agree to do it?" Iris asked distraughtly. "There's a chance you could paint a big target on your back. It might be worse than Zoom." She then asked heavily. "There's a chance you might not return home because of this. Is that a risk you really wanna take? You might not be able to see your daughter and your girlfriend again." She had to ask him, hoping that her words would make him comprehend this mission and the consequences of accepting it.

"Nothing new." Seth said, and their shock was amplified. "I always run the risk of never being able to return home to my family every day, Iris. I accept that risk and continue onwards without hesitation, fighting the fights and get back home. If it means, protecting the innocents and making sure they don't experience more horror, then I'm on the frontlines."

They admired his will and conviction, like it was gathering of elements roaring of all kinds inside of a demonic king. A will that might even transcend universes.

"Besides…" Seth got their attention again. "If I were to turn my back on those parents' anguish, it would be no different than turning my back on their poor kids who needs help…" he clenched his adamantium hands. "I couldn't possibly face my own family, let alone my own child who's not much older than these kids. I will fight Blackfire and protect them all, ridding them of this nightmare!" he raised his voice.

All of sudden, they heard the general chuckling lightly before beginning to laugh loudly. "Barry, Iris." He got his friends' attention. "You really undersold this young man's conviction. I like it." Eiling admitted and then looked to the mutant. "I won't be able to do much, but I can have my soldiers keep the Crows off your back in the meantime."

"Thanks, general." Seth said before looking to Iris. "So how do I take care of this pathetic asshole?"

"I have an idea." The general said. "I have some files on someone who might know how to help you, I can bring them to the West-Allen house later, if you're going there afterwards."

"I think I will. The girls back there might need a heads up on this." Seth said.

"Yeah, they're gonna be worried." Iris admitted.

Giving the mutant a look-over, General Wade Eiling confessed. "Dr. Fury, I have to say, I am actually surprised that you didn't know about Blackfire before now."

"Why's that?" He wondered what he hadn't heard about before now.

Throwing a look to his friends, the general asked. "You two really haven't said anything?" they nodded and Eiling told Seth. "Dr. Fury… The sword that you're wielding, might be different in colors and appears to be bigger, but it is without a doubt… the sword that Blackfire himself wielded."

Seth widened his eyes and instantly enveloped his right hand with the symbiote. The mass expanded and revealed the sword sliding out of the mass and into his hand. He held up the sword before placing it on the table. "You're saying this was this bastard's weapon?"

"Yeah, exactly." Barry said. "I was the one examining it after we got it from Blackfire."

"How'd you get it?"

Iris explained. "Blackfire never walks around with his sword himself, he has his men carry it around for him in a case. It wasn't as big as it is in your hands, but it's definitely the same sword. But we had a raid squad ready when we got word of his sword being held at a spot. We managed to scare off his men, making them run off from their hideout without the sword. It was a perfect chance to confiscate it."

"But to ensure we didn't end up getting a surprise visit by Blackfire himself, we made a deal with the Crows." Seth listened as Iris continued. "We get some of their crates and spread the news that they dropped his sword in the bottom of the Antarctic ocean, making sure that this bastard is gonna think his weapon is gone forever."

Looking curiously, he asked. "What did the Crows get out of this deal?"

With a disheartened sigh, the detective said. "Central City Police and Mayor Snart both agreed that to do everything in their power to keep Blackfire's troubles within our city alone. Still shocked that those birds wanted to help us like this."

"And you kept his sword hidden right inside of your evidence room." Seth deduced. "Gotta admit it was a smart plan."

"Yeah, indeed. But if Eiling wasn't there, Commander Kane wouldn't have even considered cooperating." Barry gratefully said.

"My half-brother has a Gotham definition of "helping", and can be quite unwilling to help, but I know how to work his buttons." Eiling boasted with a mischievous smile before getting a serious expression. "Also, Seth." The mutant's attention returned to him. "Seeing that you are ready to fight this fight, you should know something else; Blackfire is not here in Central City."

"**_What?!_**" Venom voiced his booming shock in his host's mind.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Seth voiced his own booming shock outside of his mind and to the natives. "How else I am supposed to take him down?"

"I have all the details on my files which I will bring to Iris and Barry's house in an hour, an hour and half tops." The general assured him. "We'll sort everything we have there, come up with a plan of attack at the house." He continued.

"Alright. And hopefully, you guys can clear everything up for me." Seth said with a small groan.

"We will. Trust us, Seth." Iris asked of him.

"Always, Iris. I'll be the one to take care of Blackfire." He told them confidently.

Hopefully, it wasn't overconfidence as it tends to bite one back.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

After bidding their words of departure to the general, who assured his quick return to them, Seth and the married couple returned to the house. When getting there, they were met with the girls who were panting from excessive training.

Seth was proud of that and told them so. But he then brought on the bad news and told them of what had happened.

He was unsurprised that Ruby didn't know anything about this, seeing as she and him was from same universe. But he was shocked when hearing that Evelyn and Jesse heard about this monster. Seeing as these two are natives of this world, he shouldn't be surprised.

However, he didn't like that they all kept his from him.

"Am I really the only one who didn't know about his guy in this city?" And he spoke of his feelings on the matter while standing before the window.

"Sorry, we didn't tell you before, Seth." Evelyn told him sadly.

Turning his head to the young metahuman, he said kindly. "Don't worry about this, Evie. Just shocked by this." He returned his sights to the window again. "Anything else, I should know about this world?"

"No." Iris assured him with a chuckle.

"Still can't believe that Blackfire struck again." Jesse gulped at the disbelief of this situation. "Those parents… I can't imagine what they're going through…"

"I don't think no one wants to even think of that." Ruby said in agreement. With worry on her face, she looked to the mutant again. "Seth, are you really certain about fighting this fight? It might end badly."

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." He told her. "Barry, Iris. You know something more than I do, right? About what Eiling has on his files."

"Kinda, yeah." Barry said. "We'll tell all about it, when the General comes."

Seth turned around, facing them entirely with his eyes focused on the married couple. "Zoom's rival, Blackfire, have been around in this city for a long time. Since the Particle Accelerator explosion he became a big-shot… Why didn't you two ever tell me about this sooner, guys?"

"I was worried, Seth."

"_We_ were worried." Barry corrected his wife, he wasn't gonna let his wife think she was the only one responsible for asking of his help.

Iris smiled gratefully. "Yeah. We were worried, that you'd do this Seth at the drop of a hat. And… You're a friend, Seth, a good man despite what others think. We didn't want you to put your life on the line of a problem of this world. You've already done so much for us and this world. You have a child back home, a sister, a girlfriend, a daughter… your own family, we didn't want you to risk never seeing them again."

"I really appreciate you guys thinking of me like that, I really do, guys." Seth sincerely told them. "But this is your home too. After everything you two have done for me, I couldn't possibly ignore what's going on in your home. I wouldn't be able to call myself your friend. I'll continue protecting your home against both Zoom and Blackfire for as long as I am here." He smiled and stated. "What's important to my friends, is important to me."

"We don't know how to thank you for this." Barry said.

"I'll be the gun you're pointing, then I'll be the one pulling the trigger and killing off Blackfire's operations." Seth told them before looking to the window again. "_You feel something out there, too?_"

"**_We're being watched. Less stealthily than Mera's friend._**" Venom noted, feeling more than one presence out there.

"_Forget about that person for now, Venom._" Seth told his partner. "_Right now, we have a mission and our objective is to take down this guy and help those girls in his clutches. And we're not gonna stop until we've drawn this bastard out of his hide._"

"**_This vile insect is gonna die in a calamity that surpasses his worst nightmares. He will… perish!_**" Venom roared.

"_We will become his worst nightmare, Venom._" Seth thought darkly. "_And drown his existence in a sea of flames, a hailstorm of icicles and the catastrophes of this world will pale in comparison to his fate._" The man who had tormented this city from the dark, just like Zoom have been speeding around and slaughtering innocents with his claws, will die at the hands of the demonic elemental called the Demon King.

_KNOCK_

_KNOCK_

They all heard the knocking coming from the other side of the front door. Barry walked to it and opened the door. "General, you're here." The forensic scientist noted and stepped aside to let him in. Seth and Iris saw him holding a folder under his left arm.

It's been awhile since he visited his friends and had to take in the interior of the house with his eyes. "Gotta admit; this house is still nice." He looked to the couch, seeing three young girls. "I assume these are the three troublemakers living here, Iris?"

"Yeah. Trust me, they're worse than you'd think." Iris joked and the three girls unitedly stuck out their tongues in retaliation.

Eiling chuckled at their childish behavior before looking to Seth. He took the file folder out of his armpit and into his other free hand, holding it out to him. "I think you can get hold of this one, someone who might be able to aid you on your quest."

"Not exactly _Adventure Times_, but thanks." Seth took the file. "Who is it?"

"Before you know that Seth, I think they already know about you." Barry stated.

"What now?" He groaned with annoyance while holding the unopened folder.

Iris answered. "Mera said that she was sent out because of her friend, the one who's been keeping an eye on you and the rest of us. We think we know who this person is." Seth listened. "You didn't know about it before now, but there's been rumors circulating around our informants on the streets about a second group of metahumans. A group that operates on their own with no allegiance to others. It's like they don't fight for either good or bad."

"A group that operates on their own… It's the same one that's been sending metas after me and watching over me." The elemental sighed. "Now you're saying that I have to find them and ask them of their help. Great."

"I doubt you have to ask for that." Iris said. "Whoever their leader is, they've been sending metas after you, one of them almost killing Ruby hadn't it been for you, so they might just give you their help as an apology."

"Whoever their leader is?" He inquired confusedly and opened the folder and saw another criminal profile. But unlike the one of Blackfire which he saw back at the precinct, this one didn't have a photo and no text under "real name."

It did have a nickname.

"_Eye Sight._"

"Eye Sight?" Seth said. "Is this the leader of the group?"

Iris nodded. "Our informants have never met her before, but from what they've gathered it's the name she goes by. She always has two metahumans near her, two very strong ones. We only know one of them."

"Marcus Bishop, a former soldier of mine from Freeland." Wade stated and Seth flipped the page, turning to the next one. It was showing a photo of the former soldier himself, a dark-skinned man with black hair and black goatee. He was wearing an army soldier uniform on the photo. "One of the finest men I have ever enlisted in the army. I hate he felt like he had to leave before."

"Why'd he leave?" Ruby asked curiously.

"He paid a visit to his family's gravestones here in the city the day of the Particle Accelerator explosion." Eiling said. "While leaving from the cemetery, he was somehow still exposed by the dark matter and he got powers from it. Gaining the ability to control and emit vibrations at will. I think he left the army because he was sure that he wouldn't be welcome with him being a metahuman now." He clenched his hands. "I really wish he didn't think that."

"He can be trusted?" Jesse wondered.

"One of the finest men I have met." Eiling recited. "He can be trusted. He's also a good judge of character. Whoever Eye Sight might be, Marcus wouldn't be trusting them so easily if they have ill intentions."

"I don't know about that." Seth closed the folder and placed it on the table. "Her group's been sending people after me and keeping their eyes on me for a while now, which is really annoying." He admitted. "It's like i have two groups of metas that I have to look out for now."

"Dr. Fury." Eiling said. "For this to work and we can finally get rid of Blackfire-"

"I have to put my emotions aside and have their help." Seth fully knew what this meant. "Where's their base of operations, I will go and talk with them face to face. Hopefully, Mera's there too and I can have her stay her to watch over you guys." Barry walked into the other room to retrieve something.

"She should be. Close friends always stay… close by, right?" Evelyn said.

"Guess so." Seth agreed.

"Seth, there's a place you might be able to meet up with the group." Barry got their attention as he returned to the living room with a computer. Sitting on the couch and opening it, he began typing and revealed a map of the city, three spots on the map shining brightly red. "Remember the two bars you went to before?"

The mutant nodded. "Yeah, two Saint and Sinners bars. One, where I had to meet up with Killer Frost for more info on Evie." He saw the three girls snickering, recalling that they knew of him kissing the frosty doppelganger of his girlfriend. With an eyeroll, he continued. "The second one, was where I brought Ruby with me and talked with some of the metas there, finding out about Zoom using breaches to send his metas off to my world."

"And I was almost blown to pieces at that spot because of Kentucky Flying Chicken." Ruby gave a mock pout.

"Such a shame." Jesse joked.

Ruby glared at her. "I can still snap your neck." Jesse whimpered.

Evelyn looked between the two with curious eyes. "Take your arguments upstairs, would ya?" Surprisingly, both shook their heads in defiance.

"Yeah, and there's a third Saint and Sinners bar, one much further from the other two." Barry said as he continued typing on the computer. "Actually, pretty close to the outskirts of the city. For a while, I've been keeping an eye on it via an algorithm that takes in strange occurrences. And lately, my program's been picking up strange vibrations that appears out of nowhere, but only lasts for a short moment."

"Gotta be that Marcus guy." Seth noted. "But what kind of clientele do they serve there, exactly? Iris mentioned this third one before but didn't say anything about it before."

"Usually humans, or some metahumans, who doesn't want part of the war with Zoom there." Iris informed. "You still have the address, so it'd be quick to find it."

"Yeah." Seth nodded. He looked to the window again. "But with three people on my tail, it's gonna be a bit annoying."

"Who's out there?" Ruby asked.

"Probably three of those Crows. Their boss might not be my biggest fan after I humiliated him back at the precinct."

Jesse gave a half-smile. "_He's saying it so casual it's actually scary._" She shivered slightly at her own thoughts.

"But I guess I have my mission then." Seth cracked his fists and looked to the girls. "You three stay here and make sure you don't trouble Iris and Barry, okay?"

"Yeah."

"Whatever."

"Will do."

Evelyn, Ruby and Jesse agreed to his words instantly. He smiled and straightened his clothes before walking to the front door. "Guess, I'm off then."

"Seth."

He stopped and looked back to see Evelyn and Ruby looking at him worriedly. Giving them an assuring smile, he told them. "If you girls think I'm gonna be taken care of so easily, then you're really underestimating me. I'll come back again, don't worry." He told them kindly.

"Be careful." Ruby told him.

"You're probably the only hero in in this city, worth having hope for." Evelyn said.

"Thanks, girls. I have to save these girls and get rid of Blackfire now." Seth told them. "Time to work." He pushed the door open and stepped out of the house.

"Good luck, Seth." Barry said.

"Don't die." Iris muttered.

X

It's been a while since Seth had to shake off someone who's tailing him, and this time he had to his invisibility capabilities to get away from them. But he was right. The ones following him, as suspected, are the three lieutenants of Crows Security.

He managed to lead them down the wrong alleyway once, and it gave him the opportunity once to use his symbiotic partner's help to crawl up the side of a wall and leap on the roofs to run away. When he landed down again, he stood before the bar. Seeing that it looked like the bar he invaded back on his home universe when he had to stop the East Street Skulls from trafficking the girls they've kidnapped.

"Reminds you of simpler times, doesn't it?"

"**_Wouldn't say that. Not much in our life, aside from our moments with family, is simple._**" Venom said with a mental chuckle.

"Yeah." He looked to the ground and saw broken fragments of a mirror. "Hello?" He said jokingly at his own reflection before bending down on a knee before the broken pieces. He ruffled through them and found a long shard, the size of a palm-size hair comb. "Might be useful." The mutant walked to the entrance door with the shard tightly clutched in his hand.

Seth reached the door and pushed it open. He was immediately surprised by the low-key music playing when he stepped into the bar. He saw that there weren't a lot of people in the bar.

A jukebox playing in the far-left side of the bar, playing some harmonious music that was quite pleasant and seemed joyous for anyone to drink to. In the middle of the bar, a pool table was occupied by a woman and a man, each of them holding a beer and laughing before taking turns in the game. A few biker-like men and women were seated in the booths on the right side of the bar, some of them arm-wrestling against one another with piles of money on the end of their table. They were trying to settle a bet. The bar counter was occupied with nothing but air on the seats and the bar tender with his back to turned to the entrance door.

"Peachy…" he said and walked forward to the bar counter. But he missed the bar with JC and Stan back home.

X

_CHIME_

_CHIME_

Lindy, Mera, Kendra, Marcus and Tony snapped their heads to the computer that kept chiming loudly for some reason. The technopath looked worried and rushed to the computer. She was worried that her program had picked up more of the corpses of Blackfire's victims found on the street.

"What's going on, Lind?" Mera said worriedly, her hand clutched around her trident in case of a brewing battle.

"Oh no…" Lindy muttered in shock of what her screen picked up.

"Boss, what is it?" Marcus worriedly called out to her.

"Take a look." She turned around and faced the wall. Placing her hand on the desk, a faint red light shone underneath the palm of her hand with an almost inaudible whirring tone that followed as her biometrics were scanned. Her friends watched the wall, like nanites shifting around on the wall surface with swarming nanites. A moment later, they retracted into the wall again and revealed a very large screen that filled the entire wall. The screen showed a static front before changing to what Lindy found.

"Oh my God!" Kendra gasped.

"So he finally came…" Mera trailed off with a smile.

"So soon." Tony muttered.

"Yeah, a big shock." Marcus admitted.

Lindy gulped. "What's he's gonna do?" she asked.

The screen showed what was going on in the bar. Showing people arm-wrestling one another to win a bet, a couple playing pool with alcoholic beverages in their hands with smiles on their faces, the bartender cleaning glasses with a washcloth… and the man who is the Demon King walking towards the bar.

Mera's smile widened. "Seth's taking action."

"What makes you think of that?" Lindy directed to her Atlantean friend. "For all you know, he's here to get revenge for us sending Kendra after him?"

Kendra looked shocked at that, she thought about it before when seeing him appear on the screen. The thought of that man donning his demonic persona to bring down his sword on her throat like a guillotine. She was almost responsible for killing an innocent girl, hadn't it been for Seth himself.

"If he wanted that, he would have done so earlier." Mera surprisingly said. "He's the kind of guy who gets pissed when someone innocent is hurt or in danger, which he's proven. But now I think he knows more about this situation and wants to take on Blackfire."

"And you really think he'd work with us?" Lindy wondered.

"Yeah. Seth's a good guy." Mera said adamantly. "The safety and well-being of the girls in Blackfire's clutches are the only thing that matters to him right now. If that means working with the people who were out for him, he'd do it in a heartbeat, even it meant regretting it later." She faced her friends again. "I mean, he's been working with me whenever we meet."

"True." Marcus said. "But is it okay for me and Tony to go and meet him?"

"Why?" Kendra asked. "Wouldn't it better if it were someone like Mera or someone here he's met?"

The Atlantean looked at the flying woman and bluntly said. "Don't tell me you're suggesting yourself wanna meet him? Cause that'd go well."

"It would be better if it's us because me and Marcus are unknown to him." Tony answered the flyer. "He won't know about us. It'd be the best way to get a feel on him."

"Tony's right." Marcus nodded. "The guy might actually just come here to kill us, but he could also be here to do some good. But we can't take the chance that Mera's wrong." The Atlantean gave the vibrokinetic narrowed eyes. "No offense, Mrs. Curry."

"Some taken." Mera said. "But yeah, if you guys wanna get a feel on him, then sure just go. Chances are, he's gonna know what you're trying to do. Seth's no fool so be prepared, boys."

"I just hope he's not one for paybacks." Lindy slumped down in her chair.

X

Pulling the nearest bar stool back, Seth took a seat by the bar counter and tapped the wooden tabletop silently. "_Operating out of a bar? Sounds like Oliver Queen's idea._"

"**_Wasn't that under a bar?_**" Venom recalled and asked.

"_Shut up._" Seth told his friend within him and watched as the bartender turned around to face him. The mutant got wide-eyed at the sight of that familiar face. It a familiar bald pale man with a pair of eyes that he found crazy in the past. Now, they appeared to be kind and caring as they were pointed at the mutant. He might be wearing a white shirt and a black tie around the collar with a vest on top of the shirt. His sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Kyle Nimbus smiled and put a coaster on the counter, right in front of Seth and asked. "What it'll be, my friend?"

"U-um…" He was shocked to hear such a friendly tone from a man who he fought on another Earth, especially since that man was very much out to kill him and others.

The bartender turned concerned and asked. "You okay there, friend? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Shaking himself, he apologized. "I'm sorry, bit new to this place."

"Well, if there's anything you need, feel free to ask and I will help to the best of my abilities." Kyle stated politely.

"Thanks, but for now, I'm just waiting. And a whiskey would be help with the waiting, make it a neat and it will be worth killing time." Seth said his order.

"Sure thing." Kyle turned around and began to pour the drink into the nearest clean glass.

Venom felt the same as his host. It was certainly weird to be served by a man with the same face as one that tried to kill them in the past. "**_Strange world._**" He noted, shocked by the difference of this world still. "**_What do you think of this world, Seth?_**"

"Thanks." Seth thanked the bartender for handing him his order. Taking it in his hand and swirling it around in the glass, he replied to his partner. "_Parts of me like it, actually. Even though, it's a different world, some things are still the same. Iris is still willing to be on the frontlines to see the action. Barry is geek here, but still there for Iris through anything and against anything. Evelyn and the others are cool too._"

"**_What about the bad parts, then?_**"

Hearing the question from his partner, Seth sipped on his drink and mentally answered. "_Pretty obvious, isn't it?_" He turned his eyes downwards to the alcoholic drink in the tumbler glass. "_You and I, we're forced to fight against metahumans who have the same faces as our friends._" He felt like listing it off for both his own sake and his partner's.

"_Ronnie wasn't our favorite person for a long time, but he was still one of the two people who protected Olivia when we couldn't find her in that world._" He recalled how bravely Firestorm fought against him suddenly in the past. Shooting arrays of fireballs at him, in both his real form and his demonic persona. "_Not our favorite person, sure… but he was definitely a hero who was willing to sacrifice his own life for the entire city back in our world. Wonder what happened to him and Stein?_"

"**_You think they could have survived that? Separating in the eye of a singularity is no small task, Seth._**"

"_I know… chances of either of them surviving that are pretty slim._" Seth admitted. It was miracle that he even survived that black hole. Even with all of his elements, something else must have saved him from being obliterated in that whirling mass of energy.

Shaking his head, he continued his listing. "_Reverb has Cisco's face, but not his soul. A rip-off with nothing but cold darkness inside of him. Nothing like the Cisco Ramon we know… I don't like that._" Cisco was the kind of guy who could be trusted. He may have made decisions in the past that some might consider outrageous like making a cold gun as a countermeasure against a speedster who turned out to be the hero of the city. "_His mistakes turned out to be the better for our home._"

"**_Yeah._**" Venom agreed.

"_And then there's Caitlin…Killer Frost, I should say…_" Seth thought. "_A truly colder and more merciless version of the woman who gave me the will to live and fight on._" He continued drinking from his glass. "_I've seen her already a few times, I've seen her kill right before my own eyes, but I still can't believe it. A Caitlin Snow out in the world… who's cold as ice itself._"

"**_When we met Catlin for the first time, she didn't even smile once. She was pretty cold herself back then._**" The symbiote reminded his partner.

"_Yeah…_" He couldn't resist the smile forming on his face as he reminded the first time he ever laid eyes on Caitlin Snow on that earth, on the woman who managed to shed his lifeless self and he once again returned to be the one who was compassionate and kind.

The time he first saw Caitlin Snow… his mind went blank. Straightened brown-hair that was so beautiful you couldn't help but look at it with care. Those cold-as-icicle dark-brown eyes that looked like the finest orbs ever to be found, their beauty so amazing that not even diamonds dared to be compared to them. Back then, her face was wielding stoic façade, not a single sign of a smile cracked. Back then it was a shame for someone so beautiful.

But the journey from there was worth it… as he managed to be the one to genuinely make her smile.

His heart melted when seeing that smile… it would melt when seeing that smile… it still melts when seeing that smile or even remembering the smile and the way Caitlin's face lights up the world.

"_We're getting back to them all…Frankie, Magenta and Caitlin… We're getting back to them all._"

The thoughts and memories of his friends and family was enough to reignite his infernal will and desire to return home. Within his core, his will took on the form of a blazing inferno that his elements could never even come close to take on.

"Yo."

Seth was brought out of his reverie when hearing a gruff voice call out to him. He turned around and saw a dark-skinned man with black hair and black goatee walk up to him. He was familiar to him as he saw a photo of that person before. Even though he wasn't wearing a standard military uniform, and now wearing a black jacket over a grey shirt and dark-blue pants, he would easily be able to recognize Marcus Bishop.

"Don't tell me I'm taking your seat or something?" Seth joked, he wanted to see if this man was trying to play some game to lower the mutant's guard or something else.

"Nah, just haven't seen you before, is all." Marcus said and took a seat in the chair beside the mutant. "Me and my friend are bit of regulars here, so kind of a surprise to see a new face."

"Yeah, he's right."

Now Seth looked to the side and saw another familiar face appearing beside Marcus. Much like the one he knew, and killed, the man was wearing a brown tank top on his upper body and his lower body clad in army pants. Tony Woodward looked at mutant's wide eyes. "What's wrong? Did Nimbus put something extra in your drink?"

"I would never do that, Woodward." Kyle offendedly called out.

Tony chuckled and looked to the mutant again. "Definitely a new face for sure."

Seth was about to reply but he looked to the right without moving his head. His right eye caught sight of a three hair colors. One that's short haired with red tips. A second one with long curly black hair. The third one with long blonde hair.

Scoffing he pointed to the seat beside while looking to Tony. "Tony mind taking a seat here."

"Sure." Tony replied immediately when hearing that his words didn't come as a question but rather as an order. Also because, the metahuman didn't even introduce himself yet. He took a seat on the chair and asked the mutant, Marcus looking at him as the question was stated. "Why so adamant about me sitting here?"

"Can we drop the act now, guys?" the two metahumans looked confused. Making eye contact with Marcus, he stated. "I know you're Marcus Bishop." The man looked worried. "General Wade Eiling spoke very highly of you."

"The general did?" Seth nodded to Marcus' question. "Can't believe he's still talking about me like this."

"He regrets losing you because you thought you'd be unwelcomed because of your powers manifesting." He honestly told the vibrokinetic metahuman.

Chuckling, Tony said. "Guess Mera was right. You instantly figured out our plan."

"Yeah, got some information on Marcus here." He said. "You… Let's just say I already know a fair amount about you." Tony looked confused and was about to answer, but then Seth beat him to it. "But that's a story for later. Right now… there's bigger fish to fry."

"Blackfire?" Marcus whispered.

"I want to take down that bastard and I have to work with you, despite the fact your boss been sending metas after me for a while now." He groaned. "But now, let's take care of this." He slid his right hand towards Tony. Unclenching his fist, he revealed a shard of a mirror placed in his palm. "I have three annoying people I need to shake off."

Tony and Marcus focused on the reflection on the mirror shard. Their eyes expanded at the familiar faces of the top three lieutenants of Crows Security of Gotham City. "Why're there Crows here?"

"Not to mention their three lieutenants." Marcus added after Tony, both of them in distress from the sight of them.

"I may have pissed off their boss and he's definitely not gonna accept my friend quest on Facebook." Seth casually said, the two wondering how he was so calm about that fact. "Pretty persistent those three. Know how I can get rid of them."

He didn't want to state his question, but Marcus couldn't help himself. "Why not just kill them?" The former soldier knows that the mutant had no problem with killing, so he couldn't help but bring it up.

"They're doing their job, that's not a bad thing." Seth stated immediately. "Then again, they start harming innocents then I will put them in their place. But like I said, bigger problems on the horizon, gotta take care of them first."

"Yeah." Tony agreed.

Seth then said. "Your boss and the rest are in the back, underground or something near this bar?"

"Yeah. Our base is connected to this bar." Marcus said.

"But what's the plan with getting those birdies out of here?" Tony asked.

"You guys trust me?" Seth asked them. They nodded. "Best way to get rid of people tailing you? Give them something else to focus on."

X

Kate Kane and her colleagues from Crow Security took a seat in a nearby booth. They had gotten this mission to tail the man that insulted their boss, but she didn't like it one bit. It was merely because her father was pissed at this guy and wanted revenge or something because of it. Probably his pride is hurt because of it.

Normally she would be happy to take on any mission her father gives her. Any chance to hone her skills, she would take it. But with the people she's paired up with, it would prove to be a challenge.

She watched as Julia Pennyworth got a carefree expression and looked around with interest, most likely intrigued to be in a bar in the outskirts of this city. The blonde agent took out the menu card on the end of the table and began to read through the menu options, her eyes focusing on the variety of alcoholic beverages. "My oh my, the pleasures of living on the far ends of CC."

Kate then turned her eyes to Sophie Moore. Unlike their colleague who was free-spirited on every given mission, she was cold-hearted on all of them. In Gotham, cold-hearted officers and agents alike was the way to get higher up the food chain. She didn't even mind pulling out her gun and cocking it as though a gunfight was to be expected. "Is the target still within eyesight?" she directed to Kate.

Shifting her eyes to the guy who insulted their boss, seeing him converse with two other men, Kate informed her colleague. "He's still sitting by the bar, talking with two other men, both of them unknown."

Julia chuckled and leant over to Kate's side, basically leaning up against her which got her to growl her annoyance. She managed to look at the man herself and said. "Oh, the posh wanker is already making friends. Nice. He doesn't look friendly and he's already doing better than us, nice job, lad."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Complementing our target already, Pennyworth? You're so hopeless."

"Wanna try something new? It's a bother if you keep saying the same things over and over. Bit of a broken record, love." Julia gave a mock pout.

"Calm down, guys." Kate stopped them with a sigh. "And Sophie, stop calling him a target. He may have confronted the Commander, but he's not someone we have to take out. We don't have a shoot-to-kill order on him, so we don't have any reason, legal or not, to hurt him."

"Whatever." Sophie said casually.

Groaning again, Kate saw the bartender walk towards their table. Kyle looked at them kindly and asked. "Anything on the menu that's worth a taste?"

"No." Sophie sneered.

Kyle raised an eyebrow in confusion and shock. Kate kicked her leg under the table and looked to the bartender. "Sorry for her, she's not friendly. But I'd like some water, please."

Julia pointed a drink item on the menu and said. "And I'd like this one, just with vodka and nothing else. I like it neat."

"Of course. Just a moment, ladies." Kyle politely said and walked away to prepare their drinks.

Kate leant to the side again and looked to the man they're following. She narrowed her eyes when seeing that the two men beside him were gone, having walked awhile they were talking to the bartender. "Our guy's alone now, his companions have left him."

"Poor lad, all by his lonesome." Julia joked.

"I'm curious about this guy." Kate admitted out loud.

Giving her colleague a strange look, Sophie coldly said. "Why? He's a nobody."

"Well, Mr. Nobody is a doctor who doesn't even flinch when a gun is pressed to his head and he doesn't appear to give a crap about confronting authority figures way above his paygrade." Kate said with interlocked fingers. "There's more to him than we know."

"How'd you know the bloke's a doctor? He already become your mate, eh?" Julia pushed her elbow against Kate's arm.

Shaking her head, Kate elaborated. "Nah, my cousin Bruce told me about him briefly after we departed from CCPD. He's a friend of the detective whose mentor was killed by Blackfire."

"Fred Chyre." Sophie stated the name. "Renowned and famous detective on the force, well-respected by the entire precinct and a model officer, often thought to become the next police captain on the force. He caught whiff of Blackfire's operations somehow and tried to take care of it himself but it turned against him and got him killed."

"Bollocks." Julia rubbed her forehead.

"Here you go." Kyle Nimbus announced his presence and brought them their drinks. "Enjoy." He finished off before walking away again.

"Thank ya, mate." Julia was the one to thank the bartender before sipping on her vodka drink.

Kate saw that while they were talking more people had come into the bar. More people were seated in the other booths and more had gathered around the pool table. More people were seated at the bar, ordering drinks at this very moment. People had also formed a group and gathered around the jukebox, assumingly to decide the next song to be played.

However, despite this being happy hour and a bar, Kate looked uneasy. "Something's wrong." She noted when seeing that a lot of them were sharing looks and nods as though silent agreements were being sealed. "There's so many people now."

Having swallowed the last of her drink, Julia looked around as well. "Knees up, ladies. I think we're about to have our hands full."

"What'd you mean?" Sophie asked, her hands under the table so others won't see her cocking her gun.

"So many people showing up so quickly, means that we're about to be botched." The British agent said and pushed her glass to the side. "Keep an eye on our target, Kane. I think he's onto us."

"Think he's been that for a while." Kate said when seeing the man get up from his chair. "He's on the move." The three agents got out of the booth.

X

"**_They're about to follow us._**" Venom informed his host at the actions of the three Crows lieutenants.

Walking along the bar counter with his left hand on it, Seth said in a whisper. "Thanks." He looked to the bartender who gave a knowing look. "Take over from here, Kyle?"

"You got it. The door will be opened by Tony and Marcus." Kyle put a glass down after nodding his confirmation. Seth nodded his own thanks and walked calmly towards an empty side of the bar, in the far right side.

Kyle nodded towards one of his friends at the jukebox. He made eye contact with the bartender, sharing a brief nod.

Then it began…

His biker friend downed his drink in a single gulp and slammed his tumbler into the back of another biker's skull. While blood ran down the back of his head he screamed in pain before clenching his fist and slamming it into his friend's face, sending him down to the ground with a roll.

"You think you're gonna get away with that, bastard?! What a joke!"

"Then bring it on!" His friend on the ground shot up to his feet again before charging his friend again, pushing into the group of couples at the pool table.

One of the women didn't like that in the least and took hold of her beer bottle before slamming it into the guy's head, shattering it in half. "Asshole!" She kicked the guy away before aiming her bottle at the others. "Anyone wanna take a shot at me, then come on!"

Another woman by the pool table grabbed her cue stick and swung into the bottle-wielding woman's back, the impact breaking it in half instantly while pushing the woman aside. "You ruined my shot!" she screamed in anger.

"Fight!"

"Fight!"

"Fight!"

"Fight!"

All the costumers chanted and began to fight against one another. People slamming their beer bottles and their glasses into the faces of anyone near them. Some grabbed hold of their target before slamming their heads into anything nearby, either the jukebox or the arcade game machines, cracking the screen. Others began beating whoever was near them with their own fists and feet. A lot of them were thrown on the ground or against other tables before being the target of raining fists.

Kate and her colleagues had to push people away from them to even get some breathing room within this mass of fighting people.

"What the heck?!" Kate screamed and pushed people away as best as she could without injuring anyone of this city.

"Well you're right, Pennyworth." Sophie hated to admit it. "But we're pretty botched." She added as she had to push away people with her left hand, her right hand lowered to keep her firearm concealed from out of anyone's eyes.

"Nice timing for you to finally agree with me, Moore!" Julia sarcastically called out while pushing people away in rapid succession. The british agent managed to look above the heads of the fighting people. Shocked at who she didn't find, she said. "Guys, our target's gone."

""What?!"" Kate and Sophie let out their own shock at the same time.

At the bar, Kyle looked calm as ever as people began to rumble through his bar and start fighting. He withdrew another cloth and placed it over his shoulder when seeing a woman slam a guy's head into the counter. Blood shot out of his mouth and onto the wooden top, making the bartender groan with annoyance. "Come on, guys. I just cleaned it."

"Sorry, Nimbus." The woman used her sleeve to wipe the blood away before pushing the guy away. "Think Venom got his way out of here?"

"Oh yeah, he did." Kyle said in a confident tone. "But remember to cause a lot more mayhem than this, the Crows are not going after our hero."

"Heck yeah, they aren't." She smirked before returning to barfight erupting behind her.

X

Seth followed Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop down a wide staircase. They managed to open the secret panel in the back that only they and Kyle Nimbus knew about whilst the other costumers continued distracting the Crows lieutenants with their brawl.

The mutant looked around the staircase, seeing that the walls are pitch-black and the railings are of wood. Nothing on the walls or anything like decorations. The only thing attached to them, in the upper parts of the walls, are circular 360-degree video security cameras.

Turning to the two metahumans, he asked, "So I guess it's finally time for me to meet your boss."

"Yeah." Tony replied. "She's been looking forward to this."

"**_He's lying. And he's scared._**" Venom noted, chuckling at the metahuman's poor attempt to lie.

"_Yeah I know._" Seth sighed and said. "Sorry Tony, but I'd rather have it if neither of you lie to me now." He could hear them gulp again. "Let's be clear about something, boys." He managed to get them both to stop and turn to him. "I know your boss sent that flying woman of yours after me a while back, and I'm not exactly keen on making friends with her either. But I am willing put my feelings aside to work with her to take care of Blackfire and save the girls in his clutches."

"So you know about the situation?" Marcus asked.

"Sort of. Filled out most of the blanks, only a few still in need of being filled." Seth answered before they continued walking down the stairs. "Hopefully your boss will fill those for me."

"She will." Tony sounded assuring. "We know that you don't trust her so well after she's been sending some of our friends after you, but she's been nothing but a gigantic help to those of us who lost ourselves after the Particle Accelerator explosion."

"He's right. She's been helping us after that explosion." Marcus pitched in. "Gave us a home when we thought we didn't."

"**_Sounds like Xavier._**" Venom thought.

Seth didn't reply for a few moments before saying. "_Yeah… Let's hope she really is like the old man. But that kind-hearted man was a man of his degree._" He looked to the guys again. "I'll give her a chance and see if she's worth your trust. If not, then I will cross that bridge when I get to it."

"It won't come to that." Marcus stated before stopping in front of a door.

As they came to a stop, Seth looked around and saw that there are two more doors. One further down the hallway to the left and one at the end of the hallway. "What's in the other rooms?"

"One's a room for us to sleep with multiple beds. Pretty much, a shared room." Tony said.

"The one at the end of the hallway is a lab. But none of us here are scientists so it's rarely used." Marcus explained.

"A laboratory?" Seth muttered in interest before looking to the door before them. "Guess this is where I'm meeting your boss."

"Yeah." Tony nodded before knocking on the door. "Boss, we're here!" He called out.

"Come in, guys!"

Tony twisted the doorknob and opened the door, opening it widely so the two others could walk in. Seth looked around and saw the present company after the door was closed behind him. Aside from himself and the two metahumans, he found Mera looking at him with a smile. Returning that smile with one of his own, he looked to the middle of the room.

Sitting behind an array of computer screens, was a woman. Instantly assuming she was the leader, the mutant saw her gulp. Her skin is pale and her hair is long raven-black. Shaking eyes dark green as a forest in the darkened night. He could see her hands clench against the armrests of her chair. Her eyes looked to be ground zero for a violent earthquake with the level of shaking going through them.

"Pleasure to meet you, Seth." The woman shakily greeted him.

Seth opened his mouth to speak. But his partner growled with a note. "**_Seth's she's here!_**" Feeling Venom mentally turn his eyes to the side, he followed the same direction and widened his eyes at the fearing form of Kendra Munoz-Saunders.

"The heck is she doing here?!" Seth let out his anger and wrapped both arms around with the black symbiotic mass, flexing his claws.

Tony stepped backwards, his arms turning into metal and Marcus emitting vibrational rings around his palms. Both ready to strike but then Mera raised her hand to them. "Guys stop!" They gulped with reluctant nods and watched as the Atlantean looked to the mutant. "Seth calm down!"

"Give me a reason, a pretty big and good one." Seth said and the black mass on his right arm expanded and flowed down his hand. "Cause I'm pretty sure I said didn't want to see her again." The mass retracted and revealed his large crystal sword.

"Seth!" Mera stepped forward to him. "It's okay. You can trust her now."

"Mera." Seth nodded his head backwards to the two metahumans. "I don't know about much about Tony, I know a small amount about Tony, so I can't say I trust them completely now." Continuing, he looked to the woman behind the monitors. "Don't know much about your friend here, aside from the fact she's been watching me for a long time along with sending metahumans on my ass." He looked back to the Atlantean. "I know you, Mera and I trust you completely." He drifted his eyes to the flyer. "Her, I really can't say I trust."

Kendra placed her hand on the Atlantean's left shoulder. The flying woman stepped in front of Mera and looked at Seth, seeing the distrust brimming in his blue eyes. She gulped as she ran her eyes down the crystalline length of the blade that belonged to Blackfire. Shallowing the heavy amounts of spit residing in her mouth, she looked to the mutant again.

"I know whatever I say won't make you trust me anytime soon, Seth. But I understand that and I know I deserve that." Kendra honestly said with her hands raised. "I almost… I almost… I almost took the life of an innocent girl. Because I lost the man I love… I went berserk and would have hurt innocent people. If not for you, Seth." She inhaled deeply before stating. "I can't thank you enough for that. It meant a lot."

The mutant didn't say anything, merely letting the flyer speak her feelings and letting them sink in. Even without the aid of partner, he could see that the woman was talking honestly. More than that, she regretted ever taking flight and trying to take out the three metas under Zoom's rule as it almost led to blowing up the hero of this city and an innocent.

He saw a familiar heartbroken expression on her face. One that he has seen in his own reflection in the past.

The unbearable pain of having to bear the broken pieces of one's heart after one's loved one have died.

A pain that impossible for one to bear alone.

Seth exhaled before spinning his sword around in his hand and laid it against his back, tendrils shooting out of his back and wrapping it around the blade like a scabbard. With both arms free he crossed them over his chest. "Doesn't mean I'm willing to trust you, but I'm willing to give you a chance to earn that trust. And bit of advice from someone who knows your pain?"

"Yeah?" Kendra accepted worriedly, her friends around them watching them with careful eyes. Mera didn't look worried as she knew Seth better than the others here. The two metahumans deactivated their powers.

"Don't let that anger, that rage… don't let it dictate you like it did before. The moment you do that, you'll become someone you don't recognize." Seth exhaled. "Worse is, you'll become someone your loved one won't recognize."

"Thanks… and I'm sorry for what I almost did." Kendra smiled.

The mutant said. "Like I said, not willing to trust or forgive you anytime soon. But you can work towards it, earn it."

"She's not the only one to give apologies." Seth and the others looked to Lindy. "My name is Lindy."

"**_She's lying._**" Venom quickly noted as Lindy continued.

"And I'm sorry for sending people after you like I did before." She apologized.

"**_She's telling the truth._**" Venom noted.

Seth casually shrugged. "While I don't like it in the least, you just wanted a feeling of me, I guess." He blinked and when opening them again, he saw Lindy have bright blue eyes now. He looked confused before saying. "Uh… Uh…fuck… back on track. You guys know why I'm here?"

"Yeah." Lindy nodded. "Blackfire." Her hair began to change colors, shifting from long black hair to short red hair. "You're willing to work with us?"

Deciding to ignore the obvious sight of her hair changing length and color, the mutant retracted the sword into his body and took a seat on a chair on the other side of Lindy's desk. "I am. But there is something I don't understand. Why isn't Blackfire, this Eric Frye in Central City? I heard he wasn't, but no one told me why yet?"

"I can answer that." Lindy donned a relaxed expression before retaking her seat in her chair again. "It's because of his deal with Zoom, something I highly doubt CCPD know about."

"What deal?" Seth inquired in confusion.

"Before getting to that, I have to explain a bit before that." The hacker stared. "Zoom has always been unopposed by anyone with evil intents. But then he caught wind of Blackfire's operations, found out about him being a metahuman and they met each other." Seth leaned forward, slouching with his elbows landing on his thighs as he listened to the story. "Zoom felt like he was the only real alpha bad in this city and he challenged Blackfire to a fight."

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Some newcomer in Evil Co. suddenly wants to fight the reigning bad guy? Especially a speedster? That's ridiculously dumb."

"But it somehow happened, and no matter how many times they fought, it always ended up in a draw between those two." Lindy revealed to the shocked Seth. She knew why he was shocked. Zoom was a speedster, but also a monster who had no quarrels with taking the lives of innocents and would do so in a speedy manner. His power was devastatingly strong and able to take out anyone who stands as his opponents.

Yet, he still somehow managed to end up in a draw with another metahuman. Meaning that Blackfire was that much of a threat.

"Despite how much they fought against each other, which were a lot of fights, they decided that their fighting record should stay remained a tie and then came to an agreement that turned out to be beneficial to them both." Lindy continued, her eyes blinking into brown eyes and her hair changing into curly blonde hair. "Zoom would let Frye continue his vile operations in Central City if Blackfire keeps himself out of the city's limits. Per their deal, Eric Frye keeps himself in Keystone City, which we found out about through our surveillance."

Tony then continued, having an idea of what was about to be said next. "Strange thing is, he came back again about six months after that deal was made with Zoom. We're not entirely sure why." He purposely threw his eyes towards his boss.

Following the look, Seth asked Lindy directly. "You know why he returned, don't you?"

"Yeah. It's because of a friend of mine back then asked for my help." Lindy got a sad expression. "He was an old detective on the force and had heard about Frye's operations and wanted to stop them."

Widening his eyes, he deduced. "Are you talking about Fred Chyre?"

"Yeah." Lindy and her friends got wide eyes as well from the shock. "How'd you know that?"

"The couple I'm living at now told me about him. Iris West is one of them and she was a disciple to Chyre when joining the force." The mutant explained. "Probably the greatest guy on the force to have existed from the sounds of it."

"You wouldn't be wrong." Marcus chuckled.

"He's helped everyone here." Lindy pointed to their surroundings. "This place and the bar were not used by anyone, and Chyre told me about it. After I started gathering my friends here to me, he caught up to me and we talked about this group of ours. Telling him that we are nothing like Zoom and that we could be trusted."

Suddenly, her eyes pointed downwards, and her fists clenched. "But… one day he stormed into this place and demanded to know about Blackfire's work, everything we had… and we gave it to him… and he decided to go after Blackfire himself."

"And lost…his life…" Kendra said through gritted teeth, her hair cascading down her face and covering it like a curtain. Masking her saddened facial expression.

"Sorry for your loss." Seth told them sincerely. His partner could feel the emotions of sadness flowing from them. The loss of this well-respected good man was hard on them all. Having played a part in their life after the Particle Accelerator explosion, he might as well have been their family.

"Thanks." Lindy wiped their tear away but then she continued. "But that's not all."

"What do you mean?" Seth inquired with narrowed eyes.

Lindy had sadness growing in her eyes. "Chyre helped the entire group here, and it was larger before. But after Frye killed Chyre… some of our members decided to try and take revenge." Closing her eyes, she placed her hand on screen, Seth looking confused and curious at that, making a mental note of inspecting that later.

The mutant then saw nanites run over the wall behind Lindy. Like he has seen on Matt's suits, the nanites adapted to the wall, forming a large monitor with multiple screens. Each of the screens were displaying a mug shot of a person. "These are some of our friends that tried avenge Chyre." Lindy revealed as Seth took in the screens.

He recognized some of the faces. One of them was Jake Simmons, a metahuman with the powers similar to Cyclops's Optic Blasts. The metahuman's beams, however, were the cause of plasma generation. The other faces were the two atmokinetic brothers Clyde and Mark Mardon. The others didn't have photos of them but had names. Their nicknames at least.

"Razorsharp. Tar Pit. Vigilante. Perenna. Rebecca Jones." Seth ran his eyes over their listed powers. Respectively, he read their powers out loud. "Malleability. Tar generation and pyrokinesis. Accelerated healing factor. Telepathy with advanced capabilities. Hydrokinesis. These are some powerful fighters, I gotta admit. They all went after Blackfire?"

"Yeah." Lindy turned around in her chair and looked at her group of fallen friends. "Eight of some of the strongest metahumans in our group… all fallen at the hands of one maniac of a metahuman." Her hair changing length again. Her eyes brimming with tears.

"What kind of powers does him have?" Seth asked. "CCPD doesn't know, do you guys?"

"No." Mera shook her head before Lindy could answer. "The only ones who've seen his powers in use… are our fallen friends and Chyre."

"Yeah, but it's possibly pyrokinesis or maybe incredibly powerful UV rays he can emit somehow." Seth stated.

"How do you think that?" Came the question from Lindy when snapping around to face him.

Temporarily shocked by her change of hair again, Seth answered sheepishly. "Heard from Detective West that Chyre's ashes were sent in an envelope to the precinct. But it could be anything, a lot of things in this world can reduce a man to ashes. Not to mention that list grows bigger with the addition of metahuman powers." Clapping his hands abruptly, he stated. "Sorry for dragging you guys down that horrible memory lane. But back to the matter at hand, what's the plan?"

Leaning forward again, Lindy interlocked her hands and revealed the plan. "Our plan is to gradually bring Blackfire's attention to us. We take out the places he uses for his operations one by one, save each and every girl at every place. Once we have taken out one, we bring down the next one and the next one again… till all of them are down… cutting off Blackfire's sources of profit and which will force him out of Keystone City and right back into this frying pan of a city. But we do it with a period between each attack."

"Sounds like a good plan. Bringing the snake out of its hide." Seth smiled and then asked. "How long it's gonna take to find his profit income sources?" He hated himself for saying that.

"I need an hour or two to find them, just all I need." Lindy assured the mutant.

"Good, in the meantime…" he pointed backwards at the door. "Mind if I use your lab?"

Lindy shared looks of confusion with her friends before saying. "No, go ahead. But why?"

"Gonna make cocktails." He surprisingly stated and walked to the door. "Always a good idea to go out and fight drunk." Seth stepped out into the hall and closed the door.

Kendra looked narrowed eyes. "He's not serious, is he?"

"Don't know." Lindy faced Mera. "He's not actually serious, right?"

Mera surprised them with a shrug. "Honestly, hearing him say he's gonna go fight drunk doesn't sound all too crazy, compared to all the things I've seen him do ever since meeting him." The Atlantean continued before walking to the door herself. "But I'm gonna check on him just in case."

"Sure thing." Lindy accepted. "We have some work to do now, anyway." She noted as her Atlantean friend walked through the door. "I'm surprised how well that went. Much better than what I thought."

"I have half-expected him to cut off Kendra's head." Tony admitted before looking to Kendra. "No offense, Hawkgirl."

"None taken, pal." Kendra grabbed her right forearm with her left hand. "I wouldn't have blamed him for actually attacking me. Not after what I did."

"You went berserk because you lost Carter." Marcus said. "Don't go beating yourself up like this, Kendra."

"I will try…" Kendra trailed off.

"Now, it's time for us…" she placed her hands on the computer screens again, her technopathic powers brimming and connecting with hundreds of camera lens throughout the city. Screens popping up on the screens in front of her and behind her on the wall, displaying different perspectives as each camera lens are placed differently.

Eye Sight sighed and her eyes ran over the screens with rapid speed. "Time to work."

X

Mera walked through the hallway and stood before the lab entry door. She couldn't help but smile as the situation she hoped for have finally become a reality. Seth Fury, the mutant being from another set of universes, came to work with her and her friends to take down Eric Frye once and for all.

It was time for that to happen, and she was immensely happy about it.

But she was curious about why Lindy didn't reveal her part in this fight… why she didn't reveal Thea.

Putting her hand on the doorknob, and twisting it, she unlocked the door and walked through it. When it was fully opened, she looked inside and got a wide-eyed expression as she registered Seth.

Seth is crouching on the table, black tendrils shooting out of his back and grabbing various items off the shelves, while his left hand is tilting a test tube vial and pouring its liquid contents into the flask in his right hand. Stopping the flow of the tube, a tendril grabbed the test tube and placed it in a vial holder.

Slowly spinning the flask in his right hand, he used two tendrils two grab two other flasks with chemical contents and bring them to him. Halting the spinning of the flask in his hand, he let the tendrils pour down the flasks' contents into his first one for a short moment before stopping their individual flow and spinning again.

He watched as the color took on a dark-yellow shade. Smiling at the result, he said out loud. "Gonna need the centrifuge now." Seth used his tendrils to start up the centrifuge on the other side of the lab. As they did so, he asked. "Still standing there, Mera?"

The Atlantean chuckled while closing the door. "How I'm not surprised by this, is a mystery to even me." She admitted.

Jumping off the table, he turned to her. "Well, guess you're used to the crazy that is me." His tendrils placed the flask's contents in small vials and placed them in the centrifuge. "There's somethings I have to ask you, Mera."

"What's that?" Mera's focus were shifting as she looked at him but also at the tendrils that started the centrifuge.

"What does this have to do with you, exactly?" Seth asked and she tilted her head. "I know that Lindy here is a group that's neither good nor bad, but she's been operating this place like a haven for metahumans like the others here. But how do you fit in this puzzle?"

"It's because of Lindy." Mera smiled. "She and I were friends before the Particle Accelerator explosion, she already knew about me being able to control my powers, so I taught her how to use hers. Bit hectic with hers."

"I've noticed." Seth admitted as the machine began to start, spinning the wheel around. "What's the deal with her powers? She just keeps shifting her eye colors and hair color, length. Maybe her skin color too?" Mera looked downwards, avoiding his eyes. Gaping with realization, he stated it for her. "I was right, she can't control it, can she?"

"Yeah." Mera confessed and said. "And I guess you could say I'm the lieutenant of this group, some of the boys have been doing that actually. They just want me here to help them along, plus if Lindy's powers get out of control again, I can help with that."

"So that's your story in this mess. Friends before powers and friends after powers." Seth smirked. "I like that." He stepped closer to her before leaning against a table behind him. "I want to ask another serious question, Mera. What's the deal with Kendra? Is she even a metahuman?"

"What makes you ask that?" Came the question from the Atlantean.

Raising his arm to her, Seth turned it into adamantium and said. "The metal my body can turn into, is a metal called adamantium. I injected it into my body a while back on my Earth. It's a metal said to be incredible difficult to even destroy. And yet somehow, Birdbrain was able hurt my metal skin. With her claws none the less. What's the deal with that?"

"It's that berserk state she gets into." Mera said and Seth remembered that. "Mera isn't a metahuman, true. She and her boyfriend Carter were a pair of famous explorers. A lot of them even considered them treasure hunters as they kept discovering rare places that was undiscovered until they came along. They came across a tomb by the name of Nabu's Tomb, The two went inside and when they come out again, they're both with new armor, new equipment, new weapons and brand-new wings on their backs. Kendra didn't say anything about what happened in there, but she just began to get stronger and stronger. Even stronger when she's berserk. Last time she went berserk, she almost tore off Tony's arm with her claws alone." The Atlantean didn't want that memory to resurface, but it did and it made her grimace.

"And he can turn into metal, right?" He asked knowingly.

"Yeah." Mera nodded.

"Talking about little old me?" Tony announced his presence after walking through the door.

Mera chuckled. "Yeah, talking about how you almost lost your arm to Kendra that one time she went berserk."

Tony shivered. "Please don't remind me of that. I still feel like my arm is being torn off." He ran his right hand down the length of his left arm. "If Carter hadn't been there, I would have lost an arm and died from blood loss." He nodded to the centrifuge. "What's going on here? What're you making?"

"Cocktails, told you already man." Seth stated.

With a chuckle, Tony said. "I don't know if I should believe you or not, but I wanted to talk with you." He directed to the mutant. "Mera told us about you staying at Iris West's house." He nodded to the metahuman, confirming what had been told. "Is she still good?"

While Seth widened his eyes, Mera rolled her eyes and said. "Don't tell me you're still crushing on her, Tony. She's married, damn it."

"I'm not! I'm just curious." Tony defensively said, but it sounded sort of weak to the others.

"**_Huh? Iris attracts the same type of weirdos no matter what Earth it is._**" Venom said, his voice full of surprise.

"_Must be a multiversal common factor._" Seth joked his response. "But yeah, she's doing well." Tony sighed in relief. Seeing that, he couldn't help but ask curiously. "But why are you asking, Tony? You know Iris?" He had a feeling that he knew the reason to that.

Feeling like he could trust Seth, he revealed. "She and Allen, and me, we all went to the same elementary school back when we were kids. I used to trick and give Allen a lot of problems from there, even we became high schoolers. But it became too much once, and I was sent to juvie for a while. There, I told them I only teased and played around with Barry because I wanted to get closer to Iris, but he was… sort of in the way. I got out of juvie, but it didn't change much with me and Iris, she only kept her eyes on Allen."

"So after high school, I enlisted in the army. Trying to become a good man. I was away for one tour and came back home. Back then… I also applied for the police academy around the same time Iris did. But she… and Allen were together back then, and were pretty serious about it. When she applied for a position here at CCPD, I applied to Keystone Police. I honestly didn't want to see them getting all lovey-dovey back there."

"Yeah, I know that feeling." Seth recalled the feelings that erupted when seeing Caitlin kiss her former fiancé Ronnie Raymond after he and Martin separated. That was probably the worst feeling he's ever felt.

"**_Ironically, you're thinking that despite you had a poison-laced spear rammed through your heart._**"

"_Shut up!_" Seth roared in his thoughts.

"But then the craziest thing happens." Seth and Mera listened as Tony continued his life's story. "I was stood up on a date with someone from work and I was on my way home. As I walk home, I pass by Keystone Ironworks and I see a bunch of punks, teenage boys, hold another kid above a vat of molten scrap metal. Real psychos. I went into the place and scared them off and managed to pull the kid up from there. But all hell was loose when the Particle Accelerator exploded, releasing dark matter and dozing Keystone as well. The blast wave caused a tremor and it pushed me off the bridge and into the vat." He chuckled. "Thought I was dead but instead the vat falls over and I walk out of it…" He clenched his hand, turning it into metal. "And I could do this ever since."

"At least you're using it for some good." Seth stated.

Tony narrowed his eyes and pointed at him and asked. "I don't know why, but I think you've met me before, haven't you?"

"Universes close to each other have somewhat of a common factor: Doppelgangers." Mera and Tony looked at him with intrigue. "They're people like you in that mirror-world, identical to you guys in everything but personality, maybe. And I met your doppelganger, Tony Woodward."

"I'm guessing he wasn't your best friend or anything." Tony sheepishly said.

"Your doppelganger was a criminal that would have killed my friends and family, including my girlfriend." Seth stated before continuing bluntly. "So I had to be the one to kill him."

Tony gulped with shock at his coldly straightforward tone. His eyes also spoke volumes, giving a cold tundra-like gaze. Even his words were shot like needles gliding through the wind and hitting him. "Seriously?" Mera asked. "You had to kill him?"

"Yeah." Seth remembered the entire situation back then. "While we were under attack by another metahuman, the leader of our group released Tony Woodward from our underground prison and he attacked the opposing metahuman. According to The Flash of that world, Tony died after a direct hit of a lightning blast to his chest. But it was a feint so he could find a way out, cause I found him trying to punch his way out of a thick door. I knew that he was going to kill anyone in his path, including my girlfriend so I took him out."

"Oh…" Tony felt awkward now. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for what that person did. And trust me, I'm not him."

Seth relieved him with a calm and assuring smile. "I know that, Tony. Don't worry."

Though he felt calmer and more assured by the mutant's words, he couldn't help the immense wave of awkwardness inside him and it caused him to blurt out. "I think I left the stove on, so I'm just gonna check that." He snappily turned around and made a beeline for the door.

"Think you just scared him straight." Mera joked after the metahuman walked out of the door. Seth shrugged unsurely. Recalling his spoken words, she turned to face him and asked. "About these doppelgangers…"

"Yeah." He walked to the centrifuge to check on the serum.

Mera then sheepishly asked. "Would that mean there's a version of me on that Earth too?"

"Maybe." Seth elaborated. "I don't think I've seen a Mera Curry on my Earth. There's a fifty-fifty chance to whether she's there or not. I haven't checked, I think I might in the future or something when I get back."

An idea popped up in her head at his own words. "Does this doppelganger-thing have anything to do with Killer Frost?" Seth snapped his head to her in shock. "Something you should know, we've been surveilling you ever since you appeared in the precinct as Venom. Tony even filmed you… negotiating with Killer Frost." She teasingly said.

Seth's face faltered. "Great, Tony's a pervert. Thanks for that."

"But seriously? Is there something between you two? She's with Deathstorm but you jumped in front of her and protected her from my attack." She remembered the sight of him jumping in front of the frosty metahuman and took on her water-converted lightning attack from her trident. The words he said, she could remember.

"**_Instincts… Bad habits… Whatever you call it… dictates our actions._**"

"Why did you save her? You two couldn't have something going on, you haven't been here that long." Mera said, but she did recall that he was her prisoner for six months… that could have been something that led to something else. But she doubted it…didn't she?

"Her name's Caitlin Snow, her real name." Seth revealed, something that Mera didn't know and her eyes widened in shock. "I saved her because… on my Earth… Caitlin Snow is the woman I love and the mother to my daughter." The Atlantean gaped her mouth. "That's why… I didn't want her to be hurt. Even though I know she's nothing like the good, warm and caring woman I know… I didn't want that evil, cold and cruel icicle to be hurt still."

"That actually explains a lot." Mera admitted. "I had a feeling it was something deep, glad I was right." She chuckled.

"Yup." Seth said before saying. "But what about that Lindy girl here?"

"What do you mean? Regarding what?" Mera wondered.

"There's something more to this than losing Chyre and losing her friends right when they tried to get revenge." Seth deduced; his words didn't come out as a question but as a statement instead. "I know a personal vendetta when I see one. It was blazing in her eyes. I know that." The centrifuge chimed, indicating that its task had been completed.

"I can explain that."

Once again, the two turned to the door and saw Lindy and the others entering the room. As Seth took the vials out of the machine, the woman explained. "I should explain something about me Seth. Aside from shapeshifting-"

"Partial shapeshifting." Seth cut her off while checking the color of the vials, seeing that they were a clearer yellow color now. "Your powers are only limited to your eye color, hair color and length, and maybe skin color, right? AKA only partial."

Lindy looked to Mera, thinking that her friend was the one to reveal her powers, who corrected the technopath. "He figured it out on his own. I didn't have to say anything."

"Alright." Lindy knew that she had to come clean and reveal everything. "Aside from partial shapeshifting, I can speak with machines and I can ask them to break down firewalls for me. Makes it easier for a hacker like me to break into other's privacy." She giggled.

Stopping his work, the mutant then reared his head back and said. "Wait? You're a technopath?!" His shock was loudly emitted, causing the natives to get wide-eyed. "Damn, I've never met one of those before on my Earth, or any of them. Pretty cool." He admitted.

"Thanks… I guess." Lindy admitted with a sheepish tone and continued. "You wanted to know why this was personal to me… it's because of what Blackfire and the men on his payroll did. They kidnapped someone important to me… as payback for sending metahumans after him."

"They think you sent your friends after him as revenge?" The mutant wondered while taking the contents of on vial and pouring it into the barrel of an injection gun.

"Yeah." Lindy gulped in fear. "To show that he wasn't a fan of my interruptions, he kidnapped my dear friend… Thea… She was brought into her operations… as leverage and entertainment for his loyal customers."

_CRACK_

The natives watched as the mutant cracked and bended the metal table with his bare right hand. His eyes covered by a darkness that removed all life from his face. "I can't wait to find that bastard and tear his entire body limb from limb." He looked to the natives. "Do you have a photo of Thea?"

Lindy nodded and reached into her pocket. Producing a small photo, he handed it to the mutant and let him look at it face of the young woman. She was a brunette, curly long brown hair, and her eyes are light green. In the photo, she was wearing a red hoodie and a wide bubbly smile.

"That's Thea." Lindy replied with a saddened tone.

"Mind if I keep this for a while?" Seth asked them, they looked confused at his question. "Direct me to the place where she's hold up at, I'll get every girl out of there and make sure they're back home again."

"Thanks. Just a little while, and then we have the entire list of Blackfire's places in the palm of our hand." The technopath stated surely. "It's still good to have you with us here, Seth. Can't thank you enough for that."

"Admit it's better than sending metas after my ass, right?" The mutant retorted and the technopath gave her a dry look. Seth looked to the corner and his face fell at the sight. "Who's that in the corner?"

The natives looked to the corner… but to their confusion, they couldn't find anyone there.

"Ow!" Lindy screamed when feeling something puncture the side of her neck. Mixed with the sudden feeling of her neck being pierced, she felt something else slither into her, a liquid. She felt the object yanked out of her neck and instantly put her hand on the side of her neck.

She and the other natives looked to it and saw that it was a black tendril that was holding an injection gun. The tendril retracted to the mutant's body, who smirked as their eyes placed themselves on him. "Why did you do that?!" Lindy screamed.

"What did you give her?!" Kendra screamed after with arms stretched out.

Marcus and Tony looked to their boss's body. Mera followed the direction of their eyes and saw her friend's skin, eyes and hair color remained the same. "Lind?" she got the technopath's attention. "You're not changing now."

"What?" Lindy looked at her body. She ran her eyes up and down her arms. And they remained the same skin-color. She was shocked, flabbergasted, startled, amazed, astonished and stunned, and even a whole world of other words that would be perfect to describe her current feelings.

Whenever she would experience something, be it pain, joy or any other emotions, her features would change. Eyes changing like traffic lights. Hair changing into new lengths and color like a wave of colors that washes over her head. Skin color would rapidly change, like her skin was morphing. And now, right after she was in slight pain by a needle, she found herself not changing for some reason.

Lindy snapped her eyes to the mutant again. "What did you do to me?"

"No offense, but the entire changing was beginning to be a pain, you know." Seth bluntly admits before holding up the injection gun. "It's a serum my girlfriend created on my Earth for a metahuman with a similar power, Everyman who could change anyone as long as he touched someone. He used this power to frame innocents by robbing banks and other places while wearing their faces."

"Was this guy's name's Hannibal Bates?" Marcus asks and the mutant responds with a nod. "Hah! Old Bates is a criminal there! He deserves it."

Giving Lindy a confused look, she explains to the mutant. "Bates' an old friend with the same powers, and he used to trick everyone here. Right now, he's still on our side and in our group, but he's mostly focuses on free-lance work."

"Yeah, but like I said, he was a criminal who did a lot of bad and we had to stop him." Seth continued. "The serum my girlfriend made was designed to temporarily take away his shapeshifting powers for a short period, allowing us the time to throw his ass into a containment cell. But he was roped into an evil bastard's plan, got him killed." He chose to keep the fact that he was his decapitator to himself.

"Shit." Tony let out.

Seth then continued. "I injected a milder version of the serum we used on Bates in Lindy. Instead of taking away her powers, I gave it a sedative's properties. So upon injection it, not only does it calm down your powers it also calms down your nerves, which causes your powers to not shift so suddenly and so frequently."

"What does that mean?" Lindy asks.

Putting the gun on the table, Seth says. "Think of your hair, and then think length and color."

Lindy inhaled, following his instructions, and thinks of a color. Green she settles on. And her friends saw her blonde hair instantly turn to green and grew longer, down to the middle of her back. "Wow…" The technopath let out after looking at her hair, seeing that her powers responded to her thoughts.

"How did you do that?" The former explorer directs to the mutant.

"Like I said, I'd make a cocktail." He quips. "Just one that allows our technopath the ability to use her powers whenever she wants. I made more for you to use later, but don't become dependent on them. You need to control them yourself without them."

"I would say thanks," Lind rubs her neck. "but considering you jammed a big needle into my neck, I'm not going to."

"Well, I never expect a thanks, so that's alright with me." Seth mused.

_CHIME_

A chiming sound came from the speakers attached the ceiling. Lindy turned around and looked at the panel on the wall. Walking to it, she placed her hand on it and closed her eyes. Inside of her mind, she spoke with the machine, asking it why the speakers began to chime as they did.

Her eyes snapped open and she announced. "The algorithm's done. I got the locations of them all."

"Good." Seth said with clenched hands. "What's the name of the first one in the city?"

"Viking Motel." Lindy stated. "We'll get you the address for it."

"Then I will be off." He turned to walk to the door. "Btw, there's another batch of the serum in case Lindy needs more of it. But she's gotta learn how to use her powers herself without a drug helping her."

"But Seth…" Mera got his attention. "From our friends last effort, we found out that each room has an armored guard there, watching and making… making sure that the costumers are getting what they've paid for." She looked disgusted with herself.

He couldn't handle anymore of the fuel that was kept being thrown into the flames that was his hate. Seth was barely able to contain his anger. "…Gonna be bloody…" He muttered to himself and then said. "I'll take of them all. But Mera, I need something from you." The Atlantean listened. "This guy killed Iris West's mentor a while back, I won't have him killing his prodigy as well. So please go to their house and protect them all."

"I will." Mera couldn't but smile. Even as he was prepared to fight the second worst metahuman of this city by dismantling his operations one by one, he still managed to find time to care about the people who've shown him kindness while residing on his Earth. "You can count on me."

"Need an extra hand?" Kendra offered.

But Seth stopped and turned to her. "No offense, Kendra, but I said you had to work for forgiveness. Work's a walk, not a sprint. And I'm fairly certain, Ruby might throw a car in your face if she ." He walked out of the lab.

"That's pretty harsh." Marcus admitted, thinking that it was pretty blunt for him to say that to her.

While sending Seth the address to the Viking Motel on her phone, Mera disagreed with that. "No, it sounds pretty accurate for a kid raised in a Nazi organization."

""What?"" Lindy and Kendra unitedly exclaims.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

After Seth walked out of the bar, Mera immediately made her way to the West-Allen Household to keep her promise to the Demon King, to her friend, Seth Fury. When getting there, the Atlantean walked into the household and saw them all wearing faces with nothing but worry whilst sitting around in the living room.

Slamming the bottom of her trident against the wooden floor, Mera calls out. "Guys!"

Garnering their attention, they all widened their eyes when seeing Mera standing there inside of the house, in her suit. "Mera? What are you doing here?" Iris asked concerningly and got up from her seat.

"Is Seth…" Evelyn didn't want to ask, fearing that it might be the worst case scenario.

But she shook her head and relieved them of their worries. "No, he's alright. He's going out after Blackfire's places right now."

"Alone?" Ruby asked with clenching hands.

Seeing her curl her fingers into fists, Mera notes. "He is, Ruby, and don't even think about going after Seth." the former assassin looks to her. "I know Seth means a lot to you all. In the short time he's been taking care of you, he's been more than just a friend and a temporary guardian for you and the other girls. But he wants to do this alone."

"I still can't help but feel bad about this." Iris admits with her hands running over her face. "Seth's fighting for a problem that's been kept from him this entire time."

"For a reason." Barry says and holds his wife's hand, hoping that he can relieve her of her sadness and self-hate.

At those words, Mera asks the married couple. "Why didn't you guys ever tell him about Blackfire before? Iris, I know he killed your mentor, so you'd have a good reason for telling him and asking for his help."

Jesse nods. "I wondered about that, too." She and the other girls faces the detective.

While she tightens the hold on her husband's hand that was intertwined with hers, Iris didn't see any way for her to not explain her reasons. "I didn't want his friends and family on his Earth to lose any hope and chance of ever seeing Seth again. I couldn't…. I don't think I could handle that kind of pain." Her hands shake and her face pales.

"Wanna hear my opinion?" The Atlantean got her attention. "One way or another, Seth would have known about Blackfire and he would have gone through Heaven and Hell to take him down and his operations. He would not hesitate to fight."

"You really think that?" Evelyn asked.

"Yeah, I do." Mera instantly replied. "You guys know better than me, that's he's the type of guy who'd jump in front of a bullet to defend an innocent girl even though he couldn't heal himself." She shifted her gaze to the three young girls at the couch. "Just a guess, but he knows that the girls are late teens, like you three and his own daughter, too."

"You think he thought like that?" Barry asked.

"Like I said, just a guess. But he's pretty serious about protecting innocents even at the expense of his own life." Mera explained. "But all we can do now is trust him."

"Speaking of…" Iris asks. "Why are you here and not with Seth?"

"He's serious about going at this alone, so me and Eye Sight let him do that." The Atlantean revealed.

"Eye Sight's the name of your friend with metas on call, right?" Ruby asked and received a nod as confirmation. "Why does every meta in this universe have ridiculous names like that?"

"Hey, I got the coolest name." Evelyn pushed the former assassin.

"Sorta." Ruby smirked and pushed her back. The pushing went back and forth between the two.

Jesse pushed the two herself and loudly said. "You two remember that Seth did tell us to behave, right?"

"Wait." Iris remembered something important as she directed her eyes to the Atlantean. "If Seth's going after them now, then he might see the Johns there, right?"

"Yeah, most likely." Mera admitted and watched as the detective reached into her pocket and withdrew her phone. "You want them alive, right?"

"Yeah, I do." Iris puts the phone to her ear and hears the connection waiting to establish. When it did, the detective explained everything to the elemental.

X

"You want me to what?!" Seth exclaimed into the phone while sitting crouched on the side of a building. The building he found was directly in front of the Viking Motel, the primary profit income of Blackfire's operation.

It looked like the typical run-down motels he has seen in his home universe. Two-stories block construction type of motel. One section in the middle with two on both left and right. With Lindy's information it was easy to find the place.

And from Seth's vantage point, it was easy to see the lit lights and lamps in all the rooms. As well as all the cars parked in the motel lot.

It only increased the inferno in his core and caused him to clench the wall with his fingers digging into the surface, easily penetrating the brick wall with his adamantium fingers. "I'm telling you Iris, none of these bastards deserves to be taken alive. So why do you want me to not kill them?"

"_We can put them behind bars for life, if we have them._" Iris reasoned. "_Trust me, I want those Johns to die horribly too. But for them to really be punished, it means letting them rot in prison. You killing them is gonna be the same as giving them the easy way out._"

"I get that…" He sighed heavily. "But it's gonna take a lot of me to not just tear them limb from limb."

"_Well…_" Seth could feel the detective's sheepishness through the phone. "_…from what Mera said, there's armed guards in each room. They're probably on Blackfire's payroll… and I'm guessing they don't deserve a prison cell or anything like that._"

Raising an eyebrow, Seth smirks. "Guess a grave is gonna have to suffice for them." While keeping one hand on the wall, he let his symbiotic mass slither out of his other arm and draw out his sword. "Johns and Janes get roughed up and left hanging, I take care of the armed guards and rescue the girls… How does that plan sound, Iris?"

"_Perfect. Thanks Seth… on behalf of the entire city… I want to thank you._" Iris told him.

"Buy Big Belly Burger for me, I didn't get any dinner yet." Seth joked before hanging up. Craning his neck, he licked his teeth. "Let's take care of this."

"**_Bloody and messy, just the way these pathetic excuses of men should be…_**" Venom salivated at the thoughts of tearing into these armed guards. "**_They're nothing but snacks…_**"

"Rile up, partner. You're having buffet tonight." Seth smirked evilly and tightened his hold on the wall, the brick pieces falling off. He couldn't contain his everlasting infernal feelings. These people were profiting off the lives of innocents, _of_ their torment!

Just for their sick minds… they were gonna be punished by the Demon King… by the Lethal Protector himself…

Black smoke and white mist emitted from his body. Ground intensified his muscles and wind gathered around him. Water seeped out of his fingers and other places on his body and lightning sparked around his black tendrils. Adamantium fingers tightens their hold on the handle of the large crystal sword.

"Let's go!"

_WHISTLE_

Before Seth could even leap off the wall, he looked downwards to the direction of the sudden whistle. His eyes narrowed at the sight of both Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop in the alleyway he was looking down at.

"The heck…" He trailed off and detached himself from the wall and let himself fall. Spinning around in the air, he landed in a silent crouch before straightening himself again, standing to his full height before the two metahumans of this world.

Noticing that Tony is wearing a black tactical tank top and black army pants, and Marcus wearing a full-on military black tactical suit, the elemental asks them confusedly. "What brings the two of you here?"

"Think you already know that." Marcus stated and had both hands on the collar of his suit.

Seth didn't say anything, and Tony says. "This place is the same place our friends fought Blackfire. They died trying to take him down and trying to take down this place. We won't let their deaths be in vain."

"So we're gonna help you. And you can't stop us." Marcus adamantly states.

"Fine." Seth surprised them with his words. "It might go a bit easier with you guys here." He faces the motel once more. "We have to leave the Johns for the police, but we can rough them up, only take care of the guards and make sure the girls are safe."

"How do we transport them?" Tony asked.

"I'll contact Iris afterwards and have her send transport cars." The mutant informed. "But now…" He points a finger to the motel. "We have to take care of this. You two take the ground floor, I take the first floor."

"Yeah."

"Let's go."

Smiling at the two metahumans instant obedience, he announced while his form was enveloped by the symbiote.

"**Time to work.**"

X

The poor girl didn't know how to feel right now. The lights were dimmed as she was seated on the bed, sitting in a short dress that she was forced to wear by the guard in the room. The young girl kept her eyes forward, looking at the window in front of her, seeing the shadowy silhouette of a large man standing there through the transparent curtains. Meaning that the sick John on the other side can see both her and the armed guard standing in the corner of the room.

A single tear ran down her left cheek as she had to endure another night of this hell. It was no use begging for mercy as neither the men or the guard would listen to her pleas, or the pleas of the dozens of other girls here.

All she wanted was to go home to her family again.

But none of them were willing to fight back, fear overtaking them all and making them compliant. Some of the guards and costumers alike, found it amusing to use drugs to make the girls even more compliant. Everyone in this motel who were under Blackfire's rule…

… All girls… new and old… they all knew what their fate would be if they are unable to satisfy their costumer's needs… or if they were to try and escape…

… Blackfire made an example of that not even a month ago… to "motivate" … his merchandise…

She didn't want to be one of those girls… but she didn't want to stay another night in this hellhole and forced to endure another experience like this.

The poor girl didn't have a choice.

And her hellish night would begin again… the moment she saw the doorknob twist and turn from the other side of the door. Opening she saw a man grab the doorknob while pushing it open slightly. The latest John formed a sick smile at the sight of the poor girl, not even noticing her tears, while he closed the door.

He walked over till he stood in front of the crying poor girl. The John had already his hand in his filthy pocket, pulling out a small rolled wad of cash and placed it on the nightstand table. Having now paid the agreed amount, he was gonna get what he had paid for and enjoy it thoroughly tonight.

Tears began to flow down from both the young girl's eyes. Whilst watching the filthy large man began unfastening his belt… she prayed.

"_Someone…_" The tears slid off the edges of her face and landed on the backsides of her hands. "_…help us..._"

_SMASH_

Her night came to an abrupt stop when a series of black tendrils smashed through the door and window with ease and ensnared just the John but also the armed guard. Both were pulled out of the room, screaming their heads off.

The young girl tightened her hold on herself, her arms wrapped around herself with the fingers clenching tightly. She cringed at the sound of screaming continuing, registering it as the armed guard screaming.

_CRUNCH_

She shook at the sound of a loud and audible crunch, putting an end to the armed guard's banshee-like wailing. The poor girl began to shiver as though her skin was touched by a vicious blizzard. Shaking violently at the sound of a metallic clinging, she found herself unable to move and looked fearful.

Hearing the shattering of glasses from applied pressure, she turned her eyes to the door. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head like frogs. The young girl saw the unmistakable form of Venom at the doorstep. Somehow, his form had shrunk down to a normal human size but still have the features that made him who he is.

The pitch-black form on his body. White veins spread all around his body. Bended bone spikes that with the form and size of small white spines digging into his torso. Long white spine extensions spiraled around both his arms and digging into the back of his hands. A white skull-like extension over his face. Crimson red eyes in his eye sockets pointing at her.

His fang-like teeth redden with fresh and dripping blood. With a gulp, after seeing the blood running off his fangs, she asks. "Venom?"

Nodding his head, the mutant stepped into the room, he looked to the girl. "**Are you okay, honey?**" She nodded while he looked around. Finding a blanket, he took it in his claws before walking to the girl. Spreading it, he wrapped it around the shivering girl's form. She relaxed as the blanket was ensnared around her.

"**Not too tight, is it?**" She shook her head, assuring the mutant. "**Good. We will come back… but we have to get the rest of the girls here. Me and my friends will help you all.**"

"You're gonna get us home?" Her question came as a shock to the mutant. The level of shock in her voice was like she had just heard an unbelievable lie right now. "You mean it?"

"**Yeah, we will.**" He assured her. "**But you have to wait here while we help the others. So wait here for a little while, okay?**" He asked of her kindly. "**We will come back, we promise you that.**"

She smiled and said. "Thank you." Her eyes streaming tears of gratitude.

Smiling to her, despite showing his blood-streaked fangs, he got up to his full height. Whilst straightening up, his form began to enlarge. Pitch-black muscles growing and bulging as he grew to his real full size. Looking down to the girl, he said. "**Cover your ears, sweetie. It's not gonna be pleasant… for them to feel.**"

"Thank you." She complied and covered her ears.

Smiling to the girl, the mutant formed a dark expression as he turns to the other wall. He knows what's on the other side and… he's gonna end it.

Turning his entire body to adamantium, he charges into the wall. His massive weight, force, his metal skin, easily able to crash through the flimsy wall. His sudden appearance in the other room forced the man to remove himself from on top of the young girl.

Venom growled and grabbed him with one hand before throwing him out of the window, his hand extended and tearing off on contact with the railing. Quickly freezing the tendril to the man before falling to the ground. Effectively leaving the man hanging by the railing with a frozen tendril.

Bullets began to hit his back and Venom snapped his head back, seeing the young dark-skinned girl on the bed cowering and the armed guard shooting at the mutant. Flexing his claws, he sparked lightning around each digit. The guard stopped shooting and it unfortunately led to Seth wrapping one hand around his body. Temporarily shocking the guard before his pain was ended by a quick and vicious bite, his head permanently removed from its place on his body.

"Venom!" The demon looked to the dark-skinned girl who had tears in her eyes. "My sister's here to, please find her!" Anissa Pierce pleaded.

"**Stay here, we'll find her!**" He announced before lashing out his arm, splitting it into dozens of tendrils that dug into the wall. With a pull of his arm, his tendrils pulled the wall off its roots and was thrown out of the room and into parking lot.

Jumping into the other room, Seth saw another dark-skinned girl on the bed and a guy holding her wrist. Both looked to him, and Venom growled before slamming an adamantium fist into the client's stomach. The strike to his guts caused him to double over, hands holding his stomach as its contents were threatening to slither up his air canals.

Wrapping on tendril around the client's body, Venom shifts his gaze to the guard in the corner, seeing him shaking at the sight of him and not able to steady his weapon in his hands. Snarling at the guard, he lashed out his other arm and pierced his body with five adamantium tendrils. The light in his eyes faded as his vital organs were hit simultaneously. Yanking out his bloodied tendrils, he swung his other hand backwards towards the window. The screams of the client echoed through the room as his body was thrown into the open air.

But like before, Seth froze the tendril to the railing and left him hanging. "_Bit of a bother to let the live._"

"**_Tell us about it._**" Venom agreed sarcastically.

"Jinnifer!"

"Anissa!"

Swinging his head back to the bed and the hole he made, he saw the girl from the last room embrace the younger girl. Instantly deducing what's going on, Seth told them. "**Girls stay here. You're sisters, right? Keep each other safe.**"

"We will." Anissa said while holding her sister close. "Thank you." She whispered.

"**We will be back. Our friends are handling the other floor as we speak.**" He assured them before charging into the next room.

X

The bullets coming at him didn't even make a dent as they came into contact with Tony Woodward's iron skin. They merely bounced off his skin and clattered at the ground. The guard continued to fire bullets but it didn't make any progress whatsoever. Especially as he had to make sure his bullets didn't accidently hit the client who was in the metahuman's hand.

"Who the fuck are you?" The guard screamed at the metahuman.

Making sure that the young girl was still on the bed, and that his body was covering her to take on the bullets, Tony announced smugly. "Name's Girder." With ease, he threw the client out the window before tackling the guard. Crushing his weapon into pieces as they both crashed through the wall.

Like a cushion, Girder's heavy steel body landed on the guard as they landed on the floor. Perking his head up, he saw the guard in that room and a client trying to run away. "No you don't!" the metahuman shouted in protest and threw a lamp into his head. The lamp shattered and the client fell down to the ground at the loss of consciousness.

Hearing a cracking sound following the echoing soft of flesh hitting metal, Tony saw the guard stagger backwards with a hand holding his other hand. Smirking, the metahuman reeled a hand back before thrusting it into the guard's face. The forceful impact was strong enough to cause his head to twist violently. The snap of his head brought the guard's dead body down to the ground.

Tony looked to the girl on the bed. He had seen her poster before on the streets and her photo on chat rooms that Lindy hacked into before. "It's alright, Wendy. We're here to help you." He assured Wendy Hernandez calmly.

"You know me?" Wendy asked.

"Yeah, me and my friends saw the posts your Mom's been putting up." Deactivating his powers, he told her in a soft tone. "Just stay put here, while we stop the rest of them." Wendy nodded while he turned into metal again and stood before the wall.

"_Wonder how Marcus is doing?_" He briefly wondered as he began to punch his way through the wall.

X

Grabbing the head of a John, Marcus slammed him into the wall beside the bed. He repeated this action a few times once he was sure that he had lost consciousness. Hearing the sound of a cocking firearm, the metahuman rolled his eyes with a scoff.

Turning around to the guard, who threatened. "Make a move, I ventilate you!"

"Bruh, you ain't even got the skills to do that." Marcus said casually and held up a hand.

"Beat it!" The guard pulled the trigger and unleashed a hail of bullets at him. The two girls remained on the bed and closed their eyes, afraid of seeing their savior be riddled with bullets.

"Didn't ya hear what I said, huh?"

The guard widened his eyes as did the girls whom reopened their eyes to the shocking sight. The metahuman was still holding up one hand, but in his palm was a rippling circle of energy that kept the bullets suspended in front of it. "Bruh, you ain't even the skills to take me down. But you look ready for a Shakedown." He smirked and thrusted his hand forward, launching the guard's own bullets back at him. Adding more to the bullets' velocity with his vibrational powers, it allowed them passage through his bulletproof vest.

The guard's lifeless body fell to the floor, blood pumping and coming out the holes in his torso. Shakedown faces the crying girls. "What's your names, girlies?"

"I'm A-Allegra." The first one introduced herself shakily.

"Esperanza." The second one pointed to herself.

"You two sisters?" Marcus wondered of the two, seeing they appeared to be quite similar in various features.

Allegra shook her head and buried her head in Esperanza's shoulder, hiding her head under the other girl's hair. As she did that, Esperanza stated. "No, we're cousins."

Dropping his head at his own failure to figure out the reason behind their similarities, he exclaimed dramatically. "Damn. Should go back to high school, I guess." His joke helped making the girls snicker despite the tears in their eyes. "You two stay here, we're getting you all out of here after taking care of the guards."

"You and who else?" Allegra asked.

Smirking he looked to the wall. "Me, Girder and Venom!" he thrusted his palms forward, slamming them into the wall and sending out a destructive vibrational blast that tore down the wall. "And we're not leaving till all of you are saved!"

Slamming both hands into the ground of the next, he unleashed a vibrational blast through the ground, pushing the client and the guard to the ground. Quickly charging to their side, he slammed his palms into the torsos, blasting them unconscious with two powerful vibrational blasts. Leaving them both with broken ribs.

_SHATTER_

Marcus heard the shattering sound of glass breaking and twisted his head to that direction of it. His eyes looking out the window of his current room and saw Venom standing on the railing on second floor on the other side of the motel, each hand clutched around the heads of two clients. Each one assumingly unconscious before thrown into the middle of the parking lot.

_SHATTER_

Correction, thrown _on top_ of two cars.

"Yeah, those two dummies might just die from that." Shakedown admitted sheepishly and continued his rampage.

X

As does Venom.

While standing the railing, he roared loudly before digging his claws into a wall. Strengthening his bones with the earth element and adamantium, Venom tore the wall off and threw it away like trash before looking into the room. He found a client getting up from the bed with a crying girl.

Seeing red, he quickly took out his crystal sword of his arm before jumping into the room. Igniting a flame around his left hand, he slammed the client off the bed and into a wall, his body embedded into the surface. Venom turned to the guard and saw him aim his machine gun at him.

White mist erupts around his left arm and he quickly forms a long ice shield that he thrusts in front of him, letting it take on the storm of lead bullets that came his way. Stepping forward, one step at a time, he spun his sword around before striking down the guard with his sword.

His sword piercing through his front of his torso and all the way through his heart and spine and embedding the blade into the wall behind the guard. Releasing his hold on the handle, he looked to the girl who had wide eyes. Shifting his eyes to the dead guy, he asked the girl. "**Too much?**"

"Kinda…" She said with the blanket pulled close to her shivering body. "Thanks, Venom."

"**You're welcome.**" He looked around and saw Tony walking to the hole the mutant just made. "**Woodward, how'd it go?**"

"Finished with the other floor, me and Marcus." The metahuman stated. "You?"

Holding up a clawed finger, he lashed out both arms, shooting them out into tendrils that dug through the wall and into the other. Screams of separate voices pierced through the wall. Both the girl in the bed and Tony saw Venom pull both arms back.

Dragging both the guard and the client out of the next room, through the wall after tearing two large holes in it. Hurling the client into the ground, knocking him out, he brought the guard to his face. Enlarging his mouth like a serpent, Venom severed the link between body and mind as he chowed down on the fleshy brain container.

"**Done.**" He said after swallowing the meat. "**Let's get the girls out of here and out in the parking lot. We'll get CCPD to send transport.**" Tony nodded and escorted some of the girls to the parking lot. Venom used his tendrils to gently place one of the girls in the parking lot. Essentially using his tendrils as a make-shift elevator.

Before repeating it with the other, he looked to all the girls down at the parking lot. Narrowing his eyes at the growing group, he found that someone wasn't there and asked the young girl beside him. "**Do you know everyone here?**"

"Kinda…"

Retracting his suit back inside of his body, he asked. "What's your name, sweetie?" She didn't answer, mouth gaped at the true form of the man who bears the name The Demon King. Seth chuckled as he deduced the grounds for her shocked expression. "Not what you expected, is it?"

"Expected a humongous guy who can eat a cow in one bite." She vividly admitted and he chuckled. "But my name is Ruby Arias."

Seth couldn't help but clench at the girl's first name for some reason. But he inhaled and locked his anger within himself as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out the photo of Thea and showed it to the young girl. "Her name's Thea. I got info about her being here, but I haven't found her yet."

Ruby looked at the photo over a few times and then widened her eyes with recognition. "That's the girl in the farthest room on this floor. To the left section." She pointed towards that room. Gulping she added. "Be careful… I think she's had it worse than everyone else here."

"Thanks Erica." He gratefully said while his arms enveloped with the symbiotic mass. Wrapping them around the girl, he extended his arms and placed her down in the parking lot. Retracting his arms back to him, he walked towards the farthest room to check on Thea.

Unlike the other rooms where he had to burst in to take down the guards and the clients, that one ended up with two guards running out and shooting at him before. The clients ran out before, but Seth managed to hurl a bookshelf after them and they went down for the count. The guards pleaded to mercy but still met a fate that was befitting for those who guard those receives joy from the torment of others.

Slaughtered and their lives were reduced to nothing but fodder for the elemental demon's ravenous hunger.

"**_They didn't deserve to have such an easy way out._**"

"Now they served as your dinner, pal. Even scum has a purpose, after meeting us of course." Seth evilly said and continued walking towards the room. When reaching the door, he reached for the doorknob. But before he did so, before placing his hand around the knob, he leant his head closer to the door. The mutant placed his ear to the door and listened.

However… unlike the other rooms where he was witness to the tears falling from the eyes of agonizing young girls who wanted salvation from this hellish torture. The sound of their crying could emit and be heard through wooden doors…

But this one… he didn't hear any crying… it was without sound for some reason.

This got him worried and he stretched out his hand to the doorknob. Wrapping his hand around it, he twisted it and opened the door. Stepping inside the room, Seth was momentarily baffled of the state of the room. Or rather that it was still intact despite his and the metahumans' rampage.

"Strange that it was untou…" He stopped muttering when seeing that the bed was ruffled and messy. His ears perked up at the distinct sound of crying and huffing. It wasn't the only thing he registered, he also noticed the panting and soft groaning.

It was a weak voice that had him place his sword on his back, tendrils wrapping around it like a scabbard. Shifting his gaze to the bed, he didn't find anyone there. Not even under the comforter. Walking around the bed with slow steps, he sought to find the source.

"Please…"

He stopped himself at the heartbroken voice that pleads. Seth looked to the floor beside the bed. There he saw the top of brown hair from a lowered head. She was sitting on the floor, as she continued pleading.

"Please… No more…"

Even though she couldn't see him, he decided to hold up his hands. "It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you."

"Why wouldn't you?" She voiced her disbelief. "The others… they have." The almost inaudible sound of her cascading tears reached the mutant's ears. "Why should you be any different?"

Taking small mouse steps towards to her, Seth reached the end of the bed. But before he could see her face, Thea began to shuffle away from her in her position on the ground. Seeing that the poor girl was only in tattered clothes, the mutant did take notice of bruises on her legs and her left arm and left shoulder.

"**_What did they do to her?_**"

"_Nothing good._" Seth reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo of her from Lindy. "Thea, right?" Thea pointed her light-green eyes to him, shock mixed in her wetting eyeball. "I'm not like the others…" Holding out his hand, he held something for her eyes. "Otherwise, Lindy wouldn't have sent me."

"Lindy?" Thea asked confusedly at the name, unknowingly confirming an array of thoughts in the mutant's mind. The girl looked to the photo and got a shock, one that seemed out of this world. A shock transcending the ones known in the realm of mortals… like she was seeing a whole other life… of a whole other person.

Now her hair was straightened into long brown hair… but on the photo, she had long curly brown hair. Now her light green eyes were full of disbelief and despair… but on the photo, her eyes had no end of happiness and sparking life of hope. Now she didn't dare to even form a smile… but on the photo her smile was wide and bubbly.

Compared to who she is, it's a life that Thea is unfamiliar with on every single level ever to ever think of.

"…There's only one person who has that photo…" Thea trailed off.

The mutant took a seat on the bed and said. "I don't know what's her real name, I know it's not Lindy for sure." He turned his head downwards to look at her head. "But I'm sure you know who it is, right?"

"Yeah…" Thea points her eyes upwards to look at the seated young man, appearing to around the age of her late older brother. She sees him looking around in search for something. "What are you looking for?"

"Found it." He mutters and takes hold of something. Pulling it to him, Thea sees that it's a comforter that he holds out to her. "You're cold." Seth states to her. "You're shivering."

Thea looks skeptically at him, having doubts about his sincerity and kindness. The other men she have met in this very room haven't even given an impression of being nice, or even having the capability of that. But all of a sudden, a stranger with a photo that a friend took comes to her and gives her a comforter as she is shivering.

He wasn't like the others.

"Thanks…" She mutters to him and takes the comforter in her hand and wraps it around her cold body. "It's warm…" Seth smiles and Thea looks at him with a curious expression and asks. "Why are you helping us?"

"I hate it when innocents are in torment." Seth reveals and Thea expands her eyes. "Your friend, Lindy told me about this and I offered my help." He gets up on his feet and dusts off his pants before holding out his hand. "How about we get you and the other home, Thea?"

"Blackfire will come for us again… and we won't let us go again." Thea tightens the hold on her comforter. "He will kill us."

Seth assures her. "Don't think about him, Thea." The young girl looks confusedly at him. "I will take care of him. Trust me."

Parts of her didn't know whether or not to believe his words. Most of the men in here have not proven themselves to do anything but bring torment to all the young women who've been forced to endure this hellish experience. But the remaining parts of her registers the fact that he's here and he's offering her a chance to go back home to family.

But to believe that he was going to take of Zoom's rival… She couldn't believe that.

She slowly raises herself to her full height, her legs shaking and sore and almost losing her balance. But she manages to look at him and pleads. "Please… get me home…"

"I will, I promise." He gets to his own full height as well. Seth opens his mouth to speak further but had to stop as Thea closed her eyes and her body gave out, falling forward. He quickly catches her in his arms and lifts her up in a bridal carry. "Let's get you home, kiddo." He walks towards to the door and steps closer to the railing.

Looking down, he sees Marcus and Tony escort the last girls to the parking lot, the place of gathering for all the girls here in the Viking motel. All the girls and the two metahumans looks up to the railing and sees Seth standing there with Thea.

The mutant steps onto the railing with one foot before jumping off. While falling his body, except for his head, gets envelops by the symbiote and tendrils shoot out to the ground. With their strength, they gently lower him and Thea down to the parking lot.

As they retract, Seth walks to the gathering and says. "Found Thea."

"Thank goodness." Marcus reveals happily with a sigh of relief.

"Lindy's gonna be happy to hear this." Tony smiles cheerfully.

Walking to Erica, he places Thea near her and says. "Erica, mind keeping an eye on her, I need to call a friend of mine to get transport here."

"I will." Eric nods. "Thanks for helping us all." She tearfully thanked him.

"Don't mention it." He gets on his feet and turns around. He pulls out his phone and calls Iris. Seth ends up speaking for only a few short moments and walks to under the staircase on the right side.

"_All right, I'll have a group of transport vehicles coming to the Viking Motel._" Iris informs.

"Thanks, Iris. And bring ambulances, too. These girls need all the help they can get right now." Seth informs the detective.

"_Of course, they're getting everything they need. I promise._" Iris assures him and then gratefully says. "_And Seth… the city thanks you for this._"

"Keep them, I ain't done yet." Seth says before hanging up. He looks to the group of girls and tells his partner. "We did good."

"**_Yeah…_**"

Noticing the lack of responses from his roommate, he asks. "What's wrong?"

Venom mentally sighs. "**_Why's there a trash container there, behind you?_**"

Seth perks his head up and turns around to find a large trash container here, made of green metal and two conjoined black plastic lids. "_What kind of place like this would have any need for a trash container?_" Curiosity took over and he wakes to the container.

Standing before him, his nostrils flares up at the smell, finding it strange and familiar for some reason. But he can't wrap his finger around what it exactly is. He reaches for a lid and opens it.

Suddenly, his nostrils are assault-

…

…

X

"Hope Seth finally called her." Tony states while handing out more comforters and blankets for the girls.

"He must have, but when your old crush comes, don't act all freaky and lose your cool, alright?" Marcus teases his friend and laughs, some of the girls joining in.

Tony's face reddens and he defensively says. "I'm not going to lose my cool when I see Iris! Get your head out of the gutter, Bishop! Besides, before the cops come, I'll stay away!"

"Haha!" The vibrokinetic chortles and says. "As soon as you remember she's married, Woodward." The red blush on Tony's face intensifies, making the metahuman look like traffic light that's turned red. His face must look like a ripe tomato as almost all the girls began to laugh at him.

"_Guess… it's better than what they've experienced so far to have continued…_" Tony stated in his mind in relief of their laughter.

"Aren't you guys a barrel of laughter?"

Both Tony and Marcus snapped their eyes to the other side of the parking lot. They were shocked to see the familiar face of one of Zoom's men. Like his current employer, the face of the man was smug as he walked towards the two metas and the gathering of girls. He was wearing a black tuxedo and black pants, a white shirt under his coat.

A sick smirk formed on his mouth as Evan McCulloch looked at them. His hand raising and pointing the small handheld gun in his hand. A gun with four panels at the end of the barrel, the panels and the end of the gun equipped with mirrors that points at the group. "Guess you two didn't know that you have pay to get in here."

"What the heck?" Shakedown let out.

"Why are you here, Mirror Master?" Girder exclaimed at the criminal.

Mirror Master shrugs his shoulder. "Not much. But when Blackfire hires one to guard this place, then you can't say no, can you?" He points his weapon at the girls, pulling a bit on the trigger and the gun emits a whirring sound as it charges. "And I'm not supposed to let those girls go."

"So Blackfire hires one of Zoom's goons to protect this hellhole?" Marcus grits his teeth, both he and Tony standing in front of the girls. The vibrokinetic metahuman forming vibrational rings in his palms.

"I knew that Blackfire is scum, but this is worse." Tony's veins pop over his forehead and flexes his arms, both limbs turning into metal.

"Well, even scum pays good money." Evan McCulloch sickened the stomach and minds of them all with his causal words. "So how about you let me do my job an- AAAARGGGHH"

The girls and the two metahuman gasped and stepped back in shock at the sound of Mirror Master's piercing scream of pain. But they were just as shocked by the small pieces of his smashed Mirror Gun falling to the ground… after a large crystal sword was hurled through the air and destroyed his signature weapon, cutting the backside of his hand in the process.

Evan McCulloch staggered backwards with his left hand holding onto the bleeding backside of his right hand. He stopped screaming but kept his mouth shut as pain continued to erupt. Feeling the blood seeping out of his open wound, he looked to the weapon. "That can't be… Blackfire's sword was stolen. And it's not the same."

Tony felt stupid for forgetting him. "Didn't you hear, McCulloch?"

"The King of Central City have taken that sword as his own." Marcus followed up.

"What…" Mirror Master, the two metahumans and the girls looked to the side and saw the mutant walk to them. His body emitting lightning, fire and ice, adamantium claws forming on his hands, wind blowing away pieces of asphalt from his path, water boiling inside of him like his own blood, and earth pulsating in his muscles as the black symbiotic mass spread over his entire body. "…did you say?"

"What?" Evan felt himself shaking at the cold… lifeless words that came out of Seth's mouth. Tony and Marcus deactivated their powers, but only because they saw the mutant's eyes looking deadly towards the wielder of the Mirror Gun. "What did you say?" even though he just heard it, the criminal didn't realize that he had just recited the mutant's own question.

"You're working for that Blackfire asshole, right?" His question came out like poison he had to spit out. The mass had reached his throat and stopped there.

"So what-"

Once again, Blackfire's words were cut short when an array of tendrils wrapped around his throat and his wrists. Seth walked to him with his feet cracking the ground with each step he's taking. "Girls… look away." They followed the mutant's commands and looked the other way.

The moment they did, Seth's entire head was engulfed by the symbiote along with his body enlarging to the full height as Venom. A tendril wrapped itself around the mouth of the criminal, keeping him from letting out any screams as he stood before him now.

"**You speak of scum. Yet, you refrained from speaking of yourself.**" Venom sneered with his hand wrapping around his throat, increasing the hold on his airpipe with the addition of the tendril already there. "**Big mistake!**" He shouted before tilting his head to the side, his maw opening up and revealing his immensely big mouth with jaws of sharp shark-like fangs.

And no matter how much the criminal was trying to struggle his way out the holds… it was impossible. Not nigh impossible… just simply and utterly impossible for him to try and escape the Demon King's claws…

… much less his fangs… that ensnared his head in an instant…

_CRUNCH_

And separated his head from the rest of the criminal's anatomy.

But the two metahumans watched as the mutant expanded his maw to newer limits and began eating away the remaining of his headless physical structure. Both Tony and Marcus placed their hands over their mouth, they felt themselves gag in disgust at the sight of the elemental mutant chowing down on Blackfire's hired hand.

As the last piece of Mirror Master was devoured Venom turns his head to the two metahumans. Blood and pieces of human flesh stuck on his fangs as he stated. "**Wait for CCPD to come… We're going now.**"

"What?" Tony asked as the mutant walked to the exit of the parking lot.

"What are you going to do?" Marcus asks.

Stopping, he informs them in an angered sneer. "**We're going solo. Protect these girls, no matter what.**" Venom lashed out his hand, shooting out a tendril that attaches itself to the side of a building. Pulling on it, he launched himself from the ground and swung, landing onto the side before crawling like an animal on the wall.

Tony kept his mouth covered, afraid for his stomach contents to slither up his airpipe. "What was that about?"

Marcus didn't answer and looked to the other side, the same direction that Seth came from before. "He must have seen something there…"

That much was obvious… but the question was…

Exactly what?

X

Seth quickly found his way back to the third Saint and Sinners bar, the bar that Eye Sight's using as a cover for her operations. He walks towards the entrance with cold and passive eyes, not a single emotion on his face.

"Ready for this?" He mutters to his partner within.

"**_Always._**" Venom lets out a growl as his response.

"Hands up!"

The mutant let out an annoyed groan when hearing that voice. He really didn't wanna deal with those birds again. Turning his head around, he was met with three guns pointing at him, each one wielded by a high-ranking Crows Security lieutenant.

"You're harder than expected." Sophie Moore stated in anger at him.

"Well, you gotta give the lad credits for doping us before. Smart trick, getting the bartender's help like that." Julia Pennyworth stated with a bit of praise.

"Dr. Fury, you're under arrest for obstructing justice and interfering with the operations of Crows Security." Kate Kane stated with her firearm raised and pointed at his head.

But just like when it was their commander pointing a gun to his head, the doctor didn't appear to be the least bit frightened. He merely looked at annoyed. "Sorry, lieutenants, but I'm gonna have to ask you all three to walk away. I'm busy."

"Oh, we're gonna walk away, alright…" Sophie Moore unequipped the pair of handcuffs from her belt. "But you're coming with us."

"As our prisoner, of course." Julia added with a smirk.

"You know, there's a reason why I wasn't scared of your commander's gun and not afraid of yours." Seth turned his entire body around to face them. "It's gonna take a lot more than three guns to scare me… and I really don't have time for this shit." He walks closer to Moore who cocked her gun. "And I don't give a crap about your commander's fragile ego, that I might have hurt with my words." He was right in front of her gun now. "So, I'm gonna say again. Piss off!"

Kate scoffed. "Dr. Fury, cooperate and don't give us reasons to use our firearms."

"Sorry, Kane. But I have more important business than what you and your colleagues have right now." Seth said.

Julia chuckled. "Guess we got our answer then."

"Yeah." Seth shifted his eyes to Sophie, his emotionless glare giving her shivers. "We did."

With fast actions, he grabbed hold of the agent's gun, yanking it out of the shocked agent's grip. While she was still in shock, the mutant grabbed hold of her collar. With a twist, he tightens his hold before spinning around and throwing her into Julia's body.

Kate watches her two colleagues colliding on the ground. She was too shocked by that quick takedown and felt her own gun be slammed out of her hand. Snapping her head forward, she saw Seth lower his foot to the ground again.

The British lieutenant jumped on her feet after pushing off Moore and charged for the mutant. Having lost her gun, she clenched her fists and readied herself for a close-range fight.

"I really don't have time for this." Seth growled and dodged the fists coming for him. Gritting his teeth, he used his left hand and grabbed both her hands together. Julia was shocked and then was forced to cough violently when the mutant lunged his knee into her stomach. Bile came out of her mouth and he pushed her down to the ground with his other hand.

"Julia!" Sophie exclaimed when seeing her colleague drop down to the ground. She was on her feet now and looked around for her gun. But her search was cut short when the mutant appeared before her and slammed his fist into her stomach. Twisting his fist in her stomach, she lost consciousness.

Once again, Kate Kane saw a colleague of hers fall to the ground after a nigh-instant takedown. Her eyes snapped to the doctor who fought them and saw him walk towards her. "What are you?"

"Bit of advice, Lieutenant Kane:" Seth walked towards her with slow step. "To really take down an unknown force, research him thoroughly and learn of his fighting style. And something else, number and rank, doesn't mean anything against someone who's used to take down great numbers of various ranks on his own."

_PUNCH_

Before Kate Kane got another chance to respond as Seth delivered a fist into her guts. Leaning to her ear, he spoke. "Sorry, but I promised myself and a lot of innocent lives that I would protect this place, and I intend to keep that promise. You guys have to take a nap for now." He spoke softly and removed his hand from her stomach.

He watched as the Crows Lieutenant falls to her knees before falling to land flat on her stomach upon collision with the ground.

Seth gave them a lookover before turning around to walk towards to the bar again. It was time for another talk with Eye Sight.

X

Having passed through the bar, the mutant walked with haste in his steps as he reached the door to Eye Sight's office. Seth pushed it open and walked into the room. He was met with both the shocked eyes of Eye Sight but also Kendra Saunders.

Seeing him walk past her like she's a ghost, the flyer shoots off a question. "Seth, what are you doing here?"

Lindy looks to him in shock and confusion as well from her chair. "Tony just called me and said that you want to go solo or something. What's that about?"

He didn't answer. Instead, he rushes around the desk and then stands before the technopath. Locking his blue eyes onto her red ones, he asks bluntly. "Did you know?"

"Know what?" She asks in confusion.

Shifting his left eye to the flyer, seeing that she was there, he leans his head down to only whisper in her ear. Kendra is only able to see her friend's eyes widen to new limits, taking on the sizes of saucers at this very moment.

Tears gathered in the corners of Lindy's eyes after the mutant pulled away from her, having told her of what he learnt from his mission at the Viking Motel. "Seth… I didn't know Blackfire did that."

"**_She's telling the truth._**"

Even though his partner did inform him, Seth already knew that Lindy was telling the truth. "The other names… give them to me… now."

The technopath widened her eyes again. "You mean-"

"Now." He steadfastly repeated, confirming her thoughts in the process.

With a gulp, she felt his cold-blue lifeless eyes pierce into her soul, almost giving it an experience that akin to the combined aftermaths of all of his elements and the onslaught of his fangs and fists. It scared to her core. In this very moment she thought she was looking into the blood-red eyes of his demonic persona.

Reaching out to the screen, she pressed her hand on the screen and gave the computer the order to print out the other names. The computer listened and a moment later, a piece of paper was printed out on the mini printer beside the monitors.

"There." Lindy nodded to the paper.

Seth nodded and took the paper in his hands before folding it to put it in his pocket. "Thanks…" He trailed off before walking to the exit.

Before he got out of the room, the technopath got up on her feet and exclaimed. "Seth!" The elemental stopped. "Why are you going at this alone? I thought you weren't like Zoom?"

Turning his head to look at her with one eye, the mutant stated adamantly. "I never said I couldn't be like him." His quick words caused them both to shiver in shock.

Like his mere sentence was the very cold touch of Death himself.

He turned again and walked out of the room.

Kendra looked to Lindy who wears a hauntedly expression. "Lind, what did he say?"

"Something horrible." Lindy clenched her hands. "Blackfire did something worse, something far worse than anything we ever thought." No matter how many times she's done it now, she couldn't keep herself from gulping. "And Seth has seen it, and he's royally pissed."

X

**(Ascension Cliffs, Zoom's Hideout)**

Hours has passed and the midnight darkness over Central City have thickened like a dark cloak of shadows. The Woodlands were no exception, the entire forest touched by the dark skies of the late dusky time of the day.

Even the evil speedster's hideout hidden within Ascension Cliffs were not spared by the darkness coming from outside, instantly casting the entire hideout in shadows.

But the shadows did nothing to dim the bright blue lightning that crackles around Zoom's body. Along with the lamps hanging from the ceiling his lightning was a light source in the hideout. A light source that allowed his henchmen to see in this place. Killer Frost and Deathstorm were seated together on an old table. Black Siren was leaning against a cell door.

The only ones not there are Reverb and Rupture, both of them scouting and seeing the statuses of Blackfire's operations, per Zoom's orders. After learning that the man boasting to be his rival have returned, the menacing speedster felt unease creep into him.

Zoom never liked Eric Frye. He always boasted about him being his rival because of a few fights that ended in a tie between them. The other metahuman's powers proved to be incredibly difficult to fight, even for the evil speedster himself. But moreover, his operations were not his favorite things in this city. Because of their deal, his operations limits Zoom's fields of terror.

And he had to let Eric Frye use some of his henchmen, mainly Mirror Master.

Growling, he walked around and watched his prisoner with the iron mask writhe in anger.

Killer Frost turned her eyes to Black Siren. "You doing good, Siren?"

"Not really." She sighed. "Blackfire's back in the city and he's still going strong with his operations. The one thing I hate about him."

Neither of the female metahumans were big fans of Blackfire's dehumanizing operations. But they didn't dare to try and fight back.

Deathstorm looks to his girlfriend. "Babe don't worry. We're not letting him do anything to us."

Despite knowing that it was an attempt to calm down his ice-cold other half, the crier had to laugh. "Last time, you fought him, Zoom had to speed in and save your burning weak ass."

Igniting a flame around his hand, the blazing metahuman glared at the cryer. "Wanna say that again, Siren?!"

"**ENOUGH!**" Zoom ordered after snapping his head around to face his henchmen. All of them lowered their powers. Facing the frosty metahuman, he orders. "**Killer Frost. Keep a leash around your boyfriend.**"

"Will try." She obliged. "But I am the more cool-headed in this relationship."

"Hey." Deathstorm mock protested and she merely gave a teasing smirk.

Zoom growled and looked to the cryer. "**Reverb and Rupture haven't returned yet?**"

"No. And I'm not exactly their babysitter, I don't keep track of them." Laurel quipped.

Their conversation came to an end when they saw a darkly colored swirling breach appear in front of the entrance to the hideout. Turning to it, they watched as the two brothers, Reverb and Rupture, walked out of the breach. As the breach faded, the others took in the brothers' facial expressions.

Rupture's face was covered by his mask, so no one could see his expression. However, they are able to take in the facial expression on his brother's, whose eyes were the only part of him that was concealed. His mouth was frowned into a sour frown.

Narrowing his pitch-black eyes on the brothers, Zoom took in everything about their posture and expressions.

_WHOOSH_

The blue lightning erupted from his body like an eruption from a volcano as he sped to standing before the two brothers. Both stiffened like a pair of boards at the sudden appearance of their leader. Zoom growls. "**What… did you find out?**"

"Nothing good." Dante Ramon said before correcting. "But also nothing bad."

Killer Frost stepped forward. "What do you mean, you two?"

Reverb stated with a smirk. "Frost, your boyfriend really did it now."

"I didn't do anything." Deathstorm assured them, mostly Zoom who gave him a soulless glare.

Letting out a hollow chuckle, Reverb corrected. "Oh, I'm sorry. I meant her other boyfriend, the one with actual brains."

A spark of realization ignited in Killer Frost's eyes and she said. "Seth…"

Black Siren leant off the cell door and walked to them. "What did Venom do?"

The vibing metahuman reached into his jacket and pulled out a tablet. Closing his jacket with one hand, he turned the tablet around with his other hand to point the screen to the gathering of their colleagues.

Deathstorm, Killer Frost, Black Siren and Zoom had no other choice than to see what Venom had done…

…

…

And the henchmen were left breathless by what they saw him do.

Everyone… except for Zoom who chuckled evilly at the brother's findings, smirking behind his mask as an interesting opportunity revealed itself. One that would lead to the mutual destruction of two nuisances.

Grabbing hold of the tablet with one claw, uncaringly pulling it with a yank from the vibing metahuman's hands. He growled at his subordinates, forcing them to step away from him.

_WHOOSH_

Within the next passing moment, he sped away like a bullet launched at its highest velocity.

Killer Frost formed a gaped mouth, unable to find any words to describe her current feelings and thoughts. Does Seth even know what he just did? What he did… was nothing short of a declaration of war against a metahuman who might be on par with Zoom himself.

Knowing the thoughts in her mind, as they are the same in hers, Black Siren addresses Killer Frost. "Whatever's happening next… happens because of him." She admitted honestly, those words were hard to utter. The opponent now… is different than Zoom.

"I…" Killer Frost's words failed her and got stuck halfway through her mouth. "What is he thinking? Does he even know who he just pissed off?"

"Yeah, he does." Black Siren seemed sure of her words. "Otherwise he wouldn't do something this stupid."

Those words didn't ease the frosty metahuman's mind. For the first time since meeting Seth Fury, Killer Frost began to fear for his life.

X

**(West-Allen Household, Porch)**

The evil metahuman group under Zoom's rule wasn't the only ones to see what Seth have done and were also riddled with chaotic worry and concern, and meteoric confusion that fell down on them with destructive force.

Iris and Barry quickly took a trip to the local hospital and had brought the girls with them as well Mera. All six of them learnt of what had happened at the Viking Motel and the detective obliged to the mutant's instructions, sending out an array of ambulances and police cars and other forms of transport to the place.

Being the disciple of the assigned detective on the case, Iris oversaw the entire operation and had all the girls driven to Central City General Hospital. All of them only had mild bruises on them. A few of them also had residual traces of drugs in their systems, but nothing harmful at the current moment.

She was relieved that Seth had saved many girls from one base. It was the true marks of a protector.

But her relief took a sour turn down south, right down to Hell because of the news that instantly hit the news channels back at the hospital. She wasn't the only one there. Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse were all at the hospital and watched the same news with their Atlantean bodyguard.

All of them were confused, whether it was a good thing or bad thing that Seth just did.

They were outside the house, right on the porch itself but hesitated to go inside.

Barry took off his glasses, his confusion's like a second layer of skin on his face. "Why did he do it?" He looked to Mera. "Did your friend entice him to do this?"

Mera shook her head, already knowing what the plan was. "No, this wasn't part of Eye Sight's plan, not even close to do it. Viking Motel was part of the plan, but only that one for now."

"So what Seth's been doing now, was his own idea." Ruby stated.

"Yeah." Evelyn clenched her shaking hands. "What does this mean?"

"He's gonna fight a one-man war." Jesse stated surely.

"I can't believe he would do this." Iris ran a hand through her hair, shocked and frustrated and scared of his decision to actually have done this, especially alone. "He knows what this means, right?"

"He does." Mera said and rubbed the detective's back.

"I hope so." Iris was still shocked by this and walked to the door. She reached for the handle and wrapped her fingers around the knob. Whilst she reached her door keys, she twisted the knob. To her surprise, she registered that the front door was open.

But she had closed it before.

Concernedly she took out firearm from its holster and held it up high. Her action got the others' attention, and they knew what this meant. Ruby clenched her hands, readying a fighting stance when meeting the thief. Jesse mimicked the assassin's stance with a boxer stance. Evelyn's marks formed and her entire body shined with a mix of her light and darkness.

Barry walked closer to the door, standing on the other side of his wife. "I open, you look inside."

"I will." Iris nodded and had both hands around her gun. In the corner of her eye, she saw Mera hold her trident out with both hands. Nodding her confirmation to her husband, he reached for the door handle.

Like his wife did, he wrapped his fingers around it and then pushed the door open.

In a flash, Iris shot through the threshold and into her home. Her hands swinging out the gun and pointing them into the living room and Mera jumped in quickly, her trident pointing in the same direction. Barry followed his wife and the girls followed him.

All prepared to fight… _but_… then registered who was standing there in the middle of the room with a glass of scotch in his hand.

"Seriously, is it a new trend to just point weapons at me tonight?" Seth stated hollowly to the group of natives that looked at him with wide eyes. He sipped on his drink before the questions rapidly came flying.

"Seth, the hell?!" Iris shouted.

"Why did you do that?!" Mera shouted, slamming her trident into the ground, the pongs of it embedded into the ground.

"Why would you even think of doing that, you imbecile?!" Barry fired off after, shocking the mutant as it was the first time the scientist had ever insulted him.

"What were you thinking?!" Jesse stated her question.

"Are you completely insane?!" Ruby shouted, mentally happy that he was safe.

"You're absolutely crazy to do that, Seth!" Unlike the others, Evelyn let out a statement rather than a question.

Seth turned his eyes to them after having finished the rest of his drink. Putting the glass on the table, he said. "I did what I had to do."

Iris rushed to stand before him. "What are you talking about?! Seth, you know what you did?" The mutant turned his passive eyes to her. "Tell me you know what you did!" She couldn't stop herself and grabbed hold of his collar, pulling him from the chair. "Why did you do it?!" The detective then announced what they all knew.

"Why did you destroy all of Blackfire's motels like that and why did you write that on the ground?!"

"Seth, we know you wanted to save all the girls at all the hotels, but what you did was crazy!" Mera then rushed to the detective's side. "You… You didn't follow the plan!"

Seth's eyes grew colder and colder. "Had you two seen what I found… I don't regret anything I have done. Innocent lives were freed, I don't regret it." He gently pushed Iris's hands from his collar and said. "There's another name you guys don't know me by."

"Oh, and what's that?" Iris asked, still frustrated by his actions. They were good, but what he wrote on the ground… it would spell only disaster.

Ruby widened her eyes realization. "Lethal Protector…"

"And that's why I did what I did."

X

**(Keystone City)**

The pillows were thrown away and onto the floor. The sound of them hitting the flooring drowned in the sounds of the blaring music. Even the comforters were thrown off the bed as the three people enjoyed themselves. Covers were tussling and moans escaped the mouths of the two endowed women and the singular man in the bed. The entire bed shook as they intensified their actions. The vibrations affecting the bedside table, shaking the seven big wads of cash on it. Bottles of various expensive drinks scattered around the floor and shelves, liquid dripping down on the floor.

Their clothes, long since, made their home on the rug.

A man with combed dirty blonde hair trailed his lips down the neck of the long-haired blonde woman beside him, placing kisses along her clear flawless skin. He smirked when feeling the brunette on the other side kissing his neck.

Turning his head around, placing his dark-green eyes on her, he grasped the brunette's neck with a vice-like grip. Pulling her to him, he smashed his lips on top of hers and initiated a make-out session with her. Their tongues quickly fighting for supremacy in the constructed arena of their mouths.

Wrapping one arm around her waist, the man twisted himself around and placed the brunette on top of him. With the brunette on top of him, sitting right on top of his groin area, the man behind many notorious actions had clear and unobstructed view of her and her colleague's flawless bodies.

Shifting his eyes between the two, he smirked and announced to the brunette in mock care. "Your pretty friend shouldn't be alone, should she? Give her some love, would ya?"

Giggling teasingly, the brunette gave a nod before cupping her blonde friend's hollow cheeks. Knowing fully well what her colleague's plan is, the blonde let herself be pulled into her embrace. They shared a sloppy kiss, their tongues visibly fighting as their mouths remained open.

The man watched with delight and found it enticing that the women needed very little instructions as they instantly began to run their hands over each other's fine bodies. Reaching over to both women with both hands, he placed a hand on both women's rears. He squeezed their shapely bottoms at the same time, both moaning into each other's mouths.

His hands travelling up their backs, making their curvaceous bodies shiver and shiver with anticipation. They came to stop at the women's upper backs. With a smirk and a fair amount of pressure, he gently pushed the women closer to each other, their bodies colliding and pushing against each other.

The man twisted his lower half, reminding the brunette of his friend downstairs. His thrust got the woman to dislodge from her colleague and let out a gasp of shock. She gasped again as her blonde colleague turned her attention to the brunette's chest.

Licking his lips, the man contemplated paying more money. This show alone was worth all seven thousand he just paid.

_WHOOSH_

But alas, the sparking flash of blue lightning put an end to their shenanigans.

The women screamed and fell out of the bed at the sight of Zoom. They managed to pull the covers off to cover their nude bodies before the fall.

The man whoever didn't scream, he merely sighed as though the worst kind of nuisance arrived at his doorstep. Perking up till a sitting, Eric Frye formed a smirk. "Normally, I would be the one to meet you, Zoom. Not the other way around."

"**Still interested in small things, huh?**" Zoom growled.

"Take a look." Blackfire gestured to the scared women sitting on the floor. "What's not to be interested in?" he rhetorically said with a smirk. "Don't tell me you want Mirror Master back?"

"**He's dead.**" The pitch-black speedster informed.

With a chuckle, Eric said. "Guess he wasn't worth the money then. Since he's supposed to kill anyone who interferes with one of my hotels." Sighing, he inquired of his rival. "Now, why are you here? Want me to introduce you to some fine ladies? Everyone needs to blow off some steam."

"**No…**" Zoom raised his right hand, holding up a tablet. "**I have news for you. About your operation.**" The speedster threw the tablet to the bed.

"What? Did the cops take out one of my hotels?" Blackfire didn't look at the tablet and laughed.

"**Not the cops.**" Zoom shocked him with his words. "**And not one of them.**" This got Eric's attention and he took the tablet in his hand and pressed the screen, turning it on. "**One person took out… all of your hotels this night**"

"Who?" Blackfire read what was on the screen and got angry, veins popping all over his face while a dark aura emitted from his body.

"**Venom.**" Zoom revealed.

Getting up from the bed, Eric threw the tablet to the bed. The light from the screen clear as day… and the words in the footage obvious for anyone to understand… as they were written in flames…and on the grounds of one of his hotels.

"**_YOU'RE NEXT, BLACKFIRE_**"

Blackfire growled and smoke came out of his hands. "This… Venom? Heard of him… the so-called… Demon King. This guy… just took out my entire income, huh?" His dark-green eyes locked with his rival's black ones. "Gonna have to pay another visit to Central City, then."

"**Fine…**" Zoom said as though he was reluctant about it. But inwardly, this was what he aimed for.

He quickly put on his pants and his coat and sighed. "It's a shame…" Eric Frye faced the girls, his left hand raised up. "…but I'm gonna have to get a refund, ladies. I have a challenger back in Central City I have to face."

Flexing his hand… an abyssal… black… flame erupted around his digits…

Clenching his hand, the flames of darkness wrapped around his hand. Swiping it towards the girls who began to cry… he projected a blast of flames at them…

Neither of them managed to scream… as they were engulfed in ominous flames.

Blackfire smiled. "Love that color…"

**To be continued…**

**And that's the first part of the two-part story of Seth's Earth-2 adventures, folks.**

**The mutant elemental saved the girls from the Viking Motel thanks to the aid of Girder and Shakedown. Btw, the motel is not from Arrowverse storylines, not from any of the TV shows. It comes from the incredible Marvel TV show, done by Freeform, Marvel's Cloak and Dagger. This show was the inspiration behind this chapter and the one to follow.**

**History repeats itself for the mutant. Like he protected and took down East Street Skulls' operation on Earth-1, he saved the innocents from Blackfire's hellish operations. He had to ask of Eye Sight's help in this battle, but for the innocents it was worth it. But he found something in a trash container, something that turned his rage into something that not even an inferno could compare itself to. **

**That inferno forced him to take a risky and drastic action, he charged for the remaining hotels and motels under Blackfire's control. Destroying the motels, capturing the Janes and Johns of everyone there, serving Venom snacks in forms of guards and get the girls out of harm's way.**

**The Lethal Protector took on an even more drastic and dangerous as he publicly challenged Blackfire to a fight. **

**Zoom saw this and smirked and brought this to the attention of the man who brags about being his one true rival, interrupting the mastermind behind Central City's sex trafficking operation from thoroughly enjoying himself in the company of lovely escorts.**

**With the destruction of his income sources, Blackfire brought down his black flames on the two escorts out of rage and watched them burn in agony…**

**As he sets his sights on the elemental in Central City.**

**So stay tuned and until next time peeps.**


	20. Chapter 20: Venom vs Blackfire

**And now another bedtime story for you wonderful people in the world.**

**Once again, I hope you all are safe and healthy wherever you might be in the wide world, and please be cautious with human contact.**

**Thanks for all the reviews, means a lot to me and keeps me going.**

**I also want to thank Ryu otsutsuki for helping me with the story.**

**Now for this chapter:**

**This is the second chapter of the two-part story of Seth's adventure on Earth-2, dealing with Blackfire and his heinous operations in the shadows of Central City.**

**Again, story is gonna be R-rated, featuring scenes of violence, crude language, mentions of human trafficking and sex trafficking.**

**Read at your own discretion.**

**Everything put in the story is only made for entertainment purposes, inspired by various TV shows and movies I have watched. Once again, the people involved in the chapter are different and random characters from the Arrowverse's TV shows. Other aspects come from other TV shows I've watched on different platforms, like Netflix, HBO and others.**

**I hope you guys are going to enjoy this one.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 20: Venom Vs Blackfire**

Central City General Hospital was in full swing, treating young patients left and right. Every room on an entire floor was completely taken. The young teenage girl victims from Blackfire's operation was still piling in and be examined by every doctor on the payroll.

In the span of a single night all nine hotels and motels under Eric Frye's control were all destroyed and every single girl from every single one of them were pulled out of there. They were saved by the Demon King of Central City.

The news was sent out on every channel existing in Central City, emitting a phenomenal amount of shock and joy over the city. Like a rainy day, surprise and happiness pouring over the entire city limits. Parents shooting up from their chairs they were chained to, their prayers answered in the best possible way imaginable. Able to hug their darling blessings of life once more as they were rescued from their personal hell. Victims can see their parents again.

The parents weren't allowed to see their children yet, the doctors needing to run more tests on them. But they were waiting desperately in the waiting areas of the floor, all of them filled to the brim. Waiting to embrace their daughters once more. Some of them were waiting in the lobby.

While Seth Fury is standing by the doorframe of a hospital room, Detective Iris was waiting and talking with a doctor. The two of them going over the results from the recent tests, results that the mutant himself asked for.

"Thank you, doctor." Iris expressed to the doctor, who walked into another room to commence another array of tests on her patient. The detective turns around, her right hand wrapped around a paper with test results. Walking to the mutant, gaining his attention, she said while holding out the paper. "I managed to get the test results the doctors took on the girls that you asked for."

"Thanks, Iris." Seth told her and took the paper in his hand. He ran his eyes over the results. Frowning and letting out a small groan, he said. "I had a feeling that those sickos drugged the girls."

"Only a few of the girls were able to answer the questions, but some of them said that the guards or the costumers would drug them." The detective revealed with a hateful glare.

Seth wrinkled the paper in his hand. "I don't regret what I did." He looks inside the room again, seeing three beds with hospitalized girls in each. Two of them asleep, the third one close to the door, awake with a look of sadness on her face. The mutant recognized her; it was the girl he saved in the first room he attacked from the Viking Motel. "How're the girls, in general?"

"Terrified beyond their minds." Iris said regrettably. "I hate how they're still like this, they finally got out of their hell and they still act like Blackfire's hold on them is still there."

"It's because Blackfire is still out there." Seth knew a similar feeling. "When I got out of that hellhole where me, my sister and my best friend was experimented on for a year, I still felt like I was still back there." He tapped the side of his head. "In here."

"How'd you get better?" Iris asked after stepping to his side. Seth had a better insight than she did. She had no idea how to cope with something like that. He, his baby sister and his best friend… all three of them aren't humans and in that hellhole, they were treated like animals. Dissecting them, cutting them open and subjecting them to unspeakable horrors.

The worst of the humanity.

"I remember it every time I'm out in the field." Iris looked shocked at his words. Registering the look on her face, he elaborated. "Back there, they tried to make the three of us into biological weapons. The best possible weapons of destruction, disposable living weapons with immense powers. I always kept that close to heart, because I was proving to those humans and to myself that I was not the weapon that they wanted or designed."

"But I think it really changed when the military base was destroyed. It's there, it really changed for me and made me think I could…" he shrugged unsurely before continuing. "…let go, I guess… of all the pain and memories, and just store them in my mind, instead."

Iris inquires curiously. "Who destroyed the base?"

Seth shrugs to her surprise. "I don't know, not even SHIELD does, actually. When the organization sent out a jet to recheck the base, they found it completely destroyed." He nodded to the girls. "Same thing needs to happen to them."

"Destroy the houses?" She wondered.

"Nah, Blackfire himself. The origin point of their hell." Iris couldn't believe what he's saying. "You know it has to be done, Iris. Otherwise, these girls will feel his shackles around their wrists at all times."

The detective didn't say anything and ran her hands down her face. "I'm gonna go and talk to Barry for a bit. How about you try and ask if you can have a brain transplant so you can get out of this death wish you have." She walked away from him.

Shaking his head, he heard his partner say. "**_Is she not approving of our plan?_**"

"_What gave you that idea?_" He asked sarcastically. "_But she's not the only one. Ruby, Evelyn, Jesse, Mera, the male part of the happy couple, most likely Eye Sight's group too. Even the entire city, too. You're ready for that, old friend?_" He asked his partner.

"**_You mean ready to go against the rival of Zoom in, what might be a deadly battle for the ages in this very city? Always, partner._**" Venom said. "**_What about you? You ready for the battle that we've initiated?_**"

"_Definitely._" Seth instantly replied. "_These girls… We're gonna save them and rid them of the hell that binds them._"

"It's you…"

Seth was snapped out of his mental conversation and returned his attention to the hospital room. His gaze met the girl who was awake, the first girl he saved from the Viking Motel. "What do you mean? You're talking to me?" He played dumb.

"It's you…" She repeated steadfastly.

Chuckling at her persistence, the mutant walked into the room, heading to the girl with an honest expression. His expression was equal to that of his words. "Guess I should retake the course of identity concealment."

The girl shook her head. "You're… You feel like Venom, and you're the only one who's been here to visit us, aside from the doctors."

Finding a chair behind him, Seth pulled it to the side of the girl's bed and sat by her side. "Sounds like you're well on your way to become a detective." The girl didn't respond to his words, not even a chuckle or anything escaping her mouth. The lack of reaction scared him. "What's your name?"

"Emma…" She said in a strange tone, like her name was a distant memory. Something she hadn't heard in a long time.

"My name's Seth Fury." He forced his growing anger to the side to even form words. "And yeah, I'm the guy who saved you last night."

"Not just us." Emma knowingly. "Blackfire's other houses, you saved the girls from there too." Seth didn't deny nor confirm her words. "Thank you…"

The mutant noticed her trailing off, like she was holding back. He then showed his own steadfastness. "But…"

"But it doesn't matter. It won't make a difference." Emma's hands tighten their hold on the bedsheets. "Blackfire will come to Central City and he will… he will kill us."

"He's not going to kill you. Any of you." He spoke firmly, assured that his words would be the written the fate of the man known as Blackfire. "I'll be the one to fight him and defeat him, no matter what. Nothing's gonna happen to you all as long as I'm HERE."

His determined voice confused her but at the same shocked her. He was so sure that it was unbelievable.

But something did click in her mind, a spark of realization. "You're going to kill him."

Seth didn't confirm or deny it. "I'll be the one to end your nightmares, you and the other girls. I promise." He raised himself from the chair, standing on his full height. "But mind doing me a favor?"

"Yeah." Emma asked with hints of curiosity, wondering what this favor was.

"You're going to meeting meet with the girls?" He asked and got a nod as the response. "Mind telling them to keep my identity a secret? I kinda insulted the commander of Crows Security and if he finds out who I am, it'd be a real pain in the ass."

"Sure." Emma narrowed her eyes. "You really insulted the commander?"

"You've seen the guy? It's hard not to insult him." Seth said defensively and Emma laughed. He smiled at the sound of her smile, feeling like the burden of her hell was slowly being lifted. "Your parents are gonna come soon and when Blackfire's done for, you'll be able to get home again, Emma."

"Thank you… It means a lot." Emma said with a smile.

"Don't thank me, I just did what anyone would do." He turned around after saying his words.

Emma smirked and corrected him. "You did what any hero would do, right?"

"That's up for debate, Emma." Seth before walking out the room.

Emma leant back on the bed, placing her head on the pillow at the top of the bed. As she laid there for a short few moments, the doctor came through the door and walked to her side. "What's up, Doc?" The patient greeted the female doctor.

"I should be asking you that." The doctor joked. "But I came to say that your parents are on their way, Ms. Desmond?"

"Thank you." Emma Desmond then looked helpful. "Is my brother Julia coming too?"

"If you're talking about the very nice young man I spoke with before? Then yeah, he is." The doctor assured her young patient who smiled.

Emma couldn't wait to see her big brother Julian again.

X

Seth passed through the hallway and looked ahead of him. He couldn't help but chuckle at the disapproving faces on both Iris and Barry's faces. Both having crossed arms over their chests as they saw the mutant making his way to them.

Sighing, Seth slipped both hands into his pockets and continued walking. When reaching them, he said with a smiling face. "Both of you have to something to say or what?"

"Actually, we do." Iris started.

"But considering this is a hospital, we're gonna hold them off till we get home again." Barry continued as the elevator came to their floor.

When the doors opened, Seth and the married couple walked into the elevators. As they closed, "I have something to tell you all too when we got home."

"What more could you tell us, Seth?" Iris asked still wearing a disapproving face.

"The truth about what I found last night at the Viking Motel. Something that made me call out to Blackfire the way I did." Seth revealed.

"Why can't you say it here?" Barry wondered.

"Better to explain it here with Lindy's group there and Mera and the rest there." Seth looked to them. "I already contacted them and told them to meet up at your house."

"Since when did our house become your base of operations?" Iris wondered as she turned to her husband.

Seth shrugs with a smile. "Well, what's wrong with that? Team Venom needs a place, don't they?"

"Team… Venom?" Barry asked sheepishly.

"**_What's wrong, Barry? Can't he recognize something cool when he hears it? Big idiot._**" Venom scoffed.

"_Coolness isn't for everyone to understand._" Seth stated in his mind.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

Faces were long and filled with impatience back in the West-Allen House. The three had just returned from the hospital and was seated around in the living room. The three girls were seated in the couch and looking impatient as does Seth who's seated in the recliner on opposite side of them, his feet raised and placed on the table. Barry and Iris were in the kitchen, fixing up some tea for them and their coming guests.

The mutant tapped on the armrest of the recliner as he waited for Lindy and her group to come to the house. He was getting really impatient. In his other hand, he fiddled with the flip phone with his fingers. Flipping the lid up, he looked at his message.

He narrowed his eyes on the small screen as the message about the meeting was seen by the Atlantean. Hopefully Mera relayed the same message to Eye Sight's group. "_Hope that she's told them._"

"**_If not then we can just send her a fish or something…_**" Venom trailed off as he didn't hear a single reply from his partner. He elaborated. "**_You know, she's from Atlantis and-_**"

"_And it's a lost city thought to underwater and all. Yeah, big time joke, Venom._" Seth stated, not all amazed by that lame joke.

"**_Think of something yourself then, bastard._**" Venom sniped.

"Seth…" He looked up, his eyes meeting Evelyn's worried gaze. "Why did you challenge Blackfire like that? It… It was too stupid."

"Too reckless." Ruby pitched in. "Why? I expected better of you."

"I will explain everything as soon as Lindy and Mera comes." He leant forward with intertwined hands. "But you three have to decide if you wanna hear what I have to say. Because, honestly, even for a guy like me, what I saw last night… it was gruesome."

Jesse turns to him with shock. To hear that Seth was finding something gruesome? The guy who turns into demonic being with elemental powers. Willing to jump into the frontline at first notice and sever the heads of any and all enemies on the other side with his own fangs like they're nothing more than snacks.

That same person admitted that something he witnessed something last night that caused him to feel horrendous.

"_How the hell…_" Jesse thought to herself in continuously growing shock.

_KNOCK_

Seth looked to the door. "Guess, our guests have finally arrived."

"Looks like, I'll get it." Barry announced while Iris walked to the living room with a tray with tea, cups and biscuits. As the detective placed the tray on the table, her husband opened the door. A wave of shock came over his face at the person standing there. "Tony?"

That familiar name got Iris's attention with a snap of her head.

Tony Woodward formed a confused and sheepishly shocked expression as he looked at his former victim from his bullying days in elementary school. Waving uncomfortably to him, he greeted Barry. "Long time no see, Allen."

"What are you doing here?" Iris asked as she quickly walked to the door herself to the door. She was both worried and shocked at the same time. Shocked to see their old bully again and worried what their old bully might do now in their house.

Tony did everything he could to keep his mouth from gaping like a mindless fool. But to no success. "H-Hey Iris. Good to see you again."

Marcus Bishop laughed and placed his hand on his shoulder and teased. "Not a bad start, right?" he grunted as he felt his friend slam his elbow into his stomach. "Not cool, bro." He complained.

"Guys, can we maybe move this inside, please?" Mera asked them.

The two dropped their head and moved inside, followed by Mera and Lindy. The natives and Ruby were shocked to see Eye Sight of the first time. However, they did grow curious when they saw the blonde woman with blue eyes shift, her eyes turning green and her hair turning auburn red.

Lindy looked to the three girls and smiled. "Pleasure to meet you three."

"Nice to see you're here and not sending other metahumans after us." Ruby snipes uncaringly.

Mera chuckled, unsurprised by the former assassin's words and. "Oh yeah, Ruby was the kid who was almost blown up by Kendra's one-woman revenge plan."

The technopath smacked her tongue loudly, realization coming over her. "Okay, that makes sense." She turned around to face Seth. "You have some explaining to do, Seth. You told me but the rest here doesn't know anything."

The Atlantean became baffled. "You told Lindy and not the rest of us? Not even me. Didn't think you guys became BFFs so quickly."

"Wasn't exactly done as a sign of friendship, you know." Lindy confessed.

To confirm her words, Seth nodded. "It was a necessity for what's about come. You guys take a seat and I can explain then."

"_It's still our house, Seth…_" Iris complained in her mind at his sudden commanding of her and Barry's house.

The group obliged to the elemental's words and took seats. Seeing them all take seats on either the floor or the chairs, Seth looked to the girls on the couch. "Before we go any further, girls. The three of you are gonna have to decide if you wanna hear it. I won't blame you if you don't wanna hear it. Seeing it was horrible. Hearing about it is no walk in the park either."

"I'm curious, so I'm staying." Jesse announced.

"Yeah, I'm more worried, so I'm staying here too." Evelyn said.

He nodded and looked to Ruby. "What about you Rubs? You staying for story time?"

"I ain't scared of a scary story. Most of my childhood was a horror story." Ruby told them like it was normal.

Seth laughed and then looked to Tony and Marcus. "First off, I'm sorry for running off without you guys after losing my cool when I basically slaughtered Mirror Master in front of you two. But I had a very good reason for doing that." He knew full well that all of them wondered what he found out. The mutant had to explain it. "Aside from what was going on at the nine motels and their common mastermind, there was one third common, and stranger factor between the nine hotels."

"Which was…" Iris wondered, mostly as she was the one to get the mutant's aid on this quest.

A faint sound of cracking bones came from his clenching hands, his knuckles turning white with the amount of pressure he was pouring into them. "Each and every one of them had a… container outside of them."

"Yeah, I remember that." Tony said.

"Me too. We did see a container there, yeah." Marcus agreed.

"Okay, they had a container at them." Mera told them. "But what's so strange about that, Seth? They probably needed to get rid of something."

"That was their intention." Seth said emotionlessly. "But they didn't throw away just… _something_." His tone scared them… and they listened as he explained…his findings of horror.

X

**(Flashback, Viking Motel)**

_Seth had seen various horrors in the world, in the worlds he's fought in. _

_But the horrors that he was looking at, within the trash container… made him want to throw up… and a need to kill bursts inside of him like a chain reaction of eruption. _

_He and Venom finally realized the source of the strange and familiar smell… and the source… as it was registered in his brain… made him clench his hand around the lid that was still being held open with his hand, ending up with his adamantium fingers cracking on both surfaces of it._

_Mouth opening up and both white mist and black smoke slipped through his gaping maw. Even though he was looking at it with unyielding attention, his mind forced him to let the sight sink in._

_The unmistakable form of…_ _A corpse that was… small… not much taller than that of a teenager in their late years as teens… even younger maybe…. A corpse that was black… from the charred crust that was around every inch of its skeleton-like form. A formerly white skeleton was… now nothing but completely charred black from an immense malicious… _

_…__Strike… One that rendered it to this pitch-black crust around their skeletal forms… _

_But that wasn't all…_

_A flame ignited around his left arm, emitting light that illuminates the entire interior of the trash container and its contents._

_And it… showed me that it wasn't one corpse in there… _

_The entire trash container was filed with them… Corpses as black as the dark nights above his head._

_Seth began panting heavily and rapidly at he took in the corpses… counting them in his head._

_"__One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six…" He couldn't handle counting anymore as the number only continued to grow in numbers. The entire trash container was filled with them, cramped with absolutely desolated corpses…_

_… __of young children…_

_"__Who… Who is this … fucking monster?" Seth growled. Sweat pouring down the surface of his face._

"**_What… you said._**" _Venom stated in a sneer. "__**Blackfire is the monster who did this to so many innocent children, Seth!**__" _

"_He's… He's… HE'S GONNA DIE!_"

_Seth's clothes turn black in an instant, wavering next as his emotions threatened to fuel all of his elements, right to the point where he would have to discharge them… if he didn't find an outlet… soon._

_"__Not much."_

_His ears perks at the sound of that chuckling, cackling evil voice._

_Snapping his head around, he sees a man standing there. A man in a tuxedo, black as the night, as is his pants. His hair was dark and he is wielding a strange gun, a small handheld gun with four panels at the end of the barrel. He was talking to the two metahumans who stood before the defenseless girls._

_Though his appearance appeared similar to what Iris and Lindy told him of Blackfire's usual attire, his next words caused his confusion to fade._

_"__But when Blackfire hires one to guard this place, then you can't say no, can you?_" _The man revealed, his mere words turning the insides of Seth's stomach. He saw red when the man points his weapon at the girls and the metahumans. "And I'm not supposed to let those girls go."_

_He reached into his body and pulled out his sword. While the other elements emitted from his body, lightning, fire and ice, adamantium strengthening his claws, wind gathering around him, water boiling alongside his blood in his body and earth pulsing in his muscles while the black symbiotic mass pulsated as it spread over his limbs._

_Swinging his sword around, he held the long crystal sword like a spear. Reeling it back, the mutant hurled it after the gun wielder… his sword crushing Blackfire's hired hand's strange gun in an instant…. Causing a horrible scream to escape his mouth._

_"__There might be others." He spoke to his partner before walking to that cackling bastard._

**(Flashback End)**

X

"Much to my dismay… Each and every one of the eight other motels had the same container. All of them had the very same trash container, each one filled with the same corpses." Seth finished off with clenched hands, pale as a ghost's fists.

The others listened to Seth's words and all of them felt realization fell over them.

Barry and Iris were the first ones to realize why he did what he did. The sight of the fates that befell on those innocent children were unbearable for him to see. As a hero and as a parent himself. That's why he went rogue, abandoning the plan and taking out the hotels single-handedly to save the girls.

Mera was really shocked to hear this. She knew that Blackfire was a horrible bastard, his men having left burnt and charred corpses of his victims all around the city like they were trash. Leaving them in alleyways like they have outlived their usefulness. His victims didn't matter in the least to Blackfire.

But they matter to Seth.

Tony and Marcus were just as shocked. Now it made sense why Seth decided to leave without them. Now it made sense why Seth tore into Mirror Master with his fangs after destroying the criminal's weapon with his sword. Why he even decided to challenge Blackfire by destroying his entire operation, it all made sense now.

He was pissed off.

Lindy knew what it was. Seth went to her to get the addresses for the other hotels. She had a feeling that he was gonna do something extremely dangerous but what she saw later that night shook her greatly. Venom instigated a challenge against the man who's the mastermind behind a huge sex trafficking operation in the shadows of Central City.

Not even the city's Crimson Comet, The Flash would consider doing something like that. Those two have fought against one another before. But the speedster was only able to deliver a blow that could knock him out, not finish him off once and for all. None of his strikes were able to do that to the metahuman.

Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse were unable to form words. When they heard of this guy, hearing that he was the man behind the biggest sex tracking operation here in the city was shocking. But now hearing that he's been leaving the remains of his victims in the streets of the city, even cramping their corpses into trash containers…

Did the lives of those innocent girls even matter to him?

"So…" Seth got their attention again, the tense silence lifted with his words. "If any of you still have complaints about me going at this the way I did… then bring it. It's not gonna change anything. I already called out to him as I did. So it's only a matter of time before Blackfire steps back in the city, to try and get me out there."

"We're sorry for what you had to see, Seth." Iris told him. She felt responsible for him having to see that horror show. "I didn't think Blackfire would have done something like that at all places."

Evelyn looks to the detective with a questioning look. "Didn't any of the officers check out the containers when inspecting the hotels afterwards?"

"No, we only transported the girls to the hospitals and getting the Johns to the precinct and thrown into a jail cell." Iris explained. "I'll have Lawton check out those containers, he's still at one of the hotels."

"I can call him." Barry told his wife before walking to the other room to call the detective.

"Iris." The mutant got her attention. "You're not going to like this, but the hospital with the girls… it needs to be protected at all times until Blackfire's dead."

"I agree with that." Lindy said but a finger to her mouth as she constructed the scenario in her mind. Her eyebrows fell as she admitted. "I think it's out of CCPD's capabilities to protect those girls."

"Not if they have our help?" Tony pitched in.

"Yeah, with us and the other metahumans in our group, we could definitely level the playing field if Blackfire tries something." Marcus adds with his hands cracking one another in excitement.

"Not just them." Mera smirked. "I can help out as well. I'm no pushover."

"None of you are." Lindy's eyes remained fallen, despite her friends' eagerness to be those girls' shields. "But a popular Atlantis native revealing herself to be a powerhouse, a former solder and a former cop, both standing as metahumans… I don't know if it that's gonna go well."

"Tony, you're a metahuman?" Iris was shocked.

"Different man all together right now, Iris." Tony told her with pride.

"I can vouch for that, Detective West." The technopath smirked, her eyes and hair color changing again. "But problem is… my group, my friends are considered criminals in the public eye. If they showed up, then it the police might just arrest them on the spot."

"I might have an alternative solution to that." Barry announces as he steps into the living room. His left hand placing his phone on a nearby shelf. "One I think Seth might have thought of already."

"I think I know what you're thinking of, Barry." He scratches the back of his neck with an embarrassed expression. "But it's not a good idea considering what I did to them before."

"What do you guys mean?" Iris asks them both confused. But she was curious about what Seth had done to who as well.

Giving Barry a look, telling him to be the one state his idea with his own words. The CSI scientist accepts Seth's looks and begins. "They might not be willing to work with us, and it's the same the other way around, but for the safety of the young girls… I honestly think Crows Security will work with us to defend the girls."

"You wanna ask those birds for help, Allen?" Tony asked in disbelief.

"Doesn't sound like a good idea asking those money-obsessed bodyguards." Marcus stated honestly, he didn't see it likely for them to work without a handsome payment.

"They might…" Seth smirked evilly. "If we convince only their three lieutenants."

"Why them?" Mera asked.

Lindy smiled and revealed. "It's because he defeated three of them himself with his bare hands." Her friends looked at her with confusion. "I had security cameras film everything and I got it on a tape."

"Please send me that." Iris quickly said, now the attention was on her. "Just for… Examining it, of course. Nothing else."

"Suuurreee." Seth sarcastically said, not at all convinced by her attempt to hide her enthusiasm to witness the defeats of the three lieutenants of Crows Security. "But if Iris really does have that on tape and brings it to those steadfast and stubborn jackasses, it might be worth using as blackmail material."

"You wanna blackmail three of Crows Security?" Evelyn looked at him like he has two heads.

"Wouldn't be the first time I've blackmailed cocky assholes in a security organization." The mutant smirked villainy.

"But you really think that will work?" Iris asks.

Seth points to Barry. "Like Barry said, for those innocent kids at the hospital, even Crows will pull their thumbs out of their asses."

"Fine, I'll set up the meeting. But…" Iris points to Seth. "You need to stay here, so you don't end up making them trigger happy."

"It's not my fault. Just my natural charm." Seth joked.

Lindy raised an eyebrow. "Why haven't you been riddled with bullets yet with that natural charm of yours?"

The elemental shrugged and then asked of the technopath. "Also, Lindy, can you do me a favor too?" She nods. "With your powers, can you find a breach? It's how Zoom's been sending metahumans to my world."

"You wanna go home?" Evelyn asks.

"Depends on how this fight's gonna go." Seth clenches his hands. "This guy's not like Zoom, he spreads a different kind of fear. I can't underestimate him… the moment I do so, I'll make a mistake and he's gonna kill me or those girls at the hospital. I can't let that happen."

"But why a breach?" Ruby asked, seeing as he didn't answer Evelyn's question.

"Gonna keep that one to myself for now." Seth quips as he stands up again. "Now that's finished, let's take care of our business."

"I'm going to the precinct now to get those birds to help us." The detective states as she walks to the door. "Seth, what about you? What are you going to do?"

"Go outside and wait in the city. Blackfire's going to come here, and I will be ready." Seth cracks his fists.

"Don't underestimate him Seth." Iris said before walking out of the door.

X

**(Zoom's hideout)**

"Where did you guys think he's gone?" Killer Frost asks the others with a distortive voice. She and the others are waiting in anticipation, wondering where their menacing boss are.

"No idea." Black Siren chuckles with interest. "But talk about crazy? Seth challenges Blackfire right after he destroys all of his motels, his income sources? Knew he was crazy strong, but generally crazy? That's new."

Reverb gives a half-smile. "Thought you two liked the crazies." He points his thumb to Deathstorm. "I mean, why else is he here?"

"Cause I can burn stuff and not like you, Vibe Boy." Ronnie smirks.

"Congrats, you _tried_ to insult someone." The vibing metahuman countered mockingly.

"Brother, enough." Rupture orders his brother. "But Frost and Siren are correct. This type of attack… does not seem like Venom."

Leaning against a chamber, Deathstorm reminds the scythe wielder. "Remember Rupture, the guy was only with us for six months, as a prisoner. Not like we became his best friend or something. We don't know everything about him."

Killer Frost cocked her head. "_Good kisser, I know that._" She thought to herself.

"But still…" Rupture got their attention. "What would make this man take up arms and actually infuriate Blackfire himself? The one and only man bold enough to call himself Zoom's Rival."

The others had to agree with the scythe-wielder. Blackfire is truly the only man who's willing to call himself the rival to their boss. But he's been boasting about it like it was his mayoral campaign slogan, bragging about being an equal to the menacing speedster for a very long time.

True he might have become a true menace in this world, money left and right at the tips of his hands as they darken into a blaze with his powers. Enough to buy the most expensive kind of drinks and entertainment there is, either on the market or on the streets. With his income sources, vile and disgusting as they may be, money have been rolling through his front door.

Such was the life of the man known as Blackfire.

"Looks lively as ever in this dump."

The sudden voice got them all to tense and arm themselves. Black Siren kept her mouth open, ready blast a sonic cry. Killer Frost's hands emitted white mist, ice cracking slightly to form weapons. Deathstorm's head and hands ignited flames. Rupture spun his scythe around with red plasma energy and his brother points his hand at him.

But none the powering metahumans scared Blackfire, merely making him chuckle as he turns to Zoom who remained standing like a brightening statue. "You should really have your friends attend the circus, Zoom. They're perfect for it."

Frye's words didn't do anything to spark a reaction on Zoom's face. The speedster just faces him with a glare. Blackfire laughed at the eyes pointing at him. "You should get glasses for those peepers."

"What are you doing here, Frye?" Killer Frost asks, her face laced with obvious disgust.

"Why's he here?" Black Siren directed to Zoom.

Zoom faces them. "**He's here… to watch the broken remains of his operations.**"

"Way to sugarcoat it, Zoom." Blackfire quipped uncaringly.

"But he had to come here why?" Deathstorm asks angrily.

Eric Frye showed a wicked smile and walked slowly towards the blazing metahuman. Stretching out his arms to each side, each hand clenching. With that action black flames ignited around his body as he neared Ronnie Raymond.

The flames on his head and hands on Zoom's flaming metahuman faded slowly as Blackfire had a hand raised near his face. "Don't act tough with me, Deathstorm. It didn't go so well last time, did it?"

"Knock it off, Frye." Killer Frost defended her boyfriend.

Dispersing his flames, Eric Frye looks at her. "What's wrong, Frost? No, "Cool down" joke or something? It was always something to look forward to." He looked her up and down, taking a good look at her attire and physique, his leering making her shiver in disgust. "You're still looking good as always, Frost. And what a waste your boyfriend is, he's not worth your time."

"Think that's up to her." Black Siren defensively said as she came to her friend's aid.

"Single as always, Siren?" Frye laughs as she notices her angered expression. Gesturing to himself with open hands. "You know I'm single and ready to mingle?"

"Funny coming from a man who's all about action with whatever walks on two legs and affordable on the streets?" Black Siren shot back.

Blackfire didn't get offended. "Don't hate the player, hate the game." Chuckling at their reactions, mainly the women's, he turned around to look to Zoom. "So this Venom? Guess I have to squash this ginormous bug myself, seeing as your henchmen can't do squat."

"**Underestimating the bug…**" Zoom formed a sick smile through his mask. "**Led to the disruption of your operations, Frye.**"

"So what?" He snapped his fingers, lighting a black flame between the joining of his fingers. "I can get them up and running again in a snap." Eric registered the sounds of disgusted groans coming from the female metahumans. "Don't be like that, girls. Just business."

Reverb and Rupture hollowly chuckles at his casual wording of his vile operation. "Funny way of putting it."

Blackfire faces them. "Oh yeah, you got something right… there…" He made a gesture to their faces, like something was stuck on their mask and goggles respectively. Neither of them reacted to it.

"Something you should know…" Deathstorm said and garnered Blackfire's attention. "Venom here has your sword."

This got the metahuman's eyebrows to lift with surprise. "Thought the Gotham birdies had that thrown in the China Sea?"

"Just a ploy." Rupture stated.

"Roasting two birds over one flame…" Blackfire chuckles as he walks to the exit, the black flame on his fingers spreading to the rest of his arm. "I'll show him who's the king of this city." He let out before passing the threshold of the exit.

Laurel smiles with realization and scoffs before she faces the menacing speedster. "You're hoping for these two to kill each other, aren't you?"

Zoom cackled. "**The extinction of two nuisances will only benefit the reign of Zoom….**" He continued cackling loudly, echoing within the walls of his hidden base in the massive cliff.

Killer Frost clutched her left forearm with her right hand, stopping it from shaking. She couldn't escape the feeling of disgust that felt like a swarm of cockroaches crawling up her skin. The origin of this feeling…

Destruction of the Demon King…. Seth….

X

**(CCPD)**

_CHIME_

Iris walks out of the elevator and enters the police precinct again. She smiles happily when registering the lack of agonizing parents in the lobby. This meant that all of them are now at the hospital and embracing their daughters with all their hearts, maybe even showering them with spoils that might make the staff reconsider their visitation rights.

Oh, that'd be the story.

The detective looked to the staircase on the right side and saw the Crows three lieutenants sitting on the stairs. Sophie holding her stomach with both hands, Julia holding an ice bag to her head and Kate brushing the bruises on her face with her fingers. Smirking at the sight of their defeated heads, she walks over to them.

Kate looks up and sees the detective walking to them. "Anything we can help you with, Detective West?" She winces at her own bruises.

Julia removes the ice bag from her head. "And please, be a dear and not to talk too loud. That doctor friend of yours might have rung our bells a little too much to our liking, love."

"Yeah." Sophie muttered her agreement with the British agent. "For a doctor, he sure knows how to punch like a fighter."

The Central City native couldn't help but smile as she quipped. "Yeah, I heard about what happened. He's kind of a man of many mysteries, let's say that." She dons a serious expression and says. "But that aside, I have something to ask of your organization."

"What's that?" Kate asks curiously.

"You know about the girls that have been rescued from Blackfire's operation, right? From all nine motels." She asked.

"Yeah, we heard of that, love." Julia said with a nod.

Sophie then adds. "Heard it was thanks to Venom. Sounds like we shouldn't have come."

"Believe it or not, it's a good thing you guys are here now." The detective's words shocked them, confusion coming over their faces now. "With the girls out of his operation now, and Venom publicly calling out to Blackfire like he did, it's gonna mean that Blackfire's gonna come back to Central City."

"What's your point then?" Kate asked.

"I'm asking if the Crows can help provide security for the hospital in case of Blackfire or his men decide to come to the hospital to try and kidnap those girls again." Iris stated. "CCPD might not be able to handle it alone, but with your aid, we can."

"So we just stand in front of the hospital, guns up and if they come send them packing with holes in their noggins?" Julia excitedly wondered. Iris nods and a smile widens on her face. "Then count me in, love."

"Sounds like a solid plan." Sophia had a skeptical expression. "But what if he never comes? Then it's just a waste of manpower and resources."

"To protect innocents, there's no waste." Kate counters her colleague before facing Iris. "I'll talk with the Commander and have him arrange a squad for the hospital. We'll be there too. But if things go sideways with Venom and Blackfire, then we might have to pull the team from the hospital and fight Blackfire himself."

"And, per our orders, Venom, too." Sophia pitched in.

Iris rolls her eyes, annoyed by those orders and says. "Venom aside, it's better if neither CCPD nor the Crows tries to confront Blackfire. He's been a problem for as long as the city remembers for a reason, you know. With The Flash gone, Venom is our best shot at taking him out once and for all."

Julia cocked her head with interest. "You seem to have a huge amount of faith in the huge lad?"

"He's been the hero in our city ever since The Flash disappeared. We can trust him and no one in this city wants him to get hurt." The detective reveals with an earnest expression. "And Blackfire's gonna regret getting on his bad side."

"Let's hope so." Kate Kane muttered.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"So the Crows are on our side now? Awesome." Seth says into the phone placed at his ear. He was looking far and wide as he remains standing on the top of the rooftop of the household. As he stood there, he got a call from the detective who revealed the news of the CCPD and Crows' temporary alliance. "Nice, had a feeling those bird heads would agree to this."

"_Think it's only because of Kate Kane, the Commander's daughter and lieutenant._" Iris explained.

"The same daughter I knocked out with my fists?" Iris gave a hum of confirmation. "Alright, guess I should stay clear of your radar."

"_You're not gonna do that, are you?_"

"No. No, I really am not." Seth smirked. "You're ready for this? By that I mean, stay clear of whatever might come."

He heard a sigh from the other side. "_I'm more worried about you challenging Blackfire like you did. It's… scary and I feel responsible._"

"I'll avenge your old mentor and make sure those girls at the hospital can go home without fear of experiencing that hell again. To do that, I have to end Blackfire. Trust me. I will win." The mutant promised her.

"_I believe you…_" she trailed off before hanging up.

Closing the lid on the flip phone he looked towards the tall buildings of Central City. He couldn't help but reminisce at the sight of the sight that was far from him. "Remember when Joe called us the night when we took out Girder?"

"**_Yeah we do._**" The symbiote replied before a tendril came out of his back, spiraled around its host's body till it was in front of him. The tip of it took the form of Venom's face with the white skull. "**Just like Iris called us yesterday, he too called us for an operation, profiting of the torment of the innocent.**"

"Yeah." Seth chuckles. "Even these worlds look the same, but completely different… it's worrying how much the bad things are the same here."

"**No one, not even another universe, is immune to the horrors hidden in the dark.**" Venom stated.

"You're right." Seth admitted before rearing his head back, looking directly up into the blue sky. "The one thing that does remain the same… the beautiful blue skies." He sighed. "Though I said that, I kinda miss the skies over our Earth."

"**Agreed.**"

"Having last minute regrets?!"

He and his partner turned around, facing the backyard and saw Lindy standing there. With Venom retracting himself into his host, Seth leaped off the roof and landed on the ground again. Turning his eyes to the technopath, he asked. "Nah, just thinking about my world."

"You miss it?" Lindy asked but knowing the answer already.

"Yeah." Narrowing his eyes, he pointed a thumb backwards to the rooftop. "How'd you listen to me from down here, by the way?"

"Your phone. Atlantean tech is bit harder to communicate with, but it's not impossible for someone like me. Especially as I've seen those in my days with my group." She smiled. "Btw, your search for a breach is going slow, seeing as Zoom tends to speed around like a coked-up bat from Hell."

Seth got a curious expression on his face. "Speaking of your group." Lindy gave him her full attention. "If your group is about helping people, metahumans who've lost their way and all that, why wasn't Evelyn at the top of that list? She's a kid who was hunted by Zoom and lost her parents; not to mention she was on the CCPD's wanted list."

Taking a seat on the ground, Lindy explains. "I knew about that for a while. Chyre told me of his little niece that was apparently targeted by the police force and I said I'd keep an eye out for her. While I expected her to have powers, I didn't expect her to use shadows to be teleporting randomly into places around the city like a mole digging holes in your backyard." She formed a half-smile and added with a tilted head. "Or shoot arrows made of light."

"Yeah, she's a miracle." Seth said with a smile.

Lindy looked him up and down and admitted. "I gotta say, I'm impressed with what you did." He looked confused. "I've heard the stories, listened in on their phone calls and heard it all. Heard how Evelyn's friends and family turned their backs to her, like she was a complete stranger after the Particle Accelerator blasted her with dark matter." She exhaled. "I hated it, especially when I heard that she was kidnapped by Zoom and kept prisoner with others. I wanted to rescue her, but it was damn impossible with our forces slim as they are."

"Understandable. But knowing that you tried is good enough for me now." The mutant then continued. "Aside from me, Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse, there was a guy there, too." Seth said to her shock. "A man with a metal mask, no idea what he looks like under the mask, though."

"Didn't know there would be one more prisoner, thought you and the girls were the only ones." Lindy stated while getting on her feet again. "But while searching for your breach, I can see if I can find anything about this metal-masked man of yours. I just don't think there's anything about him, though."

"Worth a try at least. This guy didn't want to be saved back there, because it would possibly mean the recapture of me and the girls." Seth revealed. "I owe it to that man to save him."

"Sounds like a good guy." Lindy and Seth walked to the back door. "You're ready for this battle? Blackfire might be worse than Zoom."

Seth wears a serious deadpan expression. "I won't underestimate him, but aside from his real name and his nickname, his operation, I don't have the foggiest idea what his powers might have to do. It's gonna be a hard fight him."

"Yeah… Just be careful. He's not a weakling, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to take out so many of my people before." Lindy offered him her advice.

Before he could nod his agreement, he turned his head around and looked to the side, to the side where he could see the top halves of the tall buildings afar in the city. Seeing black smoke rising to the sky in large quantities.

"Guessing that's his RSVP to my invite." Seth smirked.

"Be careful…" She repeated and he nodded.

He reaches behind him and pulls out the crystal sword and spins it around before running towards the nearest tree. With each step he takes, the symbiote mass takes on a part of his body and changes into the limb of the demon. His head is the last to be embraced, engulfed before he leaped off the ground. Tendrils shooting out of his free arm and pulling on it to shoot him into the air like a ballistic missile.

Hearing the sound of the mutant's jump from inside the house, the girls and the others came out to watch him swing away.

"Be careful… Seth…" Ruby muttered hopefully.

Hopeful that the elemental would success and come out without experiencing too much damage.

X

_SCREAM_

Wails of fear and terror came out of the mouths as they saw a car explode when a volley of black flames connected with it. People fell and almost trampled over each other as they saw more blasts of black flames were hurled like baseballs. Dodging some of them ended with the fireballs burning through sides of buildings, pieces of partially melted brick stones falling off and landing on the asphalt of the streets.

Blackfire laughed, cackled at the mayhem he was causing. Flexing his right hand, he thrusted it forward and hurled another black fire blast, hitting the middle of two lanes. The burst caused more people to scream louder and run away at full speed.

"Ah, it's good to be bad!" Eric Frye exclaimed with a laugh as though he was watching a comedy show. "Here, Venom, Venom, Venom! Come out, come out wherever you are!" He smiled like a sick child. "It's time to pay a visit to old Uncle Blackfire!"

Hearing a car alarm blaring, he snapped around and saw a car coming his way. Eric snapped his hands shut and his black flames overtook the surfaces of his entire body. Gathering the flames to his cupped hands, he thrusted them both outwards, converging a column of abyssal flames to the middle of the hurled car.

The pitch-black flames easily, and instantaneously, burned through the car roof and through the interior. Melting the car into two pieces, each one flying past him and landing behind him. Blackfire dissipated his flames and got a good look at the so-called Demon King, making him smirk.

The large pitch-black demon landed on the ground; his clawed feet embedded into the asphalt. His torso pulsating with each exhaling breath. The bended bone spikes on his chest spiking along with his white veins. The long white spines spiraled around his arms and dug into the backs of his clenching hands. His long serpent tongue sticking out of his white skull extension-covered mouth and licking the saliva of his fang-like teeth. Piercing red eyes looking directly at Blackfire.

But Eric felt his gaze shift between the demon and the colorful sword that once was blank and without color when it was in his possession.

Venom dug the tip of his sword into the ground and growled at the fire-wielder. "**You… are Blackfire?**"

"The one and only, baby!" He exclaimed, not in the least bit scared of this towering demon. Pointing a finger to the crystal sword, he said. "What'd you do to my sword? Aside from giving it an obvious and questionable makeover."

"**It found a better wielder.**" Venom sneered. "**Back to Central City?**" He pulled the sword out of the ground and swung it around in his hand.

"Short business trip, nothing more." Eric Frye stated like it was an assurance. Veins popped over his forehead. "You destroyed my business, asshole. I don't like it when people mess with my business. You even know who you pissed off?"

Venom scoffs. "**Piss poor weakling with a weak business, not to mention bragging about being Zoom's rival.**"

Clenching his hands, abyssal black flames ignited around his fists as Blackfire glares at the mutant, who took in the black flames with surprise. "I earned that name. Ask either Zoom or The Flash, if he decides to show his ass in the open again. I am… Zoom's rival. And I ain't about to lose to you, Venom!"

Seth saw the flames erupt and attach to the rest of his body like a blazing armor. "**Let's see how that mouth of yours is gonna last before we destroy you, you piece of shit!**"

Blackfire howled in rage, lashing out his right hand, blasting a fireball.

The mutant performed a backflip and landed on the side of a building, avoiding the onyx flames in process. From his spot on the building, he saw the flames burn the asphalt with ease. Intensive flames for sure, and as they kept burning was all the proof he needed to know.

"_Fire's not gonna do shit against water!_" Seth roared in his thoughts, tendrils shooting out of his back and fastening themselves onto the edge of the building's rooftop. Their hold on the edge strengthened briefly before pulling on his body, launching him into the air.

With the tendrils retracting to his body, he reeled his left hand and formed small spheres of water at the tips of his claws. Within a passing second, they enlarged to the point where each of them took on the same size of his fingers. Clenching his large clawed hand, the spheres fuses together before the mutant lashes out the hand. A blast of water shot into a compressed water stream.

The stream came like a beam for the blazing metahuman.

Seth failed to notice… the smirk on Eric Frye's face…

Before Seth and Venom could see it, the water beam that he emitted from his fist evaporated in an instant. The elemental widened his red eyes with shock at the immensely large amount of steam coming. It wasn't unusual for a clash of water and fire to end up in steam. But such an amount was shocking.

Narrowing his eyes on the steam, he saw a black flame… still burning strongly through the steam.

"You didn't know, did ya?" Eric's voice came out from within the concentration of steam as walked through it. Not a single scratch on him… and his flames blazing strong. Looking up to the mutant, he smirked sickly. "I'm the superior flame, Venom. Not even water can touch me!"

At his last word, the metahuman sent out another flame blast. The mutant dodged it with a leap and launched his right arm, splitting it into dozens of tendrils. The tendrils connected to the closed building and he attached himself to it after swinging towards it.

Another fireball came his way and he had to jump away again with a backflip followed by a spin. Using the momentum of his spin, the mutant swings his arm and lashes out his tendrils again. As they travelled through the air, they homed in on the forms of three cars that he brought closer to him.

Landing the ground, flames coating his every fang, he opened his mouth and unleashed flames from his mouth and lit the cars up with flames. Earth element strengthening his arm before he reeled it back and hurled the three cars after Blackfire.

Eric hurled black flame after the middle car…

_EXPLOSION_

And as a result to his pitch-black attacks, all three of the burning vehicles exploded very close to the metahuman's body. The area around him and Blackfire were riddled with a series of massive explosions.

While the tendrils retracted to his body, assimilating to reform his arm again, Seth gathered lightning in his left hand. With a trust of his arm, he shot out a bolt of lightning. He wasn't gonna take any chances with the wielder of black flames.

And it was the right call as a black flame came out from within the black smokescreen. The flame and the lightning collided, with the flame overwhelming the lightning in an instant and continuing its trajectory. Worry began to fill the mutant's mind and he held up his sword to block the blast.

The flame collided with his sword and pushed him back. With a roar, he swung it to the left and deflected the fire blast. He didn't feel it till now, but the back side of his clawed fingers on his right hand were hurt by the black flames, leaving a tingling pain.

"**What…**" Venom notes at the tingling pain on his hand.

"You're really that big a deal here?" Came the surprised and confusion to the mutant as Blackfire walked out of the smokescreen, completely unscathed. Not even his clothes were damaged from the previous explosions "I just…" Eric clicked his tongue. "…don't really see it. I already told you, man. I'm the superior flame."

"_Let's switch gears then._" Seth states in his thoughts whilst using his tendrils on his back as a scabbard to hold his sword. Cracking his fists he turns them into adamantium. Additional tendrils shot out of his shoulders, each one forming ice spikes.

"Oh yeah, I heard you were into that whole close-range fighting with octopus tentacles." The metahuman notes with a pointed finger, waving it around at the flailing tendrils and his metal arms.

Roaring again, the elemental jumped off the ground before charging for him. Eric didn't seem scared and smiled. The flames erupted around his body, strengthening tenfold and wrapping around him like an abyssal armor. The enemy's action was a second before Seth's fist connected it.

Blackfire's smile turned to a smirk as the flames around his body intensified once more, blasting outwards and connecting with the incoming… fist. Even the incoming ice-spiked tendrils.

**_SCREAM_**

Seth and Venom felt like everything was dead as his vision was filled with pitch-black heat as the hellish pain travels from his clawed hand and up his symbiotic large arm. His "other" screaming so loudly and painfully in his head, disorienting the mutant abominably and forcing him to stagger backwards in a fit.

Laughing hysterically at the mutant's pain, the metahuman hurled black flames for the ice-spiked black tendrils. Burning them off their stems and causing more pain to spread throughout the hero's body. "Sorry, freak. But you messed with the wrong man's business."

Halting his own screaming, the mutant managed to speak again, fighting back the pain. "**At least we don't profit of the lives of innocent like scum like you. A freak is better than what you are.**" As he spoke, parts of his black suit smoldering and melting with glowing redness like flames touching the surface of bark on a tree. But now… it was a glowing blackness.

Raising his left arm into the air, he slammed it down on the ground with the earth element strengthening his every muscle in his limb. The earth element at his usage and cracking the ground as he unleashed an earthquake throughout the ground.

Clenching both of his hands and aiming them at the ground, the metahuman projected two concentrated columns of black flames. His blazing beams melted through the ground and caused a massive fire to spread underneath the asphalt, cancelling out the incoming earthquake with a fire spread that left the asphalt cracked with black smolder.

"**How…**"

"Meet the king of the underworld… baby." Blackfire thrusts both hands again, sending out a wide-spread blast of black flames for the mutant.

A small strike did immense damage to his body and his partner, a wide-spread assault… is gonna end them both.

Opening his maw, he took the risky gamble and unleashed an eruption of wind from his mouth… directly into the middle of the wide-spread infernal blast. And like a sea of abyssal flames, it was hit with the right amount… to make it explode as though it was the aftermath of a tsunami touching down on a target.

Leaving flames of darkness around the two lanes… but a fading demonic scream managed to echo…

Seeing his flames expand into an inferno near the mutant, Blackfire grew curious and walked forward. The flames around him not touching or hurting him as he stepped through them. His eyes looking around for the massive demonic being, hoping to see the corpse of a similar size.

His ears perked up at the sound of sloshing water and he continued onwards. But his eyes expanded with shock at the sight of a gigantic hole between the lanes, cracks around the rim of the hole. Walking to the edge of it, he looked down and saw the source of the sloshing waters, seeing that it was because of the surging waters within the sewer pipes. Black flames attached to pieces of charcoal burnt asphalt like glue.

"Did not expect you to be coward, Venom." Blackfire admitted in a mutter but he couldn't help but laugh at the revelation, that he scared the Demon King away.

And he wasn't the only to witness that…

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

A helicopter filmed the entire fight between the two element wielders, spreading the entire fight to every single channel in every Central City hose with a television. Everyone was watching the fight and was left appalled with that fight.

Especially the people in the West-Allen house, all of them watching with shocked eyes and horror forcing their mouths open.

Mera, Lindy, Tony and Marcus couldn't keep their eyes closed because they were glued to the television screen. The broken pieces of their hopes fell on them with the speed of light as they saw the pitch-black inferno take over the middle of the streets.

Iris and Barry, Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse were scared out of their minds and covered their mouths or placed their hands on their heads. The hero who saved their lives when they held captive by Zoom… was now turned to ashes by what looked like an apocalyptic eruption of flames.

His body not even burning and just… gone…

"Is…" Evelyn regretted asking but had to. "Is he really-"

_CRASH_

Everyone turned their heads upwards, looking to the ceiling as they heard the loud banging and clattering coming from the rooftop. "What the hell?" Iris said with her gun pointing up at the ceiling. Cocking the firearm next moment as the sound of clattering and crashing repeated itself for a few moments more.

Followed by another larger sound of crashing, stopping in front of the porch, Barry and Iris shot to the entrance door. Mera following them with her trident in hand. The detective opened the door and they all three rushed out of the house. Soon the others followed, and they widened their eyes as they saw him again.

Laying on his stomach on the ground before his friends, the flesh on his right arm still smoldering with the same pitch-black glowing from before. Half of his body still embraced by his symbiotic partner, but slowly retracting into his body again. As much damage on the host, has been done to the symbiote. The sword on his back released from the tendrils that held it, the crystal sword sliding off his body and clattering onto the ground. Dark water coming out of his panting mouth, his face and the rest of his burnt, tattered clothes stinking of piss and human excrement.

"Seth!" Iris screamed before rushing down the short staircase with her husband. The girls pushed Mera and Lindy to the side so they could rush down to him.

Mera jumped off the porch and down on a knee, right beside the mutant's inferno-tortured body. "Seth, are you okay?"

Coughing up blood and more water, he managed to form a half-smirk, despite a mix of water and blood seeping down the corner of his mouth. "Smell like so much shit and piss that even…_cough…_that even a sewer would stay away from me." His head dropped to the ground as his consciousness gave up, leaving him knocked out.

"We have to get him inside." Iris said and let Barry and Marcus carry him into the house. Mera rushed in behind them.

Iris looked to the sword on the ground. "Iris." She snapped her head to Tony who walked to her side. "I'll take that, I'm a bit stronger for that, and trust me, that thing weighs a ton." Girder turns his entire body and grabs the sword. He gasped as he brought up with both hands. "Oh yeah, heavier than I remembered."

The detective chuckled and had the girls follow her into the room. The four of them rushed in, right in time to see Barry and Marcus lower the hurt mutant to the couch. "Forgoing the horrific smell, he's got massive burns around his right arm, still damaged and smoldering from experiencing Blackfire's… black fire." He sheepishly said.

"Can we cool it off somehow?" Evelyn asked with a worried expression.

"He's not gonna die, is he?" Ruby asked with a terrified expression.

Iris noticed the girls' expressions and didn't like it. "Barry." She demanded her husband's attention. "Can you help him? None of us are doctors here."

"Except for Seth…" Barry gulped and looked at his smoldering arm, still with burnt flesh and simmering blackness. Sighing he stated. "We're not letting him die, not because of Blackfire's flames." His head snapped up when realization dawned on him. "Fire… Blackfire uses fire."

"No shit, Allen. Kinda of in the name." Tony retorted.

Giving him a dry look, the CSI scientist stated. "Exactly, and fire can be put out by…" He swung his head towards Mera. "Water."

Mera shifted her gaze between the mutant and Barry. "I can't heal wounds with my powers, Barry."

"Not heal, but maybe stop the burn damage from spreading on his arm with your water powers." The CSI scientist stated

Widening her eyes with realization from the wisdom of his words, she informed urgently. "I need massive amounts for something like his wounds."

Snapping his head to the girls, Barry states. No, orders them. "Girls, you three go to the kitchen and get water. Bowls, pots, even bottles, anything that can contain large amounts of water." They nodded and rushed into the kitchen to oblige to the order. He then turned his gaze to Marcus. "Marcus, do you have any experience with applying first-aid?"

"Small amount, the only kind an armed solider get is when he's the patient." Marcus informed with a shrug.

"That'll have to do." Barry replied and the vibrokinetic rushed down to the floor. The CSI scientist turns his gaze to his wife and the technopath. "Iris, you and Lindy, go upstairs and get all the bandages you can find. We need to wrap up his damaged arm."

"Why?" Lindy asks with her hair changing colors in rapid succession. "He can heal himself."

"From what I understood of his powers, his partner is the one healing him and when one feels pain, the other does as well, basis of symbiotic relationship. With Seth knocked out as he is now, chances are his partner is out cold too." Came the explanation.

"Alright, honey." Iris slapped Lindy's shoulder before rushing to the staircase. "Come on, Lindy, leave this to my husband. Trust him."

"Okay." The technopath followed the detective upstairs.

"What about me, Allen?" Tony asks, as he was the only one without task.

"Go upstairs to the bathroom." Barry surprised him.

"Why?" Girder asked.

"Get all deodorants and perfumes from the cabinets, he smells like death." Barry sheepishly admitted. Not arguing with that logic, Tony rushed up the staircase himself to the bathroom. "Come on, Seth. Don't die on us. Not now." Barry stated as he saw the girls return.

X

**(Zoom's Hideout)**

"What the hell just happened?" Killer Frost didn't believe what she just saw on the tablet in Reverb's hands. She and the others under Zoom's rule watched the entire fight between Blackfire and Venom, fully displayed on the tablet and showing Eric Frye turn the middle of the street into an inferno of black flames.

The only one not there to see the infernal oven be made is Zoom.

"Babe, you just saw it." Deathstorm reminds her with a gesture to the tablet screen. "Blackfire just turned Venom into a pile of ash." His words didn't overjoy the frosty metahuman, only made her sad and fear for Seth's life. She didn't believe that he was dead.

Or rather… she wouldn't want to think that.

"Wouldn't count on that." Rupture stated to their shock. When the looks of confusion reached him, the scythe-wielder confessed. "We've all fought Venom before. To think it's that easy for Blackfire to win against him, is a mistake."

"So you think he's still alive, brother?" Reverb askes.

"Look." Rupture nodded to the tablet screen.

Black Siren stepped closer to the screen, lowering her head and seeing that the smoke and flames in the middle of the streets were slowly clearing up. Her eyes widened in shock when registering the large hole in the middle of the street. A frown formed on her face when seeing it was hole connecting to the sewerage system underneath the lanes. "Don't tell me he actually made a hole to the sewers and jumped in?"

"He's gonna need a second bath." Killer Frost admitted with smile. "_Might have to join him in that shower._" She couldn't help but think and enjoy that small short fantasy, worth being stored in the back of her head.

For later… and private use, of course.

_WHOOSH_

A massive gust of wind hit their faces, followed by the sound of crackling lightning. They turned their heads around to see that it was their boss who had returned to the hideout… _with_ Blackfire.

"Wowza!" Eric let out, still reeling in the shock of the superspeed transport. "You should drop the supervillainy business, Zoom. You'd make a killing as super-transport." Zoom gave him a narrowed eye look, the pyrokinetic snapped his finger in mock realization. "Oh wait, you're already killing. Always forget that part."

Laurel made a show of sniffing the air. "Zoom, I thought you had a policy about _not_ bringing trash to the show. So why's Eric here?"

Eric chuckled at the cryer's insult. "Wanted to pick your brains for something."

"Not surprising, you didn't have brains to begin with." Killer Frost retorted.

"Baby, you're not exactly one to talk about brains, considering you're dating Babystorm." Blackfire chuckles when seeing Deathstorm ignite flames on his head and hands, anger written on his face. "But… it's about that Venom you guys been fighting."

Killer Frost said. "Yeah, he disappeared into a sewer after you turned the streets into charcoals."

"Yeah. If he's stupid he's gonna come again. And I need to know where he might go." He clicked the roof of his mouth and looked to the men, holding up a hand to them with the palm facing them. "Gonna have the ladies answer this, guys. No offense, but you're idiots."

"**Less talk.**" Zoom demands with a growl.

"Knowing him… he's gonna be stupid and try to take you out again somehow." Black Siren revealed.

"Thought so…" Blackfire smirked. "Then I have an idea on what to do… to get him to come out."

"What's your plan?" The frosty metahuman asked, her mind riddled with worry for the elemental mutant. Blackfire is like Zoom, neither of them known to playing nice. They weren't some of the evilest metas in town for nothing.

"When fishing… you gotta have bait, Icy Hot." The pyrokinetic licked his lips sickly.

He was gonna get his sword back… and hold the burnt head of Venom,

X

**(Flashback)**

_The grass in front of him was greener than he thought. The sun was shining brighter than he thought. Water looked bluer than he thought. Sky was covered with more clouds than he thought. Air, like the touch of insects touching his skin, was more startling and newer than he thought. The sight of happy humans was happier than he thought it would be. Parents and children hugging and treating each other to create moments of joy and happiness… seemed fake._

_Those were the thoughts that coursed through the young boy's head as he was seated on the top of the tall green hill, his knees pulled to his chest as he kept looking at the grass. Torso covered in an old green shirt and his legs covered by a pair of dark-red shorts._

_But then again, the last time he saw grass, or anything that resembled living things born from Mother Nature's womb, was an entire year ago. Happy, he was though. He was able to see his best friend and his little sister once again sitting with each other, hugging even._

_He felt around the strands of his brown hair with his hand as he tried to let go of the image of their relationship getting more serious. That might be a nightmare and he didn't want that. "Please don't let that happen."_

_"__**Talking to yourself again?**__"_

_Seth Rogers gasps and puts his hand on his chest, startled by the sudden voice that screamed in his head._

_"__**Didn't exactly scream Seth.**__" Venom, the pitch-black Klyntar, corrected his young host._

_"__Why do you still talk?" Seth asked out loud._

_"__**Got bored of your thoughts of you hoping your best friend and sister does not end up in a marriage.**__" Venom explained._

_"__Not used to having a literal second voice in my head." Seth countered. The young mutant wasn't used to have the feeling of having the clone Venom symbiote inside of him. The first time they spoke together was when the pitch-black symbiote jumped him, attaching to him and slithering into him. Right before he took on the same name as the original symbiote-wielder, to be different than him and become a warrior. _

_Donning the same face and form as Venom… the two together wielded their powers like a sharpened scythe, bringing it down on anyone in the facility, their fated slaughtering punishment awaited them. And he didn't regret killing anyone of them._

_He only regretted not be able to take down Stryker._

_One thing… and only one thing did make him confused._

_"__Why aren't you down there with your baby sis and your best bud, kid?"_

_Seth turns his head around and sees the man who walks to him, the same man who stood in front of the facility's entrance with a SHIELD rescue team. The dark-skinned man's torso was clothed in a black shirt, a blue tie with white stripes around his collar, black pants and a brown jacket over his shirt. One eye functional while the other is damaged from the source of the scars on his left eye._

_"__Mr. Fury, what do you want?"_

_Nicholas Joseph Fury chuckles at his attitude. "First, I hope your attitude does not improve, it is in peak condition." He stood near his adopted son's side. "Second, you know you don't have to call me Mr. Fury. Officially speaking, you and your sister are my troublemakers now." Nick Fury took a seat on the ground beside Seth._

_This time, the young elemental chuckled. "Don't you mean weapons?"_

_"__First lesson with me, Seth: You want to know something from someone, you either found out yourself or ask me directly." The SHIELD director stated._

_Making direct eye contact with Nicholas, Seth asks seriously. "Why did you adopt me and my sister? The cat wasn't enough company?" _

_"__Goose is… Goose." Nick didn't know how to reveal the fact that their house cat is not exactly a cat but an alien called a Flerken, one that ate the Tesseract. Carol would have to handle that one. "But it's not exactly an official adoption yet. Remember, it's just a trial week of sorts."_

_He remembered that, but still seemed weird. Right after they were rescued and brought to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Nicholas Joseph Fury offered them a home, his home. While the Rogers were happy in the beginning, they were skeptical about this offer._

_Recalling the past few days, Seth inhaled deeply and exhaled shortly afterwards. "It has been a really good last few days. You gave us lots of food. The new clothes not so bad." Nick gave a dry look. "Okay, definitely an upgrade from tattered clothes from that hellhole."_

_"__What can I say? My sense in fashion is pretty good." The man bragged._

_"__Fun-"_

_"__OW!"_

_Both Nick and Seth snapped their heads up at the sound of the voice that exclaimed in pain. Their eyes widened in fear when seeing that it was the younger long brown-haired Rogers sibling, Olivia Rogers who was holding her left knee to her chest with closed eyes. Matthew Almond was beside her and trying to console her as she was crying. _

_"__Liv!" Seth shouted and got up on his feet in a second._

_"__Olivia!" Nick rushed into a sprint, running down the hill at top speed. His sudden take-off similar to that of a combat jet taking off for war. _

_Momentarily shocked by the SHIELD Director's dash, he then took charge himself. "Liv!"_

_"__**She's okay, she's with Matthew.**__" Venom tried to soothe his host._

_"__Not helping Venom!" He countered loudly whilst running._

_Being the first to rush to Olivia and Matthew, Nicholas slid down to his knees beside his adopted daughter's side and Matthew. "Sweetie, what happened?"_

_Olivia was shocked to see him be so scared. Her brother was just as surprised by the level of fear he was displaying for his little sister right now. It was surreal for him to show such an alarming expression for someone who's not his own flesh and blood._

_"__Olivia, what happened?" Nick asked again, seeing that his adopted daughter did not respond to his inquiry._

_Matthew Connor Almond then replied for her sake. "She was climbing the tree before while I had my back turned around. She fell down and scrapped her knee."_

_"__You." Nick points to Matthew and sternly continues. "Be careful of whoever's around you and make sure they're safe and not doing anything dangerous."_

_"__Yes sir." Matt nodded._

_"__And now, you:" Nick faces Olivia. "Are you hurt?" The young psychic was still shocked. "Baby girl, are you alright? Don't tell me you tried to play monkey and swing from the branches."_

_Seth looked confused. "What problem would that bring?"_

_"__Monkey fever." Nick stated, the young elemental looking at the SHIELD director is crazy._

_"__Why?" Olivia finally replied, her single-wordily inquiry confusing the guys. "Why do you care so much about me? About us." She pointed to herself and her brother. "We're not your real children."_

_"__You mean you're not my blood?" Nick's question came as a statement than a question. "Let me tell you something, Livy." She and the others listened closely as the SHIELD Director told them honestly._

_"__Family is more than blood, Liv. It's an unbreakable bond between a parent and a child, that goes far beyond biology. Family is the people who will protect you from anything and anyone out there in the world, all the scary stuff. Family is the people you will protect from anything and anyone." Nick's words were shocking them, each one was filled with inspiration and hope. "A family is a shield that protects you while you're down, before you raise up again and take the shield yourself. Family is love. And I want you two to have a life, full of love. And I'll be your shield in that life.__"_

_"__You… You mean that?" Olivia asked, tears of joy running down the sides of her face. "You'll… be our shield."_

_Giving her a reassuringly calm and kind smile, the father to the adopted Fury siblings reached for her face with his hand. Gently cupping her cheek Nick used his thumb to brush the streams of tears away from one cheek before going to the other one. "Always and forever, baby girl. I'll be your shield for as long as it takes." He turns to the Rogers brother. "Same goes for you, little man."_

_"__Shields break." Seth managed to say, his cheeks, like his sister's, drenched with running tears._

_"__Not if it's made from the bond between family members. Strongest shield there is, stronger than anything in the world, kiddo." Nick ruffled his hair with one hand._

_He was forced to withdraw his hand when he felt the small form of his adopted daughter tackle him with her wide-spread arms. She had her arms wrapped around the one-eyed man's neck. Tightening her arms around him, she began to nuzzle her tear-drenched face against his neck and stated tearfully._

_"__Thank you… Daddy."_

_Chuckling in happiness, he wrapped one arm around her form and pulled her close into a hug. "Think I can get used to that." Nicholas admits._

_He felt a pat on his shoulder to the side and saw Seth standing there with a nervous expression. "Thanks… Dad."_

_"__Oh, come here, you softy!" He chuckled and wrapped his other arm around Seth's body and pulled him close into the first family hug between the Fury's. Seeing the embarrassed faces on his adopt… on his children's faces, he states. "Get used to this, kids. We're having loads of hugs."_

_Nick faces the nanite mutant who looks sheepishly at them. "Matthew?" He got his attention. "Don't worry. I know a smart man who really wants to meet you."_

_"__Thank you, sir." Matthew stated before admitting. "But please, call me Matt."_

_"__Sure thing, Matt." Nick assures them and wraps his arms around Liv's form before raising himself to his full height, with pulled up to her. "Let's get a bandy for your knee, baby girl. Seth, you and Matt buy ice creams for us all. Don't mess it up."_

_Before Seth could reply, he heard a demonically dark cackle in the back of his mind. "Y__**our old man doesn't trust you. Amazing!**__"_

_"__Bastard symbiote." He thought back._

_"__**Technically true.**__" Venom confessed. "__**Remember to get chocolates. We're hungry. Loads of it. Nah, just forget the ice cream-part all together and get chocolates for all. Or just us.**__"_

_"__Selfish greedy symbiotic bastard."_

_"__**True again.**__" Venom retorts with a mental smirk._

_Seth had to stop… as he felt something crawl up his body. Something warm… something that felt sinister… he looked down and widened his eyes at black flames sneaking up his body like snakes. When his gaze met them, the flames exploded in a blaze._

_Enveloping him in black flames and searing his skin with his mouth opening up. _

_"__ARRRGGGG-"_

**(Flashback End)**

X

"ARRRGHHH!"

Seth Fury snapped his eyes open and shot up to a sitting with a loud gasp. Sweat was pouring down his face. His left hand swiping over his face and wiping away his sweat. "Wow!" He let out in shock of his reaction to his positive memory of his past with his father. Though the bad ending did force him to wake up.

A series of other gasps came out from beside him, making him swing his head to the same direction. He was confused seeing the different people holding various things. Along with widely opened mouths of shock.

Iris and Lindy both holding paper boxes in their hands, multitude of them. Some of them empty and some of them open with white bandage hanging out of them. Strangely enough some of them were holding dark-blue bandage.

Evelyn, Jesse and Ruby… all three of them were holding bowls. Each of them holding two bowls. Water in some of them and some empty. Beside them was Tony with crossed arms, a variety of things in his crossed arms. All of them, strangely enough, appearing to be glass perfume bottles and deodorant cans.

Barry is on his knees with Marcus. Both of them were beside Seth and the CSI scientist was holding a pair of bandages, one white and the other one dark blue. With the bandages being registered in his head, he looked down on his hands.

His left hand wasn't covered in bandages; his right hand was… enveloped in something else. The mutant blinked his eyes repeatedly to see if he was seeing was right. After those repeated blinks, he did see that his entire right arm, from shoulder to hand, was encased in a swirling water mass.

A familiar blue aura was around the water mass and Seth looked up, finding Mera holding up her hands with the same blue aura as the water.

Looking around them all, Seth asked, after awkwardly smacking his lips together. "So… what's going on with you guys? Anything special happen while I was unconsc-" He stopped himself as his nostrils flared at a strange combination of smells. Looking down at his body, seeing that his torso was unclothed before sniffing and putting his hand over his mouth and nose. Foregoing that his Y-incision scar was open for all to see. "And why do I smell like the guinea pig for odor experimentation?"

"Oh thank God, you're back again." Iris let out with a sigh, dropping herself down to the couch and letting go of the bandage packages. "Girls, don't even think of dropping the bowls."

"""Fine.""" The three of them said in unison as they placed the bowls on nearby tables.

Ruby looked to Seth. "Can't believe you're alive… we thought you were a goner." Her eyes and face were laced with happiness and joy at the sight of him.

Evelyn smiled too. "She's not the only one."

Laughing, he teased the two powered girls. "Don't go soft on me now, you two. I've been bragging about you two being the tough ones here in the house."

Lindy points a finger to the detective. "She's the lady with the gun." He shrugged in response, not caring about that as he swung his legs from the other end of the couch to the floor now, grunting in pain all the time.

"Easy, Seth." Barry helped him into a proper sitting.

"He's right, bro. You took on hell of a beating, your arm looked like it's been dipped in Big Belly Burger fryer." Marcus joked.

Mera breathed sharply while keeping her hands up, focusing the water around the mutant's burnt arm. "You gotta thank Barry, he was the one who came up with this idea."

"Thanks for that, Bar." The elemental nodded his gratitude to the CSI scientist. "But did you come up with the idea of using my unconscious body as target practice for perfume concoctions?"

"Yeah, but that's on you, buddy. You smelled like death when we found you lying on front yard after crashing down on our roof like a drunk Santa Claus." The scientist quipped.

"You try punching through asphalt roads with a metal fist to escape a massive onslaught of flames and figure out what's underneath the random lane you're on." Seth countered.

"I take back what I said." Barry retracted.

The mutant looked to Mera. "What's going on with the water and the strange blue bandage?"

"Water is for cooling down the burn damage on your arm, the bandage is from Atlantis, water-proof inside of the water mass and wrapped around your arm." Mera swings her hands, the water following her motions and gliding through the air to the bowls on the table.

Seth saw that his entire right arm was wrapped up with dark-blue bandage. Clenching his bandage-wrapped fingers repeatedly, he said. "Dope." He ran his hand through his hair. "Fucking hell. Blackfire… is really all about black flames."

"Yeah." Jesse said in shock. "The entire fight was on television. Showing you be dominated by this bastard."

Lindy sighed. "He's seriously dangerous. What happened Seth? I don't understand how an elemental like you were hurt like that by flames nonetheless."

"Symbiote's weakness are fire, but because of something done in the past, my partner is more durable to flames." He placed his right hand on his chest, running over the line of his scar. "I ain't invincible, I can take a beating straight from Hell, sure. But I still have weaknesses. That flame… damn! Last time I felt anything close to that was from Ghost Rider."

"Who?" Tony asked, wondering if there were supernatural aspects to the world he's from.

Ruby smirked and explained. "Just a flame-skulled demon in a leather biker jacket riding a motorcycle and swings a blazing chain around. Oh yeah, he also burns out people's eyes with a literal searing gaze."

"Say what now?" Marcus wondered if she was serious and hoped sincerely that thing would stay a story and not become reality.

"Seth…" Iris got the eyes of al as she spoke to the mutant. "I'm really, really, really sorry for what I brought on your plate right now. Because I made this your mess, you seriously hurt your arm. It was still smoldering when you were on the ground before…. I'm really sorry."

"Iris." Seth smiled as he got her attention again. "Yes, you might have been the one to fan the flames, yeah. But _I_ was the one who went to Lindy's group. _I _was the one who attacked the Viking Motel. _I_ was the one who found charcoaled corpses in a trash container. _I_ was the one who got pissed off, got the other hotels' addresses, destroyed them, beat a few Johns and Janes, got the girls out and challenged Blackfire." He holds his bandaged right arm. "And this, is the result of what I initiated. So don't take the blame… not cool, man." He added at the end with a stoner-like persona.

The detective laughed at his mock persona. "…I was afraid of losing my friend is all." Seth smiled appreciatively while Iris turns to Barry who's standing with a hand on his chin, narrowed eyes as he appears to be thinking. "What's wrong, babe?"

"Just thinking, honey." Barry stated before resuming his thinking. His eyes shifting to the mutant's Y-incision scar on his chest before turning to his arm.

Mera then asked. "How's your friend dealing with being flame-broiled?"

Shrugging, Seth started a mental conversation with his partner. "_Still alive, Venom?_"

"**_In pain… But alive._**" Venom replied slowly, thankfully confirming his liveliness to the host. "**_But whoever the fuck gave this motherfucker black flames… is gonna die._**"

"_Let's kill Blackfire first… then we can focus on the next jackass._" The mutant thought back.

They heard the sound of a phone ringing and saw Iris pull out her cellphone. "It's Lawton. Gotta take this one." She got up from the recliner and accepted the call alone and without the presence of those with long ears.

Evelyn looked to Seth. "Seth."

"What's wrong, Evie?" He replied in worry when seeing her expression.

With a gulp going down the canal that is her throat, the metahuman asked. No, she said. "Seth, wouldn't it be better if you didn't go after Blackfire again?" her question left everyone baffled. Everyone aside from Seth was wide-eyed. He knew why she was asking. "You almost died from fighting him in this one battle. Another one…" she trailed off, leaving the words to the open.

"You might die." But Ruby was more than willing to pick up the pieces. "Evelyn's right. Blackfire kicked your ass, and you could really die. Maybe you should stay clear of Blackfire's radar."

While the other natives of this city were shocked to hear their individual statements and questions, they couldn't say anything to it. They knew that the two powered girls had forged a powerful and sturdy bond with the elemental ever since they were pulled out of Zoom's prison.

He's been there to train them when they were unable to comprehend the full scope of their powers. He's been there to save them and help them when they needed it. He's been there to stand in front of them and fight Zoom and his metahumans single-handedly so they could escape. He's the one who's been there for them when they needed someone to talk with and he's been fulfilling that role to the utmost.

Like he worries and cares for them… they worry and care for him.

"I can't do that. I'm sorry, you two." Seth began with his gaze looking at the three young girls. "When I met you guys back at Zoom's lair for the first time, what was the thing I gave you guys? Incidentally, it was the very thing Jesse told me to stop doing, repeatedly I might add."

"Oh that." Jesse sucked her teeth with a look of realization. She regretted being who she was back then.

"You gave us hope." Ruby remembered those days, seeming like a lifetime ago… ironic for the HYDRA assassin from the future of another universe.

"Yeah, I did." Seth gestured to the room. "And not to toot my own horn, but I'd say I have done pretty well." He got a serious expression. "I promised those girls at the hospital with hope of ending Blackfire. I can't betray that hope. They're just kids who deserve the chance to live their lives to the fullest and on their own terms. I'm gonna be the one to make sure they don't return to that life and put an end to their nightmares." He holds up his hands for the girls to see. "With these two hands, I will end him once and for all."

He then added with a chuckle. "Or die trying."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that man. Right, Allen?" Tony asked for the CSI scientist's opinion. But he was given nothing as a response. "Barry, what are you thinking about?"

"You okay, Bar?" Seth curiously wondered of him.

"Seth!" Iris shouted and rushed into the living room with long strides. Her face with urgency and her hand clutched around the phone. "Bad news."

Forcing himself up to his feet again, the symbiote slithering out of his body and forming his clothes to cover him before asking. "What's wrong, Iris?"

"Lawton just called me and told me something bad." Iris pales. "Blackfire's closing in on the hospital with the girls."

"He's gonna try and take them back." Seth horrified their minds with his words. He turns his head to the side and sees his sword placed up against the wall. Enveloping his left arm with the symbiotic mass with a clenching of his fist. He stretched it out to the sword, shooting out his claws and wrapping them around the handle of his crystal blade to yank it into his hand. With a spin, he placed it on his back, tendrils wrapping around it like a scabbard. "Time to work."

Within an instant, he walked towards the door. "Seth?" The mutant turned his head around to look at his friends. Seeing that Iris stepped forward. "Be careful."

"Keep my bed warm, or cold, actually. Gonna face the heat now, anyway." The mutant stated with a quip and walked out of the door.

The moment he was out of the door, Barry rushed to the door himself. Iris looked confused. "What's wrong, Barry?"

"I think I have an idea of how he can beat Blackfire. But I'm not sure. I want to run it by him alone." Barry quickly informed before getting out of the door.

X

**(West-Allen Household, Front Porch)**

"Seth!" Barry called out, managing to stop the mutant from continuing onwards.

"Don't tell me, you're fishing for another thank you, Bar. One is all I can muster up now." Seth joked.

Walking down the small staircase of the porch, he made his way to Seth and said. "Not now, but I have something else I want to run by you; a way to defeat Blackfire once and for all."

"I'm listening." Seth said with arms crossed over his chest.

"In a briefing: What kind of experiences have you had with dark matter, personally speaking?" Barry seriously asked.

Seth scoffed as he briefly relived that memory. "Well to recap that experience: I was fighting against a metahuman, Farooq Gibran, or Blackout after dark matter hit him, someone who had to consume electricity for sustenance, a constant need. He could use that absorbed electricity for his own use, manipulating it to attack his opponents. While working with The Flash of that world, Farooq attacked us and he latched his lightning onto us both… and he fed on us."

"His dark matter was infused in his lightning and he fed on The Flash's electrical energy. It took away his powers for a while." Seth then said. "He did the same to me. But his dark matter infused powers interfered with my X-Gene's powers. Like with The Flash, my own powers were forced into a dormant state. It's because of dark mattered entered my body and I just… I just lost my partner and my elements for a while."

"There it is." Barry said with a snap of his fingers.

Seth and Venom turned confused at his words, narrowing his blue eyes on him. "What do you mean?"

Barry then revealed his plan. "Seth… What if you absorbed… Blackfire's flames?"

…

…

The mutant didn't speak for a few moments, whether it was to let that inquiry sink in or maybe having to repeat his very own words to the CSI scientist, so _he_ could let those words re-sink in.

Pointing a hand to him like Barry was crazy, Seth said. "Barry, did you not hear what I just said? If not, let me repeat it for you, in layman terms." Drumming on his chest like a gorilla, he states. "Dark matter like bad food. Give Seth food poison after going mouth. No elements or freaky symbiote. Me die." The mutant couldn't believe how much he had to speak like he's trying to educate a toddler.

"Seth, I know and heard what you said." Barry said. "But I think you can."

"**_And here we thought this one is smarter than the Barry we know on our Earth._**" Venom retorted.

"_Yeah…_" Seth replied before directing to the CSI scientist. "Bar, if dark matter enters-"

"Yeah, there's the keyword. "Enters"!" Seth looked confused. Barry then explained. "Seth, you said your body is an environment for elements. You can use them whenever you want. And with the already seven elements inside of you, you can also add more elements into your body. When you say enters… that means it didn't come into your body of your own volition."

"That…" He cocked his head with realization and stated. "… Would be pretty accurate, AKA completely correct."

"That's what I'm talking about Seth." Barry nodded. "Seth, I think you can let dark matter into your body, if you let Blackfire's flames in… and accept it like a normal environment accepting a new life organism. In your body, elements are animals who need to be accepted inside of you, because that's the environment."

"Chances are…" he clenches his bandage-wrapped fist. "This will happen to the rest of my body."

"Do you know what you've showed us ever since you got hurled into this world, Seth?" Barry said, the mutant's full attention on him. "We saw you jump in front of a young girl, protecting her from a bullet that came for her head." The memory of him protecting Ruby was a fond memory. "You sought out Killer Frost of all people, to show you the way to help Evelyn when she disappeared." The story of him seeking Evelyn was unforgettable. "Not to mention, you got out of Zoom's prison, got the girls out and have become a target on your back because of that, but you still protect this city. Even against Blackfire."

"Now I know, we haven't known each other that well… but I can tell you right here, right now…" Barry assured with a smile. "I've seen things I that I never thought possible, because… you proved to this entire city that things that the impossible can be achieved." He then said. "Now, I know for sure that you're not done being the impossible Demon King." The scientist scratched his hair and admitted sheepishly.

"I'm just Barry Allen, CSI, but you're Seth Fury, Venom of two universes." He gave another smile. "If you tell yourself you can make Blackfire's flames your own, you'll do it. Dark matter or not."

Seth had to hand it to him. This Barry Allen knew how to make assuring words and put them into an incredible pep talk. A really good one. "Funny thing… The Barry Allen I know; I would give him a pep talk when he's unsure or in a pinch. Never thought I would hear one from Barry Allen."

"First time for everything, right?" Barry said with a smirk.

"Yeah…" Seth had to think about this plan for a while… while taking on the horrors of the black flame wielder.

X

**(Central City General Hospital)**

"Yawn!" Eric Frye shouted over the annoying wave of gunfire that came for his body. But the cape of immense pitch-black flames around his body melted the incoming lead bullets before they could connect with his skin.

Both Central City Police Department cars and Crows Security vans were unleashing arrays of bullets for the pyrokinetic who closed in on the hospital. Commander Jacob Kane was the one who's led the hail of bullet, both crows and the local police following his commands.

The three lieutenants joined the countermeasure against Blackfire but saw that the flames were like an impenetrable barrier of flames that melted away any and all enemy projectiles. Blackfire looked bored and tapped the side of his head. "You know, you're just wasting ammo, right?!"

"Hold your fire!" Commander Kane held up a clenched hand, the two groups responded to his command and ceased their gunfire. Making sure that the barrel of his gun was still pointed at Blackfire, Jacob called out to the metahuman. "Last chance, Blackfire! Stand down or we will be forced to take action."

"Does that mean you're gonna try doing something that's not firing bullets? Cause it's pretty useless and a damn waste of resources." Blackfire quipped his counter. "And had that line every worked for you? Your wife says it doesn't, trust me. I've asked her!"

"You ain't going any further!" Julia shouted.

"Accept your punishment, criminal scum!" Sophia shouted.

"Give up while you still can!" Kate Kane stated her threat.

Eric Frye looked to be thinking about their offers, even tapping his finger on his chin. "Thanks, but here's my counteroffer." With a lazy expression he outstretches his right hand, unleashing a black flamethrower. Swinging it around, he watched his flame connected with the various forms of police vehicles, cars and vans, and officers and agents. Clenching his hand, he watched as their bodies spasmed while encased in agonizing flames before stopping…

Their lives burnt out of their bodies.

"Open fire!" Commander Kane ordered the officers and agents.

"Can't have that now." Blackfire thrusts both hands outwards, unleashing a large wave of black fireballs that intercepted the bullets that tried to pass through them. But only leading to the flames paving through the air and connecting with more cars.

_EXPLOSIONS_

The explosions sent the Crows and CCPD officers flying and scattered all around the hospital entrance. All of them were hit by the explosive gust of air, sending them into the wall and embed them into it. Others were forced onto the ground, into vehicles even. The three lieutenants, along with others, were hurled through the entrance door.

But the Commander was left panting and heaving on the ground. Blood coming out of open wounds on his face and his right eye damaged from the explosion, and his body… too damaged from the shockwave to register the signals to move he sent out from his brain.

However, his ears did perk up at the registration of closing feet touching the asphalt repeatedly. "You know, I know the truth of what you did with my sword." He raised his foot and placed it on Commander Kane's head, slowly twisting and turning his feet against his head, grinding it against the rocky road. "You lied about my sword; you didn't drop my sword into the Arctic ocean. You've been keeping it hidden, right here in my turf." Black flames ignited along the lines of his right arm, running up all the way to his shoulder. "Why does people think it's okay to lie?"

"You're…You're not getting away with this!" Jacob Kane shouted through gritted teeth, his grinding head sending out a myriad of pain through his entire body.

"Heard it before, always bored of the same words. You pigs and birds are just a bunch of broken records in dull uniforms." The black flames intensified into an incredible blaze. "But you're not gonna be here to see that, unfortunately." He raised his arm over his head, clenching his fist and focusing his flames around his fist. "Bye by-"

Before he could bring down his flaming hammer on the Crows Commander, a pair of large feet slammed into Blackfire's body from the side, hurling him into the air. Eric landed on the ground with a grunt. He looked up at the person, narrowing his eyes at the target. "You again."

"**We're not done yet, Blackfire!**" Seth growled with a spin of his sword and raised his right foot before placing it on Jacob Kane's back.

"W-What are you doing?" Jacob demanded to know with one eye pointing up to the mutant's face.

"**Saving your ass.**" Lightning sparked viciously around his right leg before converging towards his foot, shocking the commander's body with a violent shock.

"Argh!" Jacob screamed in pain when feeling the lightning spark inside of his body and hit his every vein, bouncing off his every nerve with a shock. The shock caused his body to shortly spasm, and he could feel his limbs register the signals sending from his mind. "What the…"

"**Temporary dormant state of your body's limbs. A shock wakes them up.**" A tendril wrapped around the commander's torso and forced him up. "**Get out of here, we'll handle Blackfire.**"

"I'm here to take him out and YOU!" Jacob shouted in distain. He tried to find his gun, but it was burned into pieces.

"**Good luck with that. But those girls are your priority now, Commander. Think about them, not your ego.**" Venom said as he walked towards the pyrokinetic. "**Let's end this, Blackfire.**" Feeling like he was gonna be in the way, Commander Kane ran to his agents.

"Yeah, I want my sword back, now that you mention it!" He fired off another black fireball. Venom crossed his arms, ice forming a large icicle shield. The black flames took out the ice shield, melting it in an instant. Both Seth and Venom had to grit their teeth in pain from the flames that touched his arms and the upper half of his head.

"**Miscreant!**" With determination, conviction and an iron-resolve, he pulled his sword out before turning his body into adamantium and took charge.

"Ballsy." The metahuman admitted with a tilted smile before hurling a black flame blast at him again. Like the previous one the Demon King took it on, burning and igniting his metal skin. "Wow…"

Venom swung his blade for the metahuman's body, hitting him on his side and throwing him into the air. Blackfire's body rolls on the ground as the aftermath of the sword swing. Eric Frye didn't know it yet, but he found himself in an empty alleyway.

He forced himself onto his knees with a roll before thrusting both hands, unleashing a blaze of abyssal flames for the mutant's head. But the elemental leaped onto the left wall, holding him there for a second before jumping to the opposite wall.

More black fireballs came for him, but Seth used tendrils to push himself out of the way. His arms raised into the air and gathering wind in his hands before thrusting them downwards, launching a wind blast to him. Blackfire used it for his own gain, taking advantage of it with a blast of black flames.

Melding together with the wind attack, the black flames burst into the above his head and exploding against Venom's body. Through the cloud of exploded black flames, Eric heard the sound of a demonic scream and thought that the mutant was experiencing a massive burn.

But through the black smoke, tendrils shot out and dug into the ground and walls around Blackfire. Seeing them tense, he returned his attention to the smokescreen in the air and saw Venom coming out of it with the velocity of a rocket.

The sword was hurled his way, but Blackfire dodged it and looked to the mutant again. The distance between them shortened and with a flex of his muscles, the black flames encased his entire body like an armor. The flames burst and touched the mutant's symbiotic body again, forcing the elemental to scream in agonizing pain as he hurled backwards.

"_Son of a bitch!_"

"**_AAARRRGGGHHHH!_**" Venom screamed in his host's mind. "**_Fuck… Pain!_**"

"_Soldier on, Venom! We're not fighting for us…_" Seth stated in his thoughts as he forced himself to a standing again.

Venom panted and heaved, struggling to breathe through the immense pain both are experiencing. Thousand knives, each one coated with pitch-black flames and stabbing all over their fully bonded body. But his host was right, they couldn't fall. Not now. Not until they've seen the metahuman draw his last breath. Not until those innocent girls in the hospital able to look forward to tomorrow with hopeful eyes.

"**_We're fighting for those children!_**" Venom growled through the searing pain.

Venom and Seth roared in unison before leaping off the ground with crossed arms, ice forming ice scythes on both hands. When close to the metahuman, he quickly uncrossed his arms and swung his arms.

Performing a backwards jump, Blackfire dodged the ice scythes and cupped his hands. Thrusting them forward again, he unleashed another black flamethrower, striking the large elemental in his stomach and blasting the ice off his body.

Holding the massive flamethrower on him, the flames began to cover the mutant and cause more screams to be emitted from his maw. Eric smiled. "Lovely scream." Cancelling out his flames, the metahuman saw a form slip out from behind the flame screen.

With the flames between them fading, Blackfire widened his eyes. He was locking eyes with the man underneath the mask of Venom. Seth wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of his left arm. His right arm hanging with the dark-blue bandages falling off, burning into ashes before even touching the ground. "Looks like you get see me in all my glory, Eric Frye."

"So… _You're_ Venom?" Eric scoffed in shock. "Are you shitting me? This is the guy who's been a thorn in Zoom's side? Zoom's gotten weak. Not what I'd expect from my rival."

"Shut up about that entire "rival" bullshit." Seth exclaimed, getting the metahuman to look confused and angered. "You're Zoom's rival? Funny, you keep saying that, seeing as Zoom never once said anything about you before. Rivals tend to talk about each other." The pyrokinetic clenched his hands in anger.

"Bullshit." Blackfire didn't believe it.

Seth gave a strained smirk. "I was his prisoner for about six months, Frye. Not a single time did he talk about you. Not even a single mention. Not from his henchmen, and definitely not from Zoom himself." The mutant laughed mockingly. "I mean, I've been here for a long time now, and not even the entire city mentioned your name. Guess you're not that impressive. I mean, the only thing you keep doing is boasting about being Zoom's rival like you're nothing without that self-proclaimed title."

"Shut up!" His black flames bursts around his body. "I earned that title! I am Zoom's rival!"

"Rivals force each other out of the city?" Seth laughed again; this time louder than before. "You're not worth having in the same city as Zoom. It's goddamn pathetic you haven't even figured that one out yet. Talk about a slowpoke."

"Shut up!" he swung his arm and thrusted a black fireball for the mutant, hitting him again and pushing backwards. Seth felt a painful surge as his body was forced to flip, and land on his stomach on the ground. He groaned in pain with his eyes looking up.

"I _am_ Zoom's rival." Blackfire sneered in anger and stepped backwards. Stretching out his right hand as he stepped back, he wrapped his fingers around the handle of the sword that was once his. "And this… is _my_ sword." His black flames erupted around his fist and pulled it out of the ground.

"Is that so? Never heard that one before. Then again, you're not that interesting, you scumbag." Seth offended him.

Eric Frye walked towards his downed body. When standing right before him, Blackfire points the tip of the sword at Seth's face. "In my hands, this sword can shoot my flames." He tightens his hand around the handle of his sword.

His intentions were to let his blazing black flames run over the crystal sword to project them right into the mutant's face. But to his confusion… nothing came out of the sword. Not a single abyssal flame travelled across the sword.

"What the…" Eric stopped talking when Seth began to laugh.

Locking eyes with him, Seth quipped. "Performance issues?" Slamming both hands on the ground, he forced him to a stand and flipped around. During the flip, he used an adamantium foot to kick the large crystal sword out of Blackfire's hand and into the air. The sword pierced into the upper level of the left wall. "Huh?" Seth let out. "I expected that to go a whole other way."

"Screw the sword." Blackfire's entire body was enveloped with flames. "I'm gonna burn you… and there's nothing you can do to stop me from taking back those brats." The flames centered around the palms of his outstretched hands.

_"…__If you tell yourself you can make Blackfire's flames your own… you'll do it…. Dark matter or not…."_

Seth smirked with his right arm raising. His damaged fist clenched as he thought. "_Gotta say… You're really annoying when you're right, Barry Allen. And you're more than just Barry Allen… You're just as much hero as The Flash…_"

"Venom!" He shouted to himself. "Let's go!"

"**_Or die trying!_**" The symbiote shot tendrils out the sides of his right forearm. His host's mutant powers turned the tips of them into adamantium. The tendrils dug into the front side of his forearm, blood coming out of the holes they made. With a pained expression on his face, the tendrils forced a long hole to be made.

"Hurting yourself now? Didn't expect that, Venom?" Frye exclaimed.

"Quit yapping, you first-class scum." Seth held the bleeding front side of his right arm towards him, the hole pointing towards him. "See if you can burn me now!"

"With pleasure!" Blackfire's buttons were pushed and slammed both hands together, unleashing an infernal wave of abyssal flames that came for the mutant.

"This is gonna tou-"

The elemental was cut off when the massive flames attacked him like a flood. The flames filled the other end of the alley. The black flames stuck to the walls around them, the ground and shooting up into the air. Retracting his hands again, Blackfire looked around the flames to see if he could find the smoldering corpse of the mutant.

But as the flames faded… Eric Frye got the shock of his life… his eyes almost popping out of his head… "How the hell…" He let out in confusion… as he saw the mutant…

… standing there…

Seth was still standing there, in the middle of the sea of black flames. His clothes slightly burned and his mouth panting and gasping. Sweat sticking on his body and sliding down his face. The rest of his body not any different, sweat pouring down every inch.

But the strangest and the most shocking thing… was his right forearm. Its front side still pointing at the metahuman… and his black flame still attached to the skin… right where his self-inflicted wound was.

"You're… still standing?" Eric Frye said.

"I did it." Seth said. "I really, really did it." ´He made eye contact with him. "I gotta thank you, Eric." He looked confused. "You showed me something of this world. Something that I wasn't willing to accept." His left hand lifted up and gesturing around them. "This isn't my world, but there's people I so… desperately wanted to be the people I know."

He really wanted to see his friend Cisco Ramon again. The same geeky and talented engineer who wears nerdy T-shirts and a goofy expression, be it rainy or sunny, he was still like that. His talent showed with every work he committed himself too. Not see Reverb, a henchman to Zoom.

And more than anything, he wanted to see his… Caitlin Snow again. To be able to hold her again, to see the woman he loves again. He swore to himself that when he would see him again, his arms would be like pythons. Wrapping themselves around her body and squeezing her with what might seem like a life-threatening hug of love and care. But it also kept her from getting away from the shower of kisses that he would rain down on her like a meteor shower.

He would tell her above all… "_I love you…_" The one thing he wanted to say as he held her. Three simple words, each word with the weight of an entire planet's worth of love.

But they… aren't… here….

"This isn't my world… I'm a fool for thinking that it was." He raised his right arm. "I have to stop doing that… to become stronger and to live up to the name… I swore was given."

"What name?" Blackfire asked.

Seth looked at him with cold eyes. "I'm… no…" Black tendrils shots out of his body and wraps around the left side of his body, slowly forming a clawed hand on his left hand. White veins spread over his arm and then a white spine spiraled around his arm and dug into the back of his hand. his left hand became a clawed foot. The torso was half-covered and small spines shot out and bended forward.

The left side of his face was enveloped by the symbiotic oily water-like skin. Half of the white-skull extension covered that part and his left eye instantly turned red. "**W**e **ar**e… **Ve**nom…**Th**e **Let**hal **Prote**ctor." He clenches his right hand… and…

… pitch-black flames… erupted around his right arm…

"What the fuck?!" Blackfire screamed in shock when seeing his own flames on the mutant's body.

"**Norm**ally **we**'d **ha**ve **t**o **iso**late **ours**elves **t**o **b**e **acce**pted… **bu**t…**no**w…" he reeled his right arm backwards and placed his clawed left hand on the ground, his feet digging into the ground. "**W**e **ca**n **sk**ip **th**at!" He leaped off the ground for the metahuman.

Blackfire clenched his left hand, black flames bursting around it before he thrusted it forward. The mutant landed on the ground, launching his right fist. Their fists met one another in a blazing clash. Both Seth and Eric both looked shocked… as the mutant's black flames kept the metahuman's black flames from touching him.

"**Bla**ck **fla**mes **ke**ep **Black**fire's **fla**mes **a**t **ba**y? **Ni**ce." Thrusting his left hand forward, he hit the metahuman in his face, blood coming out of his gaping mouth as well as bloodied teeth. Blackfire held his mouth with both hands.

"Guck yoi!" His words came out in a gurgling mess.

"_Let's take this… all the way!_" Seth thought as the symbiote enveloped the rest of his body. But the moment it tried to envelope his right arm; the symbiotic skin was pushed back by its blazing intensity. "_Not fully embraced yet._"

"**_We can work with it for now._**" Venom suggested his logic.

Seth and Venom showed a vicious smile before charging for the metahuman again. Blackfire was too distracted by his pain to see the mutant spin around. Then, like a mallet, his blazing right arm was slammed into his stomach.

The metahuman was sent flying into the wall, bouncing off with a cracking sound coming from his body. Eric's body was ricocheted into the ground and sent rolling on the ground. He looked up and saw his sword, still embedded in the upper level of the wall.

However, its home in the wall came to an end when the mutant ran along the surface of the wall and grabbed hold of the sword handle. Jumping off the wall, he landed right above Blackfire's body. With his black flames ignited around his right arm, he slammed his foot against his stomach. Slowly applying pressure on his body, Venom growled.

At that moment felt a creeping memory return to the forefront of his mind… a memory of the last time he used his sword… against him…

X

**(Flashback)**

_Blood flew out of the man's mouth after the brass-knuckle equipped fist connected with the side of his face. Blackfire remained passive, just leaning up against his stolen black Jeep and playing with a golden zippo lighter, as the men on his payroll kept punching and kicking the elder detective. _

_The detective was on his knees, both crushed after being struck with aluminum bats. His white shirt tattered from holes and knife wounds. The left side of his face swollen and blue, results from what felt like an endless beating. The rest of his body not any better, his arms held up by two men while one another man kept punching and kicking wherever he pleased._

_Two of his men, both armed standing on the other side of the dark alleyway, keeping anyone away from this. Two armed guards are standing by the black Jeep. Another one was standing on front of the Jeep, a large metal case in front of his feet._

_Eric Frye leant off his car and walked to the beating of the man. He snapped his fingers, the man responded to his command and stepping away from Fred Chyre. As Blackfire stepped forward, he had his right hand behind him, waving his fingers to tell the man to take the case and bring it closer._

_Standing in front of Chyre, Blackfire looked at his battered hanging face. "Chyre, Chyre, Chyre, when will you get its pointless to try and stop me and my business. I mean, how many times do we have to go through this dance."_

_At those words, Fred Chyre lifted his head. Panting and heaving, he managed to form a sneering expression. Blackfire's men were shocked to see the elderly detective still wield such defiance on his face. He coughed while gurgling through a sentence. "…gusting…"_

_"__What was that?" Eric said as he couldn't comprehend the detective's gurgled sentence. His man behind him opened the case and revealed the blank and colorless crystal sword that was meant for the wielder of black flames. Blackfire took it in his hand and walked back to Chyre. Sighing as he didn't get an answer, he squatted down in front of him and placed the blade near his throat. "I said, what was that?"_

_"__You're disgusting!" Fred Chyre growled in his face, a defiance like that of a lion showing itself fighting through pain. His men remained shocked and Blackfire himself remained unshocked. "Using those poor girls for your own profit? For your greed?! It's disgusting!"_

_"__I'm shocked you can speak that well with a half-broken jaw." Blackfire noted surprised. Fred began to snarl in anger, even trying to break free of the men holding him, even if that meant crawling to him. Giggling to himself, he asked. "Wanna know something funny?"_

_The detective spat in his face. "You're gonna die for taking them and ruining their lives! I already know that, you sick bastard."_

_Wiping that speck of blood from his face, Blackfire ignited black flames along his body and ran down his right arm. "Those girls you're so worried about?" His flames ran over his fingers and connected with his sword handle, travelling up the crystal blade. "They were nothing, when I found them. On the streets, starving and dumpster diving, then my men found them and brought them to me." The flames were now completely around the blade, searing the side of the detective's throat. "They were already ruined from the get-go. Broken dolls, really. This way they can be useful to others… and well, it pays me, so who am I to complain."_

_That sickening smirk on Frye's face made Fred shout through the pain. "You're gonna get what's coming to you! If not by me, or the CCPD, or even The Flash, someone will end you!" The flames on the side of his throat felt like a drill digging a hole in his throat._

_Blackfire didn't faze at that threat and raised himself. "Newsflash, Chyre." The flames around the sword erupted from the blade and stroke the detective's entire body. "It's not gonna be by you, or anyone else." The pitch-black flames cascaded over his form. _

_Fred Chyre's pain reaches the high heavens and the low pits of hell at the same time, screaming like a burning banshee. Blackfire's men recoiled in immense fear when seeing the flames put an end to Chyre's screams. His skin, muscles, fibers, bones and organs… _

_Everything reducing to ashes._

_"__Well, that's that." He hands his sword back to his man to place it back in the case. "Guys take the night off. But before that…" Eric Frye points a finger to the pile of ashes. "Give the CCPD back their old man. Bones and all, I guess."_

_He turned around to walk to his black Jeep again… his operations strong as always and now, without a single bump in the road that can cause his operations to derail._

_Just like a functional train._

**(Flashback End)**

X

That particular memory gave raise to the metahuman's defiance and his will pieced back together.

Blackfire raised his arms, pointing both hands at the mutant's head. "Piss-" His words were interrupted when the mutant punched his blazing black flamed hand into his stomach, causing blood to come out of his mouth and his hands swerving to the sides and the flames attacking the walls instead.

"**Now… you're gonna regret everything.**" His right arm was still blazing powerfully, the black flames increasing with a heat wave touching the metahuman's body. "**Thousand-fold!**" Together, Seth and Venom brings down their fists on Blackfire's body.

In rapid succession to what will be an onslaught.

_SCREAM_

X

Commander Jacob Kane heard that painful and horrific scream, noticing that the scream came from the mouth of Blackfire. His agents and the CCPD officers also heard it, the sound waking them up from their short naps.

The three lieutenants managed to walk out with their arms wrapped around their stomachs.

While bleeding from an open wound on her forehead, Kate looked around and saw her father picking up a stray gun from the streets. "What's my Dad doing?"

Panting and gasping, Julia leant against the doorframe. "… Think… Think the old bloke's gonna check on the banshee."

"But why…Ow…" Sophia inhaled sharply as she had to take a big step forward. "But why is Blackfire screaming right now?"

The only one willing to find an answer to that question is Commander Jacob Kane who cocks the firearm he picked up from the ground. With a slow and steady pace, he walks towards the entrance to the alleyway that was the battlefield between Blackfire and Venom.

But it was not necessary as he saw something jump out of the top of the alleyway. He was shocked to see it as the form landed on the rooftop of a nearby tall building.

His left hand wrapped around the head of the metahuman's battered and thrashed body. Blackfire's left eye was beaten in. His clothes punctured with holes and tattered and burnt. Both arms hanging off his sides, each sleeve damaged like the rest of his clothes and the exposed skin, black and blue from an intense beating.

Jacob, his agents and CCPD officers weren't the only one to see him standing tall and proud on the edge of the rooftop. The hospital patients watched too… especially the newly admitted ones.

X

Emma Desmond and her family were watching from the window and saw it with happy eyes.

Julian Albert was hugging his baby sister from behind. "Our prayers were answered, little sister."

"Yeah…" Tears ran down the sides of Emma's face. "I can… I can dream again, Big Bro."

"Thanks to him." Julian knew that if he ever met the man behind his mask… he would thank with every once

X

Jinnifer and Anissa watched with her family. Their parents busy, hugging each other with tears coming out of their eyes like waterfalls of joy.

Anissa was smiling happily at the sight. This meant that she and her sister had escaped a horrible fate at the hands of that horrid monster. Thanks to him, they were saved. By the hands of the most unlikeliest heroes to have ever set foot in this city.

But that wasn't the thoughts that ran through Jinnifer's head.

She couldn't have felt any weaker than she's ever felt before right now. She and her sister _had to_ be saved by someone else. They were weak and they just pathetic down there. Jinnifer Pierce didn't want that to happen again.

She had to be stronger…. And she did recall a visit from an agent from a governmental organization.

With a clench of her hand, lightning sparking over her fingers, she inwardly made a steadfast decision. The decision to contact Agent Odell of the American Security Agency.

Jinn needed to get stronger… and more ruthless.

X

"Y-Y-You bastard!" Eric Frye let out through the shattered remains of his teeth. "I'm Coom's rival!"

"**Oh shut up already!**" Both Seth and Venom were incredibly tired of this broken record with his set of broken teeth. Looking downwards, he saw the Crows Commander looking at him with shocked eyes. Not paying attention to him, he looked to the hospital.

Even though they were far away from him, only narrowly able to see them within his field of vision, Seth was still able to see the various heads of the girls he's saved. Holding the metahuman's mangled body higher up, he made sure that they could see the state of the man who brought them endless nightmares.

Like the oath he took a long time ago, he brought an end to the nightmares of innocents. Putting an end to them with his own hands.

Now… it was time to rectify some decisions he made in the past when getting to this world.

_ROAR_

With an open maw, he unleashed a roar that echoed across the area around them. Even reaching the hospital floors that were nearby. Venom turned his head towards the direction of the Woodlands. Earth element strengthening his legs and arms before jumping off the ground in a single leap.

A tendril shooting downwards into the alleyway, wrapping itself around the handle of the crystal sword before pulling it to his back.

Every single person, either standing on the streets or behind the windows of the hospital rooms, watched as the mutant kept leaping away. Jumping off building after building. His humongous and demonic form slowly disappearing out of their field of vision.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

Thanks to Lindy's technopathic powers, she had the security cameras near their battlefield be connected to the West-Allen's television in their living room. This way everyone was able to see the glorious result of the fight between Venom and Blackfire…

Seth's victory.

"He did it!" Iris shouted like an overjoyed child, tackling her husband with arms wrapping around his form. She had hoped for this day to happen for a long time. Her mentor, Fred Chyre has finally been avenged. Thanks to her new and most loyal friend, Seth Fury.

"Jolly!" Barry gasped at the affectionate but vice-grip-like hug from his wife. He didn't want to fight it, so he wrapped his own arms around her form and pulled her close. Barry couldn't believe that Seth surpassed his own limits and his own fears and accepted Blackfire's own abyssal flames into his own body.

Moreover, he couldn't believe that Seth listened to his words.

The three girls threw their arms into the air in triumph. One villainous plague was taken care of. One that made profit of the pain of those who couldn't defend themselves. They couldn't be happier… and prouder for the mutant who saved their lives.

Tony and Marcus hugged one another. Their friends have been avenged thanks to Seth. Lindy and Mera jumped one another, embracing in a tight hug. Their friend Thea was saved and they were able to put Blackfire's era behind them like a horrible nightmare.

"Wait?" Iris got their attention. "Where'd Seth go?"

"Hold on." Lindy rushed to her laptop and worked her magic. Typing so fast her fingers turned into a blur, she quickly established a connection with the mutant's comm devices. "Seth, can you hear us?!"

"**_We can hear you guys loud and clear._**" Venom replied, all of them exhaling in relief. "**_You saw the fight?_**"

"Yeah, we did." Iris let out in gratitude. "You've done this city a huge favor, Seth."

"**_Pleasure's mine._**" Venom stated before directing to the technopath. "**_Lindy, how's the search for the breach going?_**"

Lindy brought up the search program she constructed before to check its progress. "Closing in on one right now, but it's not found yet."

"**_Okay. Ruby, Evelyn, Jesse._**" He got the girls' attention. "**_Be ready to move out when the breach's been located. With things taking the turn they are right now; it might be better if the four of us change locale._**"

Mera caught on. "You want to take them to your Earth with them, don't you?" shocked faces came over the natives' faces.

"**_Yeah. Originally it was our last resort if Zoom's bastards became too much. But with the Crows here too, it might just have to do for now._**"

"Good point. I'll help you out when you find the breach." Mera offered.

"**_Thanks, Mera._**"

"But Seth, where are you going right now?" Barry asked.

"**_Thanks for the tip before, Barry. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to defeat Blackfire. So thanks._**" Iris rubbed her husband's back while he himself embarrassedly scratched the back of his head. Venom then answered his question. "**_Right now, we have to remedy a past mistake. Don't worry about us._**"

"Trust us, after this… None of us will." Lindy smiled.

But Seth and Venom misinterpreted it, seemingly so. "**_The fuck's wrong with you? We've been helping you once and now you don't care about what happens to us anymore?_**"

Lindy blushed and stammered. "No, th-that's not what I meant!"

"**_We're hanging up, this conversation is just got too cold for us._**" He stated before hanging up.

Dropping her hands to the sides, Lindy loudly admitted. "With that voice of his, I don't know whether to think if it was a joke or not."

"Girl, you're not the only who's thought that." Iris admitted with a smile.

X

**(Zoom's hideout)**

A surge of wind and flames came from the entrance to Zoom's hideout. Their leader not to be found, but the various henchmen snapping their heads up and their eyes open because of that explosive noise. And none of them wanted to be taken by surprise of whatever was hidden in the large smokescreen that met their focus.

Killer Frost formed ice blades in her hands. Black Siren took a battle stance. Deathstorm ignited flames around his head and flames. The two brothers readied themselves for a battle.

However, they lowered their stances when seeing the familiar silhouette of Eric Frye. Standing tall and proud while the smoke hid his physique.

"Frye, the heck's wrong with you? Blowing up the entrance like that?" Deathstorm exclaimed.

"Damn, thought Zoom would be here. Guess I was wrong." The henchmen snapped their eyes open with shock when becoming aware of that voice. They all knew who it was.

But what surprised them like a sea of corpses, was their former elemental prisoner who was holding his large crystal sword on his left hand and in his right hand… was holding the head of Blackfire with his battered body hanging from his body. Seth was holding Eric Frye up with his single hand. "Not even Zoom's metal-masked prisoner is here? Damn it, thought I could kill two birds with one stone."

"What are you doing here, Seth?" Killer Frost asked, her guard falling down at the sight of the familiar mutant.

"Here to correct a mistake. Here you go." Seth threw the thrashed body of Blackfire forward. His body clattering and skipping on the ground till it stopped right in front of the henchmen's feet. "Think this bastard belongs to you."

"He ain't exactly one of ours." Black Siren admitted.

"Whatever." He walks slowly towards them. When close to them, he sees Blackfire try to crawl away and raises his foot before bringing it down on his back. Eric let out a bloodied cry of pain as he felt the foot pin him to the ground. "I make a really, really big mistake when I saw your faces the first time I was in here."

"Oh yeah, what was that?" Reverb grew intrigued.

"That you guys…" Seth pointed his eyes to four of the metahumans that wears the faces of his friends, including the one who looks his loved one. "…that you guys are anything like the people I know on my Earth." His words shocked them into expanding their eyes. He points a finger to the metahuman under his foot. "And this piece of shit was the kick of reality that I needed."

"What are you talking about?" Deathstorm inquired.

Seth takes on a cold lifeless expression. "I saw your faces and thought you were the people I knew. Honestly, I hoped you guys were, but I was dead wrong. They wouldn't let a bastard like this guy walk around like he is, much less accept his operations. But you're not them."

He faces Ronnie Raymond of this universe. "You're not like the Ronnie Raymond I know. He was a jackass when he and I met for the first time, no doubt about that. But he was a man I am willing to acknowledge as a hero. He was protective of his friends and loved ones and was willing to die for them. Even when it meant to do the most heroic act ever, the ultimate sacrifice to save his home, his friends and his world." The mutant scoffed. "Compared to you, a good-for-nothing self-serving piece of shit… you're the definition of worthless."

Deathstorm was without words, not able to find the words to speak back.

Seth faces Reverb and Dante. "The Dante and Cisco Ramon I know, are always disagreeing, estranged since their childhood from my understanding. But you two are actually close, still nothing like the ones I know." He turns to Cisco's doppelganger. "Cisco is a good, kind and caring guy, a friend to all passing by him. Smart enough to use that for the goodness of his city. And you're just ruthless bastard who doesn't give a crap about anything but himself. Basic sociopathic behavior, you jackass."

"Guess there's nothing to say about me?" Rupture asked.

"Well, I don't know your doppelganger that well. But better than you, Rupture and that's for sure." Seth stated his confession.

Finally, he faces Killer Frost. For a brief moment, he thought he saw Caitlin Snow of his Earth. But it was nothing more than a blurry manifestation of his mind. It vanished with a blink of his eyes, and he was once again forced to see the cold and uncaring counterpart of his loved one.

"And without a doubt in my mind now, you, Killer Frost, are nothing like the woman, not like the Caitlin Snow I love." Seth's words caused Killer Frost's eyes to widen and her mouth to gape, both expanded with realization. "The Caitlin Snow I know is a caring, loving and compassionate woman. An extraordinary scientist, but a better person and a wonderful mother. She's not like you, a cold, cruel, ruthless and arrogant woman. An enforcer for a piece of shit like Zoom and terrorizes Central City like it's your playground and kills innocent people." He scoffed with disgust. "Honestly, if your doppelganger could see you right now, she would be very disappointed in you. I was an idiot to think that you are anything like the woman I love."

Killer Frost was left speechless, like she lost the very ability to even form words. She had a feeling that there was something between her and the mutant for some reason, possibly related to her doppelganger on that earth but she wasn't sure until now. Now she knew, from his conviction and his steadfast words alone, that Seth protected her before because she bears the same name and face as the love of his life.

That's how strong his love is for her doppelganger.

"My doppelganger… You love her?" Killer Frost asked as though she needed to hear him say it again.

"With all of my heart. Like I treated you…" he twirled his sword around, till the tip of the blade dug into the ground, embedding the ground right beside Blackfire's head. "I treated all of you with kid gloves because you have the faces of my friends and family, but you're nothing like them. So listen closely."

With life leaving his eyes as though it was the hollow eyes of a husk looking at them, Seth declares. "Next time we meet… I will kill you all." He saw them gain wide eyes. "You're not friends, you're not family… And I won't hesitate to take you all down the next time." The mutant turns around, his foot grinding against Blackfire's back before walking towards the exit.

"What? My doppelganger's not in your life or something?" Black Siren inquired.

"Can't say I've met her, but most likely she's better than you Siren. Oh yeah, forgot something." He stops and looks to the group again. "Tell Zoom now that his rival's done for, I'll be coming for his head next." Seth raises his right arm, showing them the scars of his battle with the metahuman behind the sex trafficking operation in Central City. "And he's gonna wish he killed me when I was still his prisoner." With a flex of his muscles, black flames emitted around his right arm.

"Those are…" Killer Frost looked down to Eric Frye's battered body. "His flames."

"Now… they're mine. Remember this, Zoom's henchmen, I'm nothing like the Flash. I'm Venom, The Lethal Protector!" With a spin, he thrusts his right arm towards them and combines wind and the black flames together, hurling a violent blast of black flames at Blackfire's body.

With his mouth smashed and his body already hurt and thrashed, Eric Frye was unable to scream in pain from the black flames that incinerates his flesh and bone. All of Zoom's henchmen jumped to the sides to avoid the black flames. They watched as the flames eats away Blackfire's body…

Until his body is nothing more than a pile of ashes.

Returning their attention to Seth's position, they see that he is no longer there.

"Wow…" Killer Frost let out.

"We gotta inform Zoom of this." Black Siren glanced at Reverb.

"Already did so." He nods to the other side, where a breach formed of his powers was still swirling around. "He should be on his way now."

X

Seth's breathing is shuddered as he leans up against a large tree. His left hand clutched around the wrist of his right hand. The entire length of his right arm was shaking and spasming after using his new-acquired black flames. Smoke is still emitting from his limb, the aftereffects of it still going strong.

But what the mutant felt above all was the effects of this flame. "_It's… Hard to combine this one with another element inside of me._" He chuckled to himself. "Think we need to keep this one as a last resort or something…"

"**_Until we've mastered it and completely made it our own._**" Venom suggested.

"Yeah." Seth smiled and leant off the tree, twisting and turning his body to stretch it. "Let's go then." He went to leap onto a tree when he felt his phone chiming and ringing. Pulling it out of his pocket, he placed it to his ear after accepting the call. "Lindy, what's up?"

"_Seth, I found a breach!_" Lindy screamed into the connection.

Briefly rubbing his sore ear, the mutant replied with an awkward expression on his face. "Thanks for that loud update, Maria Carey. Where is it? In the city, right?"

"_Not exactly, it's in an abandoned facility that Sand Demon set on fire a while after the Particle Accelerator explosion turned him into walking sand castle._" The technopath quipped.

Unbeknownst to her, Seth recalled the fights with Sandman… who actually turned into a walking sand castle. "Trust me, I hope not. But you sure it's out there? Sounds like a remote location without tech, how'd you know there's a breach there?"

"_There's some old tech there that still functions, thankfully within my reach and they told me of something that looks like a breach, at least something smaller than the singularity._"

"You gotta tell me how these conversations with technology are one day." Seth admitted.

"_Think that's gonna be a while… with you leaving this universe to go back to your own world, right?_" Lindy turned silent for a while, only filling that silence with the sounds of her inhaling deeply a few times. "_Thanks for everything, Seth. You've been a miracle to this city. We lost The Flash but we got Venom in return, there's not enough words to express this city's gratitude._"

"Don't make me weepy right now, Lindy. My sister, not to mention my daughter will tease the living hell of out of me if I show up with teary eyes." Seth joked.

"_Alright, you're off the hook, for now._" Lindy joked back. "_Mera's bringing the girls to the location right now. You have the location on your phone right now… good luck and safe travels, I guess._"

"Looks like…See ya." He hangs up after saying those words. Returning his phone to his pocket, he pulled out a pair of filthy bags, one shining with sparkles of gold and the other one not shining. "Think we should get rid of these then?"

"**_Keep them. They might be needed._**" Venom said.

"Yeah, you're right." Seth accepted and placed the bags into his pockets. Wind picked around his body and he leaped from the ground. Attaching to a branch, he jumped off if with his form being enveloped by the symbiote and continued to leap towards the area with the breach.

X

"So that's a breach?" Mera said in intrigue at the sight of the bluish swirling mass of energy, looking a like a tunnel collapsing in on itself. She was fully suited in her battle suit and her hand was clutched around the trident.

"Cool." Evelyn saw the mass of energy that was in the middle of the entire abandoned facility.

"Yeah… It's our getaway from this earth." Jesse said sadly, she was unsure of whether she truly wanted to go through with this plan. She would be forced to leave behind her entire life, her friends… her father behind. It was tremendous decision for her to make.

"And Seth's ticket back home." Ruby said with clenched hands.

Mera looked to the three girls. "Girls don't worry. Seth's gonna be with you all the way. He's not gonna let you out of his sight when you get to his world."

"Yeah, we know that… but it's crazy." Ruby said as she looked at the swirling mass of energy before her. "I mean this can take us away from this world's shitshow… in the blink of the eye. It's… relieving, you know."

"She's right." Evelyn nodded understandingly. "We can start fresh." She looks to Jesse. "What about you, Jesse? You okay with leaving this world, it's your home?"

"Yours too, Evie." Jesse didn't get a respond, only a serious look that made her confess. "I really don't know if it's a good idea to go through with this plan or not. I'm… I'm gonna leave everything behind and it scares me."

"Once Zoom's taken care of, I'll make sure you're back, Jesse." Seth assured her while announcing his presence to the girls and Mera. As they smiled at his presence, he had his eyes focused on the breach. "So that's a breach? I honestly expected it to be bigger and more scary-looking than this, kinda like the Singularity."

The Atlantean tapped his back with the pongs of her trident, gaining his attention. "I'm happy you're wrong, man. Cause I don't think I can handle a death vacuum the size of a human."

"They're fun." Seth joked. "Ow!" He exclaimed when Mera poked him with the trident's pongs. "Jeez, lady. Calm down."

"You're a bad influence." Mera joked.

Seth looked to the swirling mass again. It was right there. Right in front of his eyes, the very gateway to his home again. Through this strange energy mass, he would be able to see his friends and family again. He would be able to wrap his arms around his daughter's form… he would be able to hold Frankie again.

He would be able to hold Caitlin Snow in a life-threatening hug, not going to let her go no matter what. A smile forms on his face as he relishes in the thoughts of being able to hold his family close again. Like a magnet, he would be drawn to them. He just had to be in their vicinity.

"Time to go, girls." Seth nodded to the breach and looked to Mera. "Thanks for everything, Mera."

"You too, Seth." She nodded her gratitude and stepped backwards to let them near the breach. They all took slow steps towards it, as though they were the first people to ever cross over and witness the impossible… No… be part of the impossible.

_WHOOSH_

But the impossible of this world wasn't going to let them get away so easily. Seth, Ruby and Evelyn and Mera snapped their heads to the entrance to the facility. Their eyes widen with fear when seeing the lightning crackling on Zoom's form. But the claws on his right hand was clutched around the back of Jesse's shirt.

The young woman tried to fight her way out of the speedster's clutch but was pulled back. "Seth!"

"Let her go, Zoom!" Seth demanded with his sword swinging in his hand and tendrils shooting out of his back.

"**You're not off the hook yet, Venom!**" Zoom snarled at him. "**And not… with Jesse.**"

"You fucking bastard, I'll kill you! Give her back!" Seth screamed.

"Let her go, Zoom!" Mera pointed her trident at him, both hands wrapping around it and ready for a fight.

Zoom cackled. "**Heroes… don't win.**"

Seth narrowed his eyes. "Haven't you heard? I'm not a hero, I'm an anti-hero." Flames ignited around his left arm.

At the sight of those flames, Zoom exhaled villainously. "**Thanks for killing Frye. He has been a thorn in my side for a long time, you helped me with my burdens, Seth. Now…**" He diverted Seth's attention to the terrified Jesse who he shakes. "**I help you… by lessening your burden!**"

Eyes expanding with realization, Seth let out a cry. "NO!" He swung his left arm like a mallet and fired off a flaming strike after combining it with wind. But the flame covered his vision, cloaking the speedster's immediate smirk.

"Se-"

_WHOOSH_

Because in the next moment, Jesse's tearful exclaims were cut short when Zoom disappeared in a flash of blue lightning, leaving them alone. The fireball hit the wall behind them, causing the metal to leave charred burn mark after impact.

"Motherfucker! I HATE SPEEDSTERS!" Seth screamed into the high heavens, his booming words echoing within the abandoned facility. "Damn it, he captured Jesse."

"God…" Ruby said in fear for her recaptured friend. While she wasn't a fan of this universe native in the beginning, she had grown to care for her as a friend. Now that same friend had been captured once more by Zoom. Indicating that she was once again forced to be chained in a cell at Ascension's cliff.

"Oh God, Jesse!" Evelyn gasped in fear, her hands covering her mouth in terror. Their friend had just been kidnapped and they were useless, too terrified to even move a muscle. Even with all four of them possessing great powers, they couldn't even move a muscle when standing face to face with Zoom.

Ruby swallowed a heavy gulp. "What are we gonna do now?"

"_You…_" Mera got the others' attention with an empathized single-worded sentence. "You three aren't doing anything, you're going to Seth's Earth and leave everything here on this Earth to me and the others instead. We'll find Jesse and get her back again."

"You mean that, Mera?" Seth asked in shock.

"I do." Mera walked to him. "You've done enough for this city, Seth. it's time for us to show that we can defend our home without a local hero." She points a finger to the breach and Ruby and Evelyn. "But your world is waiting for you, your friends and family are waiting for you. And these girls… you promised them that you'd save them and that means getting them to your earth."

Seth was wide-eyed, appearing to have been brought into a trance-like state with all his thoughts and memories swinging around him, asking for his immediate and devoted attention.

"Will you be able to stop him, Mera?" Evelyn asked.

"Zoom's no joke, and Lindy's friends aren't exactly at their strongest right now." Ruby had to admit. Seth told them of what Blackfire did to Lindy's friends in her group.

"I know that, yeah. But it's a risk we must take, still." The Atlantean wholeheartedly stated.

The girls didn't have the will to go against her warrior-like spirit. Defying it would only be an insult to her will and determination.

"Alright." Ruby said before she and Evelyn walked towards the breach again, about to speak through it.

But before that, Evelyn notices that they were missing one man and turned around. She sees that Seth are still standing there without even turning to face the breach. "Seth, what's wrong?"

"Sometimes, I gotta curse my own damn mouth…" Seth let out in a low mutter. Facing the girls with a heavy expression, he says. "I… I'm not going back with you guys." Their eyes went wide as planets before exclaiming in unison.

"""What?!"""

"You heard me, guys." Seth said. He gestured to the breach with his head. "My entire world is right through this breach, my friends and family hoping and waiting for me to, I don't know, still be alive. My daughter and girlfriend both heartbroken… right through there and I want to see them again."

Evelyn walked closer to him with a worried expression. "Then why are you staying here?"

Ruby stepped closer to him as well. "Your entire world is right through there like you said. Why not just put an end to this chapter all together and start your life again on your turf?"

Placing a hand on a shoulder on both, Seth stated with a sincere expression. "My chapter on this Earth isn't done yet." He looked into their eyes and said. "Remember what I promised you two when I woke up in Zoom's cell?" They widened their eyes with immediate realization. The mutant saw it and stated. "I promised…" he looked to Evelyn. "You…" Then Ruby. "You…and Jesse that I would get you all out of here. I promised you all three that I would get out of this entire mess. I'm a man of my word, that means that, just like I couldn't turn my back on you two, I can't turn my back on Jesse."

Perking up his head up, his eyes pointing at the breach behind them. But to him, he was looking at the blurry imaginary forms of his friends and family. "I wouldn't be able to face my family again if I were to go back on my word and leave Jesse at Zoom's rule. Worst thing I could do is leave an innocent like her to this problem." He looked back to the girls. "You two go to that Earth and find my people, they'll help you out."

The girls looked unsure at their shared eye contact. The mutant then told them. "Plus, big chance that Zoom's gonna bring his posse here to this breach and he's gonna force the welcome committee through the breach and into that world.".

"Then we're staying here with you and Mera to fight!" Ruby shouted in defiantly.

"Sorry Rubs." Seth ruffled her hair. "But I need you guys to go to my world and stay there… till I find my way back there myself so find my family." He reached into his pocket and pulls out his two filthy bags. Taking Ruby's left hand, he placed the filthy bag in her palm before closing her fingers around the bag. "Take this bag to my brother-in-law, Matty."

He repeated the same thoughtful and caring process of gently closing her fingers with Evelyn's hand and the other filthy bag. "This one too. He'll know what to do with them." He returned to his full height and clenched his hand around his sword as he turned around.

"Seth… Please…" Evelyn said pleadingly.

"Go to my Earth and meet up with my family. This way you can escape some of this crazy and see some of home turf crazy, but its better lives for you now. Give Matt Stark those bags, he'll know what to do." He repeated as he stepped away from them. "I'm gonna stay here and take care of Zoom and his group."

The girls felt like crying right now. Because of Jesse, he had to stay behind and fight Zoom's group. But he let them go too, so they were out of harm's way and outside of Zoom's target circle… because he cares about them in a way that only he has shown them ever since he got them out of the menacing speedster's prison. He genuinely cares for them in a way that was so new and caring that it seemed foreign.

In the past… before… they knew that he was looking at them in a way that made him feel like he was looking at his own daughter, Frankie Fury. And ever since he got them out, he would treat them with a similar behavior, mostly because they're the same age as her…

…. But he cares about them more than anyone in this entire world… just like their… their…

Seth faces the Atlantean who asks seriously. "Sure you wanna jump down this rabbit hole again? It's not pretty."

"Mera." He gave her a mock smug look. "_I _made the hole. Might as well fill it with blood."

"Still not used to you." Mera admitted with a spin of her trident.

Without facing the girls, he told them. "Girls get your asses in gear! We'll st-"

His words met a wall as he heard the unexpected. The word he never thought he'd hear in this universe from anyone… just came from two unexpected sources.

""Dad!""

That very word had the mutant snapping back to the girls with a heart of both happiness and relief. His mouth and eyes gaping at the sight of the two girls who called out to him the way he did. "What did you two just say?" He asked like he had to hear it again… in fear of his ears playing tricks on him.

"Dad…" Ruby assured him with a warm smile gracing her lips. "Please… Please come back."

Evelyn then said with a warm smile herself. "Dad… come back… we wanna have the whole family there."

Embedding his sword into the ground for a moment, he walked to them with long strides. When within arm reach, he wrapped his arms around them both and pulled them close into a bearhug. They reciprocated with their own arms wrapping around his form.

Mera smiled at the sight and brushed a tear away from her left running eye. It was a beautiful moment to see.

Unwrapping his arms from them, he told them. "Are you two sure about this?" He looked to Ruby. "Ruby, you sure about this?"

"Yeah, I am." The powered assassin assured him with a warm smile.

"Me too." Evelyn said with a happy smile.

The mutant rubbed their cheeks gently and said. "Guess the family just got bigger and crazier now. Talk with your sister Frankie, with your aunt Liv and your uncle Matt… even your new and loving and compassionate mother, Caitlin Snow. You're gonna love your new family really quick and they're gonna love you just as much. They might be shocked when you appear out of the blue, but they won't even turn their backs on you. They're not the kind of people who'd something like that. I've been on missions with them before, they're a force to be reckoned with." He widened his eyes with realization. "Find your Uncle Matt Stark and tell him this: Latveria."

"What?" Ruby asked her father in confusion as he stepped backwards.

"Why?" Evelyn followed up.

"So he'll believe you, he's healthily skeptic. Tell them everything, all of it to them all." Seth said like it was a normal thing for him. Which is true as he is a SHIELD agent. "And trust me, I will get back to you guys. In the meantime… don't kill your sister or piss off your new mother."

"That's… That's gonna take some getting used to." Evelyn chuckled. "Love you, Dad. Come back soon." She finished off quickly with teary eyes before jumping into the breach. As the last part of her body disappeared into it, a bluish light emitted from the breach.

"Yeah. It will. Never had a Dad before." Ruby said.

"Never had sisters either, but you've handled it well with Evie. Get along with Frankie, Rubs. She's your sister, too." Seth laughed.

Ruby nodded her agreement with wet eyes. "I will, Dad. Love you. Good luck!" She jumped into the breach herself, the dimensional gateway lighting up with a blue light again.

"Ruby and Evelyn." Mera looked confused at his sudden words, he just said their names for some reason. Seth smirked. "Ruby Fury and Evelyn Fury? Huh?" He looks to the Atlantean. "Sounds good, don't they?" His head was cocked when seeing the smirk on Mera's face. "What?"

"I mean, a few of us expected this to happen a while back. And finally seeing it, is nice." Mera teased.

"Oh shut up." Seth groaned before getting a deadpan expression. With the symbiote wrapping around his hand, he stretched it to his sword and pulled it into his hand. "Damn it."

"What's wrong?" Mera asked in worry.

"We can't handle Zoom's posse every day, and sooner or later he or his worse metas are gonna find a way past us and into the breach, into my world." Seth explained.

"Then your city's screwed." Mera said in fear.

"Yeah." Seth's right hand clenched around his sword handle. Neither he nor Mera noticed the large crystal sword beginning to shine a faint light. "I won't let my friends, my family, anyone…" He sneered with an intense rage. "I won't let any of Zoom's metas through that breach and into my world."

Lightning emitted from within the sword, as though it was concentrating violently on that very point. In response to the lightning. The black flames inside of Seth's right arm blazed and ran down his forearm towards his fingers.

Mera felt a dark heat and shifted his gaze to the mutant's arm. "Seth, your right arm!"

"What the heck?!" The elemental let out in a shocked voice at the sight of his black flames erupting without him willing it. With a clench of his body and his mind set on it, he tried to get the flames to retract again. "The fuck?!" He couldn't get the flames to respond to his commands, almost like the flames are living and acting out of their own volition like an impulsive animal.

"**_What the hell's going with the flames?_**" Venom questioned in confusion at the flame's behavior. "**_It's not listening to your words!_**"

They both watches as the abyssal flames run down the length of his fingers and touches the sword handle. Seth tried to let go of the crystal sword but it was like his hand was chained around the handle, forcing him to continue watching as the black flames ran up and past the sword guard, the flames connecting with the crystal blade. The moment they did so, the flames spread like a fire on grass and enveloped the entire blade in an instant.

"_Fuck…_" He let out in worry. The flame's strength and heat are still unpredictable and strong enough to do immense damage. If let out of control, it could very will hurt both him and Mera.

Shock began to tear through the mutant's core as he felt his right arm lift itself, like the flames it was out of his control, and then point to the breach. Amidst the black flames around the blade, lightning began to spark around the flames too.

"Lightning too?!" Mera asked in fear of what might happen now.

"It's not me, Mera!" Seth told her. He saw that the flames on his sword intensified, blazing violently. "Mera, stay back!"

He was right to warn. The blazing and eruptive flames from the sword releases themselves from the sword and shoots into a column of black flames. Both Seth and Mera watches as the flames connects with the swirling mass. The spiraling motion of the breach made the flames pass into its inner ring. They watch as the breach turns completely black because of the addition of the bursting black flames.

Then… much to their surprise… and confusion… the breach began to shrink… No… it was being torn into shreds and burning. It continued like that for a while… till…

… till the breach itself was no longer there… vanished out of thin air…

"What just happened?" Seth asked out loud. Now able to move his right arm again and the black flames had dissipated.

"Did the breach… did it vanish?" Mera wondered and stepped closer to where the breach was. Stretching out her hand, she tried to see if something was still there with her trident. "Nothing's there; the breach is gone." She swung her head to the mutant who looked at his sword. "I didn't know you could destroy breaches with your black flames."

"I know as much about the black flames as you do, Mera." Seth stated in defense. "But that wasn't me." Mera looked shocked and he elaborated. "It was like my sword was controlled by something else and just did as it pleased."

"And the lightning wasn't yours either?" Mera asked.

"No, it came from the sword itself." Seth revealed and then thought. "_Blackfire said he could do something similar._"

"**_He said he could project flames via his sword itself._**" The symbiote recalled. "**_Was it something like this?_**"

"_That doesn't explain the lightning that came from the sword itself. Nothing about Blackfire screamed lightning nor did anyone say anything about him using lightning._" Seth replied before looking to the sword again. "Guess there's more to this thing than I thought. A whole lot more."

"Yeah." Mera walked to his side. "Mystery for another day, meaning you hopefully don't regret doing this."

"Regret letting my two new daughters meet their new mother and their new sister while I keep Zoom's gang from appearing on their truth? Hell no." Seth smirked. "I won't ever regret that."

_WHOOSH_

"Speak of the ugly bitch himself." Seth muttered when feeling the gust of wind that came to connect with the back of his head. Turning around he and Mera finds Zoom and his entire group standing there.

Zoom looked around to find the breach but to his confusion, didn't find any. "**Where is the breach, Venom?**"

Seth remained unfazed by the snarl and smirked. "You know, I gotta thank you Zoom." The speedster and his henchmen looked confused. "If you hadn't capture me somehow all those months ago, I wouldn't have been able to meet Jesse and… and my two new daughters. Guess everything does happen for a reason."

"**Where is the breach, Venom?!**" Zoom roared the question this time, lightning crackling over him like magma boiling within an active volcano.

"It's gone. I destroyed it." Seth smirked.

"You can… Destroy breaches?" Killer Frost asked in shock of his words.

Igniting black flames on his right arm, he said. "Guess there's some good coming from this flame at long last." He smirked evilly at Zoom. "And Zoom you won't be able to kill me."

"**Why is that?**" Zoom wondered.

"Because you gave me two more very, very good reasons for getting back home and I won't die because of you." His form enlarged when the symbiote took over. "**We won't die!**" Roaring at them he charged with Mera.

Roaring himself, Zoom took charge himself and dashed towards the mutant with his claws stretched to the sides. Lightning over his every inch and swinging his claws for the mutant's head.

But it wasn't gonna work… his head would never be taken. Not by Zoom.

His friends and family are still waiting for him to come back home.

X

**(Few Minutes ago… Earth-1)**

"ARGH!" Evelyn yelped when coming out of the breach. Her body landed on the ground with a grunt coming out of her mouth. "Ow." She let out in pain as she got up from the ground, raising herself to her full height. The young metahuman looked around and found herself in an alleyway.

After a single sniff of the air, she frowned in disgust and her hands instantly covered her mouth and nose, blocking the disgusting smell of overflowing trash from the trashcans. "Christ, first thing I smell on this Earth is a pile of trash. Could get this get any better-ARGH"

"WOW!" Ruby let in shock as she came out of the breach, her body slamming into Evelyn's body, interrupting her sentence. Using the momentum to her advantage, she begins to spin and lands on her feet. Hearing a thudding sound behind her, she finds her sister on the ground. "Sorry, Evelyn."

"Ow." Evelyn groaned again. "Last time, I travel through a breach."

Ruby got up to her full height and walked to the metahuman. Holding out a hand for her, she says. "Here, get up."

Evelyn smiles her gratitude to her sister and accepts the hand, letting herself be pulled up. "Thanks, Rubs." The two of them walked to the end of the alleyway, looking out to the city. "So this is… Seth's Earth."

"One of them anyway." Ruby corrected while admiring the city. "This Central City doesn't have a train above their heads."

"Nah, must not have that kind of advanced technology." Evelyn said, Ruby didn't know if she was insulting the city's current capabilities or overestimating her home universe's Central City. But it was obliviously hurtful to say.

Their ears perked up at the sound of static, crackling lightning, and their nostrils flared at the smell of smoke, something burning. They twirled around and saw the breach before them. But strangely enough, its blue form began to fade away and hide behind the spreading of black flames and lightning that washed over the swirling energy mass. Like a virus coming from the core of the being itself, it disintegrates the breach.

Leaving nothing behind.

"What just happened?" Evelyn asked.

"…Think it was Dad?" Ruby asked, getting playful eyes from the metahuman. "Yeah, it's gonna take some getting used to."

"Yeah…" Evelyn turns around to face the city again. "Let's go, meet the family."

The two of them had to meet their new family now.

**To be continued…**

**And that's the second and final part of the two-part story of Seth's Earth-2 adventures with Blackfire.**

**Seth was able to end the terrors that Blackfire brought with him as he was taken out. But it wasn't without his challenges, the elemental lost their first encounter with immense damage done to his right arm. Thankfully, the mutant having to break through his limits and risk killing himself by taking in a dark matter-infused element. **

**If Barry hadn't been able to encourage the mutant to take on that risky strategy, then it would have been an impossible task to accomplish. But even though Seth have taken in Blackfire's element, it does seem to have its backlashes seeing as it can't be combined with other elements.**

**And by taking in the flames, he was able to accept the reality of this Earth. The reality that the people with the faces of his friends, family, loved ones… aren't the ones he knows and loves. Accepting that once and for all, he finally decides that the next time they meet… he's gonna end them all.**

**Thanks to Lindy, she was able to find a breach to Earth-1, to Seth's world. Able to return home and bring the girls with him for safekeeping and out of Zoom's territory, Seth set his sights on that breach. **

**But fate wasn't on their side. Zoom recaptured Jesse from their group and ran away with her. Seth was in rage, and though Mera offered to help her in his stead, he wouldn't do that. He couldn't go back on his word, his promise to the three girls. **

**So instead, he had to let Ruby and Evelyn go to Earth-1 while he remains on Earth-2 to rescue Jesse. But not before he got the surprise of his life when both of them called him… "Dad." **

**His family just a whole lot crazier.**

**And something took over Seth's new element and his sword, both working in unison to project his black flames and destroy the breach that would lead to his world.**

**More mysteries await the elemental as his adventures on Earth-2 continues.**

**Stay tuned and until next time peeps! **


	21. Chapter 21: Running to Stand Still

**And now another bedtime story for you wonderful people in the world.**

**Once again, I hope you all are safe and healthy wherever you might be, and please continue to be cautious with human contact.**

**Thanks for all the reviews, means a lot to me and keeps me going.**

**Now without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 21: Running to Stand Still**

(_Note: Play "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" by Love to Sing_)

Christmas music was blaring out of the speakers around the shop. A lot of customers sung along the music, finding it pleasant and calming and enchanting in these Christmas times. Children were running amok in the store to find something that piqued their interests, all of them hopelessly desperate for something they could show off to their friends after Christmas Eve.

Matt Stark had to sidestep out of the way as a volley of young children rushed towards him with screaming demeanors. Chuckling at the sight, he mutters. "Christmas is either joyous or hell in a store." When asked by them, he accepted the offer to go with Frankie and Caitlin for some Christmas shopping.

"Uncle Matt, what're you doing?" His niece Frankie Fury got his attention when running to his side. "I thought you'd have found presents by now."

"I said I would go with you and your mother for Christmas shopping, Frankie. I never said I had to do some Christmas shopping myself." Matt clarified for his niece with a playful smile.

Narrowing her eyes, she says with crossed arms. "You sure you actually bought presents, enough for everyone? You didn't get them off eBay, did you?" Her questions came out in an accusatory tone.

"Is that what you think of your cool uncle Matt now? The one who happens to be an awesome engineer and builder of armored suits." He joked and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close to his side which made her giggle in embarrassment. "I already got you presents, honey. Don't you go doubting me now."

"I won't, Uncle Matt." She looked down with a saddened tone.

"What's wrong, Frankie?" The nanite mutant asked in worry when seeing her eyes point downwards.

"You're not the only one, Frankie." Both she and Matt looked to the side when seeing Caitlin Snow walk towards them with a shopping basket around her arm. It was full of groceries for cooking later on and other items. With her free hand, she strokes her daughter's hair and says. "It's our first Christmas without your Dad, and it feels empty. Hollow even."

"Yeah… I really hoped that we could have spent Christmas with him." Frankie admitted in a saddened tone. "I miss him."

"Me too, baby girl." Caitlin hugged her daughter.

Seeing their sad faces, Matt thought about the elemental's words to him in the past and told them. "You know what Seth would tell you?" They looked to him with confused eyes. He smiled. "He would say he's still with you in your hearts, he's still here with you and he wants to hear about this Christmas when he comes back. So enjoy it to your fullest, and he can hear all about it when he comes back. He might even get jealous. Oh, that'd be the day."

Frankie smiled with a brief laugh. "Yeah, that'd be the day."

"Guess we're gonna have to one heck of a Christmas Eve to make your Dad jealous, Frankie." Caitlin said with a chuckle.

"That's the spirit." Matt said with a happy smile as they continued walking.

Caitlin looked curious and then asked the nanite mutant. "Matt, where's Liv? I haven't seen her all day."

"She used the dimensional transport device to go to our home world, to talk with her Dad." Matt explained. "Think it was to tell Director Fury of Seth being alive on Earth-2 and maybe hash out some other details or something."

"You think Grandpa Nick will come for Christmas?" She directed to her mother and uncle at the same time.

"Who knows? Big chance of that happening, your aunt has a history of getting what she wants. Unless there's an attack on New York, again." Matt joked with a twist of his head.

Caitlin laughed at that and then looked shocked when looking to the side. "Matt, Frankie did you guys see these?" Following the direction of the doctor's eyes, both couldn't help but laugh at their findings that met their eyesight.

The three of them was looking at a pyramid of stacked action figures in packages. But it was the action figures themselves that shocked them. It was action figures of Barry Allen's superhero persona, The Flash. And he wasn't the only one there. There were others. Some of them were action figures of Iron Knight. Others were of Angel Fury. The married couple's superhero personas are there too, all of them with different patterns and colors.

Looking further up the pyramid of action figures, they found action figures of Magenta in colorful packages. Frankie smiled and took one in hand.

Caitlin found another package and grabbed hold of it. She smiled at the sight of that familiar form, now in action figure size. An action figure of Venom himself, surrounded by different raising plastic elements. The doctor wondered what Seth would say to this. "_Wouldn't mind this, actually._" She placed the package of the Lethal Protector action figure into her shopping basket.

Seeing that, Frankie quips. "Think Dad will like that one?"

"He _is_ gonna need a belated Christmas present when he does return." Caitlin laughed to herself.

Matt was happy that the two was able to enjoy themselves like this without Seth. But he couldn't wait for the elemental to return so the two can create more moments like this. In the corner of his eye, he saw children rushing to the other stacks of action figures and taking toys of Venom. "He's gonna love this."

He got worried when a few of them engaged in a tug of war.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

The shopping malls weren't the only ones embracing the Christmas mood. The popular and busy-as-always coffee shop in Central City, CC Jitters are also in full swing and taking the Christmas times. With them not serving holiday's specials, their superhero drinks have been selling like hotcakes.

Detective Joseph "Joe" West was enjoying the times at the coffee shop himself as he stood in line. He was waiting for his daughter to come herself, he already ordered coffee drinks for them both. He bought a Flash for her and a Venom for himself. The detective was surprised by how much his friend's dedicated drink had been bought, easily becoming the second most popular menu option.

It was a definitely gonna be a strange Christmas this year without that obnoxious elemental. But until he comes back, they're gonna have to make do with Seth's sister and his brother-in-law, his daughter and his girlfriend. The four of them should make up his trash-like attitude…

"_Nope, not even close._" Joe realized with a chortle. Seth Fury had a personality that was unlike anyone's in this city. Not even criminals had an attitude could be compared to his foul mouth.

As he took out the money to pay for the order, he looked to the side and saw his daughter, Iris West walking to him, holding two packages in her hands. "Whoo!" She feigned a surprised and excited expression, bringing the two packages of action figures into her father's face. Joe laughed at the action figures of both The Flash and Venom. "I had to fight some old lady for the last ones. They had pyramids of toys of the other heroes, but they didn't any Green Arrow dolls."

Her father frowned at that last statement. "Don't know why you'd want a toy of that crazy man." They moved to a table and the detective admitted. "I can't figure out what to get Barry. Already figured out what to give Frankie, but not him."

"I'm surprised you already thought of Frankie's gift." Iris admitted with surprise.

"Wasn't hard. Gonna give her an action figure of herself, plus a gift card to a shopping mall. Caitlin said she had to get clothes that she didn't make herself with her symbiote's powers." The detective revealed proudly.

"She's gonna love that." Iris was surprised with how much her Dad had settled into the role as Frankie's uncle. "I was thinking you could give Barry this." She pulled out a blue shirt from her shopping bag for her father to see.

Joe had to admit, it was a nice choice for a Christmas gift. "Oh, that's nice." Nice, but simple and too… mundane. "But I kind of want to get him something more meaningful. I mean, it's been a strange, emotional 12 months."

"Yeah, you don't have to tell me." Iris said with a saddened face, removing her coat.

Gaining a sympathetic expression, he shared her daughter's saddened face. "Oh, I know, babe. I miss Eddie too." He sipped on his bitter Venom drink, feeling it sting his taste buds for a few seconds before he could enjoy it.

"How about you get Barry a really nice watch? Like Grandpa Ben gave to you." Came the suggestion from his daughter.

Liking that very idea, he pointed a finger at his daughter he agreed. "That ain't a bad idea." He turns his wrist around, examining his watch from his father and thought back to the memories of his old man. "You know, my dad only gave me this watch because I was always late."

With a raise eyebrow, Iris was in disbelief as she said. "You?"

"Yeah." Joe gave a chuckle. "He always gave a gift with a not-so-hidden message, like this watch or the time he bought me free weights because he said I was too skinny." Iris chuckled through the mouthful of coffee. "I told him, "When I have a son, I'm only giving him fun presents.""

Unbeknownst to Joe, those words bore a hole in the deepest pits of her soul. A void itself forming, and slowly being filled with the waters of sadness.

Those waters filled her ears, her father's next words coming out in a fading sound. "This thing barely works. Don't know why I still wear it." The detective began to tap his useless watch repeatedly.

Though they came in a fading sound, the reporter managed to hear his words and said… regretfully. "Because it's from family."

Joe turns his attention to his daughter again, this time seeing the saddened and regretful expression on her face. "You sure you're all right?"

Registering the concerned eyes of her father on her form, the reported forced an assuring smile. "Yeah, yeah. I promise." She drank her coffee again.

X

**(CCPD, CSI Lab)**

Inside of the CSI laboratory, things were going well for CSI scientist Barry Allen and Detective Patty Spivot. Both of them embracing one another with their arms around each other, their lips connected and kissing each other passionately.

Patty removed her lips from her boyfriend's and feigned reasoning. "You know, we should really be more professional."

The secret speedster couldn't keep a cocky smirk from forming on his face. "You do realize you initiated that." He spoke with a chuckle.

The detective laughed. "Yes, and I'm fully prepared to reprimand myself then. I'm just saying, you know, anyone could walk in, like, Joe or Captain…" she trailed off, and the moment they stopped they heard feet walking into the lab.

Turning towards that direction, they found Iris walking into the room with an embarrassed expression.

Patty let go of Barry, who greeted the chuckling reporter. "Yo."

Trying to not make the situation more awkward, Patty tried to lie out of it. "But I-I-I- have, like, a 4:00 to 12:00, but…"

"Yeah." Barry followed her sheepish lie.

"I'll see you later." Patty said as she moved away from him.

"All right." Barry told her as she moved away.

Patty looked to Iris. "I'll see you at Christmas."

"Yeah, okay. Bye." Iris told her with a smile. She turned to Barry with the same smile. "I'm so happy for you. Truly."

Nodding his appreciation, he also voiced them. "Thank you. It means a lot to me that you like her." They stared at each other for a while and the speedster sighed. "I don't know. Wells, um, he left me that message where he said that I'd never really be happy. And for a while I really started to believe him, but, now… I… I don't know. Maybe there is a way to…" Barry stopped himself when seeing Iris form a saddened face.

No, not saddened. Devasted and burdened by the weight of the entire world on her shoulders. It breaks Barry's heart to see her like this. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" He fired off his questions in concern.

The dam broke and Iris let the tears flow. "I'm so sorry. I can't keep this in anymore, Barry." She confessed to Barry. "I know that I was so mad at you and Dad for not telling me that you were The Flash, but when I found out about this, I didn't know what to do."

Every word she uttered came out with a breaking voice. "What? What's going on?" Barry tried to console her, hoping that she would tell everything that was weighing her down.

Iris confesses everything. "When Francine came back, my Dad told me not to trust her and he was right. Id didn't know how much." Barry waited for her to release everything that was withheld in her heart. "When my mother left us… she was pregnant." Barry's eyes widened as she continued the world-turning confession. "She had a son. Joe's son. My brother."

Barry was shocked by what she just revealed. The woman who was gone and turned her back on her family a long time ago, the woman that Joe stated had passed away… had another secret that now burdened the very daughter that she turned her back on.

"What's his name?" Barry inquired.

"Wally…" Iris answered with watering eyes. "Wally West…" Barry listened. "When I found out, I told her to leave and never come back and to never tell my dad, but Barry, I feel… I feel like this is hollowing me out. Every time I look at Dad, I feel like I'm hurting him. I don't… I don't know what to do."

The speedster disagreed with that. "I think you know what you have to do." He placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I can't. It's gonna kill him." Iris countered.

Shaking his head, Barry stated. "No, it won't. You don't have to do this alone. We can tell him together."

"Thank you." Iris expressed. It was really helpful with the speedster here. It felt like the burden on her shoulders was lessening now thanks to him.

"Yeah." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. The speedster noticed something outside of the window of his lab and smiled at the sight. "Hey, look." Iris turned her head around to look in the direction of his eyes. They both smile at the sight. "Snow…. Maybe it'll be a white Christmas." He hopefully said.

"That'd be nice." The reporter said with her head leaning against Barry's shoulder.

X

**(Felicia's Penthouse)**

They weren't the only ones taking in the snowy weather that was falling over the entire city. On the balcony of her penthouse suite, Felicia Hardy, the infamous cat burglar of Earth-616, watched the snow fall on every building and every lake within her field of vision. She was leaning on the railing with her right elbow placed on it, her hand right placed on the side of her face.

A single finger of her right hand playing with a single strand of her platinum blonde hair that was running down the side of her face. Her other hand was twirling the martini glass in it, swirling the alcohol inside of it as she enjoyed the view.

The infamous thief was appreciating this day in the snowy weather that follows Christmas time. And with a drink in her hand, she could enjoy it to the fullest. She brought the drink to her lips, sipped on the alcohol. "Perfect."

Hearing a sloshing and whooshing sound, she sighed in mock annoyance. "Way to ruin my moment. Can't a girl get some peace and quiet around here?"

A female voice chuckled behind before walking towards her with heels clacking. "Think that's not possible with you, Felicia."

Turning around to face the female mutant herself, Felicia chuckled. "What's up, Pink Beauty?"

Olivia Fury-Stark laughed and walked to her, her right hand grabbing strands of her long magenta-colored hair. "Still magenta, Cat. Learn your colors, would ya?"

"Sounds like work and no pleasure." She reached for the table beside her, lifting a drink for her friend as well. "What's with the heels? You used to say wearing them is like choking your feet." Felicia was honestly surprised by the mutant walking so well and elegantly in heels.

"Thought I'd try to get the hang of these deathtraps." Olivia said with her left hand taking the glass in the thief's hand. "No Christmas decorations up yet?"

With a smirk on her face, Felicia said. "Only type of Christmas this gal needs are a drink, surrounded by goods and rolling around in cash naked in my bed." For empathize, she had a hand sliding down her stomach.

The mutant frowned at that image. "TMI, Felicia!" She exclaimed and the burglar laughed. Drinking from the glass, she said. "You wanna spend Christmas with us maybe?"

Felicia turned around, looking to the city of this world before she leans over the railing. "Not in the mood for a pity Christmas invite, Liv. But thanks anyway." She sipped on her glass again.

Patting her shoulder, the mutant corrected her feelings. "Not a pity invite, Cat. A hand to God invite to Christmas party at the West residence. It'd be nice."

Felicia counters. "Think anyone of them would have a thief from another universe? Under a detective's roof?"

"Think anyone of them would have a pair of killers from another universe? Under a detective's roof?" Olivia counters using the thief's own words. Felicia looked stumped. "You might have a past, Felicia. But me and Matt have one ourselves, one that's reddened with the blood of our enemies."

"You really think any of them would want there to spoil your party? Christmas's mostly for family alone." The cat burglar sadly asked without making eye contact.

Sighing, the psychic reminded her. "If you're not thinking of my niece or Caitlin, then you're dead wrong." Felicia faces her. "You're Frankie's mentor, you've been a friend to Caitlin, you've been me and Matt's friend since forever now. Why wouldn't any of us want you there? Heck you're practically family now, Cat."

"Thanks… but not sure."

It was unusual for Olivia to see Felicia Hardy, the usually confident and fearless woman, so distraught and fearing right now. It was a surprising sight to see the infamous thief so unsure of something, especially to attending a party with friends and family.

At the thought of that party, Olivia tried another tactic. "There's a guy who's single and might need to mingle."

The thief chuckled. "Thanks, but Cisco's a bit short for me. But I do love that hair." She added with a purr.

"Not him." The psychic was thinking of Jay Garrick.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Matt, Caitlin and Frankie returned from their Christmas shopping a while back and made their way to the S.T.A.R. Labs facility. In there, Matt and Caitlin worked with the powerless speedster of Earth-2, Jay Garrick. All three of them were looking at the monitor before them, seeing the map of the city with bright stops all over it, indicating the locations of the breaches.

Gesturing to the screen, Jay suggests. "I was just thinking that if we could inject an unstable neutrino burst into the individual breaches, it might cause them to seal on their own."

"Sealing them up good." Matt noted.

Caitlin then followed. "And stop Zoom from travelling back and forth between our worlds."

Frankie tilts head as she looks down on her Caitlin and the others from her crouched position on the ceiling. Hearing a yawn in her head, she hears her "other" speak with a lazy tone. "**_Is the nerd talk done?_**"

The host laughed at her symbiotic partner's behavior. "_No not yet, Magenta. Stop being such a baby._"

"**_I was born a year ago, of course I'm still a baby, dummy!_**" Magenta exclaimed in a childish manner. Yawning once more, the symbiote stated. "**_Wake me up when nerd session's done._**" Frankie frowned when nearing an immediate series of snores following her partner's words.

Jay nods his agreement with the native doctor. "At least then we wouldn't have to worry about him sending any more metahumans over for Barry to fight."

"Yeah. But we can't seal all of them." Caitlin stated with a smile.

The powerless speedster looked confused. "Why not? It's to keep Zoom from getting over here all the time?"

"We have to keep one open so Seth can get back. None of us want him stuck on another Earth." The doctor admitted.

"Got that right, yeah." The nanite mutant said in agreement.

"He must be a big deal for everyone here to vouch for him." Jay said.

"Nah, not like that. He's just the only kind of gigantic pain in the ass that we can handle and we surprisingly enough like him." Matt feigned disdain for his brother-in-law.

Caitlin gave the mutant a glare. "Do you want me to tell your brother-in-law of your feelings?" That sounded like a threat that had the nanite mutant shaking his head in rapid succession. If he didn't have an adamantium skeleton, he might just snapped his own head off. The doctor smiled at his reaction before facing Jay Garrick with an appreciative expression. "It means a lot."

"What does?" Jay asked.

"You looking after us here. Matt, Olivia, Frankie and Barry. They've been through a lot the last few weeks." Caitlin looked upwards to her daughter. "And there's a few of them who means a lot to me now."

Jay chuckles. "They're not the only people I want to keep safe."

"Geez, thanks but some of us are taken." Olivia announced her presence to the group as she and Cisco stepped into the room.

Matt spun the chair around for him to look at his wife. "Thought there was something good happening today." He got up from his chair and walked to her.

Pretending to form an offended expression, she said. "I hope you're talking about me, or I'm gonna whup your ass and fillet your brain."

"Is that so?" He challenged with a smirk.

Cisco leant against the doorframe and groaned. "Oh, dear Lord, just kiss already. Oh, the thirst is real." He complained.

"Ew!" Frankie was grossed.

Caitlin gives Cisco a stern look. "Cisco, watch your language around my daughter, please."

"Yeah, not cool, Cisco." Olivia joined on the stern looks.

Matt laughs before directing to the native engineer. "Is everything all right?"

Cisco nodded. "Yeah, Jarvis and I keep checking, but all is quiet on the metahuman front. Hey, you think Zoom decided to take Christmas off?"

"What's Christmas?" Jay asked.

Releasing herself from the ceiling, Frankie landed on her feet and explained. "Not much. Well, it's this holiday we have where we cut down trees and sing songs to celebrate the birth of a baby 2,000 years ago, and then the Romans killed him so we give each other gifts…."

"That's your explanation?" Cisco wondered of the young magnekinetic metahuman. Caitlin couldn't help but be proud of her daughter at that long explanation that left the others shocked.

Olivia laughed. "Yeah, Caity, she's definitely your kid alright."

"Without a single doubt." The nanite mutant agreed.

As they all moved into the Cortex, the powerless speedster revealed. "I know what Christmas is."

"Tricking our niece like that, Jay. You're on Santa's naughty list now." Olivia scolded. She sighed and said. "You know, Joe and the others are having people over for Christmas Eve, they said we could invite whoever we want. Wanna join, Lonely Flash?"

"Really?" Jay asked in shock. "Didn't think you and your husband liked me?"

"Jury's still out on that." Matt revealed flatly.

"But you're sort of part of the team, so why not?" The psychic said.

Caitlin widened her eyes with realization. "Liv, do you know if Felicia has plans for Christmas Eve? I was planning on inviting her, but I haven't had the time myself to visit her to invite her."

"Thank fucking God!" Olivia exclaimed happily, her words coming out in a roar. "I was with her before, and she said she didn't think any of us would want a thief under a detective's roof."

"What kind of crap is that about?" Frankie asked, her mother pulling her hair in mock sternness.

"Of course, she'd be welcome." Caitlin followed up as she ruffled her daughter's hair, making Frankie blush in embarrassment. "I'll find her later and invite her myself."

"Oh, this got too emotional for me." Cisco complained, getting everyone's eyes on him. "Have you guys seen Harry?"

"Uh, no, I have not. I told him to rest." Caitlin then points out. "He's just as stubborn as all the rest of my male patients in this place."

"Yeah, they're all useless." Olivia says in agreement.

Caitlin chuckles and states with a stern glare. "And whose wounds did have I have to patch up again because she reopened them again when training with her husband and Black Cat, for the fifth time this week?" She hummed in wait for the answer. Olivia whistled innocently and playfully, not wanting to admit the doctor was right.

"I'm gonna leave you guys to figure that one out yourselves, okay? I'm gonna go find Harry." Cisco told them before turning around. "Holy Hannah!" He exclaimed in surprise when suddenly coming face to face with Harrison "Harry" Wells from Earth-2. "Hi." He properly greeted the scientist from Earth-2.

"Hi." Harry flatly replied.

With a narrowed eye, Cisco asked. "Everything okay?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't it be?" Harry continued his line of flat replies.

Cisco chuckled mockingly as the scientist walked away. "Why wouldn't it be?" He even recited Harry's words.

Olivia laughed-

"_Yikes!_"

But then her telepathy registered the voice of someone's thoughts, someone new and unfamiliar. Urgently her powers activated, spreading over her entire body and she rushed to the railing of the main console. She jumped over the main console with a single leap and rushed into the corridor when landing on the floor again.

"Livia, what's wrong?!" Her husband called out to her, but she had already run out of the room. "The fuck?" He rushed after her.

Olivia's eyes were shrouded with psychic energy and she looked around as she rushed through the corridor. Taking a turn to the left, she walked into Cisco's workshop. With slow and cautious steps, she walks deeper and deeper into the room. Shifting her head from side to side in search for the person who wields that voice that she's never heard before.

It was a young girl's voice, that was certain. Mot much older than Frankie most likely. But the way it let out that shocked exclaim worried the psychic, but it also frightened her which led to her taking her razor whip off her belt. Knowing that it probably was a young girl, she decided to not release the whip from within the handle.

"Anyone here?" She called out and waited for a reply. Olivia didn't hear one but continued walking into the room. "Last time, if there's anyone here, show yourself." Again, no reply.

As she waited, Matt walked into the room with Cisco behind him. "Livia, what's going on? You rushed out of the Cortex in a hurry. Why? What's going on?"

Turning around to look at her husband, she said. "Back in the Cortex I heard someone's thoughts. Someone new and unfamiliar."

"An enemy? Another one of Zoom's metas?" Cisco fired off his inquires.

"Not sure. But it was some young girl, probably around Frankie's age." Olivia stated. "But I have no idea who it was, I've never heard her voice before."

"So someone walked into S.T.A.R. Labs unannounced and without being detected…" He and his wife directed their eyes to the native mechanical engineer. "Why does that sound _so_ familiar?"

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It's not my fault!" Cisco waved his hands at the glares coming his way.

Olivia narrows her eyes. "Coming from the very guy who keeps rejecting my husband's offers of improving the facility's security."

"Yeah. Two hours, and I can turn this entire a giant deathtrap from the _Saw_ movies." Matt confidently stated.

"No! And those are horrible movie references!" Cisco pointed out.

Both mutants looked at him like he had two heads.

X

"Wow!" Evelyn released when she returned to her former position before disappearing into a shadowy smokescreen. She returned to the alleyway beside CC Jitters. Looking to the side, she saw Ruby giving her a look of impatience.

"Wanna tell me why you left me hanging here while you disappeared off to God knows where?" Ruby asked rudely.

The young metahuman thought she would have been used to Ruby's foul mouth by now, but she was wrong if her face of sourness. "You might wanna learn to lessen that attitude of yours."

"Maybe I'm gonna do that when you tell me where you puffed off to." Ruby retorted.

"Alright." Evelyn then explained. "I teleported because I wanted to see if there were some places that were familiar here to the ones I used to visit back on my Earth."

This intrigued the powered assassin. "So where'd you puff into then?"

"S.T.A.R. Labs." Evelyn revealed.

"S.T.A.R. Labs?" Ruby repeated. "Never heard of that one before."

"You don't have one in your universe?" The metahuman asked and the assassin nodded her confirmation. Evelyn inhaled before explaining. "Scientific and Technical Advanced Research Laboratories, or just S.T.A.R. Labs for short. It's an advanced scientific facility in my world, one of the foremost leaders of the world in artificial intelligence, genetics and metahuman studies. That's how it is in my world, at least. Not sure about this one's though."

"You know a lot about that place?" Ruby's eyes expanded with realization. "You stole from the place, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did." Evelyn came clean, shocking the assassin at how honest she became. Seeing the reaction on her face, the metahuman defended, in her own way. "It was really easy to steal from that place. It was like stealing candy from children."

"You've never actually done that, have you?" Ruby worriedly asked of her sister.

"No, of course not. I'm not that kind of person." Evelyn assured her sister.

"That's good and all." Ruby admitted. "But why the heck did you look so out of breath when you came back?"

The metahuman explained. "I think someone figured out I was there. I listened in on their conversation and I tripped. For some reason, one of them acted up and tried following me. I managed to get into a workshop and teleported out of the way before she into the place."

"It was a woman?" Ruby's interest was further intrigued.

"Yeah." Evelyn said as she reached into her pocket. "But I did manage to pick this one up." Ruby saw her pull out an ID card. It was of a woman with light-brown hair and hazel-grown eyes, a beautiful woman. The former assassin read the name on the card.

"_Caitlin Snow_"

"Why'd you take this one?" Ruby asked the metahuman. "And why does she look so familiar?"

Evelyn gave her a dry look. "You don't remember the name, do you?" She got a shaking head as a response. "Seth's girlfriend is someone named Caitlin, his daughter's mother's name is Caitlin Snow. And she's the doppelganger of Killer Frost."

Ruby realized what she was aiming for now. "So this _is_ Caitlin Snow. She's pretty."

"Yeah. I saw her back at the facility. She was really nice and cool and funny with her daughter there too." Evelyn realized what that meant. "Guess that means she's our mother and the girl's our sister."

"Meaning that the two of us are sisters, too." Ruby said with a smile to the metahuman. "We're from different universes and have a family now."

"Yeah… really weird." Evelyn looked to the corner. "Wanna go for coffee at… Jitters? Weird not to call it Jitterbugs."

"Sure but we don't have any money." Ruby pointed out.

"I can fix that." Evelyn assured her before walking to exit of the alleyway and into the street. Just as she did, she saw a man with a coffee cup in his hand. Keeping a smirk from forming on her mouth, she walked forward and when close to him, she fell forward.

The man saw her fall and stopped walking, using his body to keep her from falling onto the ground like a cushion. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"

"No, I'm not." Evelyn assured the man. "Thanks for that." She leant off him and stood to her full height again.

"Be careful and watch where you're going, alright?" Evelyn nodded to his concerned statement before bidding his farewells and walking away.

As he walked out of their eyesight, Ruby walked out of the alleyway and looked to Evelyn. "You get it?" The metahuman pulled out a wad of cash from her pocket. "He had a wad of that in his pocket?"

"A really sketchy guy." Evelyn admitted before they walked to the coffee shop entrance. "Let's go, my treat."

"Sure thing, Sis." Ruby joked and walked after her sister.

X

**(Iron Heights Prison)**

"Please tell me this is not happening…" Barry begged of the detective after meeting up underneath the prison facility, having heard what happened. A really bad, bad thing happened. With him, he brought Olivia Fury-Stark and her husband Matt Stark.

"Why this day of all days?" Olivia groaned.

"Can't criminals just have a single day off, or something?" Matt said.

"It's official, Santa hates us." Making eye contact with the heroes, Joe explains, with the use of quotation marks. "This "sudden" blizzard took out cameras and the security system."

"Anyone hurt or worse?" Olivia asked as they walked into the underground section of the prison.

"Only a few guards hurt. But thank God nobody was killed, but there's no trace of Mardon, Jesse, or Snart." Joe told them.

"Oh that's awesome, we got a terrorist, pissed off weatherman and a snarky Snart on the loose." Olivia quipped.

"Can Christmas get any better?" Matt sarcastically stated.

Joe then looked to the secret speedster, the boyfriend to his partner. "Speaking of this entire mess, with Mardon back on the scene…"

"Yeah?" Barry replied.

And then he was confused by the detective's response. "Patty might not be thinking so clearly."

"What do you mean? What does Mardon have to do with Patty?" Barry asked.

Before the detective answer, he noticed that the psychic was narrowing her eyes on his head. "You're reading my thoughts, right?"

"Yup." She simply replied.

"You're not gonna stop invading my privacy, are you?" Joe asked.

"Nope." Once again, a simple reply.

"Your wife's a nightmare." Joe told the nanite mutant who gave a shrug.

A while later, after the detective explained everything to them, all four of them moved to the cell that once held the madman known as the Trickster. When walking past the threshold, they saw Detective Patty Spivot spinning back to her full height, her face masked with an array of emotions. The strongest ones there…

Pain and regret like vengeful ghosts from the past haunting her with dreadful memories swarming her mind.

Patty gave the two secret mutants a quick and confused glance before turning to Barry and Joe. "The unexpected drop in barometric pressure had to mean Mardon was back in town."

"Patty…" Barry tried to talk to her.

But the female detective wasn't finished yet. "Jesse was on full communication lock down, but that doesn't' mean Martin and Snart weren't in contact." Patty looked to the two mutants. "And, sorry for asking, why are you two here?"

Pointing a finger to Joe, Matt explained. "I work with S.T.A.R. Labs and Joe knows the people there. Barry too. They wanted an extra set of eyes in case of any technical stuff that might go over their heads."

"Not me, the prison called me. They told me my favorite patient broke out of prison so I wanted to check it out myself." The psychic explained, both Joe and Barry looked sheepish at that. Neither knew whether to believe that or not.

"Patty," Barry managed to his girlfriend's attention. "Joe told me about Mardon."

The female detective looked at her partner with disbelief. Followed by a scoff, she says to Barry. "I can't talk to you about this." She walked past him and rushed into the corridor.

"Hey, Patty, it's okay." Barry tried to console her, but she was already out of the room. "I got it." He told the others before walking after her.

When left alone, Joe turned his head to the psychic mutant. "You talked with this guy?"

"Yeah. Nutjobs are in my wheelhouse." Olivia sweetly replied.

Joe looked to the nanite mutant once more. And once again, he stated. "Your wife's a nightmare, Matt."

X

**(Okamura Toys Shipping Facility)**

Abandoned for years now, the old shipping facility that was used to ship Okamura Toys would have been thought to be without souls whatsoever. But that was only hopeful thinking. This Christmas had anything but miracles in store for the city of heroes.

And the eerie singing that comes from within the facility confirms the coming disaster.

Toys, ranging from action figures for boys and dolls for girls, placed on the table before him as the terroristic jester sang. "_Deck the halls_" he reached for a toy on the table as he continued. "_With body parts from a girl named Holly_" He picked a teddy bear. "_Fa la la la la la, la la la la_"

Having heard that… ominous Christmas song, Leonard Snart points out. "I don't remember those being the lyrics."

James Jesse twirled around with a chortle. "I am tremendously creative. That I can tell you." He assured the Cold Gun wielder.

"You'd be better be." Mark Mardon stated when joining them. "I didn't break you out- I didn't break _either _of you out because I was looking to make some new friends." He flatly told them whilst walking past ropes of baby doll heads.

The Trickster then scolded him. "That is the not the holiday spirit, Marky-Mark! Christmas is a time for togetherness. And what says togetherness more than mass graves?" He hummed questioningly at the end, waiting for their agreements.

Captain Cold turned his eyes to Mark. "So why did you break us out?"

Weather Wizard pointed a finger to Snart. "Well, I owed you one, and this guy, he's just crazy." Jesse looked at offended at Mark's words, his face forming a pout. "It's a compliment." The Trickster's frown turned upside down. "And we all want the same thing."

Having looked at Jesse's choice of attire, Snart snarked. "Fashion advice?"

"To see The Flash and those other masked circus freaks dead." Mardon snarled.

Jesse thought out. "Well, that was more of a New Year's resolution, but, hey, I'm flexible." He straightened his bowtie.

Getting up from his seat, Leonard reminded. "That hasn't gone so well for anyone in this room. They might not have their giant oaf anymore, but what makes you think you can stop him and the rest of them this time?"

"One of them is a kid, at best. We distract that one, the flying lady and Robocop, then it's three against one." Mardon formed a smirk. "Plus, The Flash isn't quite what he was." They listened as he explained. "See, another speedster dressed all in black nearly took him out a few weeks ago. Even used him as a shield to stop the other two from offing him. He's vulnerable. He's weak."

Leonard advised the weather-controller. "It's a mistake to underestimate him, not to mention the others. They're no pushovers."

Raising his hands, gesturing to their capabilities, Mardon listed. "With my power, his…" he struggled to find Jesse's core power. "…flair, and your smarts, we can put them in the ground for good."

"Tell me your plan." Leonard demanded.

"Tell me you're in." Mark countered his demand.

"I'm thinking about it." Snart stated.

Mark chuckled. "What's the matter? A few months in the clink make you soft, did it, Snart?"

Captain Cold, in an instant, pulled out his Cold Gun and charged it, pulling the trigger to ready a cold blast. Weather Wizard, with both hands, formed icy mist that converges to a single spot and forms a large ball of ice. "You wanna dance?" Mark challenged.

"Boys, boys, boys! Play nice!" James Jesse came between them. He turns to Mardon. "Mellow out, Mardon." He snaps to Snart. "Don't have a snit, Snart. Here's an idea." Gleefully, he proposes an idea. "We all go out, have a few drinks, kill some carolers. We'll all feel better."

Whether it was because they liked the idea or just keep him from suggesting more, no one knew. But both of them powered down, nonetheless.

"All right." Mark walked forward, his eyes pointing at the Cold Gun wielder. "So what's it's gonna be, Snart?"

Snart gave a piercing glare at the weather-controller.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

As he and the others watched the three mugshots of Leonard Snart, James Jesse and Mark Mardon on the wall monitor, Cisco gave a daunting and hollow laughter, similar to that of an evil Santa Claus. "Oh yeah. Weather Wizard, Captain Cold and The Trickster."

"Great, who pissed off Santa this year?" Matt let out with a groan, hoping that this Christmas would be criminal-free.

"But what are we going to do against them?" Frankie asked.

Caitlin rubbed her daughter's back comfortably. "Baby, remember there's three of them and four of us, with you and your Uncle and Aunt. This year, the scales do tip in our favor."

Olivia announced honestly. "Depends on what they do. Trickster's a known terrorist, Wizard's a weather catastrophe at the snap of his fingers, Cold's a smart and calculated criminal even without that gun of his."

"And I'm gonna be no help without my speed, so…" Jay trailed off sadly.

Cisco calls out while pointing to the top of his head. "Oh, oh, light bulb here. I have an idea. Something me and Matt worked out a while back, after he used one of my ideas for Liv's weapons."

"You mean, those Wands things, right?" Olivia turned confused at her husband's words. Matt then further explained. "Those things I used on your weapons back when we have to transport the metas. I made them to let weather attacks be absorbed into your whip and sword so you could send them back again."

"Oh yeah, I remember that." Olivia vaguely remember a similar speech a while back.

Cisco nodded and then explained. "Most weather phenomena are marked, no pun intended, by the charge of electric charge and pressure in the atmosphere."

Matt nodded. "Big chance, we could just map out those fluctuations-"

"To pinpoint his location." Barry interrupted the nanite mutant.

"Yeah…" Matt said suspiciously.

"Right, it would just be a matter of removing all…"

"The electricity from his immediate surroundings." The speedster interrupted the vibing metahuman.

Then, together, Barry, Cisco and Matt stated, at the same time.

"""Attracting it to one spot."""

Cisco was smiling happily at this while the others looked confused. "The same way a lightning rod does. Only instead of a lightning rod, we could use-"

"A wand?" Barry finished off for the mechanical engineer.

Matt and Cisco shared a confused look. The native engineer's smile faltering from the confusion. "Did we already have this conversation with him?"

"I don't know." Matt answered Cisco's question before looking to the speedster. "Did we, Barry?"

"Kind of." He vaguely replied.

"What?" Frankie looked confused.

"What does that mean?" Harry inquired.

Barry then revealed. "All right, so the last time Mardon attacked, he, um, generated a tidal wave that destroyed all of Central City."

"Oh yeah, and you brought my daughter to a tidal wave, like any responsible adult would do in times of crises." Caitlin sniped coldly, with an equally cold glare at the speedster, making him shake like a leaf in the wind.

"And Seth died." Matt said.

Harry looked between them and said. "So why are you not all sleeping with the fishes?"

"Gotta give you a handbook about being nice." Frankie quipped.

"Would good would that do?" Harry quipped frankly and Frankie felt like slapping herself again.

"Earth-2 has "The Godfather"?" Cisco asked intrigued and surprised at the same time.

"Every Earth has "The Godfather," Vito." Harrison bluntly said. Jay nodded his confirmation of the movie on their earth.

Barry then explained. "So I ran back through time. One day into the past and I got a do-over and I stopped Mardon before he could hurt anyone. And stopped Thawne from killing Seth."

"You shouldn't have messed with the timeline." Harry warned.

"Heard that one before." Matt stated.

"Yeah. But the good news is, in that timeline, you created The Wand and it worked. So you just got to do it again." Barry said... then realized what he was saying and what it meant. "For the first time."

"Yeah, no pressure." Cisco said, completely pressured by that fact.

"Don't worry, Cisco. I can give a hand. I did make smaller versions before, a bigger one is no problem." Matt assured the mechanical engineer.

"Me too." Jay pitched in.

Cisco looked with a smile. "Three worlds joining together?"

"I like that." Jay complimented.

"Nice." Matt agreed.

"Okay, Nerdvengers, get going!" Olivia stated in a mock announcer voice. They laughed at her joke before walking away. Matt winked and blew her a kiss before walking around the corner. The psychic laughed to herself. "That hubby of mine."

Frankie chuckled at their antics before noticing the otherworldly scientist's behavior. "You doing okay there, Harry?"

Harry looked to the young metahuman. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He walked away.

Frankie looked to her mother with a pout. Caitlin's eyes turned stern. "Frankie, you're not going to pour eggnog down his throat to get him into a better mood?"

"Why else would you explain his holiday blues?" Her daughter replied.

"Frankie, you know his situation. It can't be easy knowing his daughter is entrusted someone else." Caitlin told her.

"He can trust Seth." Barry pitched in.

"Told him that more than enough times, trust me." Caitlin said.

Barry nodded his acceptance. "Yeah… guess it's gonna take some time. Look, I'll be right back. I have something I have to deal with." He walked to the exit.

Caitlin stroked her daughter's hair and said. "Since we don't have anything to do now, how about we go get Felicia to come to Christmas get-together at the West house?"

"Sure thing, Mom." Frankie smiled.

X

**(CCPD, CSI Lab)**

Now Barry and Iris had to face a hard obstacle together. The hardship of telling the detective who raised them of his wife's greatest secret ever since she disappeared from the lives of his and his own daughter's.

Be it good or bad, their dreadful time to tell everything to him… arrived.

Joe walked into the CSI lab. "Hey." He greeted them and watched them both wear heavy expressions on their faces. He couldn't help but chuckle at their faces. "Okay, the last time the two of you were looking at me like that, it was when you both took my convertible on a joy ride and wrapped it around that big oak tree on Fairmount Drive."

Iris wasn't here to be amused by past mistakes; she was here to reveal the truth. "Dad, um…"

Seeing that she was struggling to bring the words forth, Barry helped her along. "All right, Joe, we have something we need to tell you."

"No, um…" Iris stopped him and took it upon herself to tackle this. "_I_ have something that I need to tell you." With each word escaping her mouth, a step was taken towards her father till she was before him. "It's about Francine."

Joe gave his undivided attention. Iris looked to Barry, wordlessly asking if this truly was the right thing to do. She received a nod of confirmation from him. Teary eyes and shaking breathing took over. She had to clear her throat before croaking out. "When she left us…" Her eyes piercing into her father's again. "… She was pregnant."

Like bricks falling down to pieces because of the demolition of a treasured home, the detective felt pieces of his heart breaking down as the news was brought down on him like a hammer. His facial expression matching his heart's current condition and turning broken. He couldn't bring his face around to face the children he raised himself, shame coming over his face like tears from his eyes.

Not even as he asked them, could he bring himself to look to them. "Did she have the baby?"

Tears on her face glazes her face and her shaking voice remained strong as she answered heavy-hearted. "Yes… His name is Wally." That name struck the detective's chord. "Wally West."

The detective placed his hands on his sides and let out with a shaking voice himself. "Short for Wallace." The others looked to his back at that sudden deduction. "That's what we were gonna name you if you were a boy."

Iris stepped forward, heading towards her father's side. "I only found out a couple weeks ago. Dad, I am so sorry I didn't tell you sooner." She could see that he was inhaling deeply. "That's why she reached out to us after all these years… She wanted us to know before…sh-"

"Before she died." The detective cut off his daughter. He was in disbelief about everything. "And I thought Francine was running out of surprises." His children wanted to give him some time. Try to…

None of them knew what their help would do for him. Hopefully, very hopefully, his pain would be eased.

Snatching his coat from the table beside him, Joe snaps around. "I got to get to work." He rushes to the door.

Before he makes it, Iris calls out. "Dad listen- Dad."

He stops himself and turns to face his daughter. "I'm… I'm sorry. Just let me sit with it." He finished off heavily before walking out again.

X

**(Felicia's Penthouse)**

With fingers gracefully going through the collection of vinyl records, Felicia's eyes look intrigued at the one her fingers touches. She pulls it out of her collection and holds the record sleeve with both hands. "Gotta have Redbone for Christmas." She chuckled to herself before taking the vinyl record out of its cover.

The infamous burglar twirls the record in her hand before walking towards the vinyl record player near her couch. But she came to a halt when the sound of her elevator chiming. Felicia got wide-eyed and tilted her head when seeing Frankie and Caitlin walking into the penthouse. "I admit, I love seeing you both here, but what brings the Snow-Furys to my lovely estate?"

"Just Fury here, Felicia." Frankie reminded her mentor.

"Don't forget Snow." Caitlin acted in mock hurt. "Been a while since we saw each other, Felicia."

"Yeah sorry I didn't pop by to say hi when you guys were fighting an immortal madman in a trenchcoat." Felicia apologized.

"Well…" Caitlin smiled. "You can make up for that with your assured arrival for a Christmas get-together at the West house."

Felicia narrowed her eyes. "Livy told you, didn't she?"

"Yeah." Frankie nodded and walked to her mentor. "Come on, Felicia. It'd be nice for you to be there as well. Christmas is about being with family."

"Which you are." Caitlin stated. "So come and be with family, would you? All of them wants you there."

"Especially me and Mom." Frankie pitched in with a cute smile.

Rolling her eyes, Felicia wrapped an arm around her disciple and pulled her close. "Using those baby blues of yours to trick me, Rose? Guess I taught you right."

Caitlin chuckled. "Oh, so you're the one I have to blame for all those puppy dog eyes I've been getting from her lately."

"Guilty as charged." Felicia said. "Since you're here, how about you stay for a couple of hot chocolate? I got mini-marshmallows." She stated like a fisherman waiting for the fish to take the bait.

"Since you're asking so nicely, sure. We can stay for a few cups." Caitlin said with her hand stretched out to the burglar. "Just promise to be there and not bring anything inappropriate, alright?"

"Way to take the fun out of it, Caity." Felicia pouted.

X

**(West Household)**

"Do you think that he's gonna be okay?" Iris asked Barry. Both of them returned to their home after bringing the news of Francine and Joe's child to the detective.

"I do, yeah, I think…" Barry said with confusion as he closed the door. To say it was hard would be an understatement. "It's just a lot to take in." he dropped his keys on the table beside him. "He just needs a little time to process it."

Both he and Iris looked to their living room, seeing the fireplace alit and one of their recliner… occupied by the last person they expected to see in their house.

"Ho, ho, ho." Leonard Snart greeted The Flash and the CCPN news reporter as he sat with a hot cup of hot cocoa in his hand. The cup designed to be the face of a reindeer. As they stare at him with continuous disbelief, Captain Cold drinks from his cup. "Mmm." He groans at the taste. "Cocoa isn't cocoa without the mini marshmallows. And you're out. I checked." He placed the cup on the table beside him.

_WHOOSH_

In an instant, Barry sped to him and pulled the criminal from the recliner before slamming into bricked wall above the fireplace. The speedster pinning Leonard to the wall. "Are you out of your mind? Breaking into my home?" He snarled directly into his face.

"Careful." Snart warned. "I made an upgrade to the Cold Gun. If I release my grip from the handle, the core goes critical." Barry points his eyes to the elemental gun. "You might make it; she won't." Leonard nodded to Iris.

If it was bluff or not, Barry couldn't take that risk. Not at the expense of Iris's life.

Barry reluctantly released his grip on his Snart's jacket. Leonard kept a cool and calm expression on his face as straightened his jacket. He faced Iris next. "Read your article on the disappearing middle class. Strong point of view. Nice prose style."

"Yeah, well, who needs a Pulitzer when you have a homicidal maniac's seal of approval." Iris quips when walking towards them.

"Didn't Barry tell you? I had a rough childhood."

Iris counters. "Everyone in this room had a rough childhood. Get over it."

Barry makes eye contact with the criminal. "Why are you here, Snart?"

"I got the Noel spirit, wanted to give you a gift." Came the quip from the criminal. "Mardon broke Jesse and me out to kill you and your merry band of do-gooders. With Big Bad Venom gone from the game and you damaged goods, Mardon thinks there's a chance now. Jesse's on board, of course. He's shaking with excitement. Me, I'm gonna pass."

"Why? You grow a conscience?" The reporter said.

"Mardon wants revenge. Jesse wants chaos. I'm just not invested like they are." Leonard admits.

"You mean there's no money in it for you?" Iris states his true thoughts.

Leonard smirks at the blunt tone. "I was never much for non-profit work."

"If you're not in with them, then tell me where they are." Barry demands.

"Nah, consider me more of a secret Santa." Leonard walks to the speedster. "Besides, you and your friends love to solve a good mystery." He walked past the two of them, making his way to the exit.

The speedster scoffed in disbelief of those words before swinging his head towards Snart. "You are full of it, Snart." The criminal waited. "I think my friends and I saved your sister's life and you just can't stand owing me a marker."

"Thought there was bad blood between you and the knight." Snart recalled.

"All in the past now." Barry assured the criminal. "And I hate to break it to you, but that… that right there is called honor."

"Go on, make your pitch. I can see you're dying to." Snart impatiently stated.

"Help us stop them." Barry said.

Snart waved his hand. "Sorry, I'm not interested in being a hero."

Once again, Barry had to scoff no matter what. "Well, you're doing a pretty lousy job being a villain this week."

The wielder of the Cold Gun put an end to this tedious conversation. "Merry Christmas, Barry." He walked out of the household the next moment.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)**

Frankie walked through the corridors leading to the Pipeline. She was trying out walking on the ceiling without the need to crawl. So far, it was going well.

"**_Where are you going, Frankie?_**" Magenta asked of her host.

"Wanna see what's up with Uncle Joe." She replied. Frankie got worried for him because he hadn't been himself lately.

"**_Think we're not the only one._**"

Stopping herself the metahuman felt her "other" mentally point her eyes to the back of them. Both of them see Barry Allen walking in their direction. "What's going on, Barry?"

"Gonna go check up on Joe, think he's in a space where he needs someone to talk to. Wanna go with?" Barry asked the magnekinetic.

Letting go of the ceiling, Frankie landed before the speedster with concern on her face. "What's going on? What happened to Uncle Joe?"

Knowing that ever since her father was presumed to be dead she and Joe have grown closer over the last few months, Barry decided to convey the secret to the young metahuman. She was a trustworthy individual that Joe himself trusts as she was his own family.

At the end of it, Frankie was left with unfathomable shock. But she managed to push it aside to ask him. "Francine kept her child, Uncle Joe's child, secret from him all these years?"

"Yeah. Iris has a little brother that she never knew about and Joe had a son he never knew about." Barry stated.

"Let's check on Joe then." Frankie adamantly said before walking to the Pipeline, Barry right behind her.

The two walked to the entrance to the Pipeline. There they saw Joe perched up against the wall with a single hand on a cylinder. "Hey, Uncle Joe."

"Hi, Frankie." Joe manage to force a smile.

Registering the attempt of a reassuring smile, Barry told him. "Joe. I told Frankie about… Francine."

"And your son, Wally too." Frankie sadly said.

Dropping his smile, Joe found himself conflicted. He didn't know whether to scold Barry or to thank Barry for bringing Frankie into this. She's a smart girl who's endured at lot in her life. More than any teenage girl her age should experience.

The horrors of a terrible foster home with heinous foster parents. Dark matter turning into a metahuman. A piece of Venom giving her a symbiotic partner herself, Magenta. Both she and Magenta bonding for the first time to engage in a terrifying match against Carnage. With the red symbiote bearer winning victoriously, she was forced to be held hostage to lure Seth and Venom into a fight with Carnage. She had to see the man who would later become her father be impaled by a large spear. She had to witness her own father… sacrifice himself to protect her and this entire world.

Not everyone like her could come out so strong as she has.

Joe inhaled sharply and said, telling them both. "I was just thinking about a big drug bust that me and Singh made about ten years ago. Afterward… we went for a steak lunch to treat ourselves for a job well done and while we were ordering," he gestured to his chest with a pained expression. "I got this feeling in my chest. Like my heart was being squeezed. I knew something wasn't right."

His eyes met Barry's. "So I called your school, Barry, and the nurse said to me that she was just about to call me. Iris was on her way to the hospital."

"When her appendix burst." Barry remembered.

Joe nodded. "And I knew it, I could feel it, right here." His hand pressed against his chest. "I knew my kid needed me." His face was breaking slowly. "So if I have that feeling as a parent… why didn't I feel it from my son?"

Frankie shook her head, trying to relieve the weight of his burden. "Uncle Joe, it's not your fault. You didn't know about him."

"Sorry, sweetie, but it was." Joe confused them. "When Francine left rehab that last time, I should've looked for her. I'm a cop. I could've found her. Brought her back here." He gestured to the very ground of which this facility is founded on, the city itself. "Tried again. Tried harder."

"You were protecting Iris." Barry said in an effort to comfort him.

Recognizing that same sentence, he points a finger to Barry and states. "I've been telling myself that for 20 years… A 20-year lie, but I wasn't protecting her, I was protecting myself. I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't… I hated not being able to help Francine…. So it was easier for her to be dead. Out of my life. Out of my lives. But it wasn't for Iris… I was being selfish." His cheeks were wetting with tears and his throat hurting as it felt like it was drying up. "And that poor boy paid the price."

"Joe…"

"Uncle Joe…"

"He never had a father." Joe stated, knowing that both of them knew what that feeling was like. "… to read to him at night… show him to throw a football… to make him feel safe… and loved." Both could hear how his entire being was weighted down by the revelation of his son that he never knew existed. "Who taught him how to be a man, Barry?" Before Barry or Frankie could say anything, Joe continued with a heartbreaking voice. ""Him." I can't even say his name…. What have I done?"

Barry stepped forward. "Joe, look… You have been there for me every day since I met you. You have." He empathized when the detective looked full of self-doubt. The speedster put his hand on his shoulder. "You would have done the exact same thing for him if you could have, I know it. I'm sorry."

"He's not the only one, Uncle Joe." Frankie got their attention. "When I thought Dad died in the Singularity explosion, trying to save the city and the rest of the world… I was devasted. I thought I had lost the one man who would be there for me in my life… and then you came along and stood by me as I felt alone again. You were there for me and my Mom when we thought we had lost Dad."

"Mom was just settling into her new job at Mercury Labs, but you personally asked your Captain if there was any way for you to make time for me and my Mom. You'd drive me to school and you'd even pick me up at the exact time I was done without fail. And when you heard that Mom would be working long shifts, you made sure to make extra food at your own place so you could bring me dinner. Mom knows it and told you didn't have to, but you said you wanted to."

Frankie stepped closer to him. "Does that sound like a selfish man? No it doesn't. Uncle Joe, you might think and call yourself a selfish man, but I will happily come to your side and tell you that you're anything but that."

Joe couldn't help himself but cry tears of joy from her words and hugged Seth's daughter tightly. "Your father's gonna be proud of you when he comes back, honey."

"And he's gonna be grateful that his best friend helped out his daughter so many times." Frankie said into his neck while tightening the hug.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Olivia turned around to see Caitlin coming towards them with a dramatic triumphant smile. "Wild guess: We're gonna have one strange housecat for Christmas this year?"

"Yeah we are." Caitlin nodded. "Thanks to my daughter's puppy dog eyes, taught by Felicia Hardy herself." The doctor gave a mock bow.

Laughing at that, Olivia said. "Turning her signature weapon against her master like that?" the psychic made a dramatic move of wiping a tear away. "I'm so proud of your little girl, Caity."

"Not more than me." Caitlin said with a proud and motherly smile.

Matt and Cisco and Jay walked into the Cortex. The nanite mutant looked between them and asked. "What's wrong? Did Felicia say no to Christmas?"

"No, she's coming. Thanks to our little niece." Olivia said with a smile.

"Do I wanna know how sweet Frankie got a thief to attend a Christmas party?" Jay asked,

Cisco patted the man's shoulder and told him. "My man, that's a bridge you _do_ _not_ want to cross."

Suddenly a static sound emitted from their monitor. Followed by an eerie singing voice. "_Flash-y the red-nosed speedster_" The people in the Cortex faces the scream and sees and hears James Jesse's song. "_Had a very shiny suit… His friends oh so merry in their own… And if you ever saw them… You might want to puke…_"

He made a gagging sound as well as a motion matching that same sound. The Trickster greets. "_Merry Christmas, kiddie-winks! I'm back!_"

"Jarvis, work your magic!" Matt called out to the AI from their world.

"**As you wish, Sir.**" Jarvis replied.

Frankie and Barry walked into the Cortex after talking with Joe. They listened as the terroristic madman continued speaking. "_Citizens, you know, the holidays can be a time for gentle reflection on the year past. Our ups and downs, our triumphs and heartaches, but don't forget, it can also be a time for disemboweling our enemies._"

"We don't have a Trickster on Earth-2." Jay Garrick points out.

"He's on of a kind." Caitlin commented.

"_My stocking won't be completely stuffed until it's filled to the brim with bloody Flash parts. And don't worry, I'm sure Santa's workers can find some use for the other heroes' scattered body parts when I send them in Christmas presents. I heard they're very handy._" Jesse cackles. "_So what do you say, speed freak and his merry band of heroes? You wanna roast chestnuts?_"

"Jarvis, how it's looking?" Matt asked the AI while placing the arc reactor over his chest. Pressing in the middle, he releases the nanites and they adapt to his body. His entire body instantly covered by white metal plating. Light began shine out of the SHIELD logo in the center of his chest.

"**Not appearing to find the signal's source yet, Sir.**" The AI replied.

"What about the video? Can't it help us?" Frankie suggested with a question.

"Yeah, she's right. Are they any clues as to where he is based on the video?" Barry asked with a gesture to the video on the monitor.

"None that I can see." Cisco walked to the nearest computer, typing and stopping the video at point where they could see his face on the screen.

Jay narrowed his eyes on the screen. "Guys, there's a reflection of something in his cornea, see?"

Cisco zoomed in on the Trickster's eye. "What is that?" Olivia asked when getting close to the screen herself.

"Not sure… But I think I've seen it somewhere before." Caitlin admitted.

Harry joined them, and after Cisco zoomed closer in on the madman's eye, he instantly knew what the reflection of the toy is. "That's Mr. Jiggle Wiggle."

"Come again?" Cisco asked, not knowing if he was hearing correctly.

Caitlin was hit with realization. "It's a doll. A stuffed children's toy. Think Seth said he wanted to get one for Frankie at some point."

"Really?" Frankie didn't know whether she wanted a stuffed children's toy like that, even if it did come from her father.

"I gave one to my daughter when she was six." Harry revealed.

Thanks Jarvis and Cisco, their search for Mr. Jiggle Wiggle went well and brought them results. "Mr. Jiggle Wiggle was manufactured by Okamura Toys…Yahtzee!" Their search brought the engineer's attention to the computer screen again.

Jarvis took over. "**Okamura Toys was once in possession of a shipping facility in Central City. Said facility was shut down four years ago; it has remained deserted ever since.**"

"What if Weather Wizard's there?" Cisco worriedly thought out loud.

"I'm guessing the wand's not finished yet?" Olivia rhetorically asked.

"You guessed right, Livia." Matt nodded. "So what if it's not finished yet?"

"The Trickster is." Barry confidently said.

"Frankie, you ready?" Olivia asked with her body being enveloped by the nanites from her box. Her suit forming and her hair shooting into the air before floating around like a living being.

Frankie nodded and looks to her mother. Her clothes changing colors into pink and the veins of pitch-black and pure-white ran over her body in a spiraling pattern. "**Mom, I'm going.**"

"I know. Be careful, sweetie and listen to your Uncle and Auntie." Caitlin told her with a caring smile.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

"_My stocking won't be completely stuffed until it's filled to the brim with bloody Flash parts. And don't worry, I'm sure Santa's workers can find some use for the other heroes' scattered body parts when I send them in Christmas presents. I heard they're very handy._"

Everyone in the city saw James Jesse's video on the channels. CC Jitters were there to watch it too.

Ruby Hale and Evelyn Sharp are on the upper level of the coffee shop, having listened to what The Trickster's provocation aimed towards the heroes of this city. Each of the girls looked at the video footage with different feelings each.

The metahuman was scared of what this madman had in store for the heroes. While she was curious about them each, she was also worried that this terrorist would bring nothing but death down on the heroes. She wondered if, like Seth, that these heroes are related to the elemental on the other Earth. If so, her fear and worries would grow tenfold.

Unlike Evelyn, the former HYDRA assassin was intrigued about this. A madman publicly challenging an array of different heroes, on Christmas Eve? What's not to like about it? Parts of her couldn't help but want to meet these heroes and see if she was capable of beating them at her current level. Aside from The Flash, she didn't have the faintest idea as to who these other heroes might be.

"Someone challenging a group of heroes like that? Ballsy." Ruby admitted.

Evelyn didn't know if her sister was complimenting the madman or acknowledging his willingness to challenge them. "You're impossible to understand, you know."

"I take that as a compliment." Ruby said with a smile before sipping on her Venom drink. "Not bad."

"I think it's a bit bitter." Evelyn had gotten the same drink, apparently a popular option on the menu. There were others, but they ran out of supplies for today. Even their names were pulled off the menu board. "What should we do now?"

"Think we should do what Dad said and stick with his plan: Find this Matt guy and give those bags." Ruby nodded her head to the metahuman. "You still have your bag?"

"Yeah. You?" Ruby nodded her confirmation. "Good… wonder what we should do now?" Evelyn narrowed her eyes and thought of the heroes. She wondered what would happen to the heroes now as they would no doubt accept the challenge.

Trickster's a villain and as heroes, they can't turn a blind eye to this challenge.

The young metahuman clenches her hand at the thought of those heroes being hurt, knowing some of them are of Seth's family.

Unbeknownst to her, her markings began to appear. The long white crescent moon under her right eye and the markings on her forehead while her body emits light equal to that of her two elements.

Ruby noticed the shine and whispered loudly. "Are you insane?! Shut it off!" She grabbed hold of her sister's hand.

But that was a mistake as in an instant, darkness emitted from Evelyn's body and swallowed them both before lifting into the air, dissipated and the two sisters gone like the wind. The steaming liquid in their coffee mugs rippling from the shockwave that came as an aftermath. But no one to see them.

X

**(Okamura Toys Shipping Facility)**

The black shadowy smokescreen appeared again two blocks from the shipping facility that was once used for Okamura Toys. As it disappeared again, Evelyn and Ruby jumped away from one another. The former assassin swung her head around in search, not noticing that the metahuman's light was slowly fading away.

Ruby sends a heartless glare to her sister. "What did you do, Evelyn?! Why did you shine up in a coffee shop?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry." Evelyn apologized. "It's just… stranger here. I feel like my teleporting is too easy here, like it doesn't take much effort now."

That caused a confused look to form on Ruby's face. "So you're saying it's so easy to puff around in this universe that you're struggling with it?" Evelyn nodded embarrassedly. "We need to get your powers checked, cause they're weird as hell."

"Tell me about it." Evelyn wholeheartedly agreed with her.

They both looked to skies, having heard sounds of what sounds like a jet engine flaring. Its sound was masking two other sounds. One of clattering feet, the other of… crackling lightning.

"Hide!" Ruby stated and pulled her sister into the darkness of the shadows cast down on them by the tall buildings beside them. "Be quiet."

"Alright." Evelyn gulped. "_Don't be Zoom…_"

X

"_Don't be Zoom…_"

Widening her white lenses at that same voice she heard back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Angel Fury stopped herself into a hover. She turned her eyes around and once again looked around with her eyes clouded by psychic aura.

"… Who are you…" She asked to herself. Olivia considered spreading out a field with her telepathic powers to maybe hone in one a mind but couldn't risk hurting the person as they sound to be young. "…I wasn't going crazy before, someone else is here. First S.T.A.R. Labs… and now here, too… why?"

"Angel?" She looked to the side and saw Iron Knight fly towards her. Halting himself into hover, he asks. "What's wrong? Why'd you stop?"

While she did want to confide in her husband, they had a pair of criminals to catch and put behind bars in Iron Heights. "I'll tell you, but later. Right now, we have cross off a few names of the naughty list."

"Yeah, alright. Let's go." Matt accepted and flew ahead.

Giving once last glance to her surroundings to see if there truly was someone there, Olivia flew after her husband to go to the shipping facility.

X

Following the lead she found herself, Detective Patty Spivot found the way to the Okamura Toys shipping facility with ease. Having recognized the reflection of the stuffed children's toy in Trickster's cornea, she instantly tracked down the facility.

She walked into the seemingly abandoned facility with one hand holding her firearm and her other holding her flashlight. The place that was once used to bring children nothing but smiles and good memories, now brought colder-than-Christmas shivers down her spine.

Patty maneuvered her way past ropes of hanging baby doll heads, her eyes darting from side to side to find the man who ended her father's life.

_WHOOSH_

A gust of wind from behind brought her attention to that direction. Her flashlight pointing towards him and shining light over The Scarlet Speedster's form. He wasn't the only to enter. Magenta, Iron Knight and Angel Fury appeared next and stood before the detective.

Surprised to see her there, Barry asked with a vibrating voice to keep his identity concealed. "What are you doing here?"

"Same thing as the rest of you. Trying to catch a murderer." Patty's reply came out with a coat of anger.

"Without backup, detective? Doesn't sound smart." Iron Knight quipped. Patty opened her mouth, but before a word could escape, the next sound caught their full attention.

"_Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel_" they snapped around, pointing either whips, swords, repulsors and guns at the singing mechanic toy. "_I made it out of clay_" This just took a turn down Ominous alley.

"_We can't let Christmas hog all the holiday fun!_" James Jesse's voice spoke through the toy, making them all fear what he had in store for them. "_Happy Hanukkah!_" An armada of wooden spinners spun out of crates from around them. "_I made you of C-4!_"

"Gotta give the man points for creativity." Iron Knight admitted.

Elbowing her Uncle, Magenta stated. "**Not the time right now, Knight!**"

"Yeah, we have to get out of here." Angel Fury noticed that the spinners were closing on them from all sides. "Back to back! Magenta push them back with your powers!" Magenta nodded lashed out her hands, pushing the wooden spinners backwards by focusing on their metallic internals with her magnekinetic powers.

Barry and Patty went back to back, as did Olivia and Matt. "Let's lessen our plate a bit, huh?" The nanite mutant raised his hands, pointing the repulsors at the fleet of spinners.

"You sure that's a good idea? We are dealing with C-4 now." Olivia reminded her husband.

"Right." Matt forgot. He didn't want to go sky-high before Christmas Eve. Or after, for that matter.

"_I'm afraid we are definitely looking at closed casket funerals._" James's cackling voice came out of the doll's recorder.

"There's nowhere for me to run us to!" Barry exclaimed in his vibrating voice.

"So what should we do?" Patty directed to the group of heroes.

Olivia looked up, to the skylights above them. "Think the best-"

"Hold me!" Barry shouted, cutting off the mutant while he embraced in a hug with the detective.

Matt looked confused at the two. "What the-"

"I'm seeing someone." Patty stated.

"Me too." Barry said. The mutants and their niece couldn't help but find it ironic. "Don't let go."

"**What's their plan?**" Magenta asked as she continued pushed back spinners.

She and the mutants got their answer when the speedster, while being embraced by Patty, spun his arms around. Increasing the speed of his arms, funnels of wind unleashed from his limbs. The wind aided the magnekinetic, pushing back the wooden and weaponized spinners, but also pushed both the speedster and the detective off the ground.

Seeing them both fly, Olivia asked. "Two flyers here, and they don't even think to ask for us? Churlish."

"Let's go after them!" Matt and Olivia shot into the air. "Frankie, latch on!"

"**Coming!**" Magenta hurls her arms upwards and extends tendrils from it, latching on the mutants' arms before pulling on them, catapulting herself from the ground and up to the skylight.

_EXPLOSION_

The very moment she let herself be launched into the air; the wooden spinners exploded. Bringing down fire and smoke in the abandoned facility.

Frankie felt the burst of wind hitting her back and pushed her higher into the sky. But before she could be launched higher into the skies, Matt grabbed her right hand and Olivia grabbed her left hand. "**Wow!**" the metahuman let out in shock of her flying family keeping her in the air.

"Got you, Frankie." Matt assured her.

"Really can't keep our eyes off of you, can we?" Olivia joked with a snicker.

Looking downwards, Frankie felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment. "**You guys are embarrassing me!**" She whined.

"It's our job, kiddo!" Olivia joked as she and her husband lowered her to the ground. Placing themselves back on the ground, they noticed that Barry was also landing on the ground themselves.

Without even giving a single sign or word of gratitude, Patty walked out of the speedster's embrace. "Detective." Barry called out to her.

"It was all just a trap for you guys." Patty pointed a finger to the group of heroes. "Mardon and Jesse aren't even here. They're still on the loose."

"Wait a minute." Matt demanded. "How'd you figure out they might be here?"

Patty answers. "Because there was a reflection in Jesse's eye of Mr. Jiggle Wiggle. And that's the thing that my Dad bou-" She cut herself off instantly. "It doesn't even matter."

"**Is that why you came here without backup? Because of your dad?**" Magenta scolded her.

"Sorry, but none of you know anything about me." Patty stated steadfast.

"Much to your dismay, we know you're being reckless." Olivia countered. "And we're sure that the people in your life, your loved ones who cares enough about you to not want to see you get hurt."

"Except Mardon didn't kill my father. I did." Patty confessed.

Magenta's eyes expanded to new limits at that confession. That a detective had taken the life of her own father shocked her, completely overwhelming her.

The metahuman felt herself calm down slowly. She realized the reason for that when the inner voice in her mind spoke. "**_Don't worry, she's both lying… and being truthful?_**"

"_What do you mean?_" Her host asked.

"**_Wrong girl you're talking to, Frankie._**" The symbiote stated.

Frankie shifted her eyes to the detective again. "**What do you mean?**"

"See, he had a little shoe shop, and we didn't have any money, so I worked there after school." Patty explained, but she was far from done. "Except one day I decided not to show up, because I was being stupid and silly with my friends. I didn't even call to tell him that I was ditching." Her face was covered with regrets of the past. "So he brought the deposits to the bank, not me. He was shot and killed by Mardon, not me."

Barry was able to piece together everything now, everything that led Patty's life to this moment. Like the lightning from the sky that struck him and made him The Flash, the bullet that struck down Patty's father made her into the determined detective she is now. "That's why you became a cop. Joined the metahuman task force."

"It'll be legal when I kill Mardon." Patty said, none of the heroes liking the sound of that. "I have made my whole life about getting justice for my father, even if it meant I didn't have a life… and now I met a really great guy, and that doesn't even feel real to me and I'm scared he's gonna find out how angry I am." The Flash lowered his face, or rather, Barry Allen lowered his face. "I don't even know why I'm telling you this."

"Sometimes it's just easier to say things to someone with no face." Barry stated.

Patty looked between the heroes again. "Thank you all for saving me." She turned to walk to her car.

"You know," Barry started. "even if you get the guy who ruined your life, it doesn't always make things better."

"It has to be better than this." Patty countered before getting into the car. The speedster and the other heroes watched as she drove away.

When she was out of eyesight, Matt walks to the speedster. His helmet dematerialized into nanites and retracting into his suit. "You okay, Bar?"

"I… I really don't know, man." Barry scratched the side of his head.

Understanding his feelings Matt looked to the side and saw his wife looking around similar to that of a hound. Heading towards her, he inquired. "Something you wanna say?"

"Yeah…" Her own mask dematerialized so she could ask. "Remember me saying I heard another person's thoughts before at S.T.A.R. Labs?" He nodded. "I just heard that same person's thoughts before getting into shipping place here. But it was weird."

"Because of what they were thinking?" The nanite mutant suggested.

"Yeah. Like I said before, it was a young girl, around Frankie's age most likely. But what scared me was her thoughts." Olivia made eye contact with her husband, a worried looking between them. "The kid was thinking… "Please don't be Zoom."" Matt paled with his hands clenching. "She sounded really scared. Think that poor girl met Zoom before."

"You think she met him when he was last here?" Matt asked in concern

The nanite mutant received a shrug of uncertainty. "I don't know. Her thoughts got my attention on the way here, but I couldn't go after her or even check out her location with a wide-spread psychic field. Was too worried of what the field could do to her mind if they connected." Came the response from the psychic.

"You hear her thoughts now?" Matt asked.

"No, sadly no." Her hands compress. "I don't know what's going, but I hope we can find her."

"**We'll find her Aunt Liv.**" Frankie stated, having heard the entire conversation as she was close by. "**But you sound worried.**"

"Guess it's natural for me." Olivia chuckled. But the mutant was earnestly worried about the girl, hoping for the chance to find her and make sure that she was okay. And why she was at S.T.A.R. labs.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

The next day, at the facility, everyone had gathered to talk about both the threat the couldn't find yesterday, but also the events regarding Patty Spivot. The Nerdvengers, as Olivia called them, finished preparing the Wizard's Wand and it was being placed on a platform.

As that was happening other people were doing their own things. Barry was trying to get hold of his girlfriend for what felt like the millionth time, but like the other attempts, no success. Olivia was with Frankie and Caitlin by the main console of the Cortex.

The female mutant revealed the thoughts she heard yesterday, at both in their facility and near the destroyed shipping facility. Having heard that Caitlin suggested running through security footage from the nearby blocks to check the shipping facility. Olivia had Jarvis run through the previous scans of the S.T.A.R. Labs facility to track any strange and unusual persons.

With the doors as they still are, the possibility of someone walking into the place definitely crossed their minds.

"You really think this young girl walked into the facility?" Caitlin asked. The psychic gave her a dry look, as though the doctor just let out a bad joke. Rolling her eyes, she conceded. "Fine, it's very possible someone did walk into the facility without any of us noticing."

"That's weak, Mom." Frankie criticized her mother, who stuck out her tongue.

The psychic laughed at their family antics. "Gotta love you two no matter what. Especially in this time of year." She looked down at the keyboard.

Seeing that reaction to her own words, Caitlin directed to her daughter. "Sweetie, could you check on your Uncle Matt?"

"Sure." Frankie instantly replied, already knowing that her mother was hoping for a time to speak with her Aunt alone. So she walked to her Uncle in the private lab to the left.

"Why'd you get rid of my loving niece like that?" Olivia said in an accusatory tone.

"Remembered a Christmas tradition that you and Seth used to do a lot." The doctor saw her eyes grow with happiness and shock. "The two of you have this tradition where you would go to different shops and buy tons of pre-made cookie dough and mountains of chocolate. You'd spend the entire day, after buying each other gifts, and make loads, and loads of triple chocolate chip cookies." Olivia smiled at that memory. "When Stef and Bucky joined your lives, they also joined in on the Christmas tradition. Matt too, if I recall. And I think there was something about your Dad getting so made because of, and he said, I quote, "we made so frigging many cookies.""

""But we didn't care. It was our thing, after all."" The psychic knew the rest of the words. "Last Christmas I was in my Stasis and Firestorm was acting like a guard dog to protect me. He didn't get to spend Christmas with me. This year, it's my turn to spend Christmas without Seth." She looked to Caitlin's eyes. "Guess that goes for you too."

"Yeah…" Caitlin said with a saddened. Olivia realized what she said and gulped. Before she could apologize for her mistake, the doctor beat her to the punch with a smile forming on her face. "But then we're gonna have to make sure we have an incredible Christmas to make him jealous, even introduce Frankie to the Fury Christmas tradition of Earth-616."

"Honestly, Snow-Fury does sound cooler." She said with a teasing voice, managing to get the female doctor to blush up a storm. "Guess someone's thinking of the future with my Big Bro, huh?" She playfully stated, the blush on Caitlin's face intensifying. At this point, her head looked like a ripe tomato. Seeing that, the psychic couldn't but continue her teasing. "Careful when you think of my brother, it's gonna suck if our only doctor passes out because she can't stop thinking of my brother."

"Stop it!" Caitlin slapped her shoulder in defense. "I can't let my daughter see me go red like a flame."

"On the bright side: You don't smoke when you blush." Olivia referred to her brother's disadvantage when crushing on someone.

"Miss that…" Caitlin admitted with a longing look. Shaking off the feelings, she turned her attention to the screen again. "Jarvis, did you find anything from yesterday's scans that indicate a different person in here?"

"**Unfortunately, Dr. Snow, but there doesn't appear anyone were there yesterday.**" Jarvis replied.

"Chances are, it either happened so quickly the scanners didn't pick anything up, or maybe she appeared in the period of between scans." Olivia rubbed her head. "Gotta figure this one out as soon as possible. While taking care the Jesse and Mardon duo, of course."

"No rest for the wicked…" Caitlin commented before walking around the console to go to the platform with the Wand.

"Patty, it's me… Again." Barry spoke into the cellphone; another voicemail being recorded as his girlfriend remained unreachable. "I'd really love to talk. I'm worried about you. Anyway, just give me a call when you get a chance, all right? Thank you. Bye." Barry shut off the phone.

Matt and Frankie walked into the Cortex again, seeing Jay run his eyes over the Wand once more. "Garrick, don't worry, we finished it."

"Let's have the expert who used it before check it out." Jay Garrick stated. "Barry."

"Yeah?" The speedster looked to the powerless speedster.

A quick gesture to the weapon, and he asked. "How's it look?"

Inhaling sharply at the memories of the last time this sword was wielded, Barry admitted. "Wow, eerily familiar."

Matt tapped his shoulder. "How's it going with Patty? She okay?"

"She is, um… hiding a lot of pain behind her smile." He answered heavyhearted.

Thinking of her own relationship with Seth, Caitlin advised. "They say couple start to resemble each other after a little while. That's how it was with me and Seth. I think I began to get some of his… dark humor after a while."

"You did. You really did, Caitlin." Barry instantly confirmed without hesitation. Caitlin giving a dry look while her daughter laughed. "The thing is, I mean, she only opened up to The Flash, not me. So even if I got her on the phone, I don't know what to say."

"From what I've heard from Joe," Olivia got their attention. "just being around you can be a big help."

"Thank you…" Barry told her in gratitude.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, Breach Room)**

It felt like an instant, but nighttime had already come over the city of Central City, casting darkness over the metropolis. But the underground section of S.T.A.R. Labs remained bright as ever as the lambs above his head kept shining.

But Harrison Wells from Earth-2 was not keen on meeting up with this menace again. The speedster's last visit, however, changed his mind for the better. For the better of his child on that Earth.

Which confused him as he had heard this Venom… Seth character had protected her the entire time. But after a visit from Zoom… it was wrong… perhaps a lie. And, maybe after the vibe, he died in a battle to protect Jesse.

_WHOOSH_

Harry couldn't put more thought into that scenario as the breach opened up. The next second, it closed but not before Zoom appeared out of it. Standing menacingly with blue lightning running all over his pitch-black form.

Neither of them looked willing to acknowledge one another. Zoom narrows his eyes and asks. "**Have you decided?**"

"I need more time." Harry said.

"**Don't we all.**" Zoom quipped. "**Decide.**"

"I need more time." Harry strongly counter the speedster's demands.

Zoom thrown in another incentive. "**Maybe if I go up there and kill a few of your new friends…**"

"No!" Harry replied defiantly, not wanting to see any of them killed at the hands of the man who has his daughter.

"**One more day.**" Zoom gives his condition. "**I'll tell your daughter you said, "Hello."**"

At the mention of his daughter, Harry asks. "What about Seth? About Venom?"

This caught Zoom's interest. "**You know?**"

"I do." Harry flatly replied, but he was curious as to how the speedster would respond.

"**Then you know that no one can defeat Zoom. Not even Venom.**"

_WHOOSH_

Having said his deal and his demands, the speedster turned around and rushed back into the breach, returning to his home universe of Earth-2. Leaving Harry Wells to slightly gape in his shock and despair.

Perhaps the hope of Venom protecting his daughter was no more.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

"You really shouldn't drink this much coffee, you know." Evelyn told her sister who was drinking from her third mug of CC Jitters' Venom coffee drink.

Ruby put the cup on the table. "I need to stay caffeinated."

"Why? Wanna out-hype a speedster or something?" Evelyn said with a chuckle.

"No, need to be ready for when you begin to puff out again like before." Evelyn dropped her face. The former assassin then said. "Think we should talk about last night."

"What is it? I'm gonna try and get hold of my teleporting again, I promise." The metahuman assured her.

But that wasn't on the assassin's mind. "It's what happened yesterday, and who we saw." Evelyn recalled that someone did almost find them after she accidently teleported them near the shipping facility. "We saw that flying woman before, and I think I've seen her before… from my universe."

"Another hero from your universe like Se… like Dad?" Evelyn asked.

"Yeah… I saw her once in the past, but I don't remember her name." Ruby smiled. "Just remember that she was incredibly strong."

"Sounds like a role model for you." Evelyn teased.

"But I was thinking though. That woman who almost found you at S.T.A.R Labs and the woman who found us before last night, they must be the same person. They must know the others then… so I was thinking… I think we should show ourselves to them." Ruby suggested and Evelyn reeled her head back in shock with an intake of air. "I think it's safer that way, and we have to give those bags to that Matt guy still."

"Yeah…" Evelyn's fiddled while still around the mug.

"What's up with you?" Ruby narrowed her eyes to slits.

Evelyn reveals. "Aren't you… scared of meeting Seth's family; his sister, his brother-in-law, his daughter and girlfriend." Ruby listened to her sister's confession. "I'm scared of meeting them. We're just strangers from another Earth who… who're just gonna jump into their lives all of a sudden, and when we do, we're just becoming Frankie's sisters like that and this Caitlin's new daughters." Her hands tighten around her mug. "You really think they'll accept us into their lives… and not give us the boot when they see us?"

Ruby understood Evelyn's fears. Unlike her, the metahuman was scared of experiencing the same hell of not being accepted because of who she is. Her family gave her the boot when they found out about her being a metahuman and they assumed she was the one responsible for killing her own two parents.

Understanding her feelings Ruby comfortably said. "…Think they'll just accept an assassin like me into their place. Especially since I come from a Nazi organization back in my world." She surprised not just Evelyn but also herself when she reached over and cupped her sister's hand. "Just so you know… if they wanna give you the boot, I'm with you."

Evelyn looked shocked at those caring words from Ruby. "Why?"

"Dumbass… we're sisters now, aren't we?" Ruby chuckled with an honest smile. "We gotta stick together, right? That's family, after all."

"Thanks, Sis." She flipped her hand around and cupped Ruby's hand gently. "So what's the plan then?"

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, both Cisco's satellites and Jarvis's citywide scans picked up a presence.

Barry took notice of it and pointed at the monitor which showed both results, each one identical to the other. "What's that? Is that Mardon?"

Cisco, who was seated at the main console, nodded. "That's definitely him. Atmospheric pressure just dropped 200 hectopascals."

"Where, Cisco?" Frankie asked as her aunt and uncle equipped their suits.

"Central City Square." Cisco answered.

Caitlin knew of an event taking place there. "The tree lighting ceremony."

"Thousands of people are gonna be there." Matt notified horrified by what the criminals might do to thousands of innocent people.

Olivia looked to the screen again, and her eyes saw something weird there. "Matt, what's that on the screen? Is Jarvis glitching or something?"

Matt looked to the monitor himself and widened his eyes at the growing yellow dots of energy signatures. "Jarvis… are those signatures…"

"**Unfortunately, yes, Sir. The energy signatures you are currently seeing on the screen are those identical to that of weaponized machines.**" The AI explained.

"That many of them? And they're all near Central City Square?" Jay asked.

"Looks like The Trickster has more in store for this Christmas than Santa Claus himself." Matt scoffed and turned his head to Caitlin. "Caitlin, mind if we bring Frankie into this?"

Caitlin looked baffled. Olivia added. "Matt's right on this, Caity. Frankie's a magnekinetic, she can pull or even repel machines. It will definitely come in handy in this case, we don't know what Jesse's planning right now."

"I know." Caitlin looked to her daughter. "Baby, be careful and don't do anything rash, all right?"

"Gonna try, Mom." Her daughter quipped, her symbiotic partner enveloping her body the next moment. "**We're going.**"

"Be careful, all of you." Caitlin told with a glance to the others. They nodded instantly.

Barry snapped around and took hold of the Wand. "Barry, take care of Weather Wizard. We'll go to CC Square and check out the situation there. You worry about Weather Bitch."

"I will." Barry assured with a confident nod. He sped out of the facility while the others jumped and flew out of the skylight.

X

Lightning clouds gathered above his head, thundering and booming violently at Mark Mardon's commands. Weather Wizard looked content with the fleet of thunderous clouds in the skies, so he turned his eyes to the tree lighting ceremony.

It was gonna be a hell of a lightshow when he's gonna bring down thunderstorms on thousands of people. And from the ledge he was standing on now, Mark had the best seat in the house.

He did wonder what James Jesse meant by his words before. "Since it's Christmas, why not bring in a little fantasy?!"

_WHOOSH_

Hearing a speeding wind sound, Mark Mardon swung his head backwards to see the Scarlet Speedster standing there with a strange wand-like contraption. "Oh, glad to see you. Maybe you can help me."

"Help get back in to a jail cell? It'll be my pleasure, Mark." Barry quipped.

"No." Mark holds up a hand. "No, see, I'm trying to decide if I should kill everyone down there with a deadly hailstorm, or, little trickier, with acid rain, what do you think?"

The Flash raises the Wand and taps it against the forehead of his cowl, pretending to think over those terrible options. "Ah, let me think, um…How about neither?" He offered his option before holding up the wand. "You see this wand here? Guess what?"

Before Barry had the chance to continue his words, the atmokinetic metahuman leaned backwards and let himself fall over the edge of the building. The sound of rushing wind didn't reach the speedster's ears as he rushed to the edge himself.

He then got the shock of his eyes as he saw Mark Mardon hover clumsily down with small windstorms erupting from his palms. "Uh… guys? He's flying."

"_He's flying? Since when can he fly?_" Caitlin fired off in shock.

Cisco tried to explain. "_Well, he's using his powers to alter the air pressure around him to create pockets of updraft that can-_"

"_No, he can fly._" Harry cut off the mechanical engineer.

"Matt, you guys close to the ceremony?" The speedster asked.

"_No, not yet. You go and get Mardon!_" Matt shouted over the rushing wind that stroke his mask.

"Yeah!" Barry shouted back and sped after the atmokinetic metahuman, initiating a chase.

X

"Guys, we're here!" Iron Knight shouted into the comms device as he and his wife and their niece arrived at the tree lighting ceremony at Central City Square.

Olivia looked and a scowl formed on her face behind her mask. She pressed a finger on her comms and stated. "You were right, Caity. They are thousands of people here." Her eyes were looking downwards at the sight of those innocent people underneath her. "We have to get them out of here."

"**But how?**" Frankie asked.

Matt's scanner blinked on his HUD screen and he saw two arrows pointing to the sides, to the left and right. "Barry's on his way right now with Mardon." He narrowed his eyes on the other arrow. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong?"

Looking to his wife, Matt answered. "I had Jarvis keep track on the other signatures we found before and now that we're actually here, I just picked up on even more of those signatures."

"**How many?**" Magenta asked.

"It's increasing at this point, but it looks like there's more than fifty of them." The nanite mutant worriedly revealed.

"That's not good." Olivia said. Determined she looks down to the ground and directed to the group of humans who have noticed them. "All of you get out of here! You're in danger!"

They began to mutter in fear of what she just said and looked to each other. A few of them even looked upwards to the Iron Knight. Seeing them look to him, he shouted. "Listen! All of you need to get out now!"

Having heard that booming voice, people began to scramble and begin to run out of the way. However, they stopped the Scarlet Speedster rushed down the side of a tall building and pointed the Wand towards Mark Mardon. The device doing as it was designed to and sucked the air from his small windstorms.

Mark was left no other choice and accept his fate and send clashing down on the ground, rolling on it with grunts escaping his mouth every second. Screams overlapped as the criminal was grunting and send down on the asphalt.

Matt slammed down on the ground, pointing both of his repulsors at the criminal. "Stay down!"

"You're done for, Mardon!" Olivia shouted and swung her bladed whip in the air.

Magenta snarled at him like a predatory animal. "**You won't hurt anyone!**"

The Flash then said. "You didn't really think we'd let you hurt all these people, did you?"

As he got up, Mark said. "No, of course not, but I bet you guys are gonna let me hurt you." He directed to the speedster.

Before a certain revelation of his brother-in-law, Matt would gladly have let that happen. But with that revelation revealed to him, his mind was changed forever, and he have now forgiven the speedster. "And why exactly would we do that, Mardon?"

Their attention was diverted when the sound of wheels skidding connected with their ears. They saw a golden Christmas present coming towards them, a red ribbon around the present. It stopped right in front of the speedster's feet.

He, Olivia, Frankie and Matt snapped their eyes to the side, to the direction of the suspicious present. They saw to their shock, James Jesse sitting on Santa's throne in a Santa Claus outfit. "Feliz Navidad!" He announced his presence to them in Spanish, saying "Happy Christmas" in that language. "Time for a real war on Christmas." He cackles madly.

"Crazy's still crazy." Olivia insulted her patient.

"What is this?" Barry referred to the present at his feet.

Mark then answered for his… insane comrade, pointing a finger to the box. "That is a box with a bomb in it."

They all formed horrified expressions. They only intensified with James's dark revelation. "Yup, I've handed out about 100 of them today." He leant back in the chair with a candy cane in his hand. "It feels so good to give."

Mardon explained their horrible plan. "You see, right now, there are 100 random children who've each taken home a box just like that one and are shoving it under their Christmas tree." He smirked. "There's no way for you four to get to all of them, even if you knew where to look."

"You scumbags! Endangering children and their families?!" Olivia felt her hate increase.

"**Monsters!**" Frankie snarled at them.

"Sweetheart, you might wanna take a look in the mirror, you're a bit more monstrous yourself." James gestured to her demonic form.

"Oh, no." Barry muttered before pleading. "Please don't do this."

Mark looked offended. "What? Me? Kill 100 families? No, that's up to you guys. See, I'm happy just to take your life, Flash."

James got off his chair and looked to the mutants and the magnekinetic above his head. "Don't you flying man and lady, plus the crawling kid, worry about a thing. I got something for you guys too. It's Christmas, meaning there's work for everyone!" The Trickster whistled loudly.

""_Merry Christmas!_""

""_Merry Christmas!_""

""_Merry Christmas!_""

A series of mechanical voices began to chant those exact words from above their heads and the mutants looked upwards to a shocking sight, their niece shocked like them at the horrifying sight.

Above their heads, high above their heads, what looked like flying mechanical… elves hovering there. Their wings mechanical and flapping repeatedly. Like Christmas elves from stories and movies, they are wearing green clothes with red spiking collars. Black belts around their waists with golden yellow buckles and green shorts. Their mouths moving as they continued their heinous and creepy chants. Their hands wrapped around big black bombs, made to be comical as they have that same design.

Even the word "Bomb" written on each one of them in big red letters.

"**What… What are those?**" Frankie asked in horror as she saw the number of flying machines went from ten to thirty in the blink of an eye.

Mark chuckled. "Well, it's Jesse's idea. He thought to bring in a little fantasy. Which is this… apparently." He swirled a pointing finger to the flying elves.

The Trickster retook a seat in the throne again. "Didn't wanna go for the Wicked Bitch's look. I mean, monkeys? For Christmas? Even I'm not that stupid. So did a little… adapting, if you will. And they are 100 of those jumping into the air right now. They're going round and round above the city, maybe two or three times around in the sky before diving down on people like amateur divers at a kiddie pool."

"You sick bastard!" Matt shouted at the man, pointing his repulsors at him.

"Sure you wanna do that?" Mark inquired, halting the mutant from projecting energy blasts. "Remember, they're 100 of those in the air right now. You sure we're worth wasting that ammo on?" the atmokinetic saw that, even through the knight-like helmet, that the knight was enraged and his blood boiling. He faces all the heroes with swinging looks. "So this is how it's gonna be. You four are going are to take care of the flying elves before they kill random folks on the streets. As they do that…" he turns to The Flash. "You are gonna stand there and let me end you. Very publicly… and very painfully…and I'll let everybody live, but… if I see even a little flicker of electricity on you or any of the flyers here again… then the caskets makers in this town are gonna have a very merry Christmas."

James continued his villainous and mad cackle. His cackle loud enough so the thirty flying elves separated and flew their own direction.

Mark finalized. "So, heroes… what's it gonna be?" He holds out his hand for the speedster. "Huh?"

For what felt like eternity, none of the heroes dared make a move. Even the mutants couldn't bring themselves to fly or leap away, not knowing what direction to charge towards.

The Flash then made his decision and looked to the flyers and their niece. "Guys. Go take care of the flying elves." They looked shocked. "You know you're the only ones who can take care of them. I can't fly or jump as high as you guys can, and I don't have the weapons or firepower to take down that many weapons. You have to go… I can handle this one on my own." He holds up the Wand and places it in the criminal's hand.

"There you go." Mark acted proud of his decision. He looks at the heroes above. "Don't you guys have some place to be or something?"

"Son of a bitch!" Matt considered shooting his head right here and now.

"Knight!" The Flash called out. "Save the city!"

"Fuck!" Matt growled. "You better not die, Flash!" he shouted before spinning around and shooting into the air.

"We're gonna kill you if you do!" Angel Fury let out before following her husband.

"Thought we were past that." Barry directed with a chuckle to Magenta.

"**This time, it's because we care about you.**" Magenta lashed out her hands and wrapped them around a lamp before shooting into the air.

"Oh ain't that sweet?" Mark chuckled as he formed an ice ball in his right hand before thrusting it into the speedster with a warcry, sending The Flash into the ground.

X

"Jarvis, get us the locations of all of those flying monkeys now!" Matt shouted into his comms devices, ordering the AI while he spins around and shoots two devices to his wife and his niece each. "We have to separate for these things."

"100 vs three? I like those odds." Olivia confidently said.

"Yeah, it's gonna be a literal blast." The nanite mutant admitted while his HUD screen began to chime repeatedly. "Those devices, apply them to your eyes and they're gonna show the way to the nearest group."

"**We need to divide and conquer.**" Magenta suggested, causing her uncle and aunt to stop and look at her. "**We all know it's the best option at this point. Don't worry, I will take care of a smaller group. But you guys are better suited taking out big groups of targets. So please… let's split up and take them out while the others at S.T.A.R. Labs take care of those exploding presents.**"

Olivia reluctantly agrees. "Magenta's right."

"Yeah… she is." Matt agreed, same level of reluctance as his wife. "Alright, me and Angel will take care of forty each, Magenta you take care of the last twenty, can you handle those?"

"**Yeah, trust me.**" The metahuman said confidently.

"Always, kiddo. Be careful, both of you." Iron Knight exclaimed with his wings flaring and shooting him towards the direction of the right side.

"You too, Matty!" Angel Fury exclaimed with psychic aura around her body, her body catapulted to the direction of the left side.

"**Let's go!**" Magenta and Frankie shouted out loud before jumping into the air herself. Tendrils shooting out and swinging straight ahead.

100 flying Christmas elves are waiting for them.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

"Frankie…" Caitlin muttered after she listened in on their conversation. She knew her daughter was strong, but this could very well be too much for her. But all she could do now is believe her daughter and trust her and her abilities. "I believe in you, Frankie…"

"They're gonna kill Barry." Cisco stated after hearing the speedster be dealt with another ice blast.

"Unless we find those bombs while the others take care of those flying elves." The powerless speedster said. "Cisco?"

"Jay… there's no way. It's not like they're those elves, they can't be tracked. There's no way for us to find so many bombs." Cisco regretfully said.

"There is a way." Harry flatly admitted.

"To find 100 randomly-placed bombs?" Cisco wanted confirmation from the otherworldly scientist.

Harry turns his head to him. "We don't have to find 100. We just have to find one. And then we get rid of them all."

"How?" Caitlin asked inquiringly.

"A breach." Jay followed the man's line of thinking.

Harry nods. "That's right. We sent Grodd away. We can do the same to these bombs, all of them." He turns to the mechanical engineer. "Do you have a drone in your workshop?"

"Yeah." Cisco answered.

"Does it fly?" Harry asked.

"Yeah." Cisco recited his answer.

"Good. I'm taking it. You're not getting it back." Harry was already in the process of moving towards the exit.

"I'll warm up the van." Cisco moved after Harry, Jay following them.

Caitlin remained at the console. "Please… save the city, guys."

X

""_Merry Christmas!_""

"Mommy! Look!" A little girl tugged on her mother's sleeve and pointed a finger to the sky, pointing to one of the many flying Santa Claus workers.

"What is…" The mother asked herself as she and her daughter took in the confusing but also terrifying sight of the flying machines that chants their Christmas greetings. "Sweetie stay close to me, alright?" She asked. The two weren't the only ones to watch them. Dozens or even more watched as forty flying elves flew above their heads.

Their worries and confusions, mostly their fears, were reduced at the incoming form of Iron Knight flying towards the gather of flying elves. They saw him elongate the arm blades he possesses and increased his speed.

Increasing the output of one of his wings, Matt charged into a spin and swung his right arm. His energy blade connected with an elf, cutting it in half and leaving a small-scale explosion in the air. Steadying himself, he aimed at another one with his repulsor. With a quick charge of energy converging to it, the nanite mutant released a repulsor blast at the flying machine.

"Two down, huh?" Matt muttered behind his mask with a scowl, his eyes focused on the remaining thirty-eight flying machines. He didn't have time to go through them one by one. "Time to work, right Seth?" He smirked behind his mask and shot forward again.

Both hands grabbing hold of two machines by their wings, his own blazing much stronger right now. Throwing the two machines in his hands like balls, he watched them connect with five and explode above the streets. The debris of seven machines falling on the heads of civilians, but at least they're alive.

His shoulder plates opening up and arming small missiles. Crossing his arms over his chest, he swings his eyes around behind his mask and locks onto the flying machines. Clenching his armored hands, he uncrosses them and releases an array of missiles for the targeted machines.

Explosions came filled the air over the streets as twelve more elves met their fates upon impact with the mutant's weaponry. Blasting through the immense smokescreen with incredible speed. "Jarvis, we're down to nineteen now, aren't we?"

"**Affirmative, sir.**" The AI confirmed his thoughts.

"Can we take them out in one fell swoop with an unibeam?" He asked his calculating AI partner.

"**It is possible, but we would have to get them above the streets, much higher than they are now.**"

Matt narrowed his eyes and his arms formed into long ion cannons. "Remember that code, Ivan Vankov used on Hammer's shitass droids?"

"**I believe I know where you're going with this, Sir.**" The AI spoke in a cheeky tone.

"Get them to target me now, old friend." The repulsor energy around his cannons turned red before he pointed them at the remaining group of elves. In rapid succession, energy blasts shot out of their barrels and hit the flying elves, red light coming over their flying mechanical forms. They looked to lose the ability to fly for a brief moment, but they steadied themselves and spun around to look at the nanite mutant.

"**They're now going after you. I might suggest a higher venue for the party, sir.**" The AI jokingly said.

"You and your jokes, J."

Thrusting his feet forward, the thrusters halting his flight with their energy output. Increasing that very output, Matt lashed his hands downwards and shot into the air like a rocket ascending from its platform. The flying elves followed after him, fighting and slamming into each other as though it was a game of tag.

"_Merry Christmas!_"

Matt scoffed. "Your singing and chanting and shit…" he spun around energy shining in his arc reactor on his chest and repulsor energy converging into his cannons, pointing them at the nineteen elves converging on his spot. "Is fucking annoying! Merry Christmas this, jackasses!"

Unleashing an unibeam from his chest and unleashing a series of energy blasts from his cannons, he watched as one by one the elves' numbers reduce with each departing repulsor blast. A massive smokescreen was before his eyes now, clouding his vision.

Then a single elf flew through the smoke and neared him.

But within an instant, Matt had the barrel of his right cannon pressed to it stomach. A mere flex of his limb, and a repulsor blast ventilated the Christmas elf with an explosion as the aftermath.

Once dissipated, the nanite mutant looked around and saw that no more of Trickster's creations were near him. "Time to check on Livia and Frankie."

X

""_Merry Christ-_"

Two of the Christmas elves were cut off when the adamantium razor whip cleaved through them. Angel Fury flew towards them and spun around, the psychic aura intensifying before lashing out her right leg. The psychic's foot met an elf's back and kicked it into another one higher up in the air. Explosions ringing in her ears.

Olivia compared the sounds of both explosions and the sounds of that abysmal chanting. "_Yeah, those explosions are hell of a lot better than those elves._"

She lashed out and gathered psychic energy into the palm of her hand, quickly forming a sphere. Compressing it further, she hurled it towards four of them. Their chanting cut short along with their mechanical lives.

"Eight down!" Angel Fury wrapped telekinetic energy around three of them, with a swing of her hand she forces those three into another group of five elves. The explosions brought more civilians' attention to the sky, seeing Angel Fury chasing mechanical Christmas fairytale beings.

"Sixteen… Damn this is taking too long!" More psychic energy enveloped the female mutant's form before launching herself. Swinging her whip around, she unleashed a succession of slashes that connects with various elves.

Six more of them were destroyed.

The flying elves snapped their heads and around to see the female mutant. With a whirl of her whip, she cuts down two more. "Should be twenty-four." She said unsurely. She noticed the remaining sixteen elves with their heads pointing to her.

Using the device on her right eye lens, she zooms in on their faces and sees them redden their eyes while they were fixated on her form. "Don't rush boys." She quipped as the mechanical elves dives towards her.

Landing on the nearest edge of a rooftop, Olivia uses her powers to wrap the razor whip around her right arm like a gauntlet. "Let's dance!" Jumping to the side, she sends her fist into the face of an incoming elf, slamming it into the ground. Before it could explode, the mutant threw into a group of five others. Watching at the sight of their numbers reducing to ten, she smirked.

Raising her hands and pointing her palms at the five that comes towards her. She stopped the movements of those five and pulls to her. The momentum of the psychic pull made the mechanical beings fly unsteadily and uncontrollably.

When one of them came within arm's length, the psychic thrusts and arm forward and grabbed hold of the mechanical elf. She threw it into the air, swiftly grabbing hold of two others and threw them upwards, following the same path as first one.

Forming two spheres of psychic energy into her palms, the mutant jumped backwards and thrusted her hands upwards, firing the spheres into the air and towards the three elves. A loud explosion came over them. Performing a front spin, she jumps into the air and swings her whip downwards, cleaving through the stomachs of two elves.

Returning to her feet again, Angel Fury leaped forward. Telekinetic powers strengthening the muscles inside her arms before taking hold of two elves and slammed them into the ground. Performing a simple backwards jump, she let herself be launched further back thanks to the shockwave of the explosions of two those elves.

The three last ones looked at her and with another powerful swing of her whip, she cracked their bodies open and watched them explode. She panted heavily and had to place one knee on the ground. "Too… fucking many elves."

"No kidding." Iron Knight agreed as he landed beside his wife. Crouching beside her, he places a hand on her shoulder and asks. "Are you okay? You look tired."

"Too many Oz-wannabe monkeys." Olivia groaned and wiped the edge of her mask, a small drop of blood stained on the tip of her clawed finger. "Damn… I've gotten rusty."

"That's up for debate, babe." He noted when inspecting the damage left behind by his wife's destruction.

"Let's fly, Frankie's waiting." The psychic stated as she returned to her full height.

"Yeah, she is. Let's go!" Matt exclaimed loudly as he and his wife shot into the air again.

X

"**Piss off!**" Magenta screamed as she saw the twenty flying elves chasing her. All of a sudden their eyes spark red and they decide to chase her.

What's embarrassing is that she didn't even have the chance to take down a single elf yet.

"_Merry Christmas!_"

And their chanting wasn't much help either.

"**_Frankie, pull them to you with your powers and then cut them down. Your close-range fighting is your strongest ability right now, take advantage of it!_**" Her "other" shouted. Ever since she was born, Magenta watched her host become stronger and stronger, and as the symbiote bonded to her she knew what her strengths are.

"**Alright, let's go!**" Frankie shouted and stuck her feet to the wall of a building. She sees four elves coming to her and forms jagged swords on both arms. Concentrating on the four elves, without the use of her hands, she used her magnekinetic powers to bring the elves closer to her.

As they were close to her now, she jumped off the building and swung her blades left and right, cutting down those four elves in an instant. The explosions behind her pushed her forward with a violent burst of wind. Tendrils came out of her back and attached to the nearest walls and kept her suspended there.

"**Thanks, partner.**" The metahuman told her "other" in gratitude for saving her.

"**_Save it till we're out of this mess, stupid._**" Came the quipping statement from the symbiote.

Frankie nodded and saw that she was in an alleyway. More accurately, she was above the ground with her tendrils keeping her between walls. Turning her head around, she sees the chanting elves flying towards her. Releasing the tendrils from the walls, she backflipped into the air and ran up the side of the wall. Her arms returning to their original shapes.

She saw an elf flying down the side of the wall, trying to dive into the metahuman. Narrowing her white pseudo eyes on that mechanical elf, she thrusts an arm outward, sending out a tendril that attaches to the bomb. Spreading the symbiotic mass over the entire bomb in the elf's arms, Frankie strengthened the hold.

Wrapping her fist around the tendril like a rope, Frankie pulls the elf into two elves behind her. The explosion of three elves damaging the wall and sending pieces of brick down to the ground. Leaping off the wall, she thrusts her arm out again, splitting it into dozens of tendrils.

A large quantity of them dodged the incoming tendrils, but three of them were penetrated. Before they could explode, Frankie uses them like a mallet and swings them into the two others. Explosions appears and blasted the tendrils with fire causing the metahuman to gain a pained expression.

The tendrils retracted to her arm and she had to hold it with her other hand. Her eyes focused on the remaining ten mechanical elves that fly before her eyes in a circular pattern, like bees. "**Let's clean this up now!**"

"**_Wait!_**"

Frankie was halted by the sudden shout from her partner. "**What's wrong?**" she inquired.

Instead of getting a verbal response, Frankie felt Magenta mentally turn her gaze to the side and she followed that same direction. There, to her shock, she saw something coming out of the side of a building. She didn't know what it was, nor could even give them a name to what it was…

But… it looked like massive pitch-black smoky miasma came out in a stream. Slowly, the steam began to take the forms of what looked like tendrils of pure darkness with the speed of bullets. They slammed into the five of the elves in an instant, not affected at all by the explosions.

While she was shocked by those darkness extensions, Frankie's attention was diverted by the loud sound of cracking metal that multiplied instantly. She looked to the remaining elves and sees them… being compressed… by an invisible and powerful force.

Frankie shifted her gaze around her, thinking that it was her Aunt Liv's telekinetic powers that was destroying the remaining elves. But she was nowhere to be found. The metahuman looked back to the compressing elves, she sees that the last five have now been completely turned into metal balls with wings. When they fell to the ground, she looked around again in search.

"**_What was that about? How and where did those things come from?_**" Magenta asked regarding the tendrils of darkness.

"**And how did those elves be crushed like that?**" Frankie asked regarding the sudden and unexpected destruction of the elves.

"Magenta!"

She looked backwards to see Iron Knight and Angel Fury flying towards her. "**Hey.**" She greeted them flatly, still shocked of what she just saw.

"What's wrong, Magenta?" Matt asked.

Olivia took the time to inspect the damage of her niece's attacks. "Nice job, Frankie. Impressive work. Gotta love the destruction here."

"**That wasn't me, at least not all of it.**" Frankie's response surprised them.

"What do you mean?" Olivia asked-

"_Her again!_"

Her eyes snapped open and this time she rushed forward like a bullet, adamant and determined to find the source of that voice. Her husband and niece calling after her, but their voices fell on deaf ears for now as she flew through the air.

"Not this time!" She shouted and landed on the street in a rough slide. Stopping herself, she looked into the nearest alleyway. Olivia was confused that she didn't find anyone there… but she did find something else amidst trashy alleyway.

Even though it was covered by the shadows of the buildings beside her, she did see through the shadows and did find some kind of… smoky remains of… something there. Before she could go and inspect it further, she watched as the smoky remains of the… darkness… vanished.

She has watched crazy and strange things her entire life, but that was something that she hadn't witnessed before. "What was that…?" "_There's more to that girl than I thought… I have to find her._"

"Angel?!" She heard her husband call out to her. "Everything good?"

"Yeah!" She replied, she would tell him everything later. "Let's help Flash now!" She shot into the air and flew to the speedster.

"Yeah." Matt slowly agreed.

"**Aunt Liv's weird now.**" Frankie admitted.

"Oh yeah, she is." The nanite mutant agreed before grabbing his niece's hand and flying with her towards the Flash's location at Central City Square.

X

"_Cisco, Frankie and the others took care of the elves!_" Cisco heard from Caitlin, who was monitoring the entire situation at S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Great. That's one problem taken care of. How's Barry doing?" He asked Caitlin over the phone.

"_He's not doing too well._" Caitlin sheepishly stated as she was unsure of how to explain how their friend was being beaten with the powers of weather itself. "_Take care of things on your end, quickly._"

"We will." Cisco assured her before hanging up, he took out the tablet and began to make adjustments to the drone. While doing so, he asked Harry. "Harry, what is the plan?"

Jay took out a bomb from a present box, one that Harry acquired for them, and held the bomb carefully as he walked to the drone. Harry explained as he did so. "One of the 52 breaches opened by the Singularity is 1/4 mile directly above the city. And we are gonna use your drone to put this bomb into that breach." He walked over to the drone itself, to make firsthand adjustments after having screwed some necessary parts together.

"Okay, how does that work? One down, 99 to blow." Cisco stated.

Harry answered with his eyes on the drone. "Basic physics, Ramon. Magnetism." He briefly glanced at him, seeing that the native engineer was looking like a blank slate, not a single idea of what his words means. "Magnetism. Magnets of opposite poles attract one another. Help me out, Garrick." He asked of the powerless speedster.

Holding the bomb carefully in both hands, he walks to the drone while explaining. "If we can change the dimensional frequency of this bomb and get it through that breach…"

"It'll drag all the rest of the bombs right along with it." Harry continued. He took the tablet out of Cisco's hands. "I'll drive. Okay, hold on."

The three men stepped back from the drone as the bomb began to beep repeatedly, indicating its time for detonation was closing in on them. Harry began operating the drone, getting it to fly from its platform. He used the controllers to direct it to fly straight upwards.

They watched as the drone continue flying straight up. As it was close to the gateway, the breach itself opened up before their eyes. The drone passed the threshold and flew into the breach. They didn't even have to wait a second as an array of flying presents comes from every possible angle.

All of them making their way into the breach… one by one, each one of them began to explode within the breach.

Cisco became ecstatic at that vision. "It's working." In his excitement, he clapped on Harry's shoulder.

X

The Flash groaned on the ground, having been hit with hail the size of a baseballs, send into the air with a geyser of wind and then met with cackling lightning him like a truck.

Still in pain, his ears perked at the sound of feet walking on the ground. "Flash, you all right?" He heard Mark Mardon feign concern. James Jesse's cackle mixing as he was looking at the Flash like he would a broken and disfigured toy. "You don't look so good." Barry tried to get up and Weather Wizard had a bright idea. "I know…I'll give you a jolt."

Electricity crackles heavily as Mark points his left hand to the sky, lightning heeding his command and striking down on his outstretched hand. Channeling the lightning through his body to his right hand that is holding the Wand, he delivers a lightning bolt to the speedster's body, hitting him right in the middle of his chest.

The lightning attack let up and The Flash fell to the ground once more. "Oh!" Both James and Mark shared an exclaim of delight.

Weather Wizard looked at the Wand in his hand with a sigh of satisfaction. "I'm done. He's all yours." He told The Trickster.

With an everlasting wicked smile on his face, James Jesse walked towards the downed speedster who groaned in pain. "Oh God."

The Trickster chuckles at that. He crouches beside the speedster, a hand reaching into the side of his coat. "To think this city worships you!" He pulls out a large knife with another ominous chuckle. "But, when I kill The Flash and sent his friends' parts to the junkyard… they'll realize I'm the man who saved Central City!" he closes on the speedster's cowl with the knife raised high.

But explosions far above in the sky… much farther from their current position.

Concern came over The Trickster and he directed to his partner. "Was that you?"

Mark answers quickly. "No! Gut him!"

"All right, I'm gutting already!" James exclaimed back.

"_Barry, the bombs are gone._" The speedster heard Cisco inform him.

That news made The Flash raise his head high and electricity crackles over his eyes. Seeing that, The Trickster let out. "Uh-oh."

_WHOOSH_

Barry rushed to his feet and slammed James Jesse into a streetlight before wrapping Christmas lights around him like rope. Using that same momentum, he speeds into Mark Mardon with a tackle, sending the atmokinetic flying and grabbing the Wand out of his hands.

He points the Wand at the enemy metahuman, sucking up all the atmospheric pressure from Mark and nullifying his abilities. They both panted from exhaustion and pain. The speedster pressed a finger to his comms device. "Knight, what's the status on those elves?"

"_They just saw Nightmare on Christmas. In 3D and oil for soda._" Matt quipped. "_We're on our way to you, Bar._"

"Thanks." Barry said gratefully, he then saw a police car coming his way. An eerie feeling came over his form at the car. The feeling was confirmed when Detective Patty Spivot stepped out of the car, with the metahuman task force-issued Boot weapon. Vibrating his vocal cords, The Flash told her. "Detective, it's taken care of. They can't hurt anyone else."

Barry looks away from her to gesture to Mark Mardon on the ground. But it was a mistake as he failed to hear the sound of a short energy surge in The Boot weapon. It's mechanized hook shooting out and grappled onto the Flash's thigh before shooting out small chains to the ground, anchoring the hero to the ground.

The Flash was forced to the ground, landing on one knee. "What are you doing?" She didn't answer the hero's question and threw The Boot weapon to the ground. "What are you doing?!"

This time she answers, to which she needed her firearm that she pulled out of the holster. "This is for my father." The gun was aimed at the downed enemy metahuman.

"No, no, no, Detective!" Barry chanted to her, worried that she might take that step and end with blood on her hands. "Detective, no. You can't do this."

Patty counters. "He killed my father for a couple hundred dollars." Her next words come out in a sneer, directed to Mark. "What was so important that my father had to lose his life?" She wanted to pull the trigger right now as she saw that happy smile on Mar's face.

"Mardon will get what he deserves!" Iron Knight shouted as he lowered himself to the ground. Both Olivia and Frankie landed on the top of a streetlamp, one for each.

Patty glared at the nanite mutant. "He deserves to die!"

"Not like this, Detective Spivot!" Olivia shouted, her hand wrapping around her whip handle. But she saw the speedster slowly shake his head disapprovingly, telling her not to do anything like hurting her. Deciding to go with his plan, she returns her whip to her belt.

Mark looked at the detective without any fear. "You don't have it in you, pretty lady."

Patty remained determined. "I've been asking myself that for the last four years, and now I know." She stated in a growl.

"**Detective, don't do it!**" Frankie jumped down on the ground, looking at her solely.

"No, Patty!" The Flash managed to get back on his feet, forcing him to with the Boot still anchoring him to the ground. "You pull that trigger; your life ends too. You will go to prison." She turned still, standing frozen with her gun still pointed at Mark. "Everything and everyone that you could have had in your life will be taken from you… Again." Those words resonated with the detective's feelings, making her take in every word that came next. "Mardon can't take anything else from you unless you let him."

Magenta inched closer to the detective's standing. "**Sure, we didn't know your father, but he's a parent, they all want the same thing: For their child not to go down the wrong path. He wouldn't want this.**" She points a finger to the downed atmokinetic. "**Not over this piece of scum.**"

"Magenta's right." The Flash agreed. "Not over him." He continued trying to help his girlfriend. "Please. Please." He waited and hoped that his words were able to reach the detective, she who was hidden behind massive barricades of grief and guilt.

Hoping to connect to the woman who thinks her hands are responsible for her father's death.

Patty Spivot then spoke, holstering her gun again. "Mark Mardon, you're under arrest." She bent down and flipped the metahuman to his stomach so she could cuff his hands behind his back.

James Jesse cried at that beautiful sight. "That was beautiful."

"Shut up, Jesse." Olivia slapped his head, but he just kept sobbing.

Barry sighed in relief. "Nice job, Speedy." Matt told him while forming an energy sword on his right arm.

This time the speedster gulped in fear of the formed sword. "You're not going to go all "_Saw"_ on me, are you?"

"A, that was because of a deathtrap game. B, the guy sawed his foot off, not his entire leg. C," he flipped the sword around in his hand after detaching it from his gauntlet. "you wanna chop it off yourself?"

"NO!" Barry exclaimed loudly in the nanite mutant's face, making him hold up his hands in defense. But not before a chuckle came out.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Only a few people remained in the Cortex. Barry had taken off his suit, having placed it on the mannequin, and walked to the middle of the Cortex, rotating his shoulder a few times because of the lingering pain from Weather Wizard's beating. Though the rest of his body wasn't much better, still sore from the relentless attacks.

"Barry, hey." Joe got his attention when walking into the Cortex.

"Hey." Barry said back.

"Everyone's heading back to our place for Christmas. Though, Frankie and Olivia and Caitlin are picking up Felicia now and they have to get something else on the way." Joe informed him and he got a nod as the response. "You okay?" He asked his adoptive son.

"Yeah, no, nothing a little metahuman regenerative healing capabilities won't cure." Came the quip from Barry. He then asked. "How'd it go with Francine?"

Joe gives a surprising answer. "It was good. It was really good, actually. I mean, I spent so long lying about her being dead that I started to believe it myself. But the truth is, those feelings were always there. That anger, that regret, the guilt…_sigh_… I just didn't realize how much I needed to forgive her. And now… there's room for another West." He let out happily, purely ecstatic about this.

"Did you meet him?" Barry asked, happy for him.

"No." Joe shook his head. "He still doesn't know. That'll come."

"Wow. You have a son." The speedster said in disbelief.

No more in disbelief than Joe himself. "I know, right?"

"It's crazy." Barry admitted.

Joe points a finger at the speedster. "Speaking of which, take this." He took off his watch that his father gave him.

"What?" Barry said with surprise. "No, no, no, no, I can't take that." He tried to push the watch back to the detective's hand.

The detective tried to do it another way. "I've always said that one day I would give this to my son…" With a smile on his face, a wide and proud smile indeed, he hands the watch back to the speedster. "And now I have." Barry formed a smile of genuine happiness. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas. Thank you." Barry thanked his adoptive father.

The two of them embraced one another in a heartwarming hug. Both chuckled as their arms were wrapped around one another. Joe, with a smile, said. "Love you."

"I love you too." Barry said back as they unwrapped their arms from each other.

"See you at the house." Joe clapped his son's shoulder before making his way to the exit.

"Yeah." Barry nodded. With a heavy expression on his face he walked towards the private lab on the left side, passing the threshold and stands before the class panel. Looking through with a deep sigh, he sees the form of the working scientist, Harrison Wells from Earth-2. He wrapped the watch's straps around his wrist

Blinking his eyes, he didn't see Harry… but instead he saw Eobard Thawne working. Another blink, and he saw his Earth-2 counterpart once more. And though he knew the truth, he felt he had to say it. Say it out loud to someone wearing his face.

"I know that you're not him…" he twisted his head around. "But he's not here and I have to say this for me." He confessed. "In that video message, you said that… That I would never really be happy… And I've been trying… I've been trying really hard." He breathes in deeply. "After what Joe said, and helping Patty, I realize that you're still in my heart… How much I hate you…for what you've done. I don't wanna hate you anymore, I can't. I can't hate you anymore." Had there been anyone else with him, his next words would have shocked them with an overwhelming force.

"I forgive you."

On the other side of the panel, Harry noticed the speedster's gaze looking into the room. Pressing a button on a tablet, he started speakers. "_Do you need me for something?_" Came the question.

"No, no, I'm good." Barry assured him. "You know, you should come over for Christmas tonight. You shouldn't be alone."

"_It's a nice offer_." Harry admitted. "_I can't celebrate without my daughter._"

"All right." Barry accepted before walking home.

X

**(West Residence, The Front Porch)**

"Finally, here!" Olivia shouted in mock exhaust, like she had just journeyed through the Sahara Desert.

"Aunt Liv, it's your fault for taking too long back home. You just remembered that you wanted to bake triple chocolate cookies for everyone, just before we had to get out." Frankie felt the need to remind her aunt.

Olivia glared and ruffled her niece's hair. "Well, it was time to introduce you to the family Christmas tradition, kiddo. Even at a last-minute notice."

"Yeah, it was nice to spend time with you three like that." Felicia admitted with a smile. She looked to the female doctor. "Caity, what about JC? Is she not joining us?"

Caitlin shook her head. "No, she wanted to stay at the hospital with her dad this Christmas."

"Hope her old man gets better." The thief said.

"Same here. Stan was nice." Frankie let out.

Felicia stroked her head while asking Olivia. "Livy, think Matt brought that eggnog of his?"

"Yeah. Don't hog it all, Mama's looking for booze this year." Olivia had to make up for the previous Christmas she missed.

"No promises, Livy." Felicia said in a sing-songy voice.

"Come on, the others are waiting." Caitlin said with her arm around her daughter's form, pulling her close to her side. They walked through the door, the doctor greeting them giddily. "Knock, knock!" she and the others waved excitedly as they listened to bouncy Christmas music.

The large Christmas tree in the corner of the living room was the first they noticed, right beside the lit fireplace, blazing with warm flames. Christmas tinsels all around them. Various kinds of colorful Christmas lights entangled with the tinsel and wrapped around the Christmas tree, their light touching down on the presents under it.

They saw Iris hang a Flash symbol ornament around on a branch, the lightning bolt ornament shining brightly amongst the others. There was even a white Venom ornament, showing his demonic face. A strange choice of decoration for Christmas. Cisco and Joe were sitting on the couch, two pitchers and a single mug in front on the table while they hold their own mugs. Barry and Jay were engaged in conversation with each other.

"Hiya, guys!" Matt greeted them with a tray of mugs. "Eggnog, anyone?" Olivia looking with slit eyes. Seeing his wife's eyes, he laughs. "It's the Stark concoction, Livia."

"Now you're talking, babe." She grabs a mug from the tray and kisses her husband on the lips. The mutant then drank from the mug, enjoying the overly boozed drink. "Missed this." She muttered before walking to the nearest recliner.

Caitlin tilted her head. "Does Liv drink this every Christmas?"

"Yeah, favorite thing about this time of year." Matt revealed in a joking tone.

Felicia got a mug herself and drank from it. "Not the only gal who thinks that." She sipped on the drink.

"I guess that's not for me, is it?" Frankie pouted.

"No, young lady. You're not touching that." Caitlin told her daughter in an overdramatic stern tone.

Joe heard the doctor's words and called out to his niece. "Don't worry, Frankie. I got hot chocolate here with mini marshmallows, just for you." She points to a steaming pitcher.

"**_Yeah! Love that old man!_**" Frankie heard Magenta loudly exclaim.

Frankie rubbed her ears, feeling like she heard the exclaim coming from the outside of her mind. "Thanks, Uncle Joe!" She rushed to the back of the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. "Love you."

"Love you too, kiddo. Now come and drink some before it gets cold." Joe told her and he saw her jump over the back of the couch before landing in it. "Yeah, no more jumping in my house, alright?"

"No promises." Frankie cheekily replied.

Caitlin was about to take some eggnog for herself to enjoy but she was stopped when she found something familiar on a step on the staircase. She took it in hand and held it close.

Matt was about to join his wife when he saw a wide smile form on Caitlin's face. "Caitlin? Why are you smiling like that?"

"Just… a really good memory comes back to mind." Caitlin blissfully admitted.

"Oh yeah?" Matt asked.

"Gonna keep that one to myself, Matt." Caitlin told him with a smile. She nodded to the door, "I'm gonna step outside for a bit for myself. If Frankie needs me, I'm outside." She picked up a mug of eggnog from the tray. "Gonna take this one to go."

"Sure thing, remember your jacket. It's pretty cold." Matt told her and she accepted with a nod and took her coat off the racket before stepping outside.

As the door closed, Matt walked back to the others and placed the tray on the table. Frankie looked around. "Uncle Matt, where'd Mom go?"

"Outside. Don't know why, though." Matt said while sipping on his own concoction of eggnog.

"Dude, you made yours too strong again." Cisco complained after sipping on the Stark drink. But he couldn't keep himself from drinking it again.

"It's good, Matty. Don't listen to Cisco, he's a meanie." Olivia said with a mock hurt look for her husband's sake.

_KNOCK_

Hearing the knock on the door, Iris stepped past Barry as she informed. "Oh, let me get that." When reaching it, she opened the door and saw Patty Spivot standing there with a happy smile and a Christmas sweater on her, with an imprint of a goofy reindeer. Forming a smile herself, Iris greets her with a hug. "Hi, I'm so glad you could make it."

"Aw, thank you for having me." She thanked her with her arms reciprocating the hug, finding it somewhat difficult with one hand holding a bottle of wine and the other one holding a present. Unwrapping her arms, she handed Iris the bottle. "Merry Christmas. This is for you."

"Thank you." Iris gratefully accepted the gift.

"Of course." Patty closed the door and turned to see Barry walking to her.

"Hey." He greeted her with a face of concern.

"Hi." She knew the origin behind his concerning face.

"I've been really worried about you. I've been calling." Barry told her.

Patty confesses. "I know… and I'm really sorry. I just have been dealing with something by myself, but I want to tell you about it. I think that I'm ready to. Someone, actually a few others too, reminded me of what's important, so if you want to hear, I would like to share it with you."

Barry chuckled. "That would be the best gift I could get."

"Yeah?" Patty playfully asked. She received a hum of assurance from him. "I don't know." She holds up the present. "This is a really sweet sweater."

Taking it in his hand Barry looked down her own sweater with a chortle. "I hope it's as sweet as this one."

"It's matching." Patty told him.

They shared a brief kiss, which Felicia called out to. "Guys, there's children in the house keep that to a minimum." They separated and saw her chuckling along with the others.

"Who are you?" Patty asked.

"She's a friend of the family." Joe answered, surprising the cat burglar. "Heard she was gonna be alone and I told Frankie and her mom to get her come here… Detective Spivot."

"Hi." Patty greeted her partner awkwardly.

Joe got up from the couch and walked till he stood before her. "What brings you here?"

"Merry Christmas." Patty told her partner with a hug. She then stepped backwards. "Well, uh, I'm… Barry's girlfriend." She wrapped an arm around him and he did the same with her.

"About time." Joe said, not at all surprised by this revelation.

Frankie turns to her Aunt as she gets up. "I'm gonna go check on Mom, okay?"

"Remember your jacket, Frankie." Olivia gave the all clear. Frankie took her jacket off the racket and walked out the door.

When it was closed, all of a sudden, another knock comes from the other side of the door. Joe turns confused and looks to his daughter. "Are we expecting anybody else?"

"Not that I know of." Iris revealed, her father walking to the door.

"Maybe Harry changed his mind." Barry suggested.

Olivia and Matt shared a look, both knowing that Harry was shot by Patty a while back. Would definitely bring some tension to Christmas Eve.

Joe opened the door and was shocked by the person standing there.

Dark-skinned like he and his daughter, wearing a black shirt and black pants and black jacket over his T-shirt. His black hair crew-cut. Dark-brown eyes looking at the detective. Inhaling deeply, he introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Wally. I'm Francine's son."

Iris walked closer to her stumped and speechless father. Shifting his head around, the detective realized he didn't say anything and had to remedy that. "I'm… I'm… I'm Joe." He shook hands with his… son. He gestured to Iris. "This is Iris."

"Hi." Iris greeted… her brother for the first time ever.

"Hi." Wally West greeted… his sister for the first time ever. He turned to… his father. "Uh, I just wanted to… I don't know." Like Joe, Wally found himself speechless too. With a gesture to the living room full of people, he continued. "I guess now's a bad time. You've got company, so…"

"No." Joe stopped him. "No, no, no. Come in." he stepped aside for Wally to walk inside and Joe closed the door.

X

Caitlin was standing outside of the West residence, standing on the grassy front yard. She walked up to the staircase till she stood on the porch. Leaning against the wooden railing, she holds her right hand high above her head. The tips of her thumb and her index finger holding the item above her head.

It was the object that made Seth and her share a passionate kiss on this very porch last Christmas. While it was strange time for them last year, with her thought-to-be-dead fiancée Ronnie Raymond returning to the realm of the living with flaming hands and a blazing head.

As well as him relentlessly attacking Seth for some reason, thinking that Caitlin was in harm's way when near the elemental demon.

That night was the Christmas night that Seth thought Caitlin would leave him because of her fiancé returning to life, thinking that her true love had come back to her, to get back into her life. But she assured him that she wasn't going anywhere, that she wasn't stringing him along. She couldn't believe that he thought she even consider leaving him because of Ronnie's return.

A night of many revelations and declarations. Seth swore to Ronnie himself, Professor Martin Stein himself back then, that he'd attack them both if they ended up hurting her in any way. That was only one of the multitude of times when he jumped in front of danger for her.

Venom and Cure.

He was the venom that was always gonna protect the cure, her. Dangers can range from fiery attacks from a metahuman to a massive Singularity, but he wouldn't even hesitate to stop them, to be the Lethal Projector that takes them on. For her or his family, nothing could make him stand down.

She loves him…

He loves her…

…beyond the measly confines of different universes… even if they currently are on other universes.

While she looked up to the item in her fingers, she used her other hand to run over the necklace of Venom's face that protects the snowflake. It was the best present she could ask for. A gift that represented Seth's feelings for her, that he would be protecting her no matter what.

Then her fingers grazed the pink crystal beside it, the symbol of their daughter kept right beside her parents. In the past, Caitlin didn't anticipate having children so suddenly, especially in this city, filled with new threats and dangers that could get anyone hurt or worse. But with Seth reentering her life as her true love, she… turned into a wonderful mother.

She was thankful to Seth for having introduced her to this kind of life.

Caitlin returned her focus to the mistletoe. "Thank you, Seth… I love you."

"Mom? What's that?" Frankie got her attention with an inquiry.

"Oh hey, baby." Caitlin held up the plant. "It's a mistletoe. A hemiparasitic plant from the genus Santalaceae family in the North America, I think."

Frankie crossed the distance between her mother and herself, quickly so she wouldn't say anything else. "Mom, I love you, but I already know about that plant. You told me about it a while back. Just for Christmas, I think you said."

"Sorry, honey." Caitlin looked longingly at the plant in her hand. "Your Dad and I was right here, under a mistletoe and we kissed each other." She chuckled. "Sorry, I'm a bit emotional on your first Christmas with me, baby."

"It's okay, Mom." Frankie told her. "I miss Dad, too. I hope he comes home at soon too." She looked sad.

Her mother took her arm and wrapped it around her daughter, pulling her close. "Wanna know what your Dad and I did before standing under the mistletoe?"

"No, I'm scared." Frankie staggered back in fear of what she might hear.

"Calm down, Frankie." Caitlin reached into her pocket and pulled out a small red box. "We gave each other presents."

Frankie smiled widely, her partner reaching in her pocket to pull out a similar box. "Guess it's the same here."

"Like mother, like daughter." Caitlin joked, but was inwardly proud still, as she handed Frankie her gift. "Open it."

Holding the box in one hand, she flips the lid open. The metahuman finds a gold chain in the box. Briefly making eye contact with her mother in confusion, she pulled on the chain. When fully pulled out, she was instantly surprised at what she saw. It was a single dog tag.

"I think you said you wanted something like this when you checked out your dad's pair." Caitlin remembered.

"Yeah, I remember that too." Frankie turned the dog tag around to look at the engraving. "_Frankie Fury, the Magenta of our hearts._" The young metahuman recognized that engraving. "Dad, has that same engraving."

"Yeah, he does." The mother stroked her shoulder. "I really am sorry he's not here, baby. I wish he was here, but he's busy on another Earth and taking of things there, in his own way. But he's fighting his way back here."

"To us, Mom." Her daughter told her in comfort. Her father wasn't just fighting to get back to her; he was fighting to back to them both. "Dad's fighting to get back home, get back to us. He's the Lethal Protector after all. I miss him too, Mom. But…" She holds out her package for her mother. "Maybe this can help you a bit?"

Smiling happily at her daughter, the mother took the present and opened it. Caitlin wondered if it was the same as her present, because, like with hers, she finds a chain in the box. Like her daughter did, she pulled the silver chain and pulled it out of the box. Her eyes watered at the white heart-shaped locket, the engraving of a blue snowflake on it. "Open it, Mom."

Hearing her daughter's words, Caitlin excitedly opened it. Tears fell from her eyes at the picture in the locket. The picture of her and Seth's faces close to together, their lips locked in a long and blissful kiss that slowed down time itself. It was a good memory for both her and Seth.

"Frankie…" Caitlin lost the ability to speak and had to show actions instead. Instantly, she wrapped her arms around her daughter and pulled her close. Her mouth leaning down and kissing the top of her child's head. "Thank you for it, baby." She said into her hair with a loving smile.

"You're welcome, Mommy." Frankie rubbed her head against her mother's arms.

Unwrapping her arms from her, the doctor stated sadly. "I really am sorry; I didn't get you any other presents. Well, aside from an action figure of yourself."

"That's cheesy, Mom." Frankie giggled. "But I don't need any other presents."

"Maybe we could change that?"

Both Caitlin and Frankie snapped their heads around in confusion to that strange new voice talking to them. They were met with two young girls, both unfamiliar to them.

One is a long brown-haired girl with blue eyes. She is wearing a red hoodie and blue pants. Her hair pulled into a ponytail. She was looking nervously at the two of them.

The other one is a short bleached blonde-haired girl. She is wearing a grey shirt underneath an army jacket and black pants. She was looking more confident but also slightly concerning as she turned to the brown-haired girl beside her.

"Who are you two?" Caitlin asked, stepping in front of her daughter, fearing that these two might be some of Zoom's metahumans out to strike them on Christmas Eve.

"Don't worry, we're not enemies or anything." The bleached-haired girl said, her hand gesturing to herself. "My name is Ruby." She gestures to the brown-haired girl beside her. "This is… This is my sister, Evelyn." Evelyn shyly waved to them. "And we know you're Frankie Fury and Caitlin Snow."

This time Frankie stepped past her mother to stand beside her, her partner slithering underneath her clothes to make sure she was prepared to strike if the need for a fight arose. "How do you know that?"

Evelyn looked at her with an honest expression. "Because…." She smiled. "We're your sisters, Frankie."

Both of them looked shocked… like the moon had just been dropped before them.

Cause it felt like it.

X

Instead of enjoying Christmas Eve with friends or family like others are doing this very moment, Harry Wells was waiting around for another visit from his least favorite person he knows, seeing as the monster is the one who has his claws around his daughter.

_WHOOSH_

Hearing a familiar whooshing sound, the man from Earth-2 saw the pitch-black speedster speed through it. Static sounds of crackling lightning came from his body, walking forward the lightning stopped. "**Time's up, Wells. What's it gonna be?**" Zoom snarls.

Harry points a finger at him. "I know what you're doing." He said in an accusatory tone. "I know why you keep sending villain after villain from our Earth to this one." Lowering his finger, he walks forward to the speedster. "You _want_ Barry to get faster. You want him to get stronger." He turned around and listed off. "You want him to become more powerful, more full of…Speed Force." He realized what the villain's plan was, turning back to face him. "You're fattening him up like a Christmas goose."

Zoom didn't deny it. Rather, he confirmed it. "**The more power he has, the more I can take… and you're going to help me.**" He adamantly said at the end.

"And Venom won't stand in your way?" Zoom narrows his eyes on Harry's words. "Heard he's a handful."

"**Not enough… for me take Jesse back again right in front of his eyes.**" The speedster casually said with a chuckle.

At those words, Harrison demanded with stern and emotionless expression, but inwardly completely angered. "Let me see her first."

Zoom didn't say anything but sped into the breach again. A millisecond later, he comes back to Earth-1, his claw tightly held around the har of Jesse Wells. She was back to her full height and looked up, her eyes tearing up and gasping at the sight of her father. "Daddy?"

Tears and snot running down her face as she rushes into her father's open arms. Harry closed his eyes, happy and overjoyed to see his daughter again. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"Please help me." She begged of her father. "Don't let him take back there."

Harry nodded. "I won't-"

_WHOOSH_

Harry didn't even get the time to register the blue lightning that pulled his daughter out of his arms. He just looked at his empty arms with a gaped mouth.

The speedster demanded. "**Now… decide. In return for your daughter's life…**" he wanted the man to finish it, knowing that he knew it was.

He didn't have a choice. Help people who've become close friends and lose his daughter… Betray them and get his daughter back again…

The choice was obvious.

"I'll do it." Harry stated his decision, but the look in Zoom's eyes told him he wanted more than those measly simple words.

"I'll help you steal The Flash's speed."

Anything to help his daughter… Harry would do it without hesitation… even if it meant stabbing his friends in the back.

Anything to save his daughter from Zoom's claws…

**To be continued…**

**And that turned out to be one strange Christmas indeed. **

**Prison breakouts and attempts at mass murder on Christmas, murderous elves, action figures of the heroes new and old, the two new Fury girls drinking too much Jitters coffee, revelations falling down on everyone like rain: Joe and Iris getting a surprise visit by Wally West. Caitlin and Frankie getting a surprise visit from their two new family members, Evelyn and Ruby, two girls from each their own different universe.**

**Things are gonna be crazy to see how the team, not to mention Frankie and Caitlin, will react to the words coming from their new proclaimed family members' mouths. **

**Christmas turned one hell of a mess, wouldn't you guys say? But then again, had it been normal, that would have been worrisome.**

**The Snow-Fury family's gonna find this hard to believe with these two girls just showing up and saying they're Frankie's sisters out of the blue. As well as the others on the team. **

**How will this revelation and Harry's new role as Zoom's companion affect Team Flash in the near future? A joyous future with happy memories to be made? Or perhaps a disaster lying in wait?**

**Stay tuned and find out.**

**Until next time, peeps!**


	22. Chapter 22: Bullet of Vengeance

**And now another bedtime story for you wonderful people in the world.**

**I hope you are all safe and healthy wherever you might be, and please continue to be cautious of human contact.**

**And I hope you are all doing okay with everything else happening around in the world. Things beside Corona is hitting and affecting the daily lives of everyone now.**

**Thanks for the all the reviews, means a lot and keeps me going.**

**Some small things for the story:**

**In this chapter, I have added some characters from both Season 4 and Season 6 of The Flash TV Show, giving them some different personalities and different roles… including some different skills, if you will. Weapons, skills and uniforms are taken from different TV Shows, ranging from Marvel and DC. Small amount is also from an anime show.**

**And seeing as this is a Christmas chapter…**

**Without further ado…**

**ENJOY and Merry Christmas!**

**Chapter 22: Bullet of Vengeance**

Christmas was right around the corner. Gifts and presents being bought from every open store in the city. Decorations put up everywhere, the streets, various offices and facilities are decorated to fully experience the Christmas mood.

Though, despite this being one of the most favored times of the year, not all facilities are decorated to fit the Christmas mood. Such was the case for McCulloch Technologies.

Tim Kwon closed the folder in front of him with an exhausted sigh. He leant forward; his elbows placed on the edge of his desk with his hands running over his face. "What a drag." His eyes focused on the three other folders of paperwork he has to go through. Only then, could he go home and help his girlfriend decorate their apartment together.

Hopefully by mixing in some naughty foreplay to get a different outcome than what is planned.

Gene Huskk placed a holder with vials on a table while looking to Tim. "You doing okay there, Tim?"

He chuckled with a gesture to the folders on his desk. "There's not many folders here, but I have to do the paperwork on all of them to ensure Merlyn Global Group wants to work with us."

"It would be one hell of a Christmas gift if we could make it work." Gene admitted. Nodding to his unfinished paperwork, he offered. "Need a hand with them? I got the time."

"And risk you getting scolded by your kids and wife because Daddy didn't come home in time? No way, man." Tim chuckled with his response. "But thanks for it, anyway. You just go home while I make sure these paperwork goes well."

"Alright." Gene accepted and took hold of his coat on the back of his chair. "Gonna go now, just call me if you get into any trouble or something."

"No promises, pal. Give my regards to your family." Tim told him.

"You betcha!" Gene stated as he walked out the door.

Tim chuckles as he looks to the nearest folder on his desk. Taking hold of it, he opens it and sees that he has to contact the CEO of Merlyn Global Group, Malcolm Merlyn to complete this stack of paperwork. "Gotta wait till after Christmas then…" he sighed again.

The only reason why he got this much paperwork was because his own CEO, Joseph Carver. The man was like a taskmaster and kept throwing more and more work on the laps of his employees without a single regard to their own lives outside of their workplaces. He was basically ruining Tim's Christmastime.

_STATIC_

Suddenly a static sound reached his ears, and Tim jumped out of his chair in shock with the lights abruptly turning off. His eyes suddenly assaulted by the thick shroud of darkness that came over the office. He looked around in confusion. "What's going on?"

"…"

Tim kept his hands on the desk, making sure he could feel where it is as he moves around it. For some reason, he felt like there was someone else in here. "Huskk, that you?" He didn't receive any response. "Anyone here?" he asked again.

"Would say it's good to see you again, but that'd be a lie."

The scientist snapped his head around in shock at that voice, a voice so distorted and morphed it sounded completely inhuman. "Who's that?!" He shouted, spinning around on his feet to find the person.

With a turn, he looks to the window behind him. His eyes widened in fear. Thanks to the reflective surface of the glass, he sees that someone is behind him. But it was while wearing a strange mask…

A mask so pitch-black it became one with the surrounding darkness. The rest of their body one with the darkness already. But it's the three red glowing eyes like lasers on that mask that brought his attention to that reflection.

Tim Kwon turned around in an instant to see that same masked person looks at him, the three laser eyes continuing to glare at him. "W-Who… Who are you?" He stammers.

With a scoff, a hand comes up, as though it came out of the darkness, and placed its fingers around the front of the mask. The hand pulled on the mask, taking it off and revealing the person's face to the scientist.

Tim gaped his mouth. "Yo-"

_BANG_

The bullet that was projected from the gun in the person's hand put an end to the scientist's sentence. Tim's body fell against the desk, blood coming out of the wound on his forehead and soaks his unfinished paperwork with a fresh layer of blood. His eyes glazed as his soul departed from its husk.

Reequipping the mask, the person states. "Christmas is only for good kids." The person turned around and walked into the darkness again. But not before they muttered.

"One down, four left. Better be prepared."

x

**(Lindy's Headquarters)**

"I'm sorry, can you please repeat that, Seth? Cause I'm pretty sure either you hit your head or I hit my head." Lindy asked the damaged elemental.

She, Kendra, Tony and Marcus were shocked to see both Mera and Seth walk into their base again. Especially after he told them he would return home with the girls. Because of that, Lindy demanded to know everything. Which led to her needing to ask for him recite it.

"Like I just explained:" Seth then recited the story again. "I met up with Mera and the girls at that old facility. We were about to step through the breach and then, much to our dismay, Zoom speeds in and takes hold of Jesse and kidnaps her right in front of us. He speeds away with her before I can take her back. Because of a promise I remembered, I couldn't leave Jesse behind in his clutches so I had to send Ruby and Evelyn through the breach and into my world." He formed a smile at his own word. Mera, while she was being treated by Kendra, knew why he was smiling. "After that, I realized that even together, me and Mera wouldn't be able to keep off Zoom and his entire gang of misfits, and… I don't even know how to re-explain what happened next."

"Let me help you with that." Mera said, trying to pitch in on the story. "You don't know how or why, but for some reason, your new black flames and your sword worked together without listening to you and suddenly projected your flames at the breach and it went up in flames."

Kendra couldn't believe what she heard for the second time now. "You destroying breaches now… What the hell's going on in this world?"

Seth shook his head at her remark, his left hand grabbing his quivering right arm. "That's not what I or Mera said, Kendra. We said that the flames and the sword… in a way resonated and then combined their strengths… and launched the flames into the breach."

"Rendering it to ashes…" Lindy muttered with shock, her fingers intertwining as she entered a trance, devoting her senses to swim in her thoughts. There was more to the black flames in Seth's body and his sword, both of which belonged Blackfire at one point. But when both were in possession of Blackfire, he's never done this before.

As she was deep in her thought process, Lindy's blue eyes noticed something shaking. With a blink, her red eyes focus on Seth's limb, seeing his right arm shaking and he has to hold it with his other one. "Seth, what's going on with your right arm?" The other natives looked to that arm. "It didn't shake like that before."

"It's because of Blackfire's flames." Seth clenched his hand and ignited his black flames before their eyes. He noticed the look of shock and fear on their faces. "Unlike my other elements, these flames are confined in my right arm right now."

"The rest are spread throughout your entire body, aren't they?" Mera asked.

"They are. My entire body is like an environment for elements, like animals. All of them are free and all over the environment, but they listen to me." He gestured to his blazing right arm. "This one, is more complicated. I have to make it adapt to my entire body."

"But you haven't done that yet." Marcus noted.

"Yeah, because it takes time to let a new element adapt to my body, and I have to isolate myself in a separate area. It's bad with such an unstable dark matter element in a single place like my arm." Seth made the black flames fade away. "It's the same case with Evelyn before, with an element in a confided space, its limits will burst open and I will lose my arm."

"I remember you saying something like that once." Mera recalled. "But I thought that was because she was inexperienced and you're not."

"Guess you could say I'm the same, I'm inexperienced with dark-matter elements." Seth tightens his left hand around his right arm. "I'm gonna have to make this element bend to my will and I will make it adapt to me."

"Yeah. Would suck for you to burn up Christmas with your black flames." Tony quipped.

Seth reared his head back in realization and chuckled. "Wow… it's Christmas… I forgot all about it…"

Kendra looked at him. "You don't have Christmas on your Earth?"

The elemental looked to her. "You mean the one holiday we have where we cut down trees and sing songs to celebrate the birth of a baby 2,000 years ago, and then the Romans killed him so we give each other gifts?" He nodded quickly. "Yeah we have that one."

"That's your definition of Christmas?" Tony asked, shivers running over his skin like a swarm of ants.

"Well since it is this time of year," Lindy cracks her fingers. "I'll fire up my program and search for a breach to get you home again."

"Wait." Seth shocked them with that one word. "Hold off on that. I can't go back yet." Shock continue to grow, followed by confusion. "Before I can even think of going back to my world, I have to get my black flames under control and save Jesse. Until then, I can't go home."

"**_Not the only thing we have to think of before returning home, partner._**" Venom reminded his host.

Without replying to his partner, he directed another matter to the technopath. "Lindy, there is something else you could for me."

"Shoot." Lindy leant forward.

"My sword: Get everything you can find on it from any available source you can get your fingers into…" Remembering how she explained her powers, Seth corrected himself. "Or any of them that feels particular chatty on the subject of gigantic crystal swords."

"Funny." Lindy chuckled. "But until then, what are your plans for Christmas, Seth?"

"For now, go to Iris and Barry at CCPD and maybe seeing if they want their rude elemental back under their roof." Seth got up from his chair and turned to the exit. "But until we meet again… Merry Christmas, guys." They smiled and watched him walk away.

"Gotta admit…" Mera smiled. "I'm kinda of glad he's still here with us."

X

**(CCPD)**

Sitting at her desk with dozens of folders, and a few baskets with cookies, canned drinks and other gifts, Detective Iris West looked over the total arrest records everyone found at the motels and hotels that once belonged to Eric Frye. She felt like she had to go over the total result over and over again because she couldn't get enough of this feeling.

The feeling that her mentor was finally avenged and she was able to stop giving more thought to Blackfire's terror. Like her, many other families were finally able to liberate their minds of his horrors. And it was thanks to Seth's help.

Now she just hopes that this city can handle itself without Venom now. More work for the CCPD then.

She shook her head of missing the elemental and returned her attention to the files before her. While Iris was finally happy about this, she was shocked at the total number of arrested Johns and Janes at the hotels and motels. "Thirty-six Janes and twenty-eight Johns… Still can't believe it."

"Want me to go over them all with you, just in case?" Seth offered as he looked over her shoulder to see her files.

"Sure that'd be helpful Seth." Iris looked to him with a thankful smile before returning to her work. Her body stiffened as she realized who she was just talking to. She shot up from her chair and spun around to look at him with wide eyes and a gaped mouth. "Seth, you're here?!"

"You know anyone else who's this 100% awesome?" He smugly said with a chuckle.

"Oh my God." Iris exclaimed while she hugs the elemental. "Can't believe you're still here!"

"Pretty good reason for that, Detective." He said with his left arm wrapping around her, his right arm still shaking like a leaf in the wind. "But I can wait a bit on that, for now." He noticed the gift baskets with various kinds of cookies and his eyes zoomed in on those with chocolate. "What's with the baskets here? Your birthday or something? Don't blame me for forgetting to give you a birthday gift."

"No, it's from those parents and their families whose children were kidnapped by Blackfire." She revealed before leaning closer to him, making sure that one else could hear what she had to say. "Apparently someone told them that I know Venom and who it is under the mask, so a lot of them just stormed into the place earlier today and gave me dozens of these baskets." Iris laughed. "How can being your friend turn out to be such a pain in the ass?"

"I will gladly take them off your hands. All of them, of course." Seth smirked, wiping away drool with the back of his left sleeve.

Iris laughed again. "Greedy bastard. But don't worry, I will bring them all to the house for Christmas." She points a finger to the mutant. "Assuming, you are joining us for Christmas."

"Seeing as you're my only friends here, I'm guessing that's the only option for this lonely man." Seth admitted with a shrug. "Otherwise, it's gonna turn into one boring Christmas."

"Spend it with your friends, Seth. they're gonna love having you here." Iris smiled.

Seth turned around with eyes peering around the area. "Where's the Crows? Are they gone now?"

"Nah, not yet. Their Commander is talking with the Mayor and the Captain at City Hall, seeing if there's any need for them to stay in the city any longer." Iris informed. She then looked around him when she realized something. "Where's the girls?"

"That's part of that story I wanna tell you." Now, he looked around in search. "Where's Barry? I wanna tell it to the both of you."

Iris nodded upwards, "He's upstairs, working on another case that popped up. He asked for my help when I'm done with the paperwork here. Wanna come with me?" He nodded and the detective smiled and leant down to the files. Taking hold of a nearby pen, she quickly wrote her signature on the line. "Done. Let's go."

"Let-"

"**_Remember the cookies, you dimwit!_**" Venom shouted in his host's mind.

Seth was not a fan of his partner's abrupt shouts anymore. "Mind if I take a basket with us? My worse half is adamant about getting his daily dose of chocolate."

"Of course he is." She nodded sheepishly, clearly not convinced of his words, and took a basket which she handed to him. "Let's go."

X

**(CCPD, CSI Lab)**

Barry was not looking too well as he was looking at the files and their attached crime scene photos. He's been assigned to aid the case of a murder at a highly advantaged technologically company in Central City. Aside from Atlantean tech, this was the one most sought for in terms of its immense technical advancements.

And to boot, he was given photos of the victim and saw that it was Tim Kwon with a bullet wound in his forehead. Barry had to place his hand over his mouth in discomfort as he had to take in the crime scene photos. "Why would anyone kill him?" he asked himself.

He visited the crime scene himself earlier and took the necessary photos and notes so he could examine them in his lab. But this was still unclear to him. He's gone over the files and photos a few times, even his samples, but there wasn't a single clue as to who the murderer is.

Barry had to wait for his wife to bring in her detective wisdom to perhaps shed some light on the case. He already had an idea on how to approach but remained unsure for now.

"Yo, Barr."

The CSI scientist dropped his files in shock at that and swung his head around to see, to his shock, Seth Fury beside his wife. He did forego the large chocolate chip cookie in his mouth while he used a hand to wave to him. "Seth?! What are you doing here?"

Taking a large bite of the cookie and swallowing it quickly, the mutant said after exhaling in relief. "Heard there were cookies with my name on them. Couldn't turn my back on them, that'd just be plain rude. Ow!" He said when the detective elbowed the side of his stomach.

"He's got some story for us to tell." Iris pushed a pair of wheelchairs near him and herself. "Seth, come on tell us the news." She looked to her husband. "Barry, I will help you with your case afterwards, I promise."

"Thanks." Barry discomfortingly closed the folder with photos of Tim Kwon's death. "Could use your eyes on the matter, to be honest." He gestured to the files before taking a seat in his own chair. "But what's the story behind your return."

Seth swallowed another cookie and started. "Once upon a time- Ow! Seriously, Iris, stop hitting me, would you?"

"Be serious, and I might consider it." The detective said retracting her elbow.

"Fine. Here's the story." Seth then spent the next few minutes telling the story of what happened at the warehouse, not foregoing any details. Though he did pause every now and then to bite into a new cookie, much to the annoyance of the married couple.

But he did finish with one last sentence. "And that's how your friendly neighborhood anti-hero Venom chose to remain in this shabby universe."

"So you let your new daughters go on while you stayed behind to find Jesse… Sounds like you alright." Barry admitted with a smile.

"Happy for you, pal." Iris said with a happy smile herself.

"Thank you both." Seth smiled and then saw their faces, he sighed and asked. "You both realized this would happen, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah."

"I'm surprised it took this long."

"_Were we the only ones who didn't foresee this?_" Seth asked himself when hearing the responses from both Iris and Barry.

"**_Apparently so._**" Venom said with a mental shrug.

The detective laughed to herself. She was happy that the two girls were able to be accepted into Seth's life, as his children. It was a happy sight, and she kinda wished that she could have been there herself to see it with her own eyes. She did wonder how this would be with Ruby's situation.

She then looked to the folders on her husband's desk. "Babe, with story time over now, is there something about your case you needed help with?"

Barry nodded. "Yeah… Tim Kwon of McCulloch Technologies was found dead on his desk with a bullet wound on his forehead this morning."

Seth raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me your Santa Claus shoots the naughty kids off his list? That takes crossing them off to a whole new and dark level, that I'm uncomfortable with."

"Sounds like a nightmare." The CSI scientist said. "But no, he doesn't. Lawton's the detective on this case and asked for my help."

"So that crosses him off the suspect list, seeing as the victim was actually hit." The mutant looked at her with shocked eyes. Iris registered his eyes on her and elaborated. "Of all the officers and detectives on the force, he is the only one who can't hit his target with a gun no matter how close his target is to him. It's kind of pathetic."

"I would have gone with lame, but if the shoe fits…" Seth admitted and looked to the files again. "Is it professionally done? A bullet to the head sounds pretty professional and even a bit personal, actually."

"It does seem professional." Barry agreed and opened his folders and showed them to both Iris and Seth. "There wasn't a single DNA at the scene that I could find and use. It's like he was killed by a ghost."

Iris flipped over the files and looked at the photos. "Not a single footprint either? They must have left something behind."

"Actually, they did leave one thing behind." Barry reached for a bag on his desk, pulling it out and showing them the bag. "The bullet."

The detective took the evidence bag and examined the projectile with her eyes. "Looks like the type professional assassins use."

"Maybe instead of focusing on what their weapons might be and what they didn't leave behind, let's look at their target." Seth took out a file from the folder, turning it around to show the logo of the technological company. "McCulloch Technologies, that's where this guy was found and killed. That must mean it has something to do with them."

"Maybe a rival company? Taking out competition or something. There's some rumors going around with them being rivals with Atlantean tech companies." Iris revealed to the mutant.

"Guess that means we have to pay a visit to McCulloch." Seth told them.

"You going with us?" Barry wondered. He received a nod.

"Alright. Gonna bring Lawton in on this too, he's the leading detective on the case, after all." Iris stated. "And hopefully we can solve this case before Christmas, we need to decorate our home."

X

**(Lindy's Base)**

Lindy's eyes kept going over the screen with rapid speed. Once he had gone away the technopath immediately went to work and spoke with thousands of machines, databases in every single part of the city to try to get information on the sword that Seth possesses. So far it was going slow, not advancing much. It felt like she kept ending back on square one.

But she kept going no matter what. This was important and she had to do this to help Seth and the rest of the city.

Mera and Kendra watched their leader work from the other side of the desk.

"Think this search is gonna do any good?" Kendra asked the Atlantean.

"I don't know about that, actually." Mera said as she ran a hand through her crimson red hair. "Problem is that sword. The only one who knows anything about it was Blackfire but Seth turned that bastard into a pile of ashes."

"Maybe the Crows something about it." Kendra suggested.

Hearing the suggestion, Lindy shook her head. "No, they don't, just checked it. I'm checking CCPD's database right now, and not much luck there so far. Gonna go to Argus's data next."

"This sword is full of mysteries." Kendra honestly said with a chuckle.

"Yeah." Lindy removed her hands from the screen, one of them came to her face and stroked her chin thoughtfully. She turns to Mera. "What happened back at the warehouse when Seth and you stood before the breach, Mera?"

"After Seth sent the girls through it, he and I planned to stand there and fight Zoom's group by ourselves. Then like he explained, both his flames and his sword suddenly acted of their own volition and combined their strengths and… Poof goes the breach." Mera unsurely explained.

"Great, that doesn't help much." Lindy stated as she rubs her eyes.

The Atlantean was about to comfort her friend with soothing and encouraging words, but the chiming sound from her phone in her pocket. She reached into it and pulled it out. "It's Seth." She announced when seeing his name on the caller id. She accepted the call and placed it to her ear. "Hi Seth, what's up?"

"_Yo, Mera. I got a few questions, one of them is for you._" Seth started.

"What's the first one then?" Mera inquired.

"_You got plans for Christmas with your hubby?_"

"He's gonna work overseas so it's gonna be without him this year." Mera informed.

"_Sounds like you're gonna be free for Christmas, meaning you can spend it with me and the West-Allens at their house._" Seth said with a quip.

"You're inviting me to Christmas?" Mera asked intrigued.

"_Yeah. By the way, this is the kind of offer you can't turn down._"

"Wouldn't be you if it wasn't." Mera jokingly said. "But yeah, I accept."

"_Awesome._" Seth gratefully said. "_Back to business, any chance you can put the call on speaker? I need to ask you and Lindy something related to a case._"

"Alright." She pressed the speaker function on her phone and told him. "Seth, you're on speaker now."

"_Thanks. Lindy you there too, right?_" The mutant called out from the other end.

Lindy perked up from the desk. "Seth, what's going on? You need help?"

"_Yeah. I'm helping Iris and Barry with a case of theirs._" He started. "_A man at McCulloch Technologies was found dead earlier today, Tim Kwon. According to the leading CSI scientist, there wasn't a single piece of DNA to tie to the murderer. But there was a bullet there, pulled from the hole in his forehead._"

"No DNA and it was headshot?" Kendra muttered with a hand on her chin. "Sounds like a professional assassin, maybe."

"_We're thinking the same, Kendra. We're gonna check out McCulloch now. And in the meantime… Mera do you know if your hometown has some disagreements with McCulloch? This could be a rival thing. Lindy, I'm gonna send you a picture of the bullet-_"

"And want me to see where it's manufactured and check out the recent purchases and buyers, right?" Lindy cut him off.

"_Read my mind like a machine, Eye Sight. Thanks, you too Mera. Gotta hang up now. See ya._" Seth instantly hung up.

Mera looked around, shifting her gaze between her friends and asked. "Did he purposely hang up so he couldn't hear our responses?" she received a series of nods from both Kendra and Lindy.

X

**(McCulloch Technologies)**

The four of them walked past the entry point of the massive entrance door of McCulloch Technologies. Seth closed the flip phone in his hand as he trailed behind them, having to finish his call to Lindy's base before waking past the threshold.

Floyd turned his head back to the elemental. "Surprised to see you're here, Seth. My partner told me you would return home."

"Change of plans." The mutant vaguely answered. "But for now, what can you tell us about this guy who was killed?"

"Heard from some interviews that Tim was a good guy. He was a dedicated worker and always friendly with everyone." Floyd said after pulling out his notepad, full of his notes from his interviews. He had a pencil in his hand, pointing it at the marked note. "Spoke with his girlfriend before, actually."

Iris realized what he was thinking. "You think she had something to do with this?"

Lawton shrugged his shoulders. "At first, yeah. It's been that case many times before. But I spoke with her before, and not only did she have an alibi for the time of death, but she was also surprised and completely devasted by the news of his death. So she's off the list." Confident that the girlfriend wasn't lying.

"Anything else that can help us with this case?" Barry asked as he straightened the bag with his tools around his shoulder.

"I don't know if this will help, but I do have one interesting fact, though." Floyd turned around to face the others. "Some of his co-workers didn't want to talk about him," those words caught the mutant's interest. "but others did talk and said that last year, few days before Christmas he did act strange, distant even. His girlfriend said the same."

"Strange…" Seth let out.

"Maybe he's a Grinch?" Barry joked.

"No, not that, Barr." Seth shook his head, he looked to Floyd again. "Lawton, you just said there's people who didn't want to talk about this incredibly friendly and dedicated co-worker. Maybe we should look to those people, see if they know anything useful."

"He's got a point." Iris said in agreement. "Who are those people?"

Flipping to the next page of his notepad, the detective ran his pencil down the page till he found the names. "Here we go. There's three of them: Sheila Agnani, Kurt Weaver and Ramsey Deacon." Barry looked shocked at those names. "Apparently, these three and the deceased were set to take over McCulloch one day, as co-CEOs."

Barry gushed. "Yeah, they're incredible in the field of science, revolutionary technology pulled out of their minds. They've even considered technology that could improve the better of those with rare disorders. So say they are tech gurus, is truly an understatement to their brilliance." He would have fired more off, but saw that his wife, her partner and their friend was looking at with shock. "I'm… an admirer of their work, is all." He stated unconvincingly with his hands straightening his bowtie.

"**_That's one word for it._**" Venom admitted.

"Whatever you say, Barr." Seth said with a chuckle. "But maybe we should go to these three, seeing as they're the Kwon's former workers, teammates and chooses not to talk about their deceased friend."

"That does sound like a plan, yeah." Floyd agreed.

X

His hands shaking, sweat intensifying on his face, cascading down his face and greasing his beard. Ramsey Deacon kept his eyes on the bathroom mirror inside of him, just staring into it like he was expecting an answer to his feelings while the faucet lets out a stream of water, completely unnoticed by the McCulloch scientist.

He couldn't handle it. The news of his co-worker's murder, in this very building of his work, brought the walls closer to him, like he was suffocating in a chamber with small airholes. Ramsey sank his hands into the growing water mass, letting the cold liquid envelope every inch of flesh on each hand.

The last Christmas was colder, cold enough to mistake him for a corpse. His behavior was akin to that of a corpse last year. This year was hard for the big scientist. This was the same holiday… where he… he…

"Deacon?!"

Ramsey gasped with an exclaim, spinning around to face the direction of the sudden voice, a wet hand on his chest to try and calm his breathing but also drenching his shirt. He relaxed his breathing when seeing his co-worker Kurt Weaver look at him with hands held up similar to someone staring into the barrel of a gun.

"…Kurt." Ramsey let out after exhaling a few times and ran his wet hand down his face. "What are you doing here?"

"You've been in here for twenty minutes man." Kurt exclaimed with a gesture to the empty bathroom. He sighed and turned off the faucet. "You've gotta calm down."

"How can I do that?" Ramsey asked rhetorically.

"Just do it!" Kurt whispered loudly with a scold, but his words nor his tone appeared to affect the big scientist. "The boss wants us to talk to the three of us. Sheila's waiting for us now. Let's get going, unless you wanna get fired, man."

"Wouldn't be wrong if that happened." Ramsey said with a hollow tone.

Kurt slapped his co-worker's arm, not getting a response once more. "Suck it up, it was last year, man."

"For you." Ramsey corrected him. To him, it was yesterday.

"Whatever, come on. Sheila and the boss's waiting and you know Sheila's a bitch when kept waiting." Kurt stated and walked out the bathroom.

Ramsey gave the mirror one more look, looking at the reflection of the man he is, regretting being the person, regretting what's he done. He felt like he didn't deserve to be part of this joyous time of the year. He sighed and walked out of the bathroom.

As soon as he was stepped out of the bathroom, lights began to flicker in the bathroom. At the end of the bathroom, darkness covered the entire section of the bathroom.

But within the darkness… three glowing red eyes lit up.

X

Kurt Weaver and Ramsey Deacon turned a corner and entered the waiting room. Inside the room, waited both the CEO Joseph Carver and Sheila Agnani, the former standing against a table while the latter has crossed arms over her chest and an impatient look on her face as she was seated on a seat.

Their female coworker got up from the table, her hands slammed against the table. "Where'd you two go off? We've been waiting."

"Ramsey was taking too long in the bathroom." Kurt complained with a thumb pointing at the big scientist.

Joseph leant off the table. "You doing okay, Ramsey? Stomachaches or something? Something wrong?"

Sheila chuckled ironically. "What's not wrong with the big oaf?"

Not paying any mind to the insult, Ramsey directed to their boss. "What's up, Boss?"

"Think you know CCPD's here, guys." Looking around to make sure no one was spying on them, the CEO reached into his inner pocket and pulled out three thick envelopes. "And you know… we have to keep what happened tight-lipped."

"You mean, Tim's death or the very possible reason why it happened?" Ramsey rhetorically asked.

"Shut up, Deacon!" Sheila scolded him.

"Sheila, calm down." Joseph told her. "Ramsey… you know it's better to keep it… under wraps." He took one envelope and holds it out to Ramsey. "You won't go empty-handed." The CEO shook the envelope of cash for empathize.

But then the big scientist gently pushed the envelope back to his boss's hand, shocking the three of them together. "I don't want money like this, Boss. Don't worry, I won't say anything when the officers come." He walked past the CEO to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"Well…" Sheila casually took hold of an envelope and Ramsey's envelope out of Joseph's hands. "Seems like a waste to not use to them." she walked to the other end of the breakroom.

Kurt sheepishly looked to his boss. "So…"

"Here's yours, Weaver." Joseph handed him his envelope.

"Yes!" Kurt loudly whispered and put the cash in the inner pocket of his jacket before retaking a seat. "Rest in peace, Tim, I just got your cut."

"Weaver." Joseph scolded.

_KNOCK_

The four looked to the entrance and saw Detective Floyd Lawton standing there with three others. "Mr. Carver, I take it?" He gestured with a pencil to the CEO.

"Ah, yes, Detective Lawton." Joseph Carver stepped forward and shook hands with the detective. "Sorry, I couldn't speak with you before. But may I ask what's the reason behind this second visit of the day?" He looked to the other three people with him. "Also, there's more people than before."

Floyd points to Iris. "This is my partner, Detective Iris West." Then to Barry. "This is our CSI scientist, Barry Allen." He unsurely points a finger to Seth. "And this is our civilian consultant, Dr. Seth Fury."

"Just Seth, still not that formal, Lawton." Seth pitched in, the detective nodding. The mutant saw a larger scientist near a kitchen counter, holding a mug with steaming hot coffee with both hands.

"Of course, understandable." Joseph nodded and placed a hand on his chest. "My name is Joseph Carver, the CEO of this company. And these are three of my brilliant employees, Sheila Agnani, Kurt Weaver and Ramsey Deacon. Remember their names, they might be the next ones on the company name."

Seth saw Ramsey's hands shake around the mug in the corner of his eye. Iris and Floyd shared a shocked look. Nodding to him, Floyd turned to the CEO. "You seem very chipper despite the fact an employee of yours was found dead in his office, with a bullet hole in his head, Mr. Carver."

The CEO of the building smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "While his death is unfortunate and saddening to all here, we have to soldier on." He clenched his hand tightly. "It's what Tim would have wanted from us, to continue working in his name."

Seth faced the CEO without emotions on his face. "He was killed in his own office, assassinated, not died from natural reasons, when everyone left the building. Seems like this guy had enemies, some with deep pockets."

"Not Tim." Ramsey said with a shaking head, getting everyone's attention. "Tim was a good worker and a better friend, he couldn't make an enemy, not like this."

Iris looked to him. "Mr. Deacon, right?" He nodded. "Anything else you can say about the victim? You seem to have been close to him."

"We haven't talked that much lately, sorry. Just passing by one another mostly." Ramsey told her with a sad tone. "Can't believe he's actually gone, though."

Sheila had to keep herself from forming a scowl at his words. Inhaling sharply, she points her eyes to the detectives. "His death… murder is still taking its toll on us."

"Of course it is." Floyd said understandably. "But we'd like to speak with all of you together."

"Actually," Kurt got up from his chair and said sheepishly. "I promised to help some colleagues two floors up with a project of theirs. Any chance I can have my talk a bit later."

"Sure, just remember you have to take talk with us." Iris stated in an ordering fashion.

"I promise I will be there." Kurt agreed and walked out of the breakroom, slowly walking past the mutant who was glaring daggers at him.

X

When sure he was out of their visual and hearing range, Kurt took long strides to the elevator. Standing before it, the scientist pressed the button and called the elevator to his floor. It came to his floor, opening up, revealing that it was empty as he walked into it.

The doors closed and Kurt smirked victoriously as he pressed the button to get the elevator to the lobby floor. He wasn't gonna stick around for some stupid interview with the pigs. He had gotten his usual hush money from his boss and wasn't gonna waste his precious time on anything like talking with a pair of detectives.

He pulled out his envelope of cash again, opening it up slightly to look at the stack of cash in it. Bringing it closer to his face, he takes a long sniff of it. Exhaling happily, he relishes in the aftermath of the delicious smell of easy money.

And it was because he agreed to do one small thing with the others last Christmas. It may have ended up in a massive failure, but he sure wasn't gonna complain with anything that gave him easy money.

Strangely enough the lights above his head began to flicker and the scientist looked up in confusion. "Jesus, that's what we get for hiring third-class mechanics."

"Of course that's what you'd think of."

Kurt spun around and was met with terrifying sight. A person was standing there, wearing a strange uniform. A black suit with a green bulletproof vest worn over it. Padding on both knees and both elbows. Tall heeled boots on their feet. Double thigh holsters on her legs, holding batons and handguns. There's a pair of big guns on her back.

Strangely enough there are pieces of what looked like pieces of another type of firearm around their body, like its pieces are attached to it like glue.

But what stood out the most is the black metal mask with three red eyes. Two for both eyes and one on the forehead. It was accompanied with darker metal strap on the chin.

"Who the heck are you? Halloween is over, freak." Kurt feigned a strong and defiant persona, but the sight of those firearms and those hunting knifes and batons made him step backwards. But he stopped when his back hit the elevator doors behind him.

"… Do you enjoy your money? The reward for your sin?" The person withdraws a gun from her thigh holster. Holding it high up to his forehead. "Did you?!"

"Who are you…" He asked in fear, the barrel of the gun now pressed to his forehead.

"Vengeance incarnated."

_BANG_

Kurt Weaver's ventilated hole in his forehead caused blood to splatter on the doors behind him. his body falling to the floor and blood leaking from the wound.

The gun-wielding assassin stepped closer to the dead body. "Two down, three to go." The person noticed the stack of money sliding out of the envelope. "Money as always, Joseph. That's how you always do it, isn't it?" A foot slammed down on the envelope, grinding against it with anger. "You will get a bullet through that heartless chest of yours, if it's the last thing I do."

X

Fortunately, the sound of a fired bullet echoed through the elevator shaft and entered nearby floors of the company building. Iris and Floyd shot forward, their hands wrapped tightly around their firearms, prepared for a firefight. Barry followed them but called for backup in case this turned into a bigger mess than they could handle.

The detectives ordered the staff members away urgently. When they were away and out hearing distance, Iris turned her head back to face the mutant. "Seth, take the stairs and see if you can find the assassin? It's better for you this way, too."

"What makes you think he's not still in the elevator, partner?" Floyd asked his partner.

"Elevators are all the same, they have an emergency exit at the upper corner of them. Seth should be able to find an emergency entrance into the elevator shaft if he follows the stairs. And unlike us, he's got little more fighting skills." Iris stated, praising his capabilities. "But go up, doubt this person's dumb enough to go down to a crowded lobby."

"Alright, don't die, you guys!" Seth exclaimed and rushed to the corner, turning to the left and immediately tackled the door to the right open, finding himself into the staircase. Seeing that he was alone now, quickly enveloped his entire form with the symbiote's form and jumped onto the upper railing.

Using that railing as a platform for his footing, the mutant leaped onto the next upper railing. He continued doing so, his form remaining that of his normal size to better maneuver his way through the railings.

Stopping at a railing with both planted on it, Seth looked up. He got a shot when seeing not one, not two, but three glowing red eyes. "**They got three-eyed ravens here, too?**" He wondered out loud at the sight of the person four floors above his current position.

"**_They're called triops, dumbass._**" Seth heard his partner quip.

"**Who are you?**"

"Not your business, Venom." The masked person with the black mask said in a distortive voice. Reaching behind their back, the person pulled out a familiar weapon, one that the mutant had seen in his home universe. Seeing the white eyes narrow with familiarity at the weapon, the person said. "You've seen a Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout before?"

"**Yea-**"

His answer was cut off when the masked person pulled the trigger of the weapon, unleashing a rapid succession of lead bullets. Seth spun around to get onto the staircase, dodging the bullets in the process, making them embed into the walls. Pulling his sword out of his partner's dimension, he ran up the staircase.

The masked person also ran up the stairs but stopped every now and then to take aim and unleash another array of bullets for him. Venom dodged the wave again and jumped onto the railing again, leaping off them one by one till he got to the masked person's floor.

"**Got you!**" Seth swung his sword for the person, seeing that it was a female.

But she rolled out of the way, managing to force her rolling body up the next few steps of a staircase. "Think again!" She let out with an exclaim, aiming her weapon at the mutant again and firing once more. Her bullets met an ice shield on his arm. She quickly ran up the staircase again, getting closer and closer to the rooftop.

Breaking off his shield, Seth stretches out his arm, latching onto a railing on her floor and pulling himself towards like a slingshot.

The masked woman sprinted up the staircase and avoided him. When reaching the door to the rooftop, she slammed her elbow into it and attached her rifle on her back. Rolling on the rooftop, snow plastering all over her form with her motion, she reached the edge of the roof.

Planting her foot against the ledge, she crouched on one knee with one hand reaching behind her and taking hold of the gun on her lower back. Reaching down to her left calf, she grabbed the barrel and plucked it off her magnets before quickly screwing it on the main gun part. Reaching to her right calf, she took the magazine and placed it.

With her current situation, she didn't see the need for the scope on her belt. Holding her quickly assembled sniper rifle up, she took aim at the entrance of the door. Her right glowing laser eye zoomed in on the entrance when seeing the pitch-black elemental walk through the entrance.

Pulling the trigger, she watched as the bullet travels through the air. Seth registered the bullet and jumps backwards, springing into the air and into a backflip. He landed on the on the roof of the doorway, his white eyes narrowing on that weapon. "_She assembled that thing in such short time? What the hell?_"

"Sorry, Venom. I know what you've done for those girls and this city and I'm grateful for it, but I don't want to hurt you. You're not on my list." She said as she rose to her full height.

"**List?**" Venom muttered. "**Wait!**" He exclaimed when the masked woman stepped on the ledge and casually jumped off it. He rushed to the ledge himself and looked down. Confusion came over like a tidal wave when seeing that the masked woman was nowhere to be found.

Her body hadn't landed on the top of any car, it was like she had disappeared into thin air.

"**Christmas just got a lot more interesting.**" Seth admitted, and realized that the next time they meet, he couldn't hold back anymore.

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

Despite everything they tried, Iris, Barry and Floyd were ordered to leave the McCulloch Technologies at once. Apparently, they didn't want the official's help anymore. And though they had their duties to fulfill, Joseph Carver threated to sue the entire police department if they stayed any longer.

The married couple parted ways with the other detective and made their way back home with Seth following them. After entering their household, Seth helped Barry decorate the interior of the house while he explained what happened at the company building.

"A woman with tons of firepower, guns and everything on her." Iris repeated the mutant's last words while taking a box of Christmas decorations for the two men.

"Yeah. Gotta admit, she was really good." Seth stated with tendrils coming out of his body and wrapping around ornaments. "But I don't know, there's more to this then we think." He added while placing the ornaments on various branches on the Christmas tree.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked as he hang stockings over the fireplace.

"A hunch, I guess." Seth said with an unsure shrug. "What about those two others, Ramsey and Sheila?"

"We can't do anything right now with CCPD threatened to stay out of their place." Iris said as she took out more ornaments for Seth to hang. "It's crazy and I want to talk with those two, they know more than we think."

"Yeah, I agree. Hope Lindy managed to find something that we can use." Seth hoped.

_KNOCK_

The detective turned to the door and walked to it. Barry looked to Seth. "You didn't any invite any Christmas Grinches, did you?"

"Not yet, I couldn't find Zoom's number in my contacts list." Seth joked. Barry wondered what would happen to their house if Seth really did invite dangerous guests to this household. He can't imagine it holding up under any circumstances like that.

Iris opened the door and saw three familiar faces there. "Lindy, Mera, Kendra, what are you three doing here?"

"Hey, Detective, long time no see." Kendra greeted nervously. Last time they saw each other was after the flyer almost killed both Seth and Ruby.

"Merry Christmas, Iris." Mera greeted cheerily.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas." Lindy greeted happily as well.

"Thanks you, please come in." Iris stepped to the side to let them in. Once everyone had come in, she closed the door and asked. "But what brings you all here?"

"Seth asked for my help before to see if I could help with this murder, and this new one too, I assume." Lindy answered. She gestured to the flyer and the Atlantean. "Kendra's here because she's encountered some dangerous gunmen in her bounty hunter days and Mera's got some news about Atlantis's rivals."

"Starting with that:" Mera faced the mutant who used tendrils to continue decorate the house. "Sorry, Seth, but according to my friends, my husband too, any rivalry there was with other companies have long since dissipated and turned into friendships."

"That's nice, I guess." Seth said. "But what about that bullet I asked about?" He directed to the technopath.

"This person's smart, I think they make their own bullets." Lindy answered.

"She." Seth said and got wide eyes. "I saw this person before, it's a woman with some crazy gun skills. I think she actually assembled a big ass sniper rifle in less than thirty seconds, maybe."

Those words got the flyer's attention. "Wait a second, did this person have a strange metal mask?"

Now Seth turned his attention to Kendra. "Yeah, with three laser eyes. For some reason, she didn't use a scope. Think those eyes of hers augments her eyesight."

"They do. I know who this person is" Kendra scoffed with shock at this situation. ". Back when I was serious about bounty hunting with Carter, we faced a lot of competition, a lot of them who tried to go for our heads. But there was one person who didn't target us for killing, she attacked us to hone her own skills. Every fight we had, she always managed to get closer and closer to shoot us. She was improving herself bit by bit and managed to shoot our wings, even managed to shoot our feathers. And her arsenal was impressive to say the least, she managed to assembled her weapons in short time, even in close ranged combat."

"She's that good?" Mera was shocked to hear this. On her own, Kendra is fast and strong enough to give anyone problems and combined with her firearms she could take down foes from afar. And in aerial combat, she is second to none. Throw Carter into the mix, then those two would be able to take down various targets, be it powered or not.

This person is an incredible sniper.

"What's her name, by the way, Kendra?" Asked the elemental.

"Don't know what's her real name is, but around the dark places, she's called Assassin." Kendra stated.

Seth raised an eyebrow. "That's officially the best nickname I have heard since coming to this universe."

Lindy narrowed blue eyes on him. "Hey, Eye Sight's not that bad, you know Venom."

"Yeah, I know my name is really cool." Seth smugly smiled; his smile faltered when looking between them. "Anything you guys can tell about McCulloch, especially their CEO and these two last members of this team that was set to take over the company?"

Lindy took a seat on the couch and stated. "I did a search on them all. One common thing I did notice:" Her red eyes focused on them all. "The five of them of them, they weren't home at Christmas last year, they were at McCulloch, and hadn't come home till at least two weeks after the holiday."

"Five?" Barry asked.

"You mean, their CEO was there too, Joseph Carver?" Iris followed up.

"Exactly." Lindy nodded. "This was a pretty weird thing."

Mera looked to Iris. "Iris, can't you get a search warrant to check for that? It's too much of a coincidence to overlook."

"That's a possibility, but if we return to their building, Mr. Carver has threatened to sue the police department itself." Iris annoyingly stated.

"Well, since CCPD can't meddle with them," Seth smirked with tendrils pointing at himself, Mera and Kendra. "I can think of three people who operates outside of the CCPD and follows their own rules." Another tendril came out of him and pointed to Lindy. "Four if we can bring our shapeshifting technopath with us."

Barry blinks his eyes rapidly as realization dawned on him. "You're gonna break into the building, aren't you?"

"Yeah, with these three on my side, it's gonna be an easy task." Seth said with a mischievous smile, sending chills down the spines of all the natives. "Plus, it'd be really fun to take down that sniper with numbers. It's gonna be a bloodbath."

"Dude, have you ever considered speaking with a shrink? It might do you some good." Iris suggested honestly.

"Nah, had one session with my baby sister, and it instantly turned into a brawl." Seth revealed.

X

Snow fell over the entire city, even on the tall construction building she had found. Any other day, it would have been a happy time for her to take in the immensely white Christmas sight. It was the day before Christmas Eve after all,

But that would forever remain a thing of the past.

Seated on a red metal beam on the same construction building with her one leg hanging off the edge, not far from McCulloch Technologies, was Assassin herself. McCulloch Technologies was once a place that brought her joy and happiness, a place that was meant to develop technologies for the better of the city and the citizens. Kindhearted and good-willed people streaming in and working 24/7 to make devices to improve the lives of everyone.

Now it is a filled with people who would do anything rotten or inhumane to earn extra cash. They signed the dotted line on the contract and let the devil take their souls without a second thought.

Five.

Five rotten-to-the-core people resigned the rights to their souls last Christmas, only for some cash and the small luxury that followed that envelope of cash.

But they would realize that their actions last year were gonna be the end of their lives… and a bullet through their heads is what they deserve. Though it's a fate too nice for these good-for-nothing scumbags.

Assassin took off her mask and placed it on the beam, her shoulder-length blonde hair whitening with snow falling over her head and her emerald green eyes peering down to her right hand. Her thumb rubbing against the surface of her small photo, over the face in the photo.

"They're gonna pay… every single one of them."

She pointed her green eyes up, gazing with a deadly emotionless glare to the company building of McCulloch Technologies within her range of vision. His head would be the last to meet her bullet… but the two others are gonna taste them first.

X

The city had darkened greatly with nighttime coming over the city, citizens returning home to get a good night's sleep under their own roof with their family close to them.

Though everything had darkened and left their workplaces, a certain company building wasn't spared from the troubles following the nights. McCulloch Technologies's company building, the scene of two murders, was the unlucky building this night.

Hawkgirl was flying above the building, her hands under the armpits of Mera Curry as she was carried by the flyer. Venom landed on the rooftop of the building; Lindy was shakily hanging onto his oil-like skin with all of her strength.

The mutant felt the technopath dig her fingers into his body and he turned to look at her. "**Lindy calm down. You look you're about to fall off at any moment.**"

"I feel like I had to hold on for dear life while you leapt from building to building like a damn gorilla!" Lindy countered in a loud whisper.

Kendra lowered Mera to the rooftop before lowering herself. "Lind, I did offer to fly both you and Mera, but you said no."

Unhooking her fingers from the mutant's symbiotic skin, the technopath slid down his back till she was on the ground again. "Oh my God, last time I ever agree to piggyback on your back, man." She directed to the mutant with a gasping voice.

Mera chuckled, "Think it's Venom-Back with Seth here." She giggled at her own joke,

"**Funny.**" Seth commented before walking around in search.

Lindy then looked to the flyer. "And Kendra, you can't fly properly while carrying two people."

Seth turned his face to them. "**We could ha**ve carried you all three on my back." The mutant said with a morphing voice, shrinking his symbiotic form from its standard humongous size to fit his normal size. "Found it." He let out happily when he found a roof hatch and opened it.

"You knew there was a roof hatch here?" Lindy asked him intrigued.

"While walking through the hallways earlier, I found a ladder attached to an upper section." Seth said. "Don't think there's a floor above there, so I guessed it was a roof ladder." He gestured into the hatch, pointing to the ladder. "And I was right."

"Nice job." Lindy praised the mutant who gave a mock bow. "But before we go in," she got his full attention. "Why exactly do you need us all here? Wouldn't you alone have been enough for this?"

"I'm more up close and personal fighter. Against a sniper I'm a bit out of my elements, especially against one that can take down a flyer." He nodded to Kendra who spoke those words before. "If this Assassin chick shows up again, she's gonna have to deal with both me and Hawkgirl."

"Aw thanks." Kendra said with a coo, feeling happy at the feeling of getting closer to earn Seth's trust. "But why Mera and Lindy then?"

"I have some bad feeling about this entire situation and if Lindy can't find anything from her base or Iris's place, it's better if we hack in at their headquarters. They might be amateurs and leave trails." Seth hopefully said and turned his eyes to Mera. "Mera's here to be Lindy's vicious bodyguard from the deep."

"On it." The Atlantean instantly agreed and slammed her trident to the ground under her feet, letting a thudding sound emit and echo.

Seth had to ask this time; he couldn't hold it back anymore.

"I'm sorry, but where the heck do you keep that thing? You didn't even leave with it!"

X

The four of them either jumped or climbed down the ladder, landing on the surface of the highest floor of McCulloch Technologies's company building. They walked along the wall, trying to keep themselves hidden and being careful of staying out of the security camera's fields of visions.

At the thought of the security measures, Seth looked to Lindy. "Eye Sight, wanna work your magic on those cameras?"

"Already on it." Lindy informed as her hands were placed on a keypad, her eyes closed and her hair changing through different colors.

Seth looked to Kendra and Mera. "She doesn't take the serum I made anymore?"

"Lindy took it two times after your first injection wore off, but before she wanted to take another one, she said she wanted to get it under her control. Without the serum's help." Kendra answered while keeping her firearm ready.

"You've been kind of a strange but good influence on this world, Seth." Mera stated with a laugh.

"Glad to be of use…" Seth trailed off with a saddened tone.

Mera noticed his sentence and his tone. "What's wrong, Seth?"

Seth exhaled and leant against the wall to his left, answering the question. "This is my first Christmas without my family or friends, no offense to you guys. But it would also have been my first Christmas with my daughter, Frankie… and my new ones, Evelyn and Ruby." He scratched the side of his head. "Guess I hate that I can't spend one of my favorite holidays of the year with my family is all, the first one with my family in my new home world."

"Sorry." Mera stepped closer to him. "I really am sorry that you don't get to have Christmas with your family back home."

"Don't worry about that, Mera. I made the choice to stay behind even though the doorway to my home was right in front of me. I don't regret that choice, it meant my daughters could go to their new family and stop fearing Zoom." Seth told her. "I don't regret anything like that."

"On the bright side;" Mera gestured to herself with jazz hands. "You get to spend time with this Atlantean babe." Seth paled at her words.

Kendra frowned and nudged Mera with her handgun. "He's got a girlfriend and three daughters, and you're married." She reminded her.

Mera swung her head around and defensively stated. "That's not what I meant!"

Seth looked over the Atlantean to look to Kendra. "Kendra, mind joining us for Christmas, just to make sure the "Atlantean babe" doesn't try anything funny."

"Might be a good idea, actually." Kendra rapidly nodded.

"Hey!" Mera shouted to them.

Lindy removed her hands from the keypad and looked to the others. "Love that you guys are bonding so much, guys. I really am. But do I need to remind you all that we're here to break into the CEO's office?"

"Tell that to Mera, she's the one who wants to get freaky all of a sudden." Seth pointed a finger to her. "Ow!" He let out in pain when he felt her poke his foot with her trident of all things. "Do I have a sign on my back that says, "Poke Seth when he jokes?""

"Trust me, there should be." Mera admitted.

Lindy chuckled. "Let's go, some of the cameras showed me the way to Carver's office." They nodded and walked with her leading the way. They came to the end of a hall.

Placing a hand on the technopath's shoulder, Seth stopped her from going. He jumped up and attached to the ceiling. He began crawling on it and turned around a corner to the left. He kept crawling till he looked down and saw a door there. A metal sign showing the initials of Joseph Carver, J.C. beside the word, CEO.

"Bingo." Seth said and detached from the ceiling, landing on his feet. "It's clear, come on." They walked around the corner themselves and met up with the elemental. "Viola, one Joseph Carver's office."

Lindy placed her hand on the keypad, eyes closing and speaking with the machine in her head. "Good. Thank you." She directed to the machine and the door opened up before them. "Big ass companies like this have horrible security."

"Nice." Seth led the way and the others followed. Once in, they all took the moment to see the room. It was highly impressive and expensive CEO office. The entire wall was a glass wall, an impressive view of the city. White pristine shelves on one end of the office, awards and trophies on them and a white couch. The other end of it was a desk with framed photos on it.

And a computer screen, right in the middle of the desk.

"Lindy, there's your way into the system." Seth said.

She rushed to the computer and took a seat in the plushy chair. "Nice chair." Lindy smiled as she wiggled her behind in the chair. Her hands took their place on the computer. "Gonna take a while, you three stand guard."

"Check the cameras on the other floors, too, Lind. There might be others in the building right now." Kendra suggested while placing her back against the door frame. The technopath nodded and brought up the security camera footage on the computer screen while she searched for anything on the others. Mera walked to her side, looking over her shoulder.

Before Seth could move to stand on the other side of the doorframe, he felt his vision weaken and turned blurry. Huffingly, he placed a hand on the nearest wall to balance himself. "Fuck…" He turns his trembling eyes to his agonizing right arm, the current cage of his black flames. "Have to get his one under control soon." He felt his partner send an array of soothing emotions to ease his pain. "Thanks, Venom."

"**_We're in this together, brother._**" Venom assured his host, feeling the same pain as well.

Kendra heard his muttering and turned to him. "Seth? What's wrong?"

"It's the black flames in my arm." Seth inhaled and exhaled sharply repeatedly. "In simple terms, they're not feeling like being such a small place."

"They're claustrophobic?" Kendra joked.

"Another way of putting it, yeah." Seth nodded. "I need to find a place where I can adapt the flames to my body, but without people. Somewhere I can let the flames burst without hurting anyone."

"Try the Badlands." The flyer offered another suggestion, the mutant snapping his head to her like he had just witnessed a thunder strike. "It's this huge wasteland on the outskirts of the city, and a perfect for expelling dangerous flames that destroy all life around them."

Her flat response shook him, but he brushed that off for now as he said. "There's a Badlands on my world too, used to adapt to another element too. Guess some things are meant to repeat here."

"Yeah, looks like. Kinda of your thing." Kendra joked.

"Bingo!" Lindy exclaimed triumphantly, clapping her hands and getting everyone's attention. "Got into their system, come over here guys." She waved the others over. Kendra and Seth walked around the table till they stood beside the technopath. "Look here, last Christmas there was a gathering of people, working on a secret experiment. And from the number of people with access to it…" She reared her head back with frown of confusion at the numbers. "Not five people, but _six_ people."

"So there's one more target? Oh shit." Mera rubbed her forehead.

"Could be yeah." Lindy said.

"What was the name of the experiment?" Seth asked.

Lindy tapped a few keys and brought up the file, most of the lines are covered with black stripes. "Okay it's a all pretty redacted, but the name is still good. "Vita Ex Machina."" That name confused Seth, Mera and Lindy. "That doesn't sound good, but it was shut down after Christmas."

""Life from Machines."" Kendra translated the experiment name. "What did they do?"

Lindy shook her head while reading through the page. "Can't see it. It only has five names; the sixth person is redacted. It says there was a… test subject, but it's not redacted… it's just not there."

"So there never was a name? Removed, maybe." Mera asked.

"Could be." Lindy answered unsurely.

Seth asked. "Wait. The test subject and the fifth person are the only ones we know squat about. But what the five remaining?"

Zooming in on the five scientists, she answered. "Tim Kwon and Kurt Weaver, both obviously dead." She added at the end. "Then there's three others. Surprise, it's the Three Musketeers."

"Ramsey Deacon, Sheila Agnani and Joseph Carver." Mera stated knowingly. "So what do we do now? What about this case now?"

"Since Carver doesn't want anything to do with the CCPD." Seth said and leant over the table, pointing a finger at the screen, placing it on the two other names. "Means we gotta schedule a meeting with Ramsey Deacon and or Sheila Agnani."

"That's gonna be sooner than you think." Lindy enhanced the video footage from one camera till it filled the entire screen. The mutant and the flyer and the Atlantean looked to the screen, seeing the two in question standing walking into an office.

"They're here." Seth breathed out in a mutter.

X

"Ramsey, wait!" Sheila Agnani called out to the big scientist, rushing towards him with long strides through the long dark hallway.

Ramsey turned the key in the lock, opening the door to his office. He couldn't close the door behind him as Sheila slammed through the door and kicked it close. "Deacon, wait up!" She shouted after him.

"I can't handle this, Sheila!" Ramsey shouted to his co-worker, his hands pressing against the sides of his head with his fingers digging into his skin. "Tim and Kurt are dead now! Dead! Killed!"

"And it has nothing to do with us!" Sheila got up and into his face with another shout. "They were killed because they wasted their money on the wrong things. Gambling, drugs, prostitutes even or whatever the hell the boss wants their deaths to be about."

"We know better than that!" Ramsey's eyes were widened to the limit and his breathing came out in an array of huffs. "Sheila, what happened to you?" Sheila looked confused, but the bigger scientist knew that was a feign, a facade. "Do you honestly not regret what happened last Christmas? What the five of us did?"

"_Six_ of us!" Sheila corrected him with a sneer. "We weren't alone in it!"

"But she tried to stop us, and we should have stopped." Ramsey thought back to the times before last Christmas. "You were a good person, Sheila. You, me, Tim and Kurt were good people and now…" He scoffed. "Now, we all deserve to go to prison and rot in cells. And you act like you don't even regret what happened then."

"I don't regret trying to save someone like that, I regret failing them." Sheila confessed. "But what happened… happened. We can't change that."

"Yeah… but someone is coming to put an end to us all. Our time is coming to an end." Ramsey admitted.

"Tha…" Sheila stopped herself, when noticing something coming from the through the window…

A red laser… connecting with Ramsey's back.

"Ramsey, get away!" Sheila grabbed his shoulder and pushed him away to the side, sending him to the ground and-

_GUNSHOT_

Both he and she were frozen when the sound of a lead projectile piercing through the glass and penetrating the side of Sheila's stomach and brought her down to the floor.

"SHEILA!"

X

Back at the CEO's office, the four powered beings watched the entire event unfold on the computer screen.

"Assassin's here." Lindy said with realization. "What do we do now?"

Seth swung his head around and to the window wall, looking through it and locking onto the trajectory of the bullet. "The bullet came from that direction." He pointed to the glass wall. "From one of those buildings."

"The construction building." Kendra said confidently, completely sure of her own words. "It's gotta be that one."

"You sure, Kendra?" Seth asked. He got an adamant nod from her. Choosing to trust the flyer, the elemental looked to Lindy and Mera. "You two rush down to their floor, call Iris and Barry, help them."

"You're the doctor, shouldn't you go there instead?" Mera asked him.

"Not this time." He looked to Kendra. "Me and Kendra are gonna go and pay a visit to our not so friendly sniper."

"With pleasure." Kendra agreed.

X

As she was lying flat on her stomach on a support beam on the construction building across the company building of McCulloch Technology, Assassin removed her head from her scope, her red laser eye patch narrowing in surprise at Sheila's action. "Sheila Agnani, putting herself in harm's way to protect someone else. Who'd thought that? Christmas really does bring out the best in people."

She reached along the barrel of her Nemesis Arch Nemesis and reloaded another round. "But I don't miss a second time, Sheila." Assassin placed her head the scope again, aiming at Ramsey's head. "Bye, Ramsey."

"Think again!"

Assassin swung her head and saw none other than Hawkgirl carrying Venom, in his humongous pitch-black form.

"**Throw us!**" Venom said and the flyer spun around. Getting the momentum for few times, she stopped and threw the mutant for the sniper. He withdrew his sword again and swung it downwards to Assassin.

The sniper rolled to the left, dodging the attack which ended up with the beam being cut in half. Assassin gave a brief glance behind her, seeing another beam behind her and landed on it with her back. Using the momentum of her leap, she rolled to a crouch and raised her rifle again.

As her scope zoomed in on the elemental's head, her sight was then covered by a winged woman. A pressure on the side of her barrel, made it turn to the side and was followed with a kick slamming into her head and sending her down.

Assassin spun around and jumped off the beam. She landed on a beam a level below. Pointing her eyes to the air again, she sees Hawkgirl flapping her wings with her own eyes meeting the snipers. "Long to no see, Hawkgirl."

"Same to you, Assassin." She greeted the woman who used her and her deceased boyfriend as target practice.

"Heard about your boyfriend, sorry for it." Assassin said, at that moment Venom landed on a pillar, his feet placing on it with his right hand attaching onto a metal beam over his head. "Guess you're flying with that guy now."

"**No, just invited her for some Christmas fun.**" Seth growled. "**We know you're killing them because of project Vita Ex Machina.**"

Her hands tightened around her weapon. "You… Know… Nothing, Venom!" With rage blazing behind her mask, she raised her weapon again and pulled the trigger, sending a storm of bullets to both Hawkgirl and Venom.

Stretching out his left arm he wrapped it around Kendra's form and pulled her behind his frame, letting his body take on the bullets. Unwrapping his arm from her, he latched it to the sniper again.

Jumping backwards, the sniper jumped off the beam and aimed her rifle at him when landing on the platform. She pulled the trigger and fired off a bullet for him. The bullet met Hawkgirl's bullets who were in the air and fired bullets from her gun.

Hawkgirl dove with her mace in hand, twirling it around and gained momentum before swinging her mace. The mace smashed into the sniper's weapon, which Assassin used as a guard. The force of the mace combined with the strength of the flyer's power caused the weapon to be smash into pieces, violently sending the dissembled pieces all around her.

The flyer spun around and lashed out her foot and kicked the sniper away.

Venom snarled at the sniper. "**Stand down, Assassin! It's over!**"

Pushing herself up from the platform, the sniper spun into a backflip before landing on her feet. "It's not over, not until Carver gets a bullet in his head! Not until all of them are dead." Sliding out her foot along the floor, she spun around and gathered the pieces of her sniper rifle.

Continuing the spin, she took the pieces and quickly assembled the rifle. Backflipping, she landed on her stomach and aimed the rifle at a metal cable that was holding up a beam. Pulling the trigger, the bullet pierced through the cable and caused the beam to fall.

Looking up both Kendra and Seth saw the beam coming down towards them like a meteor. Thrusting his arms upwards his limbs splitting into thousands of tendrils. All of them converging on the beam and wrapped them around the beam. He placed the metal beam down on the platform.

Both he and Kendra looked to Assassin's position, but they were shocked to see that the sniper was nowhere to be found.

"**_These villains sure love to pull a Houdini act._**" They symbiote thought.

X

**(Central City General Hospital)**

Seth's foot was tapping against the floor of the hospital floor, his right arm still shaking like a tremor tearing through his limb. He, Kendra, Iris and Barry were getting tried of waiting the day after the powered people broke into McCulloch Technologies. The detective and her husband rushed into the place when getting

Mera's call. They were shocked to find a bleeding scientist and a hyperventilating scientist on the floor, the technopath and Atlantean nowhere to be found.

But they managed to get over their shock and called an ambulance. While they performed CPR, they also managed to console Ramsey.

At the thought of Lindy and Mera, Iris got up from her seat and asked the mutant. "Seth, do you know where Lindy and Mera went? They weren't there when we arrived at McCulloch's."

"They called me earlier, apparently they didn't want the heat of you two possibly arriving with a group of cops." Seth said before chuckling amusedly. "It's pretty funny if you think about it."

"Yeah, of course." Iris chose not to talk about his shaking arm. Instead she focused on the case. "Seth did you guys learn anything last night from Assassin? Anything that could help us, even the tiniest slip up will help us."

Nodding to Kendra, asking for her assistance which she agreed to and got up from the chair. Seth looked back to the detective. "We did find something on Joseph Carver's computer, an experiment that took place last year."

Those words caught Barry's attention and he rushed to partake in the conversation. "What experiment?"

"We don't know the details of It, but it's called "Vita Ex Machina." And it has something to do with a test subject." Kendra answered. "And it looks like Assassin has four more people on her kill-list."

"Four more?" Iris asked baffled.

Seth confirmed her fears with a nodding. "Lindy used her powers back at McCulloch's, pulled up the file and it showed that six people had access to this experiment file. Two of whom are dead, two others in this very hospital cause one of them has a bullet stuck in their stomach, and the two last ones, no idea about those. One of them anyway." He admitted with an annoyed tone.

"So the only ones left are Ramsey, Sheila, and we know about one of the last two people, right?" Iris asked them.

The flyer nodded. "One of them is Joseph Carver, the CEO of McCulloch." Kendra answered. "The last one is the mystery."

Barry then asked the two. "What about this test subject? Did you find something about this?"

"Nah, but we think it has something to do with this experiment, Life from Machine." Seth translated the name of the experiment for them. "Something happened to this test subject, but the file was seriously redacted and we couldn't get any information."

Iris nodded her understanding and stroked her chin with thumb and index finger. "Guess there's only one thing to do."

"Ask the two known members of this experiment." Seth stated as he caught on. "Well, looks like we're gonna be breaking some eggs." He stated with cracking fists.

X

**(Lindy's Base)**

Lindy was busy in her base, working rapidly at gathering information on both Seth's sword and its origins as well as breaking down McCulloch Technologies's security measures from her headquarters. She wanted help Seth and Iris with this case, and that meant she had to figure out what happened last Christmas, what happened with Vita Ex Machina.

She had to figure it out, her skills as a hacker and technopath would be the rock to shatter the glass that was the company's security systems. "Come on. Come on. Come on." Lindy chanted hopefully to herself as she tried to find a breach in their defenses, trying to slither her way inside the company's walls.

Mera walked to her side of the desk and placed a cup of steaming hot coffee beside the metahuman's keyboard. "Black coffee without sugar and milk for one overworking technopath?" She feigned the behavior of a worker at a fast-food restaurant.

The metahuman rolls her eyes. "Funny. You really like to remind me of my time when I worked at Big Belly Burger, don't you?" She rhetorically asked and took the cup in her hand. "I was in college back then, I had to make money. Not everyone here is from Atlantean royalty, you know." She sniped at the Atlantean.

"Yeah, being rich is truly a burden." Mera said in mock pain as she fans her face with her hand. "Whatever should I do?"

The technopath laughed at Mera's antics. "You don't change." While sipping on her coffee her eyes returned to the screen before her.

Following her eyes, Mera asked. "What's the status on the case and Seth's sword?"

"Neither of them doing any good for now." Lindy answered with sigh before making eye contact with the Atlantean. "The sword is one thing, but this experiment at McCulloch is a whole other mystery. I've been trying to hammer my way through their defenses, but so far-"

"It's like throwing pebbles at a huge steel wall." Mera threw in an analogy and got a chuckle followed by a nod from the metahuman. "Don't give up, Lind. Apply enough pressure on a spot, it's bound to break."

"Yeah, you're right. I just gotta keep trying." Lindy nodded before changing the subject. "You think there's any sources that knows about that sword in this city?"

"Like I said before, the only one I can think of is the one Seth burned in front of Zoom's henchmen." Mera said, referring to the original wielder of pitch-black flames. "And none of his old contracts will be useful in any way… What about this experiment?"

"Nah…" Lindy got into a thoughtful trance. "What if we're actually going the wrong about this?"

"What do you mean?" The Atlantean inquired as she took a seat in a chair.

Lindy then voiced her thoughts. "We know that this Assassin wants to kill the team, having offed two of them, and tried to kill the other two, and according to Kendra there's two others who are on her list… but what if that's the problem."

"You think there's something about those last two?" Mera wondered with interest.

"Seth and Kendra said one of them is Joseph Carver, but what if the last person… is Assassin." Lindy revealed her thoughts.

"That would mean there's a personal grudge in this, but what?" Mera asked.

"That is the million-dollar question." Lindy joked and turned her attention back to her screen. But before she could think of returning to her search, her phone began to vibrate and ringing as a phone call was coming through. The technopath took the phone in her hand and checked the caller id, getting wide eyes of shock at the displayed name.

"What the…" Lindy snapped her head to Mera and asked quickly. "Mind stepping outside for a moment, bit of an odd caller."

"Sure." Mera answered and stepped outside of the office.

When the door closed, Lindy pressed accept and put the phone to her ear. "I have to admit… I didn't expect you to call me ever again, old friend."

X

**(Central City General Hospital)**

Iris was the first one to walk into Sheila Agnani's hospital room, followed by her husband, then Kendra and Seth as the last. They walked in and saw Ramsey Deacon sitting on a chair beside the hospitalized scientist who had a tube from an IV bag attached to her forearm.

Sheila was awake as was Ramsey and they turned their heads to their guests. The big scientist narrowed her eyes at them. "You three came to McCulloch yesterday."

"Before Kurt was killed." Sheila followed up.

"Yeah, sorry for your loss." Iris offered her condolences. But then she continued with the persona of a seasoned detective. "We know of what happened to you, Ms. Agnani, but we'd like to talk about something else of great importance."

Seth shifted his gaze between Sheila and Ramsey. "Something you both know of."

"What…" Ramsey gulped in fear, fearing the worst questions coming their way.

"Vita Ex Machina." Kendra told them, watching their eyes expand to the brim as she closed the door behind her. "We want to know everything you know about this experiment, everyone who was in on it, the test subject… everything." She repeated steadfastly.

The two scientists shared a look and Barry looked at them. "Please tell us everything you know of this. We know it happened last Christmas and six scientists were part of this."

As he saw their faces pale in response to the CSI scientist's words, Seth furtherly stated. "And we know there was a test subject, someone you guys experimented on, we take it." Their hands clenched, knuckles cracking and turning white. "Judging by your reactions, you seem to know who Assassin might be. And also why this person is after you."

"Yeah… we do." Sheila let out a gulp. "It's because of last Christmas, because of what we agreed to."

"What happened?" Kendra asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this.

Ramsey inhaled deeply, steeling himself for what about to come out of his mouth. "We-"

"Hey guys!" Joseph Carver greeted them all as he walked into the hospital room. Seth and Kendra scowled at his sudden presence. Looking between his employees and the visitors from CCPD, he states. "Sorry, guys, but mind if I talk with my employees?"

"Actually, we'd like you to stay here while we question you and your employees." Iris stated.

Joseph looked skeptic. "I'm sorry, but I don't-"

"Vita Ex Machina." Seth cut her off and made the CEO look to him with shocked eyes. "We know about you and your team of four, including a sixth person was part of this experiment."

"How'd know you this?" Joseph asked with a shocked expression, his eyes darting to the door and worried that others might be listening in on their conversation. He briefly considered rushing out of here, but with a detective here it could end up going on his record and he'd risk losing everything he had.

Seth noticed his travelling eyes and stood ready to strike if he tried to make a run for it. He then said. "What matters is that we know of its existence. What we don't know of is what it is, and we want to know it now, Carver." The CEO looked nervous, like he was on the verge of breaking down. "Carver, your people's lives are on the line, not to mention your own."

Joseph scoffed and took a seat on a nearby seat, readying himself to reveal the biggest project that he came up with. "Vita Ex Machina, Life from Machine… the biggest project in McCulloch Technologies's history. The project to…to use machines to cure rare medical disorders."

"You tried to use machines to cure diseases?" Seth sneered; he felt a mix of soothing emotions coming over him like a rain inside of him. But that very rain was colliding and clashing with the uruption of his raging feelings of hate.

"Last Christmas, I felt like trying something new. I wanted to use our technology for more than what's always being used for. More than just factory machines, phones and weapons. So we assembled a best team, Kwon, Weaver, Agnani and Deacon." Joseph started. "Some of associates are doctors and nurses at nearby hospitals, even this one, told us that… so many people showed up with rare medical disorders."

Sheila then continued. "When boss came to us four about this experiment, we jumped at the opportunity. The four of us wanted…" She made eye contact with Ramsey. "We wanted to help people with our technology. This was a big chance to achieve that goal."

Ramsey exhaled. "We were trying to suppress the effects of rare medical disorders like hemophilia and Von Willebrand Disease. We wanted to use our technology to do that."

"How would you accomplish that?" Kendra asked.

Joseph answered, his face suddenly filled with something. "We had the idea of using technology, devices that could deploy nanites directly into the patient's body via the bloodstream and target the sources of the disorder and shrink it." His eyes turned greedy. "That project would have catapulted this entire company into a whole new era, money would have come over like a blizzard, we would be buried in millions-"

"What were you thinking?!" Seth screamed, rushing to the CEO.

Joseph pulled back in shock of his towering voice. "What? We were trying to save lives."

That sentence made the mutant grab Carver's collars and yank him from the chair and pinning him to the wall. Fear was stricken to his face. "Why would you even think of doing this?! For money?! Cause I can't imagine you guys doing this for the better of humanity, you greedy bastards!"

"Seth, calm down!" Iris shouted, grabbing hold of his shoulders and pulling him back. Her pulling him back made him lose his grip on the CEO's collars. "Seth, he can press charges for you assaulting him like this."

"Bastard chooses to use experiment on people with untested tech, and you think I give a damn about him pressing charges?" Seth sarcastically stated.

"I won't press charges." Joseph straightened his coat and adjusted his tie. "I know this… fiery gentleman is a fiery doctor and doesn't want patients to be put through anything unorthodox."

"That's one way to say it." Kendra admitted and pulled the mutant back with one hand, getting him to scowl in annoyance. She narrowed her eyes between the three. "Who was the last person on this experiment?"

"…" Joseph sighed and rubbed his neck with both hands similar to wringing a towel. "…Eva… Eva McCulloch."

"McCulloch? As in McCulloch Technologies?" Barry asked.

Sheila groaned with a nod as she pushed herself against the headboard of the gurney. "Yeah, she was the founder of the company."

"Never heard of her before." Seth said and turned to Barry, seeing as he has more love for this company. "Barry, you heard of her?"

"Yeah, a bit. In terms of technical, engineering and knowledge, not to mention practical skills, she was superior than the four minds of the ones who were set to inherit the company." Barry admitted, the others briefly wondering what his definition of "bit" was.

Joseph nodded with a chortle. "To say she was brilliant would be an understatement to her tremendous mind and her achievements. She was an incredible person, and when she agreed to marry me… I couldn't have been happier."

"You two were married?" Iris asked, she hadn't heard a single thing about him being married from Lawton. "I didn't hear anything about this before now, I thought you were unmarried."

"Not many know of my marriage, despite it's been four years now." Joseph admitted.

"What happened to your wife then? Or rather, what happened to her after the experiment, because it sounds like she vanished after that." Seth said rapidly in a cold manner.

"She was part of the experiment, reluctantly, I might add." Seth narrowed his eyes on the CEO's words. "But the experiment failed and she isolated herself and disappeared into thin air."

"Why did it fail?" Came the question from Barry.

Ramsey took over. "The Particle Accelerator explosion that unleashed dark matter came from underground, it happened two years ago. And we didn't know it back then, but there was considerable amounts of trace dark matter in the underground sections."

"And that's where we had performed the experiment itself." Sheila elaborated. "Under McCulloch's, there's an underground laboratory close the underground sections of the city itself to the train tracks. We have the theory that the technology we made caused the dark matter to react and suddenly cause the devices to malfunction, like the dark matter was reawakened and affected the tech itself.."

"Sort of like a miniature explosion of dark matter." Seth stated and they nodded. He clenched his hands and asked heavily. "What happened to your test subject?"

"… He died, the tech was applied to his body and though it did manage to shrink his disorder, the nanites were affected by the sudden burst of dark matter and… abruptly returned the disorder to its original size and caused the symptoms to worsen, at a rapid rate." Joseph wipe a tear away from his right eye.

Keeping a lid on his boiling rage, Seth demanded. "Who was this test subject?" Joseph didn't answer, neither did his two employees, all of them forming pale faces of disgust… and regret. The mutant recited angrily. "Who… Was… The test subject?"

Joseph sighed with wetting eyes. "He… He was my six-year-old stepson… Eva's son."

"You… You experimented on a child?" Iris asked, feeling the urge to slam her handcuffs on the CEO's wrists right now. "Your own son…"

"He was hemophiliac." Joseph ran his hands over his face. "He… He… I wanted to save him, Eva too. But…"

Kendra noticed him trailing off. "But what?"

Ramsey took over with a heavy heart. "Eva was against the experiment the entire time… and when the devices suddenly began spark and act strange, she tried to shut it down."

"But the boss, Kwon, Weaver and I… we didn't want to stop yet. So, so much good could come out if this experiment succeeded. So many people of different ages could be saved from this." Sheila added with a hand running through her hair. "We were greedy." She looked to Ramsey. "Deacon here was the only person who sided with her and tried to stop the experiment too."

"But I said that it was nothing more than small sparks on the device… and continued the experiment." Joseph confessed. "Because of that… Eva's son died on Christmas and she disappeared without telling me anything."

"And you had to take up the mantle as the CEO of the company…" Seth said with a brimming hate.

Iris looked ready to state a statement, but then Joseph looked to her and told her. "Detective West, I know what this means. But I take full responsibility for approving this experiment, so please don't punish my employees. I was the one who turned my stepson's disease into an opportunity for profit."

"That might be the case, Mr. Carver. But your employees agreed to this experiment and helped you with it." Iris declared.

Ramsey got up from his seat and asked. "May I please be excused to get a cup of water? I will come back again, I promise." He added, thinking they don't trust him yet. The detective nodded and watched as the big scientist walked out of the room and into the hallway,

Sheila exhaled sharply before looking to the detective. "Ramsey was against the experiment the entire time, he only thought of what would happen to the test subjects if the experiment failed. And when it really did fail, he's been punishing himself the entire time." They all looked to her with confused looks, telling her to continue, and so she did. "He's married, was anyway. But when this project failed, he immediately asked for a divorce. He only sees his kids once a week, under supervision which he personally demanded, like he didn't trust himself with his own children now."

"He's not even seeing his own children?" Seth asked in surprise, he didn't know anyone back in his worlds who would do this.

"He's that kind of guy." Sheila admitted sadly.

X

Reaching a small cart with water, coffee and other refreshments, Ramsey's shaking hands took hold of a pitcher with water and a cup. He watches the water pour into the cup and as it slowly fills up, he reflects on what has he has done.

His actions last Christmas was made with good intentions and a pure heart, to take the very first step to save lives who suffers from medical disorders. He didn't have any experience in medicine, but others did, and he wanted to help them. To be the kind of husband his wife would be happy and proud to be with, to be the kind of father his children would be proud of.

Put everything, his hopes and ambitions and his desires… turned to ashes the moment the first spark from the device showed itself. Dark matter had become a curse following the disaster of metahumans showing up at every corner of this city. And though people like him wanted to try and make changes for the better, dark matter, like metahumans, wound interfere with dreams and turn them to ash.

That's what led to Eva's son dying that Christmas, to him doing everything in his power to atone for his sins.

"Nightmare on Christmas Eve…" He muttered to himself as he stood alone in the hallway of the hospital floor. He placed the pitcher back on the cart when seeing his cup filled to the brim with water. "I really am sorry about this, Eva. I wish I could say it to you… as people who could be friends again."

"That's impossible and you know it."

As though he knew she was already there, no surprise came over the big scientist when he turned to the left and looked into the barrel of a gun. But he looked past it and saw the familiar blue-eyed face of his boss and friend, Eva McCulloch, no mask covering her face. Though her hair was shorter now, he could still recognize that same pale white face.

"Hey, Eva." Ramsey greeted her longingly as he placed the cup on the cart.

"Hey, Ramsey." Eva greeted back, her hand cocking the gun and readying it to shoot. "You don't seem surprised." She noted at his lack of reaction, his lack of shock specifically.

Shrugging Ramsey stated hollowly. "With Kurt and Tim dead, I had a feeling this would happen, I guess. Me, Sheila and Carver would be next on the list." He waved his hand to her suit and advanced weaponry. "Gotta admit, I never expected you to go into guns like this. Always thought you'd keep your distance from guns."

"People change with the loss of a child." Eva stated flatly and pressed the gun to his forehead. "No matter what you say, you won't escape this bullet, Deacon."

"I know that… I just wanna say… I'm sorry for it all, Eva." Ramsey apologized.

"Apology…not accepted." Eva coldly stated and placed her finger over the trigger.

But fate had other plans in store, leading to adamantium tendrils to slam into the woman's stomach and pushed her back and into the wall. Her gun falling to the floor with a clutter. The big scientist followed the tendrils and to his surprise, saw Venom standing there.

A snarl coming out of his mouth as he looked to Ramsey. "**Deacon, get out of here. Find Detective West and inform her of this situation. Now!**" He ordered loudly and the big scientist rushed off to do as told. Venom turned his face to see Eva McCulloch struggle her away out the tendrils' hold. Pulling his tendrils back into his arm, he said. "**We know why you're doing this, Eva.**"

A second later, Hawkgirl flew to his side. "We know what happened to your son last Christmas… It must be hard."

"You think it's hard…" Eva looked down, her hair covering her eyes as she reached behind her and pulled out her three-eyed mask. As she attached it, she continues. "My own husband is responsible for the death…" A clicking sound came as the mask was cully placed over her face and her red eyes lit up. "… of my child. The man I loved killed our son! For money!"

She reached behind, pulling out her Desert Tech Stealth Recon Scout rifle and unleashing a hailstorm of bullets. Kendra felt tendrils pull her back behind Seth's humongous form. As his front was continuously riddled with bullets, he directed to the flyer. "**We have to get her out of here, quickly!**"

"I have an idea! Pull her to me!" Kendra jumped backwards and sprouted her wings. Seth launched his left hand and split into tendrils, dodging through the storm of bullets and wrapped themselves around Assassin's form.

Eva manage to force her arms out of the tendrils' hold, a hunting knife in each hand. With a distortive cry, she began to bring the blades down on the oil-like tendrils in rapid succession. But as she continued to bring down the blades, tendrils suddenly turned into adamantium and, upon contact, caused the knives to crack. "Damn it!"

Strengthening his muscles with the earth element, the elemental dug his feet into the floor and quipped demonically. "**Nice flight!**" Raising his left arm over his head after facing Kendra's direction, he pulled on his tendrils and threw the sniper away. His tendrils assimilating once more while he calls out to the flyer. "**Hawkgirl, your turn!**"

Assassin's body skipped against the ground repeatedly like a stone skipping on water, her hunting knives falling out of her hands and shattering on the floor. Her role as a water skipping on water came to an end when Hawkgirl wrapped her arms around her in a bearhug. "Let's go for a flight, Eva!" She launched herself with a flap of her wings and locked onto the window in front of her.

"Let go of me!" Eva tried to struggle her way out of the flyer's arms.

"Not this time!" Kendra shouted as she crashed through the window.

"**_Let's go after them!_**" Venom told his host.

"**Definitely.**" Seth agreed and rushed after them like a predatory animal on all four limbs. But he came to a stop when he felt his right arm ache with pain. Turning his eyes to it, he saw the symbiotic skin retract and reveal his bandaged arm smoking. "**Damn black flames…**"

X

Chilly wind and falling snow pushed against their faces as Kendra Munoz-Saunders continued her ascend into the air. The flyer noticed that the elemental wasn't following them. She deduced that his black flames were fighting back again, like they did back in McCulloch's company building.

"Damn flames…" She muttered to herself, but then steeled herself with determination. This time Kendra had to be the one to take flight and fight. Seth had sacrificed enough for this city; it was time for her to fight for it herself.

"Let go of me, Hawkgirl!" Assassin let out in anger as she managed to take her firearm off thigh holster.

Hawkgirl laughed. "Alright!" Spinning around to gain greater momentum, the flyer hurled the sniper into the nearest building.

But Assassin surprised her as she spun around in the air and made sure her feet faced the building. And when they connected with the wall, Eva applied additional pressure on the surface. The flyer was shocked to see the sniper remain standing on the wall.

"You got some new tricks up your sleeves." Kendra noted surprisingly at the sight of Eva still standing there.

"Retractable heels made of Dwarf star alloy, a rare and incredibly powerful and dense metallic alloy." Eva gestured with her gun at her feet. "Easily able to hold up an entire person's weight, as you can see right here. Because of their strength, and after making them spiked heels, they can pierce through any surface."

"Let's see how that holds up against me then!" Kendra charged her, her wings covering her entire form as she sent herself into a spin.

Taking out her other firearm, Eva pointed both of guns at the flyer and pulled on the triggers, shooting a pair of lead projectiles. The flyer's wings lashed out and deflected the bullets. With her right hand, she took her mace in hand and swung it into the sniper's guns.

Eva was disoriented by the loss of her handguns and didn't have time to avoid Hawkgirl's left hand that grabbed hold of her mask. "Here we go!" Kendra shouted as she increased her strength and tore the sniper off the wall and into the air again.

This time, Assassin wasn't gonna let herself be at the flyer's mercy. With her hands now devoid of any objects, she placed them on her wrist and swung her legs forward, lashing out her feet and tried to hit Kendra's face with her extended Dwarf star heels.

The flyer either managed to dodge twisting and turning her head or block the heels with the sides of her helmet. But the heels are made of Dwarf star causing them to crack Kendra's helmet. "Damn you, Hawkgirl!" Eva slammed both of the heels into her stomach.

Groaning in pain, Kendra felt her eyes glow with pain and anger, glowing with a familiar redness. But she fought and buried it again before seeing that she had reached the top of the building. Her nails sharpening into claws and digging into the sides of Eva's mask.

Unleashing a warcry, Kendra threw the sniper onto the rooftop with violent strength. Clashing against the rooftop with a roll, Eva forced herself to a crouch. She groaned in discomfort when she noticed her left laser eye cracked and unusable. Grabbing onto it with both hands, she took off her mask and looked at the flyer.

Kendra landed on the roof with her eyes focused on the sniper's true face. "Eva, stop this, now! You don't wanna do this, not in the name of your deceased son."

"Deceased? Is that what you call it?!" Eva shouted in rage, her hands swiftly taking off the disassembled pieces of her sniper rifle. "The man I loved is the one who killed my son!"

"He tried to save him, Eva!" Kendra countered in a shout.

"For money!" Eva exclaimed and stepped closer to her. "Joseph only did this for money. My son's disease… the one thing that kept him from living his life to the fullest…" Tears came streaming down her eyes. "He took advantage of my baby boy's curse and he continued this sick experiment to gain profit, a better reputation! He doesn't deserve to live anymore; he deserves a bullet in his head." She quickly assembled the Nemesis Arms Vanquish rifle, she was within arm's reach and pointed the gun at her head. "What do you know of my feelings…"

At those words, it felt like something resonated with her head. A familiar tune playing and it was like for a moment it blurred her vision for a second. Kendra blinked and widened her eyes when looking at the sniper again…

But this time… it wasn't Eva McCulloch who holds the rifle anymore. Now it… it was… herself?

Kendra saw herself now, but at the same time it wasn't herself. It was someone she was… the person who had to carry her dead boyfriend's body into Lindy's base, the aftermath of the two flyers fighting against Zoom. When she was filled with nothing but hate and rage that overwhelmed her like a tsunami, drowning her in a sea of extreme anger and grief.

Then she threw a belt of grenades into a bar and watched as it blew up before her eyes. Watching the bar with Zoom's metahuman henchmen blow up, not worried or caring if anyone else had been caught in the explosion. A mistake that almost cost the life of an innocent young girl.

The person she turned into… a person Carter wouldn't recognize anymore.

Retracting her wings into her, Hawkgirl reached up for her helmet and took it off, revealing her true identity to the sniper of vengeance. "Believe me, I know that, Eva. I lost Hawkman months ago and I… felt devasted by his death."

"A son and a boyfriend are different things." Eva shouted.

"Not the fact that they are loved ones, people who holds a special place in our hearts." Kendra stated, Eva widening her eyes in response. A hand placing over the unmasked flyer's chest. "The man Hawkman was… he was more than just that… he was my everything. I couldn't imagine a day without him, just like you couldn't imagine a day without your son."

The sniper felt her hands shake and no matter how much she tried to stop it; it wouldn't work. Her hands remained a trembling mess.

"I never had the courage to be a mother like you, so me comparing my pain to yours is nothing but an insult." Kendra stated and Eva's hands continued to shake violently around the rifle. "But every one of us feels pain from a loss, and we feel anger and grief and… sometimes we let that dictate our actions. Cause I know that anger in you." She smiled as she recalled words from a person who turned into her friend.

"Don't let that anger… that rage… don't let it dictate you like it's already doing. The moment you do so, you'll become someone you don't recognize. Worse…" Kendra stepped forward, allowing the rifle to connect with her forehead. "… You'll become someone your loved one won't be able to recognize. The things you're doing in your son's name… It's wrong and he wouldn't be able to recognize his own mommy because of it."

"I… I…" Eva lowered her eyes with regret, a feeling that only intensified with each word sinking in. "My son won't be able to recognize me…"

"I know you want to avenge your son." Kendra stepped forward, gently pushing the rifle away till she stood before the sniper. "But you can't do this in his name? He's your son after all. And there are other ways to avenge your son, ways that doesn't involve bloodshed. Your husband has to pay for this, and I promise you that he will."

"**She's not the only one to promise that.**" Venom announced his presence with an assurance as he landed on the rooftop ledge.

"So you finally decided to get off your ass, huh?" Kendra joked.

"**It's Christmas, can't take anything serious this time of year.**" Venom showed a toothy grin.

"Yeah… it's Christmas…" Eva remembered and turned around to face the building that bears her name. "I built this company and wanted to do good with it. Thought that would be possible with my husband beside me and my son having been born… I thought I could do anything in the world with those two behind me. Guess that was wrong to assume…" She muttered as snow continued to fall over them. "What do I do now?"

"**You know the answer to that question yourself, Eva.**" Venom knowingly said with a nod pointing down to the front of the building.

"... Yeah, I do." She said with a knowing look, one that was pointing to her three-eyed mask, her pride as the sniper Assassin.

X

Iris had called Lawton and now both of them stood before the entrance to Central City General Hospital, both standing in wait as they looked for the mutant and Hawkgirl to come back safely. They hoped that they would be able to take down Assassin.

The detective felt her phone chime and pulled it out. "Lindy?" She noted at the caller id before placing it to her ear. "Lindy, what's up?"

"_Hey, did you guys find out about the experiment?_" Came the inquiry from the technopath.

"Yeah, a pretty big something, though." Iris then spent the next few moments to explain everything they learnt from the conversation in the hospital room. Everything they learnt the detective explained to the metahuman.

"_Carver used his own stepson as the test subject for this project? I can't believe it._" Lindy admitted.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying, Lindy. But it's the truth." Iris looked to the company building with disbelieving eyes. "My husband loves this entire company and the good it does… who'd thought this place he admires so much would hold so much darkness. I can't even imagine how he must think right now."

"_Your husband's gonna be fine. I mean he must be a tough guy since he married a badass like you._" Lindy quipped supportively.

Iris laughed. "Thanks… But we think we have an idea on who Assassin really is."

"_The sixth person._" Lindy knew where she was going.

"Yeah, Eva McCulloch." The detective stated with a nod. "Let's hope Seth and Kendra can take care of her now, Christmas would suck without them."

"Partner!" Iris looked to Floyd and saw him point upwards. Hanging up on her call, she followed the same direction of his finger and saw Venom jumping off the rooftop of the tall building before them, landing on the ground. Hawkgirl lowered herself to the ground, her hands under the armpits of Assassin.

"It's Assassin!" Iris shouted and both she and her partner raised their firearms.

Hawkgirl landed on the ground and let go of the sniper. Assassin nodded her gratitude to the flyer before stepping forward, her hands raised up as she was at gunpoint to two officers of the law. With slow movements, she grabbed hold of her mask by both sides and slowly pulled it off, showing her face to the officers.

"My name is Eva McCulloch, also known as Assassin… I hereby surrender." Eva honestly said with her wrists touching one another side by side.

The detectives turned shocked, facing the elemental with a snap of their heads. Nodding his head, he assured. "**Eva McCulloch is turning herself in for the murders of Tim Kwon and Kurt Weaver.**"

"As well as the attempted murders of McCulloch Technologies's CEO, Joseph Carver and his employees, Ramsey Deacon and Sheila Agnani." Kendra continued.

"That easily?" Floyd asked skeptically.

"What can I say…" Eva turned her head to the flyer. "This one knows how to talk some sense into misguided people…" Hawkgirl smiled appreciatively. She turned back to the officers. "I'm ready to turn myself in, Detectives."

"Alrighty." Iris accepted and walked to her while unclipping her handcuffs from her belt. "Eva McCulloch, you are under arrest for the murders of both Tim Kwon and Kurt Weaver." Taking the sniper's hands behind her back, she cuffed them and continued. "As well as the attempted murders of McCulloch Technologies's CEO, Joseph Carver and his employees, Ramsey Deacon and Sheila Agnani. You have the right to remain silent Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law."

"I accept it wholeheartedly, Detective West." Eva stated earnestly as she was pushed to the car.

"Um, Detective West?"

Venom, Hawkgirl, Iris, Floyd and Eva turned to the entrance of the hospital. To their shock, they see Joseph Carver stepping out of the slide door. The sniper widened her eyes. "Joseph."

"You look good as always, my love." Joseph lovingly greeting his wife for the first time in an entire year. He turned his gaze to Iris and said. "If possible, do you have room for one more in your car, Detective?"

Sharing a confused look with her partner, Iris asked for assurance. "What are you saying, Mr. Carver?"

"In exchange for Sheila and Ramsey receiving immunity for it, I, Joseph Carver, CEO of McCulloch Technologies admits to approving and proceeding the experiment Vita Ex Machina which resulted in the death of my stepson, David McCulloch." Joseph confessed with a serious expression.

"You're confessing to this experiment?" Eva asked in shock.

"I am." Joseph nodded. "It's time I pay for what happened last Christmas." He placed his fists beside each other. "But please, I was the one who started this experiment, Ramsey and Sheila don't need to pay for this."

"Alright." Floyd said and took his hands and cuffed them behind his back. "Let's go, bud."

X

**(West-Allen Household)**

"Finally!" Seth shouted as he heard the timer chime. Grabbing hold of a pair of mittens, he opens the oven and pulls out the incredibly hot tray with triple-chocolate cookies. "Trust me, Barry, you and the wifey are gonna love these, a Fury family Christmas tradition."

Barry used a tissue to wipe away some steam from his glasses. "You really go all out with chocolate pieces? Did you dump three bars into the dough or something?"

"Accurate." Seth proudly said while using tendrils to place the cookies on a large metal tray. "Is Joe on his way?"

"You mean, Joseph?" Barry asked with a smirk and he got a nod. "He's on his way, yes, and is undoubtedly making a list of insults to throw at me."

"Want me to get him drunk or something? Worked well with the Joe West I know." Seth offered villainy.

"No. Tempting but no. I just have to hope that he's touched by the Christmas spirit." Barry twisted his head. "Would be the first time though."

Nudging him with his elbow, the mutant told him. "I'm here to buffer and more, man. Don't worry."

"Good, he's probably the one to bring Grandma Esther's eggnog." Seth groaned at Barry's words, memories of the one he knew of was not boozy enough.

The two men then moved into the living room and took in the decorated room. Blazing red light emitting from the lit fireplace. Its light touching the humongous Christmas Tree and ricocheting off the large ornaments on the tree. Tinsels around the living room and stockings above the fireplace, all of them touched by the warm light that comes from the dazzling fire.

From afar, Seth could see some of the ornaments have the shapes and forms of The Flash emblem and Venom symbol. Smiling happily, he turned his face to the guests.

Aside from Joe, the invited guests are already are. The three women already in beautiful dresses. Wearing a beautiful blue dress, Iris placed Christmas mugs on the table. Wearing a red Christmas sweater with a goofy Santa Claus face, Kendra wrapped green spruce garlands around the railing. While humming a Christmas tune in a green and gold dress, Mera stood on a stool and hung a mistletoe on the ceiling.

"Perfect!" Mera let out happily, gesturing to the perfectly hung mistletoe with jazz hands. Jumping off the chair, she gently pushed the chair to the side. "Now people, you can give your kisses with a Christmas approval, as long as you're under this beauty, of course." She added with a finger to the plant above her head.

"Beats a lump of coal." Kendra quipped as she noticed something on the table, or rather something that wasn't there. "A Christmas without nog? That's just wrong."

"Fear not, my Dad's bringing Grandma Esther's original nog for Christmas." The detective explained assuringly. She smiled and looked at the two men. "Are you two gonna stay there all night or actually join us for Christmas?"

Seth tilted his head like it was swaying on scales as he said. "Sure, but first…" The mutant used his free hand to abruptly push the CSI scientist forward, till he stood under the mistletoe. "I think there's a certain CSI scientist waiting for his wife under a hemiparasitic plant."

"Seth!" Barry chastised his behaviors.

Iris smiled flirtatiously as she strode to her husband and wrapped her arms around her husband's neck. "Well, since they're asking for it, we might as well give them a show." She quipped playfully and Barry smiled back before the two kissed passionately under the plant.

Kendra swung her eyes to the doctor with a questioning look. "Hemipa- What?"

"Hemiparasitic plant." Seth points to the mistletoe while placing the tray of cookies on the table. "If I recall correctly, it's from the genus Santalaceae family in the North America-"

"Right, always forget the doctor part." Kendra sheepishly admitted.

Mera was about to pitch in but then saw the married couple still engaged in their kiss, quickly turning it into a make-out session. "How long are they gonna go at it?"

Kendra smirked. "Till they bring out the handcuffs." Seth paled at that image forming in his head.

"**_Stop them! Now!_**" Venom, like his host, wasn't happy about the image forming.

_KNOCK_

The married couple separated at the sound of someone knocking on their door. "Saved by the bell." Seth happily admitted and saw Iris walking past him, taking a moment to slap his arm, before going to the door. "People love hurting the mutant from the other world this Christmas."

"Your fault." Mera sniped instantly.

Iris opened the door and was met with her father, Joseph West with wide open arms, one hands clutched around two gifts and the other one wrapped around a large covered pitcher. "Pops!" The detective stretched out her arms and the two embraced in a hug. "Glad you came."

"Of course, baby girl, it's Christmas after all." Joseph said as he unwrapped his arms from her and walked into the house. He saw Barry in the middle of the room. "Bartholomew."

"Joseph." Barry greeted his father-in-law flatly.

"Merry Christmas." Joseph told the husband to his daughter with a smile, inwardly remembering that he promised Seth that he would go easy on Barry.

"You too, Merry Christmas." Barry said back with a smile.

"I see this Christmas is gonna be a bit merrier than normal." Joseph noted at the three other guests here.

"It's Christmas, Joseph. Get in the mood, man." The elemental joked as he took the pitcher in his hand and brought to the powered ladies. They each held out a mug for him to pour eggnog into them. "Let's taste-test Grandma Esther's recipe."

"Cheers."

The three of them said before sipping on the eggnog. They widened their eyes at the boozy taste. "I love this." Seth instantly said, immediately thinking this was better than the Joe he knows makes.

"Hear, hear." Kendra agreed with a smile and couldn't keep her lips off the mug.

"So Seth…" Mera smiled and walked to behind the couch, pulling out a gift-wrapped package. "This is from me and Kendra. And I'm sorry to spoil it, but this is a very, very sweet sweater with something from the both of us."

"Sweet as this one?" He asked with finger pointing to Kendra's sweater.

"Oh yeah, but Santa has the trident in his mouth and a pair of wings above his head." Kendra corrected.

"Fuck yeah." Seth walked to the tree and took two packages and handed them to the ladies. "Something for you two as well, and for helping so much since meeting you."

Mera took one in her hand and admitted sincerely. "We may not have met under the strangest circumstances, to say the least, but I am glad that was the beginning and it lead us to here."

Kendra took the other one. "Same. I'm sorry for everything that I did, and I'm hoping I can work my way up to the right place to call myself your friend."

"You're already there, Kendra." Seth revealed and the two smiled happily. "Merry Christmas, you two." He opened his arms and pulled them into a three-way hug, the powered ladies wrapping their arms around his form. "By the way, those gifts are some ugly-ass sweaters and Christmas antler headbands, Iris helped me find them."

They laughed at his words and unwrapped their arms from him before walking around the living room. Seth was about to mingle himself, but then had another thought in mind. Making sure no one was looking in his direction, he used a tendril to come out of his palm and slither up the wall till it reached a certain plant on the ceiling. It plucked it off and placed it into his hand.

Clutching it with a smile, he walks to the exit. Before getting to it, he turns to Iris. "Hey, gonna go out to take some air." She nodded and watched him walk out the door.

Barry walked to her side. "You waiting for the right chance to give him that present of yours?"

"I am." Iris smiled and turned her head to look at him. "And I think it's now."

X

Seth walked out of the house and onto the porch. Placing his hands on the wooden railing, he looked over the grassy front yard of the West-Allen household. He turned around and leant against the railing, his right hand coming up and over his head. The tips of his fingers holding the plant over his head.

It was an object that made his Caitlin Snow and her share perhaps the most passionate kiss on a similar porch, just on a different Earth last Christmas. It was a strange time for the both, with Caitlin's thought-to-be-dead fiancée Ronnie Raymond returning from the dead with blazing heads and flaming hands.

The mutant might have been holding various secrets, the biggest one about Carnage's poison that was inside of his body. Surely that was not reasonable karma for him to be relentlessly attacked by an array of fireballs. But was because Firestorm thought Seth was gonna put Caitlin in harm's way.

That night was the Christmas night that he thought Caitlin would leave him and go back to her fiancée, who miraculously returned to land of the living. Like a knight of flames coming back to slay the elemental dragon to take back the cold princess.

But Caitlin poured out her heart to Seth and assured him that she wasn't going anywhere, that she wasn't someone who would string him along like that. Seth was shocked when hearing that she couldn't believe that he thought she would even consider leaving him because of Ronnie's return.

Christmas Eve that year turned into a night of revelations and declarations. Seth swore to both Ronnie Raymond and Professor Martin Stein that he'd attack them both without hesitation if they ended up hurting Caitlin in any way. One of the multitude of times when he jumped in front of danger for her.

Venom and Cure…

He was the venom that always protects the cure, just like she'd be the cure to protect the venom. Dangers could range from fiery attacks from a multi-minded metahuman to a humongous Singularity, but he wouldn't hesitate to take them on, to be the Lethal Protector, _her_ Lethal Protector that takes them down with fists, blades and fangs. For her, their family, nothing could force him to his knees.

He loves her…

She loves him…

…beyond the weak confines of different universe… even if they currently are on other universes.

With his eyes pointed up to the plant in his fingers, he used his other hand to touch the dog tags with his, Caitlin's and Frankie's names. It was the best present he could ask for. A gift that represented Caitlin's feelings for him, that he would be protecting her no matter what.

His fingers pulled on the chain, revealing it to his eyes and turned them to the dog tag with his daughter's name. Her dog tag right beside her parents. In the past, Seth didn't anticipate having another child, or children for that matter, as he failed to be father to Bucky, especially with children from different universes. But with those children, Frankie, Ruby, Evelyn, and with Caitlin beside him, his true love… he would be ready to retake the title as a father.

He was thankful to Caitlin making him love again, as both as boyfriend and also as parent.

Seth returned his eyes to the mistletoe. "Thank you, Caitlin… I love you."

"**_You should make more tags; our family have grown bigger now._**" Venom told his host.

"Yeah, you're right." Seth thought out loud in agreement, inwardly thinking about what to engrave on them when he returned home. He brought the mistletoe down to the railing when hearing the door open up. Tilting his head in confusion, he sees Iris step out, wearing a jacket and holding cardboard package. "What's up, Detective?"

"Think it's time…" She held the package before him. "You got your present."

"You two already got yours? Mera hooked me up with those Atlantean phones and she said could get some tickets for an Atlantean cruise by the end of the week." Seth said as he took the package.

"Yeah, thank you. But you need yours now, and I think it will suit you better than me." Iris told him honestly.

Getting curiouser, he opened the package and saw that it is folded leather. He got curiouser again and took out the folded leather out of the package. He unfolded it after stepping back and was shocked at its unfolded form.

A brown suede leather trenchcoat.

"Damn, that's a nice coat." Seth said as he admired the coat. "It looks new."

"Kinda is, never been worn." Iris elaborated. "When I finally became detective on the force, Fred Chyre gave me this coat, his own coat. But I never wore it because it was weird to wear his coat… also because I'm not exactly a trenchcoat person. Barry's not either… but you look like the kind of person who is."

"I am, my Dad gave me one of his when I got older." Seth smiled. "I gave that one to my daughter, before I suddenly was hurled into this side of the universe."

"When you get back to your world… how about you wear this one… that way you will always remember us." Iris told him.

Seth smiled and put the coat on. He straightened it out and posed for the detective. "What do you think?"

"Looks like the coat found its rightful place on a hero's body." Iris wrapped him into a hug. "Thanks for everything you did for my city, Seth."

"Don't worry, Iris." Seth said back.

"Hey, guys!"

Unwrapping their arms from each other and looked out to the front yard. They see Lindy walking up to them. "Lindy, what are you doing here?" Seth asked the technopath with surprise. "You're not celebrating Christmas with anyone?"

"I am going to meet up with Thea and her family later, but first…" Lindy looked to Iris with a sheepish smile. "Mind if I go off with Seth for a bit? I have some people who wants to meet with him."

"Who?" Seth asked.

"I can't say, I promise them I wouldn't. So mind joining me for a hot sec?" She gestured to the jeep at the curb. "Got a driver and everything. Though, Tony's rusty at best behind a wheel."

"Thanks for the warning, let's go then." Seth stated and nodded his farewells to the detective. He walked to Lindy's side and they walked to the car.

"Nice coat." Lindy admitted.

"Thanks, just got it." Seth appreciatively said as he and the metahuman got into the car.

X

Seth and Lindy sat in the car and looked out their separate windows, Tony driving them surprisingly well. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure what is it?" Lindy answered the mutant.

"What's going with Thea? Is she doing well with life now? Life out of Blackfire's hell operations?" Seth asked him.

"Settling in slowly." Lindy started. "It's gonna take a while for her to get back to the normal that once her life."

"She looks like a strong girl, she's gonna be alright." Seth told her supportively. "And she's got you and the rest of your team, a whole support team who can ease back into the life that was hers once. But it's a marathon, not a sprint. Take it slow and steady, for her sake."

"I know… but thanks to you, she's safe again." Lindy stated with a smile.

"I can't wait to meet these mystery people who wants to meet me on Christmas Eve." Seth said with a chuckle and then inquired. "Can I ask something else, some a bit more opening?"

"Now that sounds interesting." Lindy admitted bemusedly.

Getting a serious expression, he asks. "What is your real name? It's not Lindy, I know that much. And I'm guessing you can change your facial features too, though I haven't seen it yet."

"Yeah, only limited to face, hair and eyes." Lindy said before closing her eyes and inhaling sharply. Suddenly her hair changed color, into clear blonde hair. Her eyes were closed but appeared to changing too. Like a drop of water hitting the surface of an ocean, a ripple came over face and once again… her face returned to normal.

And Seth widened his eyes at the face. "What the hell…"

Lindy turned to him and looked at him with familiar blonde hair and familiar blue eyes. "Hey Seth. I'm real name is Felicity Smoak."

"What the fuck?" Seth said in shock of seeing the familiar face of the Starling City hacker from the Arrow's team on this Earth. "Didn't expect to see your face here again."

"You've seen my doppelganger?" Felicity chortled. "How is she?"

Quickly summing up the words he could think of, he states. "Intelligent, witty, tech-savvy, reckless, caring, selfless, bit of pervert, thinks I'm an octopus, and moral."

"Did you just put "pervert" and "moral" in the same sentence?" Felicity asked. "And what does octopus have to do with this?"

"Yeah, I did." He stated without hesitation. "But she's a good person overall and… looks like that's a common factor with her doppelganger too." Seth gestured with a smile to the technopath.

"Thanks." She smiled happily, but she did notice that he didn't answer her second question. Felicity stopped when feeling the car slow down and felt the aftermath of the pressure of the brakes being pressed. "We're here. Thanks Tony."

"Don't mention it. Sure, I should just leave?" Tony asked Felicity.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Felicity told assured him and got out of the car.

"See ya, Tony." Seth bid his goodbyes and walked out himself. The elemental found himself standing in front of a dark alleyway with Felicity, Tony driving away to leave them alone. "Don't tell me, you brought me here to kill me or something?" He noticed trashcans, either rolling on the snow-covered ground or still standing but overfilled with trash. Snow might coat every inch of the

Felicity scoffed. "I know better than to mess with the guy who offed Blackfire. Though I might beat you in a game of poker."

"I have a symbiotic chocolate addict slithering in my body that not just eats people but also detects lies." Seth revealed with a joke. "So you do not want to play poker with me, Lin- Felicity." He corrected himself.

"Count me in, if it's strip poker, that is."

Seth widened his eyes in surprise at that familiar distortive and icy voice coming from the darkness of the alleyway.

"Two sounds boring, why not add a third one?"

The mutant knew that callous voice anywhere.

He six months of listening to those voices while they looked at him like he was a tropical animal in a zoo. And he told those two that he would kill them the next they meet.

Then out of the darkness, came the two deadly beauties.

One with long brown hair along the side of her right shoulder, wearing a black leather suit. A top with coattails reaching down to knee length. Christmas time, but she remained true to her long sleeves that remains connected to the top with fishnet material below her shoulders. Black leather gloves, still resembling the ones opera singers wear. Fishnet black leather pants looking like knee pads and high heels. A black leather choker with a gold bell in the middle still remains around Black Siren's neck.

The deadly siren had revealed herself, next came the deadly ice queen.

With her as she is, she wouldn't see the need to change anything in her attire, even during Christmas. Snow did nothing to her dark blue leather jacket and pants of the same material and color. The sharp heels of her high heels making holes in the snow with each step she took. Underneath her jacket, she continued wearing a blue leather animal blue print top with a dark leather belt around her west. She stopped and flicked her hair to the side, making way for Killer Frost to rub along her linear earring with a flirty smile.

Seth found himself in shock at the sight of two of Zoom's metahumans standing here before him right now. And now he wondered one thing.

How snow would in red?

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**Taking down an Assassin on path of vengeance, bringing her off of it thanks to Kendra's help, the two co-founders of McCulloch Technologies Eva and Joseph both confessing to Vita Ex Machina which lead to the death of their son, Christmas Eve with the West-Allens, and then invited to a surprise meeting by Lindy, who revealed herself to Felicity Smoak of Earth-2 with metahuman powers, then the meeting led to Killer Frost and Black Siren showing up out of the blue. Seth and Venom, throughout this Christmastime, feeling the side effects of the confined black flames in his arms and making him weak by the second. **

**Safe to say, Christmas turned into one hot mess. **

**Things are gonna be strange in the next Earth-2 chapter.**

**Some small things to note:**

**The suit Eva McCulloch uses is akin to that of Black Widow's fugitive suit in Avengers: Infinity War. The weapons she uses are weapons used in the Marvel TV Show, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. **

**The mask, however, is inspired the mask from an anime Show, Danball Senki, based on the head part of the Assassin Model.**

**Yeah, I know bit of a weird thing to give them the same name, but I was re-watching the show and it got my brain thinking.**

**Another thing to note, the trenchcoat that is given to Seth in the end, is the same trenchcoat that Samuel Jackson wears in Shaft, a movie he stars in. Love Samuel Jackson movies.**

**Next time, we're gonna see how things are going to go with Team Flash of Earth-1 meeting the two new additions of the Fury Family.**

**Stay tuned and find out.**

**Until next time, peeps!**


	23. Chapter 23:Revelation & Potential Energy

**And now another bedtime story for you wonderful readers out in the world.**

**I hope you are all safe and healthy wherever you might be in the wide world.**

**Once again, thanks for all the reviews, means the world to me and keeps me going.**

**Now as expected, this is the chapter where Evelyn and Ruby meets the entire team, including their new sister and their new mother.**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 23: The Revelation and Potential Energy**

"Soooo you guys just want to let us stand here like idiots with our hands up, or are there actual questions?"

Knowing how her sister is and how she is shaking right now, Ruby felt the need to break the tense silence as they both stood in the middle of the Cortex, suspicious eyes pointed at them from every person in S.T.A.R. Labs. It was like a room full of googling eyes were focused on them and it felt uncomfortable.

While Evelyn tried to try not to keep herself from shaking nervously, she couldn't help but feel her eyes drift to Caitlin and Frankie who both stood with crossed arms and suspiciously looking at them. They looked at them with disbelief and suspicion that felt like daggers.

The young metahuman couldn't blame them, seeing as they arrived at their doorstep and outright told them that they're Frankie's sisters.

Caitlin was curious as to who these two might be and why they said they were Frankie's sisters. But as she let those very words sink in, she couldn't help but think back to her daughter's life before meeting Seth and the rest of their family. Thinking back to the life where her daughter was a foster child, bouncing from foster home to foster home since she was young.

Frankie was just as curious and confused and disbelieving as her mother. She couldn't keep her eyes off the two girls who called themselves her sisters. And she couldn't believe it… but Magenta told her they weren't lying. If it was a lie, then they must believe it. This confused her a lot and she couldn't force her mind off it no matter how hard she was trying.

Joe, Iris were confused as well, but they were still dealing with the shock that their son and brother, Wally West had just visited them on Christmas Eve and met them for the first time ever. It was an eventful evening and couldn't believe he wasn't the only surprise visitor that night.

Barry and Cisco shifted his gaze between the two girls with questioning glances. They didn't know what to say or even think at this moment, just wondering how Caitlin and Frankie are dealing with this strange development.

Jay looked at the brown-haired girl's form suspiciously as though he had seen her before, but he was unsure. But she did seem familiar to the powerless metahuman. He just couldn't place his finger on it.

Matt and Olivia didn't think of anything and shared a look before they both looked to the girls. the kept her telepathy sharp in case of some eerie thoughts forming in the two girls' minds, but so far it didn't seem like that.

The nanite mutant started off the questioning. "Who are you two, and why did you say you were Frankie's sisters?"

Olivia turned to her niece with an inquiry. "Frankie, did you have sisters when you were in foster homes?"

"No, I was alone in most of them. The ones with other children, I didn't last long in." Frankie replied to her aunt before returning her attention to the two girls.

"So again, who are you two, exactly?" Matt asked them suspiciously.

"That's… a bit of a story." Evelyn shyly answered with a scared tone.

Caitlin stepped forward and patted both Olivia and Matt's shoulders. "Calm down, you two. I don't think we have to interrogate them like they're bad people, I don't get that feeling from them."

"Yeah, you're right." Olivia agreed, she mostly felt fear and nervousness from them both. One of them at least, the other one seemed more confident though.

"Sorry about that, girls." Matt expressed.

Caitlin smiled to the two mutants and to her daughter before looking to the girls again. "Let's start off with something simple, how about that?" She directed to both the girls and her friends in the Cortex, this way not to startle the girls or treating them like enemies.

Cisco nodded and gestured to them. "What're your names?"

Ruby started off. "I'm Ruby Hale." That surname caused the two mutants to narrow their eyes with familiarity like they've heard it before.

Evelyn then continued. "I'm Evelyn Sharp."

"Ruby Hale…" Olivia muttered that name to herself.

"Evelyn Sharp…" Jay muttered the other name to himself.

"And how are you my sisters, I've never heard of you two before." Frankie stated, mixture of fear and… something else dwelling inside of her.

"Rubs?" Evelyn got the former assassin's attention. "I think it's better if we tell them everything."

"Yeah, I think Evelyn's right about that." Barry agreed with her.

"Fine, might be the best solution for this." Ruby agreed with a huff.

"Wait." Jay got their attention and pointed a finger to the brown-haired girl. "I think I've seen you before."

"You've seen this girl in the city before, Garrick?" Joe asked.

At that name, Evelyn widened her eyes with realization. "Wait, you're The Flash from my world!" At those words, realization dawned on them all like an avalanche.

"That's him?" Ruby said with disbelief and pointed a finger to the powerless speedster. Getting a nod of confirmation from her sister, the former assassin faced Jay and stated. "No offense, man, but you got no sense when it comes to fashion. Your suit looked ridiculous."

"I think I like this one." Olivia chuckled at her brutal honesty.

"I knew it, you're from my world too, from Earth-2." Jay revealed. "You're a metahuman too, one that was hunted by the police force and Zoom himself."

"You were hunted?" Iris stated to Evelyn. "Why?"

Evelyn didn't answer and Jay answered immediately. "She was hunted because she was responsible for killing her own parents and she kept stealing from a lot of people."

"I-I…" Evelyn stammered with wetting eyes, Olivia perking up at those eyes as did Caitlin. Both of them focused on her.

Jay swung his head to the others. "Guys, we shouldn't trust them. They might be Zoom's enforcers-"

"Garrick." Olivia stopped him with a cold glare. The powerless speedster feeling himself lose all will to move, even the ability to move his muscles itself. "Shut up." The two girls turned surprised.

"Liv, you're not seriously trusting them because they spout some lie about being your niece's sisters, are you?" Jay asked in disbelief.

"What I choose to believe is my business." Olivia countered coldly; she turned her eyes back to the shaking Evelyn. "And I can spot a killer when I see one."

"And Jay, Evelyn's not one." Caitlin added and the young girl looked at her with a grateful smile. "Sorry you two, we're just a bit surprised with all of this."

"It's okay, I guess." Ruby said understandingly.

"How about we dial back then?" Matt suggested and returned to the previous question. "We know you're from Earth-2, but how about you tell us the rest before we throw around any assumptions." The mutant said with a glance to the powerless speedster.

"Earth-2?" Ruby faced Evelyn. "Must be your world then."

Wiping her eyes of the tears, Evelyn chuckled. "Wonder what your world might be then."

Matt twisted his head at those words, wondering what was going on there.

Ruby then inhaled deeply and started. "We're not from this world, we're from… this Earth-2 world." She pointed a finger to Evelyn. "Well, Evelyn's from there at least." The others took note of that. "But we're from that world and we… We were Zoom's prisoners."

"Zoom held other prisoners?" Olivia stated with surprise.

"Yeah." Evelyn nodded. "We were his prisoners for different reasons. I was on the run because the police, my friends and family believed that I was the one who killed my parents because I turned into a metahuman. But I didn't kill my parents, that was Zoom. He got interested in my power and invaded my home and he killed… my parents in front of me." She revealed, haunted by the memories of that horrific event.

"Sorry to hear that." Joe expressed.

Shaking off the feelings that followed the memories, Evelyn said. "It's okay. But I was on the run for a while because of that and tried to get away from Central City, but Zoom caught up to me and kidnapped me. I was his prisoner for a little more than six months because of that."

"Six months?" Barry repeated. "Some time before the Singularity?"

"Yeah." Evelyn nodded. "There I met Ruby." She nodded to her sister.

Realizing what that mean, Cisco states. "Oh you two aren't biological sisters?"

"Nah, we're cooler than that." Ruby smugly answered. Olivia laughing at her attitude. "But we met a guy there, you might be familiar with."

Caitlin realized what that meant and stated. "You two met Seth."

"Bingo." Ruby confirmed and watched as all of them formed smiles. "One crazy guy you guys know."

"No kidding." Matt agreed. "So he saved you guys?"

"After about six months as Zoom's prisoner himself, yeah." Evelyn said.

"Why so long?" Joe asked.

"He couldn't use any of his powers for a really long time." Ruby said.

"Most likely because of him releasing elements in the inner ring of the Singularity." Caitlin suggested.

"Would make sense, releasing takes a shitload of energy." Olivia agreed with that suggestion.

Matt narrowed his eyes on Ruby's hands, shifting between the scars. "Ruby what happened to your hands?"

Ruby held up her hands and rubbed them slowly. "Courtesy of Hotel Zoom, his version of a welcome gift. One of his metahumans burned my hands when I fought back when I was kidnapped."

"You fought back against a metahuman? Tough girl." Iris impressively said.

"Well I'm not a metahuman but I do have powers myself." Ruby revealed.

"What kind?" Cisco giddily asked, wondering what they are and what name would suit her.

"What's going on here?" they all looked to the lab to the left and saw Harry Wells stepping out of it, his energy rifle hanging from his shoulder. Evelyn widened her eyes with shock again. She wondered how many people from her world had entered this world now. The scientist from Earth-2 turned his head to the centres of attention. "You?"

"You?!" Evelyn screamed, her body giving off a mixture of darkness and light that touched everyone's eyes. She felt fear creep into her when Harry aimed his rifle at her. Yelping in shock and fear, everyone watched as darkness enveloped her in an instant and she disappeared in a dark smokescreen.

Though they saw that, they all had other thoughts running through their heads as to what happened to Evelyn.

Matt twisted his head to Harry. "Wells, if you shot that poor girl, I will shove a bomb down your throat!"

"Sounds too easy for him." Olivia growled and took out her whip. "How about we strangle him instead? Let him suffer a bit."

"Guys calm down!" Caitlin told the mutants.

Harry gave them dry looks. "I thought you two were smart, don't you know how a rifle works? You aim, pull trigger and it fires. Nothing was fired! I didn't do anything!" He flatly told them.

"He didn't do anything." Ruby told them and they tuned their eyes to her. "It's Evelyn's power, she can teleport."

"Teleport?" Frankie inquired but felt like there was more to it. The darkness that instantly wrapped around Evelyn seemed familiar to her.

_YELP_

Matt turned his eyes upwards, instinctively shooting out his arms as Evelyn fell into his arms. "Wow!" He exclaimed in shock of her dropping in on them like that. "What the hell, Evelyn?"

"Sorry, still getting the hang of it on this Earth. Thanks for catching me." Evelyn thanked the man.

"No worries." Matt let her down and turned to his wife. "Never expected to see another one with Nightcrawler's ability."

"Yeah, someone else than Peek-A-Boo." Olivia scratched her hair. Stopping she asked the two girls. "But that doesn't explain why you two call yourselves Frankie's sisters? Did my brother have something to do with this?"

"You're Seth's sister?" Ruby asked and got a nod. "Cool hair. But that's sorta what happened after he saved us and another girl around our age. He saved us and trained us on how to use our powers for a long time. And when Zoom and his goons tried to attack either us or even Central City on that Earth, he stopped them too. He…" she looked to Frankie. "He took care of us." The magnekinetic gaped her mouth.

"Temporarily, taking over The Flash's job, in a violent manner too." Evelyn sheepishly added.

"And what happened next?" Frankie asked, her voice and eyes laced with impatience.

"Seth had this plan." Ruby took over again. "He asked some others for help to find a breach while he took care of a massive problem in the city's underground. And then he brought us to that breach… and Zoom came and kidnapped Jesse."

"Jesse?" Harry asked, his mouth gaping.

"The third girl with us, she was there as Zoom's prisoner too." Ruby said. "Seth saved her too."

"I know that, she's my daughter!" Harry screamed. "Is she here too?"

"Nope, just said she was kidnapped, again." Ruby flatly said. "And by the way, your daughter is a whiney mess."

"Excuse me?" Harry said.

"Another question, another time, Wells." Matt halted him with a palm facing the otherworldly scientist. "But what happened to Seth? Why didn't come with you two?"

"And you still haven't answered why you're my sisters?" Frankie now asked, curiouser than before.

Evelyn answered. "When Jesse was kidnapped by Zoom, Seth tried to fight him but he rushed off with her before his attack hit. And we were about to step through the breach, together, but he decided to stay back because… because he promised Jesse and the rest of us that he would protect us all, all of three of us. He said he couldn't turn his back to Jesse or face any of you if he broke a promise." She turned to Frankie. "He said he couldn't face his daughter or his girlfriend. So he stayed behind… and we called him… Dad."

Now they all looked at them with wide eyes and wide mouths.

Olivia laughed. "My brother treated you two like his daughters…" she threw her eyes to her magnekinetic. "Because he misses his first daughter."

"And you two wanted to be part of his family." Matt smiled.

"Guess it was nice to finally have someone who treated me like his daughter, someone better than my mother." Ruby smiled.

"I missed having a dad." Evelyn smiled.

The psychic looked to the doctor who continued wearing disbelief on her face and she couldn't hear anything in her head.

Though the others appeared to believe those words, Jay remained distrusting. "You guys aren't believing this, are you?"

"No offense, Garrick, but you don't know Seth like we do." Matt told him.

"For once, I agree with Garrick on this." Harry surprised them with his words. "For all we know, Seth is still on Earth-2 because Zoom recaptured him and my daughter and these two here lied their way into a deal, which is why they're here and sprouting lies to gain our trust so they can stab us in the back."

"Seth's not weak to let that happen, and if it meant staying behind, he'd even let others escape to safety." Caitlin defended her boyfriend. "That's the kind of man he is."

"You haven't seen your boyfriend in months now, Snow. He could change." Harry stated while glaring daggers at the girls.

Jay nodded. "He's right, our Earth might change your friend."

"You guys don't know my Dad." Frankie stated angrily, she didn't like how these two were looking down on her father, to the point where they were accusing him. Her eyes shining magenta from her brimming anger.

Barry bit his lower lip before admitting. "I don't doubt that Seth's strong and I don't think he's defeated or turned or anything," he looked to the girls again. "but these two are telling us stuff that we can't confirm in anyway."

"Not like Seth is here to tell us the truth." Cisco mused.

"_The bags!_" Evelyn realized in her mind, unbeknownst to her Olivia heard her thoughts and looked intrigued. "Ruby, the bags that he gave us."

"What bags?" Iris asked.

"These." Ruby pulled out a filthy bag, one with sparkles of gold. Evelyn pulled out a similar bag, one not shining. "Seth gave us these before we jumped into the breach. He told us to get these to… Matty."

The nanite mutant dropped his head. "Of course, he wouldn't use my real name, the bastard." He sneered as he walked to the girls. "My real name is Matt Stark, so you don't end up calling me Matty every now and then." He took the bags in his hands and examined them. "Yeah, these are Seth's, without a doubt."

"What are those? I've never seen those before." Caitlin asked the nanite mutant.

"Pouches made of possum skin." Matt casually said, surprised at the groans of disgust coming out from the others. "A guy at our school took Seth and I out for a camping trip in the wild."

Olivia frowned at that piece of information. "Logan, wasn't it?"

"Yup." Her husband answered.

"Yeah, sounds like the hairy animal." Olivia admitted with her hand rubbing her forehead. "Wait, why'd you recognize his bags?"

"I have a similar one back home." Matt chuckled at the memories coming back to him. "He and I used this to send each other messages, either on missions or even when we were still studying at the school. It made our shenanigans a lot easier to make with his sister being able to read minds." He glanced at the psychic herself who smiled.

Harry let go of his rifle and let it hang from his shoulder and ran his right hand down his face, as though he was trying to rub off his skin in one motion. That's what his disappointment drove him as he listened to this ridiculous discussion. "Are you two actually this dense?!" He directed to the two mutants, even glancing at Caitlin and Frankie. "I mean, you two have got to have at least some brain cells to see through this ruse."

The former prisoners of Zoom looked to each other, finally seeing the family resemblance between those bearing the Wells name. And it was not a good family trait to inherit. But that train already left the station, way before they knew of this horrible family gene.

Cisco chose to remind the scientist. "You might not wanna insult the two who carries weapons."

"Wells is right." Jay pitched in. "These two could have stolen it from Seth. Evelyn here is notorious for being a thief, she stole from the rich and numerous of civilians."

"Those were the easiest. Speaking of…" Evelyn walked over to Caitlin. She held out her S.T.A.R. Labs ID badge. "Sorry for that, Dr. Snow."

"Oh, it's okay." The doctor assured her and took her badge back. "And just call me Caitlin, it's okay."

Evelyn nodded and looked Matt. "Sorry." He looked confused. But only for a moment as the metahuman held out his wallet. "A bad habit." The nanite mutant just laughed at her "habit." He stopped laughing when she walked to Joe, with his badge in her hand. "Damn, this girl is good."

"No kidding, downright an expert." Olivia noted when Evelyn walked to Cisco and gave his wallet back. The native engine gaping his mouth in shock, releasing his mouth to dramatically new limits.

"Sorry, but it's something I'm working with." Evelyn sheepishly apologized. "But what else can we tell you guys to trust us."

Widening eyes with realization, Ruby twisted her head to Matt. She remembered that there was a single word Seth told them to tell Matt if he or the others didn't believe them. "Latveria!"

That single word didn't mean a single thing to the natives, the other humans from Earth-2, not even Olivia. But that single word had the nanite mutant focus his entire mind on what the bleach-haired girl had just said. However, his thoughtful and analytical trance came to a single conclusion. "They know Seth, not a doubt in my mind."

"What?" Harry said in disbelief.

"You're not serious, right?" Jay stated in equal disbelief.

"Earth-2 men, shut it!" Olivia scolded them, feeling she was back to being a teacher and telling her students to behave. She missed those days now. Curiosity and worry made her face her husband. "Matty, what makes you so sure of that? Just because of that single word?"

Matt clenched his hands and breathed. "Seth, you really have a way of grinding my gears by using _that_ word." He faced his wife with a sour expression. "It's a word that he'd know I alone would recognize because it's from back in our world." She and the others waited for him to elaborate.

Since none of them knew of his past or his father's past, the nanite mutant started from scratch. "My father was kidnapped by a terror organization called the Ten Rings." They were all riddled with shock in an instant. "It was a terrorist organization dedicated to destroying world peace by any means whatsoever, they were multinational so they could speak various languages. My father was a weapons engineer at a point in his life, building weapons that could change the tide of a war with a single push of button. Few years ago, his partner, someone he considered family even, Obadiah Stane sold some of my dad's weapons illegally to one cell of the Ten Rings, and he then arrange a deal with them to attack and massacre a military convoy."

Olivia knew the rest of the story. "But that deal turned into something much worse. Ten Rings didn't realize that the convoy they attacked was transporting one of the most rich and intelligent men on the planet, Tony Stark, the genius behind those weapons they used themselves. Once the organization found about it, they stopped the attack and took him prisoner. They held him hostage and demanded more money to kill such a high-value target. While they waited for that, they forced Matt's Dad to build a missile."

"Wait, your old man supplied a terrorist organization with weapons of mass destruction?" Joe asked in disbelief. Matt was smart and his father would be smarter as they both are incredible engineers.

"No, that's what the Ten Rings believed but my Dad fooled them." Matt proudly said. "While he was kept captive for weeks, Dad made the very first Iron Man suit in a cave." Ruby's eyes widened with realization. "He used it and he took down the cell's forces enough for him to escape."

"That's incredible." Iris said. Had this Tony Stark been in their world, then he would be on every page of every newspaper from every newspaper publisher. A question mark appeared over the reporter's head. "But what does that have to do with… Latveria?" She had to think back to the word Ruby said.

"Years later, it happened around the time Seth, Olivia and I graduated from SHIELD Academy." Ruby's mind began to flare with other thoughts, Olivia taking heed of those thoughts but left her questions for later. Matt continued. "I had channels and contacts all around the Earth thanks to my Dad's tech." His fists clenched at the memories creeping back to the forefront of his mind. "One of my channels picked up chatter about some cells of Ten Rings gathering in Latveria and I… felt my anger spike when I heard of them talking about getting revenge and attack my home and Father's home."

Olivia had a feeling where this story was going, and she didn't like it.

"I took off without telling anyone and flew to Latveria in a jet. I was going to find their base and destroy them all without leaving a single bone." His skin began to ripple with his nanites running frantically under his flesh. "That's how angry I got from hearing they were still strong and I was going to take them down. But Seth was waiting for me right in front of the landing field in Latveria."

"Dad found about this? How?" Frankie asked.

"Think Jarvis sent a silent alert to him or something." Matt unsurely stated. "But he stood in my way… and we fought." They looked confused at that. "Yeah, my best friend challenged me to a fight that ended up with the two of us too battered to even move a finger. But after some rest we agreed that we call in backup and we stop the Ten Rings… as official SHIELD agents."

"Oh yeah, I remember that story… I also recall you two being suspended without pay for two weeks for destruction of property, unofficial deployment and damaging a quinjet." Olivia casually listed off and left the others bewildered.

Joe faced the nanite mutant. "Why can't you two just be like normal boys your age and drink beer without causing problems for others?"

"Sounds normal, normal is boring. We're abnormal." Matt simply answered with a smirk. "But what matters is…" The nanite mutant looked to the girls again. "These girls here are telling the truth, and apparently," He turned to his niece. "Frankie, Caitlin, your family just got bigger."

Caitlin laughed. "Yeah looks like." She was in complete disbelief at this situation.

"Thanks." Evelyn directed to Matt who gave her a thumbs up.

"Is there anything I don't know about you and my brother, babe?" Olivia suspiciously asked her husband.

"We have done our fair share of trouble, most of which we've swept under the rug." The nanite mutant shrugged.

"Explains the bumps." Olivia quipped. She looked past her husband and made eye contact with the girls. "Sorry for doubting you two, healthy habit of ours."

"I still doubt them." Harry flatly said and the psychic didn't respond with words, but she did flip the scientist the bird.

"Thanks." Evelyn breathed in relief.

"Yeah." Ruby chuckled. "Thought I had to break out the fact that Seth is Weapon X Hades if you still didn't believe us."

That name caused the life to instantly dissipate from the eyes of both mutants, like their souls evaporated and left behind their lifeless husks. Both of they looked at Ruby with lifeless eyes, making her squirm and gulp at those reaper-like eyes. It was like two predators were glaring at their prey and circling around it, ensuring the prey that it was at the end of its rope.

Caitlin shifted her gaze to meet the rest of Team Flash's eyes, she and the others seeing the mutants peering into the young girl's soul with dead eyes. "Guys, what's wrong?" She recalled what Seth told her of the past, regarding Matt during the year of hellish experimentation. "Weapon… X…? But that's-"

"What the heck is Weapon X Hades?" Harry asked them curiously.

Joe knew of that word. "That's…" he trailed off, knowing that only the mutants and Caitlin knew of this.

"It's something… bad…" Matt muttered just at the high level so the others hear him. "How do you know that name, Ruby? That specific name."

"And before you say it, Seth didn't say anything about it, he promised himself and us that he would never utter that name." Olivia stated immediately.

"Well… He didn't exactly want to say it, but he did _confirm_ it when I asked him about it on Earth-2." Ruby sheepishly said, she still felt their eyes drill into her soul.

"Wait." Olivia abruptly said. "He confirmed it when you _asked_ about it… You knew he was Ha… what he was going to be… from the beginning." Realization fell on her like a meteor shower. "You're not from this Earth, or even Earth-2, are you Ruby?"

"No, I am not." Ruby confirmed with a shaking head.

Like the female mutant, everyone felt realization envelope them all, everyone except the two Earth-2 men. Frankie was the one to state the realization. "You're… You're from the same Earth as my Dad."

"Earth-616." Barry breathed in shock, the others wearing shocked expressions themselves.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow and looked to her sister. "Your universe is six hundred universes from this one?"

"Looks like…" Ruby said unsurely, still feeling the two mutants glare at her. "Okay, is something else the matter?"

"Ruby, how exactly do you know about… the experiments?" Matt asked.

"I read about them, when my Mom gave those old files." Ruby said.

"Your Mom?" Olivia asked. "Who's your mom?"

"And will someone tell us what's this Weapon X thing is?" Jay demanded.

"I think I'm gonna leave the second one to these two." Ruby gestured to the mutants. "The first one is easy. My Mom is Brigadier General Hale of the United States Air Force. But in reality, she's actually one of HYDRA's heads."

"HYDRA?!" Olivia screamed surprise, booming like a speaker in an underground party.

"That Air Force bitch actually has a daughter?!" Matt screamed, completely bewildered by this piece of information. "What the hell?!"

"Matty, tone." Olivia scolded him.

"Sorry, Air Force _witch_." Matt corrected, his wife finding that somewhat better.

"Wow, no one likes my mother, huh?" Ruby was genuinely surprised by their words.

"She's pure insanity in a spray can that just keeps spraying." Matt said groaningly.

"Guys?" Jay got the mutants' attention. "Will you guys please tell us what Weapon X is?"

Olivia felt herself lose all will and one of her hands slid into her long hair, travelling through the strands of magenta hair on her head. When reaching her left temple her fingers began to quiver, trailing over the distant feeling of healed holes. The scars of her life as that disgusting thing on Stryker's table. "Matty."

She noticed that her husband was clutching his nape, his palm feeling the healed scar of the upper cut of the Y-incision on his back. Olivia wasn't the only one to feel the memories of their past come back to him, like snakes travelling up his body before slithering into his body. "You're not alone."

"What's wrong with them?" Harrison directed to Joe.

"Something not good." Joe stated sourly.

"What is it?" Jay asked.

Nodding to her husband, Olivia let Matt take the reins. Which he did. "Weapon X was the codename of a secret U.S. Government experiment by the human military in our world, Earth-616, many years ago. It was intended to instigate superpowers for military purposes. It was genetic engineering, either creating mutation-based powers in normal humans or…" he gestured to his wife and himself. "Pre-existing mutants, like the two of us and Seth."

"When we were younger, around eleven years ago I take it, the two of us plus my brother were kidnapped by the army." The psychic continued while grazing the scars of her past hidden by her hair. "We were thrown into a military compound and were just tortured for an entire year, poked… prodded… cut open as they changed us into their military weapons of mass destruction. Three mutants selected because of their powers, weaponized to be the derived Weapon X mutants, new and more dangerous. All three young enough to let the experiments' intended effects to fully sink in and increase their powers through tests. Plus… with Matt's bio parents dead and me and Seth without parents, they also thought we wouldn't be missed." She sadly added, getting sympathetic eyes from her friends and family.

"You two are the other Weapon X mutants?" Ruby asked, fighting the urge to smile at the fact she was conversing with the others of her role models.

"Yeah… we are." Matt sighed and looked upwards. "Jarvis, bring up the three Weapon X files, please."

"**Are you certain, Sir?**" The AI asked. Ruby and Evelyn didn't appear to be surprised by the sudden voice, least strange thing for them to have experienced so far.

"Yeah, I am." Matt looked to his wife, needing her consent.

"They need to know everything. Bring them up, J." Olivia gave her consent, despite every nerve in her body telling to retract those words.

"**As you wish, Mrs. Fury-Stark.**" Jarvis replied and brought up three files on three monitors.

Facing those three monitors, the natives and those from other universes saw the files with different names, with mugshots of the three mutants when they were kidnapped. When they were just children. They saw the two mutants look miserably at the monitors. They didn't want to dig deeper into the matter.

But after Harry looked at them for a while, he asked the two mutants emphatically. "You two gonna mope all day or tell us what these files mean?"

"Wells! That's my aunt and uncle you're talking to!" Frankie defensively said, her eyes brimming with magenta energy again.

"I know, I asked them." Harrison answered uncaringly, making the young metahuman growl.

"These are the files on the three of us, what they wanted from us. Their sick goals if you will." Matt said, his left hand still glued to his nape.

"Yeah." Olivia walked to the monitor on the left. Gesturing her hand to the project name, she started. "Weapon X Isis, the mutant with the powers of advanced telekinesis and telepathy to infiltrate and get past guards and a nation's defences. Her powers allowing her to retrieve information without breaking the target's body, able to move things with her minds… take control of others' actions with telepathy and make them turn their own weapons against their own." She held up her hand, waving it slightly. "That's me. I was engineered to slip into a nation while their defences were weakened, like they were at war."

She sucked on her bottom lip as she looked to her husband. "Which leads to the second Weapon X mutant."

"Weapon X Vulcan." Matt groaned, choosing this moment to both walk to the monitor with his file and removed his hand from his nape. "The mutant with the powers of the first Weapon X mutant, Wolverine, allowing him survive bullets and attacks of various kinds with an incredible healing factor, similar to that of his predecessor, and infusing adamantium to his skeleton, making sure that his nanites are created from metal and not bone marrow. This allows him to create weapons in the middle of a battlefield, surviving the gunfire while producing weapons to strike back in the process." The nanite mutant held up his hand. "The one to have that honour is this guy. Engineered to be the weaponized mutant to distract the nation's forces with overwhelming firepower."

"Always a package deal with you, huh?" Joe tried to throw in a joke.

"Before and after hell." Matt smirked to his wife, who nodded in agreement.

"Always and forever." Olivia pitched in.

"But what about the one in the middle here?" Jay asked with a finger pointing to the monitor. "Weapon X Hades, that's the one Ruby just said."

"That's Seth. He didn't say the name, but he did say everything about it before." Caitlin said. "Using the mutant elemental, one who was considered an anomaly in your world because of his powers, as a basis they expanded his powers to a new level, new capabilities following. The power to use other elements, outside the four basic elements and store them in his body or take in others for a bigger arsenal."

She clenched her hands as she continued, using the words of the man she loves. "A weapon that was to be dropped behind enemy lines to use six different elements to dispose of any enemies in the blink of an eye. A weapon that can walk into a storm of bullets and shrug off any slugs without problems. A weapon that was able to take out multiple enemies from any angle without even looking for them with the powers of the alien symbiote clone the harvested from the original and implanted into his body."

Caitlin looked to the two mutants here. "The ultimate mutant killer…" She shifted her gaze to the project name. "…Weapon X Hades…"

"Yeah." Olivia nodded. "Caity, don't blame my brother for not telling you this. But when we got out of that hellhole, out of Stryker's grasp, we promised each other that we'd never tell anyone of those horrible names. The only ones who knew of it are… our parents."

"They had to know so they could help us get control of our powers." Matt aided his wife.

"I'm not angry, guys." Caitlin assured them. "I just… I hoped Seth would be the one to tell me this."

"We know, Caity, and we're sorry." Olivia told her apologetically.

"Well, I'm angry!" Cisco exclaimed, breaking a heartfelt moment. "How come we didn't know any of this?!"

"Yeah, I hoped we'd know this as well, not just Caitlin." Barry said in hurt.

"Seriously, what's the deal with this?" Iris asked.

"I knew bits of this." Joe revealed, getting bewildered looks from Iris, Barry and Cisco. "What? Seth and I are friends, we talk."

"And I'm his girlfriend." Caitlin added. "And we have a child together." She gestured to her daughter. Chuckling she pointed to Evelyn and Ruby. "_Children_ together." She corrected herself.

"Well… this was shocking and informative." Harry admitted with a flay tone, speaking slowly.

His tone not giving the others any good thoughts. "Yeah, that's not creepy at all." Cisco admitted humorously.

"Sorry for bringing up that stuff again." Ruby apologized to the mutants.

Quickly telling the AI to close the files, Matt calmed the girl down. "It's okay, Ruby, you didn't know it. But I gotta admit you, a HYDRA member, daughter of a HYDRA head, looking up to three weaponized mutants for military purposes, is really strange."

"Definitely not something we could expect." Olivia chortled.

"Wait." Joe got their attention. "Matt, you said you and Seth used those bags for messages, right? What'd he write in them."

"Let's hope…" Matt took the bags and opened them both. He smiled at the contents. "Nice job, Seth. He used magnetic dust." He closed the bag with sparkles and placed it in his pocket again.

"What's that about?" Olivia asked as the nanite mutant took out a stack of paper.

Placing the paper on the floor in front of him in a line, he bent down to a crouch and poured the magnet dust over them. "We learnt this when we would send each other messages, burning magnetic dust into paper to form words." He stated as he poured a bunch of magnetic dust in the middle of the two first papers.

"How do you form the words?" Cisco asked intrigued.

"We had different methods." Matt continued while continuing to pour dust over the papers. "I would use throw my nanites into the mix, making them react to heat and shape them into words. Seth would use some sort of concoction he made himself, drenching his fingers with it as he shapes them by running his fingers through the dust. He keeps the concoction in Venom's body, so he just pours it over his fingers to write it. It's the same way as nanites, reacting to heat and burns into the paper forming letters." He made sure that the dust on each paper was connected.

"Sort of like a shape-memory metal." Cisco compared.

"Yeah." Matt nodded while emptying the rest of the dust.

"What's shape-memory metal?" Joe had to ask, once again the science of this place going over his head.

"Metal that can be deformed when subjected to coldness but returns to its "remembered" shape when exposed to heat." Harry said.

"Yeah, that's helpful." Joe dropped his head, inwardly wishing for them to continue to dumb down their science. Or maybe just reduce the science all together.

"Let's see what our annoying elemental has brought to us." The nanite mutant said as he brought out a lighter with a long nozzle. He bent down to the first paper and pressed the trigger, igniting a flame that connected with the magnetic dust. Once the heat touched the dust, a chain reaction followed and the flames travelled across the papers, following the trail of magnetic dust.

The dust reacted to the heat, reddening for a brief moment before spreading over the papers. While still aflame, the dust began to form words and continue burning. Once the flames had burned the magnetic dust on every piece of paper, words were burned into it.

"That was cool." Iris admitted, impressed at the fire show.

Olivia used her powers to collect with the papers and brought them into her hand. "Let's take a look at this." Pointing her eyes downwards to the papers, she read the first line. "_To Everyone:_"

_"__If you're reading this, it means I had to stay behind, most likely because of some trouble brewing on my end. I'm sorry for it, but the big deal breaker: I'm not dead and is on another Earth, again. The Singularity connected to another Earth. I'm stuck in it for now. I know of the way to come back through a breach, a gate connecting back home."_

The team was shocked to hear that the elemental already figured out that a breach is a gateway back home. Some of them doubted he was alone in figuring it out.

_"__I really am sorry that I wasn't able to come back, guys. But I promised Ruby, Evelyn and Jesse that I would protect them above all else, including sticking around on this other Earth to save them. They attract trouble wherever they go, the usual. Take care of them all while I'm finding another breach to go home through, they're good kids and needed to get away from this Earth, out of the trouble in Central City here. There's a speedster here too, Zoom, a speedster that might be faster than Barry, maybe even faster than Reverse-Flash. I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case, since he's the reason behind Ruby coming to this world, ask her and she'll tell the entire story._"

The two mutants grew curious and shifted their glance to Ruby for a short moment.

"_I know that Zoom's been invading your Earth, dropping off metahumans from his section at random for some reason. I will figure out why he does that and take care of him. Trust me. But like I said, this speedster might be worse than Reverse-Flash, so it might not be as easy as I make it out to be. If that does happen, I will find a breach again and find my way back to you guys, this way we can fight as a team again and defeat Zoom. His posse's no joke either and keeping me busy on this end._"

Ruby and Evelyn knew what he was referring to, seeing as they are standing before their doppelgangers at this very moment. Each of them the mirror opposite to their villainous counterparts, both a relief and a weird experience that took some adjustments.

"_I will come back guys. I promise you that. I'm fighting to return home. Until then, take care of the girls, yourselves and make sure that you're all safe._"

"_P.S. Ruby's bit of a swamp mouth and Evelyn steals and Jesse complains a lot. Good luck dealing with them._"

"Swamp mouth?" Olivia perked her head up with a frown, Matt chuckling to himself. "Why does this sound familiar?"

Still in a chuckling fit, the nanite mutant stated. "That's what he used to call you when you were younger, babe."

"Oh yeah." Olivia remembered now. "I will throw him into a train when he gets back."

"Of course, you will." Iris chuckled. "But why'd he include Wells's daughter if she's not here?"

"Seth probably made this message when he thought he'd send all three of them to our world." Joe said.

"Makes sense." Barry looked to Ruby. "Ruby, why'd Seth say Zoom was faster than Reverse-Flash and tell us to ask you?"

"I don't know who this Reverse-Flash is, but I can tell you guys but that's a bit of a long story, one I will get to later." Ruby said with a groan.

"Alright." Barry accepted and looked to Matt. "Matt what about the second bag? Don't you need to read it aloud too?"

"That one is for me, specifically." Matt revealed. "There are small amounts of gold in the magnetic dust, it's how we told each other of specific information, something about these two's powers, I'm guessing."

"Technical stuff?" Cisco asked with a giddy expression, one that increased even more when Matt nodded. "I am so helping."

"Acceptable. You two?" He pointed two fingers at Jay and Harry. "Not so much."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"You two just turned against our nieces, that's not actually something we're fund of." Olivia said with a growl and brought the papers to her. Her eyes expanded with a happy glim at the last pages. "What do you know…"

"What is it, Aunt Liv?" Frankie asked.

"Big Bro didn't forget about you and your mother, Frankie." Olivia said as she held out two pages for her and Caitlin. "He left you both messages." They took the pages in their hands.

"How about we leave them alone for this?" Joe said and walked out of the Cortex with the others following.

Ruby and Evelyn were about to follow, but then Caitlin called to them. "Ruby, Evelyn, you can stay here."

"Really?" Evelyn asked in confusion.

"Yeah, of course." Caitlin told them and the two decided to stay.

Frankie didn't participate in the conversation, looking at her message. She smiled as she read aloud, her father's voice echoing in her head with each word.

The young metahuman's eyes wettened at the first sentence. "_Frankie… There are no words I can write that can sum up how much I miss you, baby girl. I know you're always gonna be with your Mom and your aunt and uncle now, but I still feel like I left you all alone, Frankie. I am so sorry that I left you alone like this. To others, maybe the entire city, it feels like I did the most heroic thing in the world, the ultimate sacrifice, but it doesn't feel like that to me. I feel like I abandoned my daughter, and I don't know how you're feeling about this Frankie. That your old man used this chaos to get away? Parts of me knows you don't believe this, Frankie, you're better than that. But other parts of me can't help but think that, that you think that I ran away from you. I know it's impossible to think that, even as your father, but I miss you so much. I really am sorry that I'm not there with you now, hugging you so hard it's gonna feel like you're suffocating. I will come back to you and your Mom. I know it's uncommon for an absent father, well back-to-life father in my case, to send sisters instead of something else… But I really do believe that Ruby and Evelyn will fit right in, in our family. Take care of them till I get back. They're your new siblings, baby girl, and I know you're gonna love them when you meet them._"

"_Cause that's how I felt when I met you, Frankie. Even before I finally manned up and adopted you. Before I was hurled into this other world, I fought for the two lights inside of my heart. Your mom and you. That's why I kept fighting, just to make sure the two of you kept living a life where you're weren't constantly exposed to danger._"

Tears began to fall from her eyes, trailing down her cheeks like raindrops. She couldn't stop them from coming as she read the words that her father put his entire heart into, each syllable coming out to in his voice and making her miss her father in an unimaginable way.

"_Now… I have four lights. Your mother, you, Ruby and Evelyn. With the four of you in my heart, I know I can't lose to anyone. I'm gonna fight harder and harder than ever before to come back home, home to you and our family. I gotta make up for bailing our first Christmas._"

"_I love you forever and always, my daughter Frankie Fury, the Magenta of my heart. Love, your father, Seth._"

"Daddy…" Frankie covered her mouth and continued crying, tears almost covering her entire face now. "Thank you…"

"Your father loves you, Frankie." Caitlin stroked her daughter's hair. "It's a beautiful letter." She chuckled and looked up to face Ruby and Evelyn. "Did you two do something to make him write like this?"

"Honestly, we're surprised the guy who jumps like a demonic ape is able to write at all." Ruby joked.

"Oh yeah." Evelyn laughed.

"How about we get some Big Belly Burger for the four of us and we go home?" Caitlin suggested with a happy smile.

"I could use some food." Ruby admitted sheepishly.

"Alright." Evelyn nodded.

"Mom, what about your letter?" Frankie asked her mother curiously.

"Think I will read it to myself, in our family home." Caitlin said with a motherly kind and proud smile. "Let's go."

X

Caitlin dropped her form onto her bed, her arms sprawled over the bed surface as she exhaled heavily. Big Bely Burger menus for them all but it was a hearty meal between the four of them. Frankie didn't appear to be socializing as much as she would usually do, without a doubt due to the addition of her new sisters.

Frankie wasn't sure she could get used to the idea of sisters; Caitlin was unsure of if she'd get used to the two new daughters she just got. It was a strange adjustment, and it would take time as she would have to ask Cecile Horton for help during the adoption process once more.

"What a strange world it is…" Caitlin trailed off with a smile. She was gonna have to venture through this strange parental landscape, full of new challenges. At the thought of the two new family members, she reached to the side and took the folded paper with Seth's message for her. Inhaling deeply, she unfolded the piece of paper before her face.

With a heart that beats for the man she loves; she reads Seth's letter.

"_Caitlin. You know, this is the first letter I have ever written to you, and it felt like it took forever for me to finally write the first sentence. I was stumped. But I guess the first thing I should tell you, is that I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm not there right now to hold you. To love you, and our daughter. I'm sorry that this letter means that I have to stay on this other Earth longer. But you getting this letter, means that I had to stay behind for the right reasons, meaning that I'm alive and not dead and is stuck on another Earth. I've had to encounter this world's threats and for the moment, the city believes that I'm its protector. The only kind of protector I want to be though, is yours, Caitlin Snow. Your protector, the Venom that protects the Cure, the two of us._"

Sensations runs through her body at those words. Emotions that she hadn't felt in any months returning to her at an incredible rate, making her heat beat like she was in ecstasy. Pieces of something lost, something that was shattered many months ago was slowly raising from the ground and touching one another, assembling something that once came undone.

"_I can't help but think that I betrayed your trust and, more importantly, your love, when I remained on this Earth. It feels like I just betrayed our entire family. Like I betrayed you, Frankie, Matt, Olivia and our two new additions to our crazy family. I hate it ended up like this, that I left you alone like this, for months now, and instead of apologizing in person, I had a letter in case of something like this, like a coward. I really hope you don't hate me, Cait. Then again, I don't blame for you feeling that way with everything as they are, especially me dropping two new kids in your lap like this. But knowing you… You don't hate, Cait. You love and care. That's your real strength, a power stronger than any of the powers on our team. It's a strength that's much stronger than the entire city._"

The pieces of a lost and shattered key were fully put together again. As though it had never been broken.

The pieces of a lost and shattered world were fully put together again. As though it had never been broken.

"_I don't know what you make of me jumping into the Singularity and trying to sacrifice myself, but I did so to protect you and our family, our home, Cait. Not to be the hero of Central City, to be the guy who saved this entire Earth itself. I did it for you and our family. And I would do it thousand times over, even if it meant the same result repeating itself. It's the same situation that happened on my home Earth, where I jumped after Carnage into the portal to protect my sister. The day of the Singularity, I jumped into it to protect the love of my life._"

The key neared the lock that kept the world locked and secured, waiting for the two worthy ones to enter it once more.

"_Never thought in my life that by jumping into a new world again I would meet two new children for the two of us. They're strange ones, Ruby and Evelyn. But they helped me a lot on this Earth and I know you'll love them. You and Frankie are my lights. The ones in my heart, and the number of lights in my heart went up by two now. You four are the reason I continue to fight, to protect the people I love above all else._"

"_I will come back, and love you, and our bigger family. And raise our children with you, I promise that with all my heart, my love. I love you forever and always, and will continue to fight for you, to get back to you, the love of my life, Caitlin Snow, the Cure that protects my Venom._"

"_Love, the man who loves you, Seth Fury._"

Caitlin felt her eyes water at the letter, she had to place her hand over her eyes to try and push the tears back into her body, but it was a losing war as more tears began to flow through the gaps between her fingers. Removing her tear-soaked hand from her eyes, the doctor tried to look at the letter again.

She laughed at the last piece of the letter. "_P.S. Hope you're not mad about Christmas, I will make sure to buy loads of presents to make it up to all of you. You have my word._" Caitlin stopped laughing and placed the letter to her chest.

"Seth, you dork." Caitlin laughed again. "I love you… and come back soon."

The key was right in front of the lock and ready to be inserted to reopen the grand world that only she and Seth knew about. But the key remained in front of the lock, mere inches from it. And it would remain so… till the man she loves comes back to her.

She's patient… For him.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Harry Wells was standing in the room with the modified treadmill, standing before a large transparent glass board with hundreds of equations and formulas. All of them written with a single purpose.

To steal The Flash's speed and give it to Zoom.

He was done with trusting and putting his faith in this Seth Fury person, this person that the entire team was trusting above all else now. Because of him, his daughter was once more in Zoom's clutches. Proving in a single moment that it was impossible to trust him with the task of protecting his child.

Harrison had to take matters into his own hands now, even if that meant getting them dirty with red stains of blood. Even the blood of his friends.

Nothing like that mattered, just so he could get his daughter back again.

With those thoughts and feelings fueling him, Harrison continued writing his formula. But then he realized what he was writing and quickly ran those equations in his head. He placed his hand on the board, his fingertips lightly touching the board before rage followed the realization of his mistake.

He swung his arm and pushed various items off a cart and onto the floor. A clattering mess that seemed to echo throughout the entire facility of S.T.A.R. Labs.

It was the sound of clattering metal that got Matt and Cisco's attention as they walked into the room.

"Hey… No! Absolutely not!" Cisco reprimanded the scientist.

"Looking good, Wells." Matt mockingly complimented the scientist's work, the kind that he threw to the floor. The mutant shuffled some papers around in his hands.

Cisco gave Matt a disbelieving look, thanks to that compliment, while he said and picked up the items. "You don't get to throw somebody else's stuff when you're pissed off."

The very moment Cisco placed his tools back on the cart, Harry pushed off even more items to the floor, while wearing his signature emotionless expression like he was a mummy.

"Someone not getting his daily fill of throwing things?" Matt asked with his eyes focusing on the papers in his hands, running them over the instructions. "_Not bad, Seth, quite a challenge, actually._" The mutant admitted impressively at those instructions that came with learning his new nieces' powers.

"Thank you so much, Matt Not-So-Helpful-Stark." Cisco stated with a snipe as he picked up more items. When getting to his full height, the engineer looked to the board with the thousands of equations. "What is this?" Matt looked up from the papers to turn to the board.

Harry saw their eyes looking at the board and quickly snatched a towel. "Wrong answers." He tells them while wiping off the formulas and equations.

"Or maybe you're just asking the wrong questions, Wells." Matt stated.

The otherworldly scientist looked to the mutant. "What does that mean?"

Matt remained silent. Cisco placed his hands on his hips and said. "I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Matt's been consulting now and then."

"I have?" Matt wondered surprisingly, temporarily looking up from Seth's message.

Nonetheless, Cisco continued. "We keep trying to come up with ways to make Barry faster, but I still think we can figure out a way to make Zoom slower."

As he continued to angrily erase his work, Harrison reminded the native engineer flatly. "We tried that already, remember? Those darts didn't slow him down at all."

"Yeah, I know…. I'm not talking about the darts, okay?" Cisco told him. "The darts clearly didn't work. They just pissed him off."

"Yeah and made him use Barry as a shield." Matt frowned at the memory of the speedster being shot by his and his wife's attacks. He should maybe consider apologizing for that at some point.

"Exactly, not working in anyway." Cisco smirked as he slowly revealed. "I'm talking about something else…A way we can steal Zoom's speed."

Halting his erasing, Harry lowered his hand and snapped around to face Cisco. "How?" Matt walked till he stood in front of the native engineer.

"The Turtle." Cisco revealed in a low voice.

"Oh God, not The Turtle again!" Matt slapped his own face.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Cisco brought Caitlin, Frankie, Matt, Olivia, Barry, Jay and Harry into the Cortex, about to reveal the greatest mystery of his life, his foe that he fought in secret. One-sided, but still a battle.

And though this was a big moment for Cisco, Caitlin had her thoughts and eyes on another matter, focusing them on the letter that she got from Seth. A smile glued to her lips as she re-read the words for what felt like the tenth time, taking them in slowly. Piece by piece, like a rare delicious dessert.

Frankie smiled at her mother, loving and pleased that she was smiling so genuinely again. It was all thanks to her father's letter. At the thought of her father's letter, she couldn't help but think back to her own letter. The thought of it made her smile fade.

Feeling the thoughts in her host's mind, Magenta asked. "**_Are you okay, Frankie? You seem down._**"

"_…_" Frankie didn't reply, her thoughts empty as a void.

Olivia drifted her eyes to her niece, noticing the mind devoid of thoughts with narrowed eyes as she had her telepathy focused on her mind.

Cisco began, adding dramatic effect by having his back face the team. "As some of you my well know, I've been deeply embroiled in a secret, one-sided battle with an invisible enemy."

The psychic scoffed. "No way, not the Turtle again." She let out in disbelief, inwardly hoping her disbelief would shock the doctor from continuing to read the letter, but to no success.

"What? What is the…" Barry directed to her. "Or who is the Turtle?" He directed to Cisco next.

"Mr. Allen, you just discovered Mr. Ramon's white whale." Matt quipped.

Jay, getting the wrong idea, stated. "Half whale, half turtle."

"No." Cisco shook his head. He faced Caitlin. "Do you see what he's doing, Caitlin? He's confusing everyone, right?" He waited for her agreement. But when he didn't hear anything from his colleague, he narrowed his eyes on her, seeing that she was still locked onto her letter. "Caitlin?"

Olivia chuckled as Cisco didn't get any response from her and looked to her. "Earth to Dr. Snow? Your patient is crashing." That did not do anything to get Caitlin's attention. "Gotta admit, that one worries me."

"Seth's a bad influence." Matt joked, but Barry and Cisco nodded seriously at that joke, accepting it as a valid statement. "Frankie you got anything to get your Mom's attention?"

Frankie smirked and looked to her mother. "Mom, Felicia broke into the apartment again."

Caitlin's head snapped up so fast it almost cracked her neck, facing her daughter with a disbelieving and shocked look. "Again? Seriously, I already told her not to do that, and then she does it again?! Really?"

"That seemed to get her attention." Cisco let out, feeling hurt that his friend didn't share his excitement.

Caitlin looked between them all, "What are we meeting for?"

"Wow, you must have really been reading that letter like it's won an Emmy." Matt stated in shock. "We're talking about… The Turtle." He added in monotone voice.

"Not this again." Caitlin voiced her opinion with a laugh.

"You don't get a say in the matter now, Dr. Letter-Obsessed Snow." Cisco scolded her and she held out her hands like she was standing before a loaded firearm.

With his hands on the back of his head, Harry stated impatiently. "Get to it."

Losing his enthusiasm, Cisco pointed a remote to the monitor beside him, pressing the button and bringing up an article. "I stumbled upon a few of these cases when we were looking for the Reverse-Flash, robberies that were seemingly committed at high speed…people holding their beloved items one second. Those items were gone the next."

"You got some proof or something?" Frankie asked.

Giving an immediate nod, the engineer turned to the monitor again. "Tell me what you see." He instructed after pressing play, starting the video footage from his research. A running time code in the upper right corner of the footage.

The video started with people attending their own business and conversing with one another. But for some reason… they all came to a stop, frozen in place… All of them… But a single hooded man walking through the mass of people in long strides.

Caitlin leant over the console and narrowed her eyes to slit as she examined the video footage. She then came to her conclusion. "So he can… What? Stop time?"

"That'd be crazy to tackle?" Frankie admitted with a groan.

However, Cisco shook his head repeatedly, relieving them of those thoughts. "No, no, no. Look at the time code." He pointed to the upper right corner of the footage.

"It's still running." Matt noted as he walked closer to it.

He wasn't the only to inch closer to the monitor, the other followed. "Yeah, okay. So if he's not stopping time, what is he doing?" Barry asked confused.

With a proud smile and upheld head, Cisco unveiled the big mystery. "He's slowing down everything around him." He pressed a button on the remote and looked to the others again. "And that is why we call him the Turtle."

Barry felt a little hurt. "Why have you never mentioned this guy to me before?" He asked with a gesture to the monitor and then to the mutants. "Matt and Liv already knows this."

"Oh, I don't know, I think we've just been a little distracted, you know, what with Captain Cold and the Weather Wizard and Gorilla Grodd, plus our elemental friend is stuck on another Earth again, with his telepathic sister here who has no respect for others private thoughts and invades their heads. Do I need go on?" Cisco gave the speedster a dry look who nodded, all the while the telepath cackled like a hyena.

Jay then realized their plan. "Okay, so if we can catch him, figure out how he uses his powers…"

"Maybe we can show Zoom what life is like in the slow lane." Cisco followed the powerless speedster's words.

"How would you even know where to find him?" Harry asked.

Having done quick work on the computer, with some help from Jarvis, Matt stated. "Well, the robberies in the videos all correspond with police reports that were dismissed as lost or missing items instead of thefts."

Olivia looked to her husband. "With the suspect's M.O. being…"

"Looks like…. Items with immense personal value." Matt said, he saw Barry walking to the adjacent keyboard and used his superspeed to work.

Barry looked at his findings for a short moment, looking over the results and itching them into his mind.

_WHOOSH_

In a second, Barry sped and put on his suit and rushed off in a flash.

Caitlin got up from the computer to look at his findings. Reading what he found, she states. "It appears that there's a press conference at CCPD, because the Vandervoort diamonds have just been recovered."

"Should we go and help him?" Olivia looked to Matt with a hand twirling her boxed suit.

"No, not this time." Matt held out a couple of papers for her. "Seth left some instructions for both you and me, regarding Evelyn and Ruby."

"What about them?" Caitlin asked.

"Something about their powers, he's asked us to teach each of them specifically because of their powers." Matt said.

"Looks like I got Ruby." Olivia said.

"I got Evelyn." Matt said.

"Take care of them." Caitlin said, she didn't notice Frankie looking down to the ground.

"That means, Barry's dealing with The Turtle now." Cisco stated with deadpan expression. ""From Hell's heart, I stab at thee."" The engineer stated with a reference.

"Didn't think Cisco was into Moby Dick." Olivia said in shock and amusement.

X

**(CCPD)**

A collection of reporters and photographers from various news stations from Central City were taking photos and holding out their microphones to record everything that Captain Singh of Central City Police Department. They wanted to bring it to every house in the city tonight.

Captain Singh stated. "The perpetrators who committed this heartless crime have been apprehended and are now in our custody." From above one of the floors, The Flash looked down in search for the Turtle and listened as his boss continued his press statement. "And we're happy to report that the famed Vandervoort diamonds have been returned to their rightful owner."

The rightful owner of said diamonds stepped forward and announced. "The real gem is the return of my great-grandfather's ring." The ring was displayed in a box, surrounded by a ring of diamonds. "Getting that returned to the family is what's most priceless to me."

A reporter moved away… and then Barry saw the person he was looking for: The hooded individual who bears a look of desire, pointing his eyes to the ring of immense personal value. "Gotcha." The Flash said before moving.

But mere seconds before the speedster moved, the Turtle made a move and with narrowed eyes unleashed a veil-like pulse from his body. Anyone who were touched by this pulse lost all motion and time, completely frozen in their place. Captain Singh and the rightful owner of the ring shook hands, but because of the pulse they were locked in that state with their hands interlocked.

Barry came down to the lobby area, but he ran into the pulse-infected space… and like the civilians felt his body slow down and remain frozen like a statue to the ground. But that only his mind that played tricks on him as he came to the realization that he could still move his head.

With his head moving around, he saw The Turtle casually walk past the frozen reporters and photographers, not giving the chief of police a single thought as he walked to the box with the ring. Like he was taking out his favorite piece of candy from a jar, he snatched the ring as he walked to the nearest exit.

Briefly stopping when noticing The Flash, also frozen in his infected space, and giving him a wink, he continued walking to the exit. The moment he stepped out of the lobby; the pulse that infected the space faded in an instant.

_WHOOSH_

The rest of Barry's speed took over and made him rush to the other end of the lobby. His mouth agape at the shock of finally coming out of that pulse-infected space.

Captain Singh, feeling like nothing happened, turned his eyes toward the cameras with the owner of the ring. He glanced down at the box, only to see the ring gone and not in the box. "The ring is gone. What happened to it?" The owner didn't know. The captain of the police department looked to his officers and ordered. "Lock this place down. No one leaves this room. Sweep the precinct!"

_WHOOSH_

The Flash rushed off, needing to consult his team about this metahuman's powers.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Caitlin, with some help from Jay, examined Barry when he returned from the precinct, feeling strange that he, a speedster, was frozen in time because of the Turtle's powers. When the examination ended, she concluded with an announcement. "Well, the good news is whatever the Turtle did, it only affected you temporarily."

Barry liked that and moved into the Cortex with the others, noticing that Matt wasn't there now. "Yo." He looked to Cisco who called out to him. "What was it like being in Turtle Time?"

"Yeah, no, it was weird." Barry started. "It was like waves of inertness… like all the energy was suddenly sucked out of my body, and then it would return."

"That's because that's exactly what was happening." Harrison stated with a notepad in his hand.

"Care to share, Wells?" Olivia rhetorically asked.

"He has the ability to transfer all the surrounding kinetic energy into himself." Harry said.

"Leaving everyone else in a temporary state of potential energy." Jay pitched in.

"That's right." Harry confirmed the powerless speedster's words.

"But how come Barry could still move?" Frankie asked from her seat beside her mother.

"His speed." Harry answered, his eyes pointing to the questioning look on Barry's face. "Your speed allows you to change positions faster than anyone else." He dramatically closed the notepad in his hand before walking away.

Jay then added explanatorily. "So you can convert your stored potential energy back to kinetic energy."

"Excuse me, where are you going?" Cisco directed to Harry who reached an exit.

"Trying to figure out how to use this against Zoom." Harry placed a hand on the handle as he sarcastically asked. "You remember Zoom?"

""Cisco, please join me. We'll use your idea and take it to new scientific heights and save the world." Yes, I'd love to!" Cisco exclaimed after thinking another course for their conversation out loud, completely triggered by Harry's lack of asking for help as he walked after him.

Caitlin was busy with the computers and Barry directed to Frankie. "Frankie, you know where Matt is?"

"He's picking up Evelyn and Ruby from the apartment, he and Aunt Liv are going to train them or something, I think." Frankie said in a low voice, one that both Caitlin and Olivia took notice of.

Caitlin was about to address the issue with her daughter but then her searched chimed and she revealed. "Okay. Facial recognition found us a match from the press conference footage." While she brought up the mugshot that followed the personal arrest record, she stated. "The Turtle's name is Russel Glosson."

"Small-time thief who stopped thieving after the particle accelerator explosion." Olivia read out loud as she looked over the doctor's shoulder. "Yeah, looks like they're dead wrong about the entire thing."

Barry nodded in agreement. "All right, I'm gonna head to work… catch Joe up. Let me know if you find anything else." Caitlin and Olivia nodded while the speedster walked around the console to get to the exit.

Olivia looked up and turned to Jay. "Garrick, you doing okay there or something?"

Jay smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and said. "Yeah, yeah, it's just… it's hard to… look at that and not think about how I can't help people anymore."

Frankie then added. "Well, we have lots of technology here." With a shrug of her shoulders, she stated with a suggestion. "Why don't we figure out how to get your speed back?"

Jay chuckled at her suggestion. "It's nice of you to think of that, Frankie. But like your mother here, I'm a scientist too." He made sure all of them looked at him. "When I first got here, all I did was work on how to get my speed back. Believe me, whatever test you could run… I've already done it." He walked around the console to the exit.

"Poor guy." Frankie said.

"Yeah, can't be easy feeling useless like he does." Olivia stated. Hearing footsteps behind her, she saw her husband walking into the Cortex with both their new nieces. "Bout time you came."

"Sorry, traffic was a bitch." Matt quipped before gesturing to Ruby and Evelyn. "But got our two troublemakers here."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Ruby asked with crossed arms.

"Apparently your Dad wanted me and your aunt here to help you two with your powers." Matt answered "Ruby, you're stuck with your Aunt and Evelyn you're with me."

"Alright."

"Okay."

Ruby and Evelyn both answered.

Frankie looked to her mother. "Mom, mind I go swinging a bit, could go on patrol and see if I can find Glosson myself?" Olivia and Matt narrowed their eyes on that request.

"You sure, Frankie?" Caitlin asked her concerningly and got an immediate nod. "Okay, honey, be careful, alright?"

Before Caitlin even got a response, the young metahuman performed a jump and jumped through the skylight. "What's wrong with Frankie?" Evelyn concerningly asked, but she did have some idea

"Don't worry about that one, she's strong." Olivia said to ease their concern but she the reason for it, or at least part of it anyway. She looked to Caitlin, cupping her hand and assured her. "I can talk to her if you want me to."

"I want that, but I also think I should be the one to talk to her." Caitlin stated unsurely. "I'm gonna see if I can find her, I know where she usually swings and patrols at, even her favorite spots." She said as she took Seth's trenchcoat in hand, she had to give it to her daughter when she finds her.

Turning around to face Ruby and Evelyn, she tells them. "You two, don't give Liv and Matt any problems, alright?"

"Yes, Caitlin." Ruby said.

"Yeah, Mo- Dr. Snow!" Evelyn corrected herself with a blush of embarrassment.

Caitlin chuckled. "Caitlin's fine, Evelyn, no need to be so formal with me." Evelyn nodded, but still blushing embarrassedly. She then faced the mutants with a stern look. "And you two, don't _start_ any problems, alright? I mean it."

"What's supposed to mean?" Matt asked with his arms stretched to the sides in disbelief. "We're not the kids here?"

"Yeah he's right, Caity. How dare you?" Olivia added with a scowl.

But both mutants lowered their complains and their defenses when Caitlin threw them a cold glare. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite get you both." She stated with crossed arms.

""We'll behave."" Both mutants unitedly said with a nod of their heads.

Caitlin smirked with her head held up high in triumph. "That's what I thought. Bye." She said and walked to the exit.

"_Think this Caitlin might be as scary as Killer Frost._" Ruby thought to herself, but Olivia heard it and got curious.

X

The mutants moved to each their own areas to train their new trainees.

Matt moved into Cisco's private lab to talk with her about her powers, but he made sure everything was pushed to the sides so he could work with Evelyn's powers. He took a seat on a chair and gestured to another before him, "Take a seat, Evelyn."

Taking a seat in it, Evelyn said. "I thought Seth was the doctor."

"Well, he's the one who's comfortable with poking and prodding people when they're on a gurney in front of him." Matt joked. "But when it comes to making something like weapons or something, that's my department."

"Weapons…" Evelyn widened her eyes. "Dad said something about me needing weapons to channel my powers through."

"Yeah, he said the same in his message." Matt held up the paper with the elemental's message. "I believe him, no doubt about that, but he doesn't say exactly much about you and Ruby's powers, so can you maybe show me your powers now?" Evelyn nodded, if Seth trusted him so would she. She got up from the chair and stepped back from him.

Matt watched as the metahuman closed her eyes. But he had to shield his own eyes as a strange mixture of both light and darkness emitted from her body. Through the gaps between his fingers, he managed to see strange markings appear on her face.

A black circle taking form in the middle of her forehead, formed with luminous light. The contract, onyx darkness gathering around the rims of the circle. The darkness converging to the left and right sides of the circle, spreading from those points and taking on their own forms. The forms of two crescent moons, each moon pointing to each side, left and right.

The moon in the middle of her forehead gained a bright light, similar to that of a full moon. Black crescent moons pointing their own way beside the full moon. The same bright light that formed the moon, emitted in the form of a dot under her right eye. That dot enlarged and formed a crescent moon under her eye.

"This is my power." Evelyn said as her light and darkness shine lowered so the mutant didn't have to use his hands. "Light and Darkness."

"Incredible." Matt got up from his seat and looked over the shine of both darkness and light. "You can manipulate this at will?"

"Yeah, my darkness and light have different abilities." She started. "My darkness has the ability to let me teleport, kind of like I'm in a cloak of darkness and I end up in a different location. When I did on my Earth, it was easier to control there. Here, I feel like my powers are… easier and it's making it hard to control them."

"Might have something to do with this being another Earth." Matt mused. "What else can you do with your powers?" He took Seth's message in hand. "Seth said your powers are light and darkness, and that your darkness is strength-based, power, and your light is velocity-based, speed."

"Yeah that's about the gist of it." Evelyn concentrated and flexed her hands, darkness coming out of her like a thick smokescreen, slowly taking the form of smoke-like tendrils. Matt continued to be impressed by her powers as they wrapped around carts and lifted them off the ground with ease.

"Frankie said something about tendrils that looked like smoke coming out and destroying those flying elves she had to deal with… that was you wasn't it?" Evelyn blushed embarrassedly and Matt laughed. "Glad to see you're helping out your sister already, especially in life and death situations."

"Sister?" Evelyn clenched her hand, the darkness compressed and crushed the cart. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Her darkness tendril dissipated and the crushed cart fell to the ground. "Sorry again." She said in a gasp.

But instead getting angry or scared by her sudden display, the nanite mutant laughed. "That's an incredible power, you can crush metal carts and weaponized flying elves with just a mere swing of those darkness extensions. They crushed the cart because you were shocked of something, right?"

"Sorta." Evelyn said as she brought the darkness extensions closer to her. "I want to be able to use these things like Dad's tendrils, but it's hard. I mean Seth's tendrils."

Matt gave her an assuring smile. "It's nothing that time and training can't fix, Evelyn. And you can call Seth your Dad around me and Livia." She looked surprised at his words. "If he accepts you and Ruby as his children, then we accept you both into the family with open arms." He caringly told her.

"You mean that?" Evelyn asked, like she needed confirmation.

"Definitely, always and forever." The nanite mutant told her and she smiled. "But what else can you do with your powers? Can you combine them?"

Instead of replying or giving a nod, the metahuman placed her hands together. The space between them formed a warping mass of light. Matt continued to look intrigued as Evelyn concentrated such a mass of light, shaping it into an orb.

"In this form, I can throw light as a sphere and emit something like a flashbang." Evelyn said.

""In this form?"" Matt said knowingly with more intrigue.

Evelyn smirked and exhaled, darkness spewed out of her palms and wrapped around light orb. The two opposite elements mixed together into a swirling mass of both light and darkness.

Massive strength from the darkness compressed and reshaped the light, flattening it even and the darkness continued to give it a new shape. Elongating the light, Evelyn's hands closed in on the light with curling fingers. A second later, she put her hands together and showed the mutant her power.

Matt had his mouth gaped as he saw the metahuman now wield a shining light sword, complete with hilt and handle. The light blade was accompanied with streaks of darkness wrapping around it, shimmers of both light and darkness coming out like a fiery aura. "That's incredible, Evelyn. Seth teach you this?"

Although he asked this question, he didn't find it likely that his best friend taught the young metahuman this ability, to shape and forge weaponry from her two elements. Seth can do the same with his ice element, but his preferred fighting style is close range combat, not weapon combat like him.

He got his answer as Evelyn shook her head. "No, he taught how to combine my two elements inside of my body, so they're not hurting my body, like they did in the beginning. But after I learned I can project both light and darkness, I learned that I could do the same… as Dad and make weapons from my powers."

"That's incredible." While he may not have known her long, Matt was still shocked that Evelyn had come so far with her powers under Seth's guidance. Thinking of the elemental, he returned his attention to the message. "Says here your old man wants me to make you arrow and bows, some that withstand the powers of both your elements. You're an archer?"

"My Dad was one in high school and he taught me the same when I got old enough." Evelyn said as the mutant continued running his eyes over the message. "Something wrong?"

"Nah, just curious as to where that blabbering chocolate-addict got the idea of using bows and arrows." Matt mused.

"I took up parkour and athletics in school, and with archery from my Dad, think Seth thought it would be the best way to implement my metahuman powers. Also because my light attacks come out in the forms of arrows." She stated.

"Yeah, that'd do it." He said with short chuckle. "A bow that can handle the strength of darkness and arrows that can handle the heat of light. That sounds specific."

"It's because of I tried to use my powers on a bow and arrow on the other Earth, and I could fire them off but both the bowstring and the arrows either burst into pieces or were damaged." Evelyn stated.

"Guess I have quite a challenge on my hands." Matt smirked gleefully, different ideas popping into his mind as he thought of how to construct weapons for the young metahuman. "By the way, you got a name for yourself?"

"Eclipse." Evelyn said after nodding with a smile. She wouldn't change her name anytime soon.

It was the name her father gave her, after all.

X

"You're from the future of my world?" Olivia asked after hearing Ruby's story of how she got to Earth-2.

Ruby nodded and leant against the wall in the wide room. "Yeah, I am. 2018 to be exact."

Olivia chortled. "More time-travel. First one didn't go so well, and that was because of a friend of ours. An enemy speedster does it, we suddenly get a new family member. Things are weirder than ever now."

"That's one to say it." Ruby smirked. "I can't believe I'm talking with one of the Weapon X mutants right now."

"It's not a favorite memory for me or my family, Ruby. Mind keeping a lid on it?" She kindly asked the former HYDRA assassin. Ruby nodded and the mutant smiled.

"But I can't believe Angel Fury is the sister to Venom and the husband to Iron Knight." Ruby chuckled. "I used to have posters of you three in my bedroom, you are complete badasses. And you're way prettier in real life."

"Thanks, and wow, you're one strange fangirl." Olivia said with a chuckle. "But guess there are worse things than this." The mutant got down to business as she pulled out her brother's message. "Seth wants me to train you because of your powers are similar to my own."

"You're a telepath and telekinetic, not an enhanced human with small amounts of Gravitonium infused into her body." Ruby reminded her.

"That is true, but he thinks it's the best way for you get a better handle on your powers." Olivia smiled. "Fighting against Gravitonium? A rare element with unique gravitational properties. It's a dangerous gamble you took, Rubs and there's no side-effects now?"

"Back then it was the only way to get my mother's approval." Ruby said. "But I did have some side-effects right after the infusion." Olivia looked at her with a waiting look, expecting the girl to elaborate. "After the infusion, it felt like my mind was being both overwhelmed and spilt apart at the same time." She could still remember that painful experience that came from her mind. "The Gravitonium had absorbed two people, two scientists who were enemies in real life. And I felt them fighting in my head, fighting against each other and me and tried to take over my body."

"You had two other fighting inside of your head…" Olivia clenched her hands; she couldn't bear the thought of a child experiencing such destructive pain. "Immediate deterioration in the infused subject's mental state."

"Yeah the absorbed people weren't exactly stable to begin with." Ruby raised her hands and looked at them, feeling like blood was dripping down from each digit. "I couldn't handle the voices of those absorbed people. Even though it was a fraction, I could hear them clearly and felt them fighting like bulls striking my head with their horns. A guy I liked, Werner, he tried to help me but… I went mad and my powers accidentally killed him… right in front of me."

The psychic gently placed her hands on top of the girl's hands and cupped them, getting the former HYDRA assassin to turn to her with surprise. "There's no easy way with powers, they're like tools. They have the potential to do both good and bad, but it comes down to the user's intention. You didn't mean to kill this guy you liked, I know that from meeting you, Ruby. Don't blame yourself for that… and don't worry, I'm gonna help you make sure your powers are under control, _your _control."

"Thanks… Olivia. But why?" Ruby inquired.

"Because we're family, I'm your aunt, kiddo." Olivia told her as though it was the obvious response. "We help each other." She heard her new niece giggle. "But for now, we're not going to train yet, we're gonna do some psychic treatment to check on your brain. Just in case those creeping voices are still in there."

"How?" Ruby asked as she was directed to a chair.

Olivia waved her fingers, showing a shroud of pinkish psychic energy. "With my powers. My brother's the doctor sure, but I'm the shrink who can dig into people's minds with her powers. Trust me I can fix you if there's anything that's broken, of course."

"I'm in your hands… Aunt Liv." The girl said as she leant against the back of her chair. The moment she did, the psychic placed her hands on her temples and her psychic energy slithered into her mind.

At the first image of Ruby admitting to cutting off an SHIELD agent's arms, Olivia realized this girl might not have been having the most stable life that a girl her age should have. Then again, she is the daughter of a HYDRA head.

X

Wind brushed over her long hair, making it flow in the wind as she kept her eyes downwards, pointing them to the message her father gave her while he's still on Earth-2. While seated on the ledge of a tall building, Frankie ran her eyes over the letters one by one, slowly letting them sink in.

But that wasn't the only thing she was doing; she was thinking back to her new… the new… members her father helped escape to this Earth. Even though she was far from them she couldn't help but think back to them. They were stuck to her mind right now and she couldn't help it… and she didn't know how to deal with them now.

"**_What's wrong with you, Frankie? Tell me._**" Magenta tried to help her host while sending an array of soothing emotions to her. Frankie didn't say anything in response, merely sucking the nightly cold air that made her lungs cold. "**_Hello! Don't leave me hanging like this, Frankie?_**"

"Not now, Magenta. I'm not in the mood for a talk." Frankie replied out loud, the fingers on her left hand brushing the strands of hair away from her eye. "Not even with you."

"Not even with your mother?" Caitlin announced her presence as she stepped out of the doorway. Her daughter's head turned around to look to her. "You look busy… "Patrolling."" She stated with air quotes.

"Sorry… I didn't find Russell." Frankie told her before turning her eyes back to the city.

Caitlin walked up to the ledge, standing beside her daughter and looked over the darkened city. "You wanna talk, baby? Especially about you suddenly leaping off like you did?"

"Not really, Mom." Frankie looked to her. "I guess I'm just… Never mind." She put a stop to her own words as she saw the waiting look on her mother's face.

Caitlin knew better. She knew there was something bothering her daughter, something that appeared to be twisting and turning her insides. And no matter how much she wanted to pry into it, she couldn't force her daughter to open her heart.

As a mother she couldn't do that to her own child.

She had to be patient and let her do it herself.

Sliding an arm around her daughter's waist, she pulled Frankie closer to her. "Frankie, you can always talk to me alright? I'm always going to be here and listen to everything on your mind. Nothing's gonna change between us… even if we have more members in our strange family."

"I know, Mom." Frankie placed her head on Caitlin's shoulder. "I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, Frankie." Caitlin said as she kissed the top of her head. "Nothing's gonna change that."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

The next day, the team was hard at work on trying to find The Turtle, using every resource in S.T.A.R. Labs to track him down. Matt and Olivia were working with both Evelyn and Ruby in either of the private labs to the sides. Frankie was beside her mother and watching her work with Cisco and Jay.

"Hey." Barry greeted them as he walked through the entry. "You guys got anything?"

Cisco straightened up. "I think we found the next target for our 30-something, metahuman, not-a-Ninja-Turtle."

Caitlin tilted her head in thought while Cisco gaped his mouth, impressively shocked at his own words. "How long did it take you to come up with that one?" She inquired, her daughter forming the same expression and looking at Cisco.

"It just came out of my mouth… did you see that? That was amazing." Cisco quickly stated while Caitlin patted his shoulder. Frankie clapping in mock applause.

"That was nice." Barry complimented.

Matt walked into the Cortex with a towel wiping his hands. "What's the status on the Turtle? We got some ideas as to where this guy's going next?"

Cisco nodded. "Central City Museum is hosting a special black-tie event tonight showcasing "The Crystal Ball.""

"What's that?" Olivia asked as she entered the Cortex too, Evelyn and Ruby behind her.

Barry was glad that question came up because he didn't have the foggiest idea what it was himself. "It's a famous painting, apparently, recently recovered from Markovia." Jay revealed.

The psychic felt like she knew of a certain cat who would love this painting.

"The painting is on loan to the museum from the Silverberg family." Cisco informed as he walked around Jay and went to another screen to read from an article. "Jacob Silverberg himself said, "The painting's safe return means more to us than all the money in the world."" He laid it on thick. "It's like they're begging Turtle to rob it."

"Lovely." Frankie said as she crawled on the ceiling. "But what then? Is it a plan?"

"It _is_ a plan." Barry told her and walked around the console, stepping past Evelyn till he stood before them all. "So the Turtle will make his move, and we can be there waiting to take him down."

A flash of inspiration came over Caitlin's mind and she suggested. "I have an idea, guys." They looked to her. "If we're dealing with a thief, why not bring our own into the mix?" She said with a knowing smirk.

"You want to bring Felicia into the fold?" Olivia asked with an intrigued smirk.

"She's the smartest thief we have and know aside from Snart, and I'm vaguely certain we could use her help this time." Caitlin stated.

"I like it." Matt voiced his opinion. "Yeah, let's bring her into the fold."

Olivia looked to Jay. "Garrick, how do you look in a tux?" Matt looked to her disbelief, briefly wondering if he was gonna be sidelined for this mission.

Cisco scoffed and gestured to the powerless speedster. "Come on, he's 6'2'', he's square-jawed, and he's jacked. I think he looks fine."

"I'm 6'4''." Jay corrected.

"Don't tell me I'm being sidelined?" Matt asked with crossed arms.

"Of course not, but we gotta get Felicia's attention somehow, right?" Olivia casually answered, everyone realizing that Jay was gonna be used as catnip. Jay didn't know how to feel about that plan.

"I can come with, more eyes in the field." Frankie offered.

"You sure honey?" Caitlin asked her.

"I am, Mom. You gotta stop asking me this, Mom. I know what I'm doing." Frankie told her. Caitlin reluctantly nodded and share a brief glance with the psychic.

"Oh, crap!" Barry exclaimed out loud, his clenched fist placing it against his forehead.

"Problem?" Caitlin inquired.

Barry lowered his hand with a look of revelation, a light bulb lighting above his head. "No. No." He reached into his pocket. "An opportunity, maybe. Hold on." He dropped his face as he felt a void in his pocket. "Where's my phone? I had it with me when I came in here."

"Evelyn." Caitlin sternly called out to the metahuman.

"Sorry." Evelyn pulled out Barry's phone. "Old habits."

Matt chuckled as the metahuman gave Barry his phone back. "_A symbiote-bearing metahuman with Magneto's powers, a former HYDRA assassin from the future with gravitational powers, and a metahuman thief with powers of light and darkness… What a strange set of kids you got, Seth._"

"_Amen to that, Hubby._" Olivia quipped with her thoughts entering the nanite mutant's mind.

The speedster dialed a number on his phone and brought it to his ear. He felt the others look at him with peering gazes as he listened to Patty excitedly talk to him. "_Hey, you. I'm excited to see you tonight._"

"Yeah, me too." Barry told her agreeingly before adding. "Actually, about that… so I know I said "let's have dinner," but…you've been wanting me to share more." The two mutants shared looks of confusion with the natives. Frankie looking between them as well, but actively keeping her eyes off her new siblings. "So I thought that I would share that… I love art."

This time his entire team gave him shocked looks, devoting their full attention to the speedster as he rescheduled his date with his girlfriend.

"_Okay, interesting._" Patty replied.

"Yeah. No, I just, you know, I can't get enough of art." Barry lied, the others finding it unbelievably unconvincing. "Anyway, there's this event at the Central City Museum tonight. They're showing this really famous painting that I've always loved."

From the other end of the phone call, Patty sheepishly admitted. "_Actually, I don't know anything about art, but what's the saying? I know what I like, and I like you, so count me in._"

"All right, great. I'll see you at 8:00."

"7:00!" The others in the room shouted to him.

"Or 7:00." He corrected himself. "I'll see you at 7:00."

"_Okay, 7:00 it is._" Patty said.

"Bye." Barry bid his farewells with a gleeful smile.

"Dude, really?" Matt asked.

Cisco had to agree with the nanite mutant and said. "You know, you're a really great superhero…"

"Thanks." Barry loved the praise.

"A really great superhero…" Barry thanked Cisco for the praise again. The mechanical engineer then continued with a frown. "But do you think it's a good idea when you're fighting crime to bring a date?"

"Yeah, I agree with Cisco, not the smartest idea." Matt said and then admitted. "And I say this, knowing full well that it's basically date night for me and Livia when we go out in the field and take out Rogues."

"Really?" Jay asked with a skeptic smile.

Olivia smiled lovingly to her husband. "Way to keep the love going." Matt blew her a kiss and she made a show of catching it with her hands, placing the caught kiss to her heart.

"Ew." Frankie, Ruby and Evelyn groaned together at the mutants' display of love.

Olivia glared at the three of them with psychic energy shrouding her eyes. "You three have a problem or something?" She asked them in a threatening tone, the three of them remembering this is the sister to Venom and shouldn't mess with her even though she's family.

Barry, forgoing the other's antics, stated with hands placed together. "I'm gonna tell Patty… That I'm the Flash." After his conversation with Iris yesterday, he reached the conclusion that he had to be honest with her. To truly show her that he trusted her.

Ruby looked to Evelyn. "Is telling your secret identity a must when you're in relationship on this Earth?"

"I mean, Seth did with Caitlin, I'm guessing." Evelyn unsurely answered.

Barry heard the two girls' words and then shifted his eyes between the others. "Is that a bad idea? What do we think?"

"I will say, she put bullets in King Shark and Harry." Cisco reminded them all, they nodded in response as they recalled those moments. "So as far as I'm concerned, that's Team Flash material to me."

"I mean…" Caitlin started. "Seth did tell us all about him being Venom before he and I got together, and it did make our lives better. So… maybe." She unsurely said.

But that was good enough for Barry. "Yeah, thank you both. Cool." He walked around the console and headed for the exit. "I'm gonna do this… I'm gonna tell her."

"Matt?" Evelyn got his attention. "What about me and Ruby? We're gonna stay here with Wells?"

"We're all going out on this mission, so there's only Harry here. But I don't trust him with you two, not after he doubted you two, along with Garrick." Matt stated with a glare towards the powerless speedster. "So, we're gonna call Joe West, see if he can play babysitter for a while." He took out his phone and walked to the other end of the room to talk in private.

"Caity." Olivia got the doctor's attention. Nodding instantly, the two women moved into the private lab to the right. "How'd it go with Frankie yesterday?"

"Not good. She didn't want to talk or anything. She didn't say anything when we got home, she just went straight into her room… I don't know what I'm doing wrong." Caitlin sadly replied.

"That's not the case, Caity." Olivia bit her lower lip. "I'm gonna come home to you two later tonight, after the mission of course. And talk with you two, cause I have an idea of what's going on with my little niece."

"You think you know why?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah… because I had a similar feeling when I was younger."

X

With a great sense of relief from his teammates giving him their consent with him telling Patty his secret identity, Barry Allen walked into the corridor. He had to ready himself for his date with Patty.

"Don't tell her."

Barry stopped and turned around, seeing that it was Harry Wells who spoke to him. "Huh?" He muttered loud enough for him to hear before walking closer to him.

Harry chuckled. "You care for this woman." The speedster nodded his confirmation. "That's nice." He flatly said. "Then keep her as far away from this as possible. And here's why." He stepped closer to Barry. "If Zoom finds out who you care for… who you love… who you live for… he'll take them from you."

Barry didn't seem to find the words to respond and walked away from Harry.

The otherworldly scientist wanted to add one more thing, how the menacing speedster would try and use Barry's loved ones against him, use them to attach strings to the limbs of the speedster. Then he'd use the speedster as a puppet that will follow his every command.

Just like with himself as his daughter was used against him. Zoom already had his strings around his limbs.

And Harry needs to do what his puppeteer orders him to do.

X

**(Central City Museum)**

"_John William – Waterhouse Exhibit – Crystal Ball_"

The banner read as the black tie event for the display of the "Crystal Ball"- panting was well on its way.

Waiters in black and white suits walking around with trays with either bubbly champagne glass or small tasty appetizers. Each of the waiters maneuvering their way among the mass of wealthy guests with skill. The two-story building decorated with the finest material and light shining down over the other attractions, making them shine out like diamonds. Guards walking around with radios equipped to their belts and earpieces placed over their ears as they communicated with one another, assuring them of the safety of both the guests and the main attraction.

The entire museum was pleasing to the guests who admired everything, not just the main attraction but also the other displays of art that were inside of display glass cases.

Barry and Jay revealed themselves in black tuxedos, white shirts under their blazers with black bowties around their collars. Matt stepped up to their side in a dark-red tuxedo. Like the other men, he too wear a white shirt under his blazer with a black bowtie around his collar.

Caitlin came up next, wearing a beautiful long dark-blue dress with a single strap reaching to her right shoulder. The strap held up by a single ornamented brooch. Her soft brown hair pulled back into a bun. Both her hands placed at the upper corners of her purse. Her ears accompanied with silver lineal earrings.

Walking up to the doctor's side, Olivia Fury-Stark revealed herself, wearing a light-yellow laced dress with flower patterns around her waist. Her magenta hair straightened and flowing down the side of her right shoulder. Her hair tickling the side of her deep V-neckline.

Felicia Hard walked up to her girlfriends, wearing white opera-like gloves on her arms, extending all the way to her elbows. Her body clad in a skin-tight black dress, white ornaments attached to black strap that reached up to her left shoulder. Platinum-blonde hair braided into a bun on the back of her head with wavy strands of her hair hanging on the sides of her face.

"You look good, Felicia." Caitlin praised the thief as she took in her dress.

"Thanks, Caity. But have you looked at yourself lately? You look like a million bucks." Felicia said in what sounded like a flirty tone. Caitlin rolled her eyes; she should have gotten used to the thief always speaking in such a seductive tone by now.

Olivia narrowed her eyes as she turned to her husband who looked everywhere else but her. "Should I be wondering why you aren't complimenting me on my looks?"

Matt smirked and lowered his head to her ear. "Thought you'd hate it if I kept stating the obvious."

Olivia smiled. "You look good, Matty."

"You too, Livia." The nanite mutant praised back.

"Yeah I don't get tired from it, not from you." The psychic admitted with a quip. She looked to Caitlin. "Caity, Frankie ready?"

Nodding her head upwards, Caitlin had the psychic turn her attention to the ceiling. Olivia focused her gaze to the ceiling and saw the big chandelier shaking. "Oh, she's gone invisible and staying on the ceiling." She realized as the chandelier stopped shaking now.

"Yeah, she did." Caitlin told the mutant. She then gave Felicia a quick and stern gaze. "And Felicia, you keep your fingers off that painting´, all right? We know you like the five-finger discount here."

Felicia gave a smirk and a not-at-all-convincing scout salute. "Scout's honor, Caity. I swear."

"Oh yeah, why didn't Cisco come? Wasn't that the plan for the get-go?" Olivia directed to Caitlin.

"He decided to stay behind for support with Harry." Caitlin answered.

"All right." Barry said after exhaling, having prepared himself for the mission. "Keep your eyes open for the Turtle." They all looked at him as he admitted to himself. "A sentence I never thought I would say."

"At least we're not looking for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Matt said with a quip.

"That'd be easy, find the closest pizza place." His wife said.

"Shall we?" Matt said with his arm held out for her. Olivia shortly bowed and hooked her arm around his before scattering with Barry and Jay.

"Guess it's the two of us now, Caity." Felicia told her with a champagne glass in hand.

"Guess so." Caitlin said back with a smile before pressing her ornamented brooch. "Cisco, are you and Harry in position?"

"_I'm in the security feed. I've got the facial recognition software running, so we'll be able to spot Turtle before he makes his move._" Cisco replied before returning to his work in the S.T.A.R. Labs outside the museum.

"Let's go and mingle then." Felicia suggested as she handed Caitlin a glass of champagne. "So what's this I hear about you getting two new daughters? One of whom, a girl from the future of my home world."

"Seth sent them through a breach with letters to the group and Frankie and me." Caitlin said as they walked amongst the place.

Felicia looked around, turning her gaze to upwards. "How's Rose dealing with this?"

Before she could answer that question, Caitlin took a big swig of her glass, swallowing a mouthful of champagne. "Sorry." The doctor apologized as she wiped away some drops from her lips. "It's just… Frankie seems distant now."

"Since those two girls showed themselves?" Felicia wondered.

"Yeah… I feel like it's my fault, if I did something wrong as her parent, maybe." Caitlin said in a regretful parent. "But I really don't know what I did wrong?"

"I'm guessing, Livy said she knew the answer, didn't she?" Felicia asked and Caitlin nodded. "Then it's nothing to do with you, Caitlin, trust me."

"Liv seemed sure herself, and you too now… What makes you two so sure?" Caitlin asked.

"Livy might be a psychic and a shrink but she is something else too. And I know what it is, and I know that's why she's so sure." The thief stated confidently as she sipped on her glass.

X

Olivia plucked two appetizers from a nearby waiter's tray and handed one to her husband. "Chicken Cocktail Wieners, perfect for an appetizer."

"Yeah, thanks." Matt thanked the psychic as he accepted the stick with the cocktail sausage. He and his wife ate the sausages in one bite and quickly swallowed them. He gestured to the dance floor, various couples already slow dancing. "Wanna join them?"

"Sounds good to me…" Olivia trailed off as she let her husband lead her to the dance floor.

Twirling her around, the nanite mutant placed his left hand on her waist with his other one taking hold of hers. The psychic intertwined fingers with his as she raised her other hand and placed it around his neck. The two began to sway to the soothing music.

"Now that I think about it…" Olivia started with a smile. "We never got to have our first dance as a married couple before."

"Yeah, but then again." He spun his wife around and brought her closer to his front and the two continued swaying. "A Singularity is a big-time showstopper, wouldn't you say?"

"Not to mention, Seth jumping into it to try and take it out with himself." The psychic added as she was spun around again, this time stepping forward to meet his face. "Glad to know that he was just hurled into another universe." She noticed that Barry and Patty were dancing on the dance floor as well, swaying to the music.

"Yeah… and now he's got one crazy big family." Matt thought back to a conversation he had with Caitlin. "Think that was one of the many things we never could have expected…"

"No kidding." Olivia lowered her gaze.

Matt grew worried and stopped their dancing. "Liv, what's wrong?"

Swallowing deeply, she looked up to his eyes and asked. "Matty… You ever think about-"

"_We've got eyes on Turtle._" Cisco put a stop to the mutants' conversation.

The two mutants pulled away from each other and turned their attention to Russell, his hands grabbing hold of the invaluable painting. They rushed to the area where the metahuman was and Frankie deactivated her invisibility as she jumped onto a nearby wall before jumping to the ground.

Russell took the painting in his hands and turned around to see three heroes standing before him, fully armored. "Well… isn't this a surprise."

"Drop the painting, Russell." Iron Knight demanded while he raised his repulsors to him.

"Easy way or hard way? You choose." Angel Fury said as she and her niece armed themselves.

"I choose… the slow way." The metahuman pretended to give it some thought.

"CCPD! Freeze!" Patty Spivot shouted as she brought out her gun and pointed at the man holding the painting.

Narrowing his eyes, the metahuman sent out a pulse from his body that connected with everyone, slowing down their sense of time too. The mutants and their niece were just as affected and couldn't move. But like Patty Spivot, they saw glimpses of a moving form… like he was moving at superspeed.

When the veil faded and their sense of time returned to normal, the mutants searched for the metahuman but found him nowhere. "**There!**" Magenta got their attention as she pointed to the staircase to the right side, where Russell was holding Patty's gun… aimed at Patty herself.

X

"Are you as fast as The Flash?" Detective Spivot asked curiously as she held her hands up in fear, the other guests scrambling and bolting to the exits.

_WHOOSH_

The Flash appeared at the top of the staircase and looked down at them, while they looked to him. "Oh, no. He is much slower." Barry stated.

The two mutants took to the sky and Frankie landed on the ground and raised her hands. With metal here, she could rely on her magnekinetic powers.

The Turtle shifted his gaze between the speedster and the other heroes. "This is a trap?" Olivia and noticed that he didn't appear the least bit worried, especially since he was standing before four heroes. "I'm slow… not stupid." He unleashed another pulse of slowness.

"**NO-**" Frankie's words came to a stop as she tried to yank the gun out of his hands, but she was already hit by the pulse. Matt's hands remained in a frozen unclench when he connected with the pulse. Olivia's hand was above her head and her whip frozen in midair.

Barry saw his friends and allies and his girlfriends frozen because of the pulse. But he remained able to move in the space of slowness that The Turtle started and then saw the enemy metahuman point the gun to the ceiling.

Pulling the trigger, the metahuman fired off an array of lead bullets for the chain that held the chandelier in the air. After each of his bullets connected with the chain, sparks going from the collision between metal and metal, the chain lost the battle and the chandelier fell.

With all the other guests gone, The Flash realized that the chandelier would fall down and crash on top of Patty. He wouldn't let that happen, he couldn't!

Barry sped down the staircase with incredible speed and neared Patty.

The Turtle noticed how the speedster was rushing towards the detective. Once again, narrowing his eyes he unleashed another pulse of slowness. This seemed to slow down the Scarlet Speedster a bit. But when he did manage to power through a bit, another pulse came from Russell and made it appear as though he was frozen to a single spot despite being still able to move.

As he saw that, Russell rushed away with a smirk and the invaluable painting.

Barry grunted through gritted teeth and powered through the veil of slowness, pushing Patty away, at the same time the pulse faded, and the chandelier collided on top of his body. Shattering into million pieces and left the entire room darkened due to the lack of lights.

The two mutants and Frankie regained their sense of time and saw Barry unconscious, under the shattered chandelier. "Flash!" The nanite mutant stated as he and his wife rushed to him.

"**Let me.**" Frankie told them as she lifted the metallic pieces off his body.

"Guys, are you okay?" Caitlin asked them in a whisper as she and Felicia and Jay stepped into the room. She had to watch her volume as she saw Patty on the floor. "Is everyone here okay?"

"All of us are okay." Angel Fury twisted her head in realization. "Well, except for Barry of course."

"I got him." Matt said he put the speedster over his shoulder. "Let's get out of here." They nodded and left the museum in a hurry, just as Patty began to stir and wake up again.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

After that disaster at Central City Museum, everyone returned to the facility where Caitlin flashed light into Barry's eyes as she treated him after his brief but shattering date with a chandelier. The others watched as the doctor kept flashing light into his eyes and then stopped and revealed.

"Your pupils are normal." Caitlin looked to the monitor with his vials. "Your heart rate's a little low. But other than that, no concussive symptoms."

"I really do feel fine. What about Turtle?" The speedster directed to the others.

"No sign of him." Harry said with a hollow tone.

"Or that beautiful painting." Felicia said with a pout.

Elbowing the thief in her stomach the psychic added. "He must have gotten away with it in the chaos." Felicia gave a pout while rubbing her stomach.

Cisco agreed. "Yeah, things went a little sideways after your girlfriend decided to go all "Lethal Weapon" 1 through 4 on Turtle."

"No kidding, Patty's fierce." Matt admitted.

"And she almost went splat." Frankie put in a dark joke.

"Not now, honey." Caitlin chastised her daughter.

"Oh, my God." Barry remembered and placed his hands on his head. "Patty's gonna think I ditched her." Caitlin and the others shook their heads, knowing what he was thinking. "I… no, I got to go." He got up from his chair.

"Where are you…" Harry dropped his hands to the sides as the speedster walked past him. "…finding Turtle is what's important right now."

As Harry turned around to face him, Barry stated. "Yeah… this is important to me too."

"Shouldn't we see if his speed still works?" Jay said suggestively.

_WHOOSH_

If it was to answer Jay's question or to get to Patty quickly, they didn't know, but Barry used his superspeed to speed to his girlfriend's house.

"I think… I think it still works." Cisco sheepishly admitted.

Harry then added. "We still have to find out how Turtle drained him of it." He said, referring to his speed before moving away with Cisco Ramon.

"Mr. Garrick." Jay turned around and saw Felicia holding up two champagne glasses including a bottle of champagne. "You never got your champagne." The powerless speedster chuckled.

"Do I even wanna know how you got those flutes?" He asked as the thief poured him a glass.

"Do you even have to ask?" The thief bemusedly said. "Here you go." She handed him one and the two clanked their glasses together. "Cheers."

"Cheers." Jay said back with a smile before downing his champagne the same time Felicia did. Exhaling after enjoying the bubbly beverage, he placed the flute back on the table as he said. "Let me go see if I can make myself useful."

"You do you." Felicia playfully said as he moved away.

"Didn't think you had a thing for Garrick?" Olivia asked in surprise.

"Oh I don't." Felicia surprised the psychic with that answer. "This?" She referred to the drinks she shared with Jay. "Was because of Caitlin." She took Jay's glass and gave it to Caitlin.

"Thanks." Caitlin said.

"What are you going to do with that?" Frankie asked her mother.

"Something that can maybe help Jay." Caitlin said, but the others felt that was a vague answer.

X

**(West Residence, Front Porch)**

Joe stood on the porch and exhaled. He had just returned from an illegal street race in the middle of the darkened city's limits. He was there to confront Wally West who won a race, getting the other racer's race car as his prize per their agreement before the race.

The detective was there to get some answers behind his newly revealed son's intentions, as he didn't come to dinner with him, Barry and Iris last night. Joe got the most stupid response as Wally said he couldn't make it.

Back in the middle of the lanes, Joe threw in a little parenting. "_You tell someone you're gonna be somewhere, you show up._" He told Wally, but he didn't accept it and ignored. Joe wondered if Wally decided to visit Central City, not to meet his father or his sister he didn't know he had, but to race instead.

All signs points to that being the right answer as the street racer said no one in Keystone City would race against him anymore. Everything he said and everything Wally did, it all screamed that he didn't want to be part of the West Family here.

At this point, the detective didn't know what to do so he returned home and opened the door. He walked and didn't know what to expect but he didn't expect to see Ruby on the couch and reading a newspaper and Evelyn coming down the staircase.

"Hey you two?" He got the girls attention.

"Welcome home, Detective." Ruby greeted him in an unconvincing tone, not sounding the least bit honest to the detective. It sounded she didn't care about him returning to his house.

"Welcome home." Evelyn welcomed him home in a more friendly tone, unlike her sister.

"Hey, you two, did you finish your meals?" Before he left the house, he made sure the girls had something to eat, something that wasn't Big Belly Burger. He exhaled in relief when the two of them nodded. "Glad I can manage your kids, Seth, instead of my own."

Ruby perked her head up and looked at the detective with a curious gaze. "What's wrong? You look down?"

"Just something with my own kid… well the kid I found about the night of Christmas Eve before meeting the two of you." Joe answered.

"Let me guess he doesn't want anything to do with you or Iris and doesn't want you to act like his father?" Evelyn asked, throwing a sideway glance to her sister.

"Low-blow, Evie!" Ruby retaliated and threw the newspaper after Evelyn, who instantly teleported away from the incoming newspaper. Seeing her sister teleport into a recliner, she looked back to the detective. "But yeah, I know how and why he's acting like that."

"You know that how?" Joe widened his eyes as he understood immediately. "You were like this with Seth, weren't you?"

"Yeah… I… I wasn't used to him treating me like that, with care and… like I wasn't his enemy, just someone who needed saving." Ruby said. "I… I treated him badly and I snapped at him because he treated me like his daughter."

Joe chuckled and dropped down to the couch beside Ruby. "I'm guessing he didn't do anything but apologize to you, maybe say he's sorry for treating you like that."

"You really know the guy." The former assassin stated and Joe nodded. "He's a good person."

"And a better father." Joe told them and the two girls looked down in response. "He's gonna come back, you two. Don't worry… and we're not going to give you the boot. We're not going to mess with Seth and Caitlin's kids. We're not that crazy."

Evelyn looked to him. "You mean that… Because Frankie doesn't seem to like that idea."

"She… She doesn't want to know us." Ruby said sadly.

"I don't know about that, and I'm saying that because I have Wally telling me straight into my face that the role as the man of the house has been taken." The detective said. "There's something else going on with her, I'm sure. You two just be patient and let her come forward and say she cares about the two of you with open arms."

"You sure about that?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know my own kids well enough sure, but the kids of my best friend… Those I know pretty well." Joe admitted with a chortle.

"Wally's gonna come around, Joe." Evelyn assured him.

"Just be patient." Ruby smirked, throwing back his own words.

"It's Uncle Joe, you two. Any daughters of Seth are my nieces." Joe told them firmly. He then felt his phone chiming and pulled it out of his pocket. "It's Barry." He said at Barry's name coming up on the caller ID. "Barr, what'-"

"_Joe!_" Barry stopped him urgently.

Joe leant forward, the two girls looking to him in worry. "What is it, Barry? Talk to me."

"_Joe… I think The Turtle has Patty._"

"What?! You sure about this, Barry?" Joe shot up from the couch.

"_I… Look, just meet me at S.T.A.R. Labs, all right?_" Barry told him urgently before hanging up.

The detective placed his phone back into pocket. "You two, come with me. We're going to S.T.A.R. Labs. We got trouble." Joe told them rapidly and they ran after him till they got out.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

"Barr… we'll find her." Joe comforted his adoptive son. He arrived at the facility in record time, only to see the team hard at work and Barry pacing back and forth.

Matt wiped his hand down his face with a groan. "Damn it, we're not getting any leads on this bastard."

"It's like he's totally fallen off the grid." Cisco admitted with his hands on the back of his head.

Felicia stepped forward. "What about the stuff he's stolen?"

Cisco shook his head. "You know, it… any of the stuff he's stolen, I can't find it."

"He keeps them." Harry realized.

Black Cat snapped her fingers in agreement. "Exactly, Creepy Wells." She looked to the others. "Take it from a seasoned thief like me, no good thief is gonna waste their precious scores."

Harry nodded in agreement. "He keeps them the way a serial killer collects trophies."

Caitlin realized. "He's stolen a lot of stuff."

"That's an understatement." Frankie stated in agreement.

Ruby then added. "But with a lot of stolen goods, means Turtle needs a lot of space to store it, right?"

"Sounds like a start." Evelyn pitched in.

"The three of them are right." Olivia turned to the screen. "Jarvis, check if Russell rented any storage spaces."

"**As you wish, ma'am.**" The AI replied and sent an array of searches to Cisco's screen.

"No, no…I'm not getting anything." Cisco said after chanting regretfully.

Matt perked up his head and widened his eyes. "Wait a second, Cisco. His ex-wife, remember her?"

"Oh right!" Cisco exclaimed with realization. "His ex-wife used to be an archivist for antiquities…" he brought the profile for Rosalyn Glosson. "…at the Naydel Library before it shut down."

Frankie looked over at the screen herself. "And guess what? It shut down three months after the accelerator exploded."

Joe pointed his hand to them. "That place is big enough to hold Turtle's stuff."

The speedster accepted that. "Okay, all right." He couldn't be held back anymore, not with Patty's life on the line and rushed to the mannequin with his suit.

"Wait, Barry… We haven't even figured out how to neutralize The Turtle's power." Jay reminded the speedster. "Matt and Liv couldn't do anything to him, what are you going to do?"

Barry snapped around with a shrug. "Well, I'm gonna have to power through it."

_WHOOSH_

The speedster disappeared in a flash, putting on his suit and rushing out of the facility in an instant.

X

**(Naydel Library)**

Coming to a stop outside Naydel Library, Barry arrived outside the library and saw the lights on. "All right, I'm outside the library." He informed his team back at S.T.A.R. Labs.

"_Barry, the only way to save Patty is if you grab her in between each of the Turtle's pulses._" Cisco informed the speedster.

"_We know Matt and Liv can't do much against him, they're not speedsters like you. You'll only have 2/10ths of a second to make your moves._" Caitlin stated.

"_Barry, you're gonna have to rely on both speed and strength, enough so you can power through the pulse._" Matt told him.

"_Draw on your powers, your rage, your feelings anything that's enough to light a flame in your body, Barry._" The psychic told him.

"I got it, thanks." Barry told them. Inhaling and exhaling a few times, he readied himself mentally before speeding into the place.

X

"No! No! No!" Patty chanted in fear as the metahuman neared her arm with an injection needle, she was trying to struggling away but her bounds kept her to the chair. In the very place that his ex-wife Rosalyn used, Turtle was gonna inject a substance into her body… and stop her from moving… forever.

And put her in a display case like he did with his ex-wife…

All of this is not to kill her, too fast and messy… Russell is gonna take a much… nicer and slower approach…

All of this is not to hurt Patty Spivot… It was about hurting someone else… someone who values Patty…

None other than The Flash…

And Turtle was gonna do that this very moment….

But a strange thundering sound got his attention, one that made the criminal metahuman get away from Patty and place the injection needle on the nearest table. Turtle made the right decision as The Flash appeared inside of his field of vision.

Turtle unleashed a pulse, touching the speedster and slowing him down. Despite being a metahuman, blessed with the powers of the Speed Force and gave him superspeed, he found himself slowed down to stand, like he was frozen in a world.

The only able to move in that world, was its creator. Turtle walked over to the fastest man alive. Standing before him, Russell raised his fist and send it flying, slamming it into the side of his face. While his reaction was still being slowed, even his grunt of pain, the enemy metahuman threw another fist. Then another one.

Three consecutive strikes were then followed up by an uppercut. Mere seconds after the uppercut connected, the pulse that put everything in the space to a halt came to an end. The speedster landed on the floor, turning around and looking up to the enemy metahuman.

_WHOOSH_

Not even a second later, the speedster ran out of the library. Russell and Patty shocked by his actions. The former turning around and walking towards the latter as he stated callously. "I guess he doesn't care about you as much as I thought."

Patty's fear intensified when she saw Turtle grab a massive knife. "No…" She tried to struggle away from him as he neared her with his murderous look, looking at the next fish he was gonna gut. "No, no… please!"

But like before his intentions met another pause as familiar thundering sounds reached his ears once more. While still holding the knife, he spun around to face the speedster coming back inside.

Russell thought the speedster was stupid for a moment, wondering if he already forgot about the pulse. Thinking that The Flash needed another reminder, the enemy metahuman unleashed another pulse.

The Flash met the pulse, slowing down greatly with his warcry being halted and coming out in an echoing mess. But though he was slowed down, Barry managed to take slow steps through it, more than the first time he rushed into the library.

That new progress, those extra steps made the criminal send out another pulse, affecting the speedster and making him slower, slow enough to match the same speed as a real turtle.

But even though Barry felt himself slower than he's ever felt in his entire life… he couldn't give up now, not with Patty's life at risk.

Taking another stance, forcing his muscles to surpass the slowness that was affecting him right now, he unleashed the reserved Speed Force inside of him and rushed through the veils of slowness…

And within the 2/10th of a second…

_WHOOSH_

He sped through the veils and tacked the enemy metahuman with his shoulder, hurling Turtle into a wall. With the veils faded, the speedster bent down with his hands on his knees while he panted in exhaustion. His left arm wiping away blood from the corner of his mouth and his nose.

He swung his head to Patty who was still bound to the chair and grabbed the knife that fell from Turtle's hand. "No, it's all right." The Flash told her as he cut her bindings.

The moment her bindings were cut, the detective leant forward and wrapped her arms around The Scarlet Speedster's form. "Thank you. Thank you." She chanted in gratitude with a stammering voice. "Thank you, whoever you are."

That last sentence made the speedster look up in self-hate. As it wasn't her boyfriend, Barry Allen who saved her.

It was the hero of Central City, The Flash.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)**

Russell Glosson woke up in strange surroundings as he twisted and turned, his eyes registering his environment, finding himself in a blue patted cell. Shooting up to his full height, he heard.

"Hey, Turtle." The Flash casually greeted the newest inmate of the Pipeline, who tried to push his way out of the panels.

Olivia, as Angel Fury, stepped closer to the panel. "Wanna know our new definition of irony?" She had to speak a little louder as the metahuman pathetically tried to force his way out of the cell.

"Now you…" Her husband continued. "Are our most prized possession."

Turtle let out another pulse and it didn't affect those outside the cell in anyway.

"Oh yeah, that little party trick ain't gonna work on us, man." Olivia said before mockingly blowing the metahuman a goodbye kiss, whilst Turtle screamed in retaliation. But that scream was cut off shortly as Caitlin turned the disk on the panel, closing down the gate.

"Yeah, we got a turtle in our underground zoo now!" Frankie mockingly mimicked the behavior of an enthusiastic child at the zoo.

Dismantling his helmet, the nanite mutant looked to his niece. "Frankie, you are too much like your old man, and it so damn worrying." Frankie just continued to smile gleefully like she was watching a comedy.

Evelyn then asked. "So instead of giving the criminals a fair trial like normal criminals should have, you throw them into an illegal black site?"

"Pretty much." Caitlin sheepishly answered the young metahuman with powers of light and darkness.

"So there _is_ something cool about this place." Ruby empathized in shock. "But why Turtle? That's a bad nickname."

"Hey!" Cisco said in hurt.

Frankie faced Ruby, for what might be the first time ever. "Yeah, it's sort of Cisco's thing, you kind of get used to the strange names."

Evelyn smiled to Frankie. "You better not be saying his names can get worse than this?"

"You might wanna be prepared for that, yeah." Frankie joked.

Cisco threw a gaping mouth to Caitlin. "Do you hear what your children are saying about my skills? Churlish! I'm blaming you, Caitlin."

"You do realize they're Seth's children too, so you're also insulting him, you know." Caitlin stated casually.

Cisco's face lost all color, an impressive feature to witness the others thought. The engineer looked beggingly to his friend. "Caitlin, please, I'm like your brother, don't throw me under the bus. Seth might just do that, you know, really throw me under a bus and make Cisco Sandwich S.T.A.R. Labs Deluxe."

"Your secret's safe with me." Caitlin assured her friend with a giggle, making him exhale in a dramatic manner. She turned to Barry. "Patty okay?"

"She is, yeah." The speedster answered. He moved away with the others following.

"Frankie, Caity. Mind staying a bit with me?" Olivia stopped the two from moving onwards.

Caitlin nodded and looked to Matt. "Matt, mind talking with Jay about… my findings?" She knowingly stated to the mutant. "And take Ruby and Evelyn back to my place?"

"Sure thing, don't worry about that, Caitlin." Matt assured her with a thumbs up and gestured for the other two girls to follow him as he walked out of the Pipeline area.

Cisco followed, continuing to give Caitlin a shocked stare because his daughters' words.

As they were left alone, Olivia took a seat on the opposite side of the ramp and then pointed to the side behind Frankie and Caitlin. "Take a seat, gals." They took a seat on the side. "You both know why we're here, right?"

"You're really taking this the way a shrink would?" The doctor asked in disbelief. Olivia merely gave a smirk. "Okay, you are." Caitlin conceded. "Yeah, we're here because of our new family members."

"Specifically, how I act around them…" Frankie added.

"Yeah, how you act around Ruby and Evelyn." Olivia nodded. "It's because you… don't know about… being a sister, right?" Frankie perked up in surprise. "Your mom here, thought it was her fault, maybe." Her niece turned to her mother in surprise. "But the thing is what you're experiencing right now is normal, considering you were a foster kid bouncing from home to home."

"What do you mean, Liv?" Caitlin asked.

"It's been a while now, Caity, but Frankie was a foster child before she met you and my big brother." Olivia told her. "Frankie… You don't know how to have siblings nor how to act around them, because you've never had them before. It's pretty normal, also because it scares you. The fact that you're not… you're no longer an only child and that you have to adjust to life with others now, with sisters."

"I just… I don't know what's it's like to a sibling, Aunt Liv." Frankie looked down. "What's it like to have one?"

Olivia sighed and then stated a serious question. "Here's another question for you two… How either of you ever wondered if me and Seth are actually siblings?"

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked at the shock of that question. "Why would we question the fact that you two are siblings?"

"You two are siblings, aren't you, Aunt Liv?" Frankie asked.

"Neither have biological parents, we only know that my brother was 2 years old and on the front doorstep of Xavier's school, holding little old me in his arms, a barely two months old future badass psychic." Olivia stated, and the two before her were shocked. The psychic continued. "Both of us had some doubt about it as we grew up, in that big house full of people, siblings really, who were sure they were related to one another because of their mommy and daddy telling them so or something like that."

She gestured to herself. "Me and Seth… we kept those doubts about each other for most of our lives. But we kinda forgot about that doubt for a long while when we were kidnapped by the military. We… We then felt that doubt creep back when we got out again… slowly but intensely."

"At that age, Seth had already learnt the advantages of DNA, how it could even prove if someone even had relations to someone else, like proving if two people are really siblings. He learnt how to use that machine quickly, to run the scans and whatnot, at S.H.I.E.L.D. and he was about to show the results…" Olivia stated and saw that the mother and daughter are giving their undivided attention. "But then my Dad, Nick Fury, came in, having eavesdropped of course, and then asked us… why?"

"Why what?" Caitlin didn't understand the question.

"Why… we were taking that test in the first place?" She repeated the question her father asked her and her brother in the past. "He didn't get it and it was because of a simple reason, actually."

"What was it?" Frankie asked, impatiently waiting for the answer.

"What role did blood or DNA play into how you feel about your family?" Olivia smiled and raised her right hand, raising her thumb and pressing it to the middle of her chest. "DNA sure is important, no doubt about it. But what does that matter with family, the people you love? All you need is a good heart and the will to be there for them through thick and thin. And you just to love them because they're family… A bond that transcends blood and DNA."

"… Is that how you think about Dad?" Frankie asked almost spellbound. She couldn't believe that there was such a simple way to think about family, a way that's not based on blood. One that's based on how you feel about the other one, as a family member.

"**_Surprised it took you this long to figure this one out, Frankie!_**" Magenta screamed in her host's mind, shouting like the symbiote was trying to overcome a speaker. "**_I mean, you've been like this ever since you met Father's host. You just love your old man because you love him, not because of something trivial like blood or DNA._**"

"Exactly, Magenta." Olivia agreed with a smirk, having heard the symbiote speak her mind. She looked to her niece again. "You want to see them as your sisters, Frankie… You just have to love them and care about them like your sisters… It's not an easy task sure, but it's definitely possible."

"… Does that mean you and Dad aren't related by blood?" Frankie asked, but in her heart of hearts it didn't mean the slightest to her nor would it change how she feels about her father or her Aunt Liv.

"Actually, we found out about it two years later…" Olivia admitted sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. "I had a bad accident against a major green rageaholic, who punched me into the ground, and I was bleeding pretty badly. I needed a blood-transfusion. At that moment, we found out that Seth Fury is really my brother, blood and all."

"But before that and before you knew about it… it didn't even change how you felt about him." Caitlin said, she had a feeling she knew what the answer was already.

"Yeah… of course. He was my only family, with or without blood." Olivia stated. "Always."

"… You really think I can be like you and Dad, Aunt Liv? Just love them as sisters, because of my heart?" She asked unsurely.

"You're stronger than you think, Frankie." Caitlin was the one to answer. "You have a big old good heart of gold, baby girl. That's never gonna change. You're the daughter of Seth Fury."

"And Caitlin Snow, Mom. You're just as important to me as Dad is. There's no me without you two." Frankie placed her head on the side of her mother's arm. "Guess there's no Frankie Fury, Evelyn Fury or Ruby Fury without you two, our parents."

"That's one wise young girl you've turned into, Frankie." Caitlin praised her daughter and kissed her forehead. "I'm proud of you." Frankie giggled and pressed herself into her mother's embracing arms.

Olivia couldn't help but take in the moment between a mother and a child, happy for them both to be able to speak like this, to unburden their hearts of their doubt… the love of a parent… the love of a child… the love between family members with a bond that is greater than blood…

…seeing that made her jealous…

X

**(West Residence)**

_KNOCK_

_KNOCK_

Joe West, while holding his box of Chinese takeout, walked to his front door and opened it. He was shocked to see Wally standing on the other side of the door. "Hey." He greeted the child he didn't know he had for a long time.

Stepping inside of the household, the street racer informed. "I think I left my sweater here the other night. It's green."

"Oh, yeah." The detective recalled and closed the door. As he walked to it, he noted out loud. "I thought that didn't look like Barry's."

"Not one of them small white girls you had here before?" Wally asked casually.

Joe glanced at him. "Those are my nieces; they needed a place to stay for the evening before." He explained before picking up the jacket.

"Didn't need an explanation." Wally sniped as he accepted the jacket again. "Heading back to Keystone tonight."

"That's a fast trip." Joe remarked.

"Yeah, well, it's getting a little hot in Central City for me." Joe didn't say anything to his counter. "Don't worry. I'll try not to run too many lights on the way there." He began to walk, and mentally noted the detective's lack of reply. Wally stated, after turning to face Joe. "You know, if you're waiting for an apology, it's not coming."

"If you mean an apology for calling my nieces small white girls, then yeah, I'd like an apology. They're my friend's daughters and I treat them as my own…" Wally looked shocked at those words. "But for what went on between us before then… No." Joe shook his head as he stood behind a chair at the dinner table, his hands placed on the back of it. "No, I'm… I'm the one that should be apologizing to you."

This time, Wally looked confused and then listened as the detective elaborated.

"I felt bad… not being there while you were growing up, and…" He gestured to them both with a wave of his hand. "I was pushing this whole father-son thing. I'm sorry." He apologized and Wally seemed to accept it. "Let's just slow down a bit. I won't try to be your instant dad, and you won't have to pretend that you want to be my son."

The street raced took in the words and let them sink in. "Deal?" Joe asked.

Wally didn't say any words, appearing to be unwilling to show his desire to agree with that agreement. Instead, he directed his eyes to the dinner table with Chinese takeout boxes. "All that food for you?"

Joe drifted his eyes to the boxes himself and answered. "Doesn't have to be. You like chow mein?"

"No." Wally admitted. But he shrugged his shoulders and revealed honestly. "But I like kung pao chicken." The detective picked out two plates, one of both him and Wally. "Joe…" Joe looked back to Wally. "Sorry for calling your nieces small white girls before."

"All is forgiven." The detective assured him as he placed a plate on the table.

Wally took a seat at the dinner table, at the same time… his father retook his seat on the table.

X

_(Note: Play "Hero Too" from "My Hero Academia")_

"Hey, you two." Frankie greeted Ruby and Evelyn as she stepped into the apartment.

"Hey." Ruby greeted as she took a box out of one of the spare rooms. "Caitlin have me and Evelyn move out a few boxes out of the spare rooms so we can use them as our bedrooms."

Evelyn wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. "She's set on the two of us moving in here."

"I asked if we could make this happen." Frankie stated and the two girls looked shocked. "My way of apologizing… to my new sisters." Their shock intensified. "I'm sorry for how I've acted with you two before. I didn't mean to make you guys feel unwanted or anything… I wasn't used to-"

"To have sisters, right?" Ruby interrupted her and the magnekinetic nodded sheepishly. "You're not alone on that. I'm an only child from the future of another world, Frankie. Evelyn is an only child from another world. You're-"

"An only child who's been bouncing from foster homes for a very long time before she met Seth Fury." Frankie admitted instantly. "I'm just sorry for acting like that, like I don't want anything to do with you guys."

"Don't worry about it, Frankie." Evelyn stated comfortingly. "I mean, we're supposed to be family now, right… Sis?"

Frankie blushed at that word. "How about… I help you guys settle in? Like sisters would." She offered in an embarrassed manner, finding it hard to speak with her new siblings.

"Sure thing…" Ruby said, using her powers to lift the boxes with ease. "But you have to help me with Evelyn's room, a lot. She's been on another spree and stole a bunch of stuff from the neighbors."

"I'm giving them back!" Evelyn shouted defensively and then the three of them laughed happily.

X

On top of the Fury loft, sitting on top of the roof with her legs hanging off the ledge while laughing loudly was Olivia Fury. She's been sitting on top of the house and laughed as she used her telepathy to listen to her nieces as they conversed. She was there to make sure that neither of them felt pressured or saddened by trying to become or to act like siblings.

Wiping away a tear, she realized her worries were for naught as she used her telepathy to listen to the talk between the siblings. Their reactions making her laugh loudly. Sighing in exhaustion, she raised herself to her full height and craned her neck. "Gotta at least respect their privacy, I guess."

"That might be impossible for you, babe."

Olivia chuckled and looked backwards, seeing her husband descend to the rooftop in his Iron Knight suit. Under his left arm, was a package in a transparent plastic bag. "You doubting your own wife now? Sounds like someone's asking for sleeping on the couch tonight, all by his lonesome and without his hot wife."

"Oh please don't do that, I don't think I can handle that kind of torture." Matt joked as he let the nanites disassemble and converge back into his arc reactor on his chest. "Everything going well with our nieces down under?"

"All good." Olivia assured him calmly. But then her demeanor changed as she placed her hands behind her back and looked really nervous, blushing with raw embarrassment. "About what I was saying before. You know, what I was trying to say back at the museum before Turtle showed up."

"I remember that…" He took out the bagged package from his armpit and held it front of his wife. "For you… For both of us, really."

"What do you mean? What about my thing?" Olivia asked in confusion.

"This is something for the both of us, it's about that thing of yours, _if_ I am right that is." Matt said with a happy smile.

"You…" She stopped herself and took the bagged package in her hands. For amusement's sake, she shook the package and rattling sounds came from within the package. Curiosity took over and she instantly took the package out of the bag to see what it was.

The psychic's eyes expanded with surprise, tears swelling at the rims of her eyelids at the sight. Of all things, her husband could have shown her, it was a baby doll with plastic white skin and plastic blue eyes. Clothed in stripped white and blue striped pajamas and a sleeping hat of the same pattern. Inside of its plastic package, there was a blue binkie and yellow bib with a teddy bear embroiled onto it.

"You… Knew…?" Olivia couldn't make herself finish the sentence, her tearing eyes stopping her. Her arms wrapped around the package and brought it closer to her chest, embracing it tightly.

"Yeah, I did." Matt said and stepped closer to his wife. "Cause I feel the same… always…"

"You mean that?" Olivia was scared and had to ask.

"I do. I was just terrified that you didn't want the same. But then back at the museum, you spoke and I… felt like I knew what you were going to say, is all." Matt revealed.

"You really think… we'd make good parents?" Olivia asked.

"Definitely." Matt wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a warm embrace, the packaged doll pushing against both of their bodies. "So what do you say… wanna take this next step together?"

"The two of us… yeah." Olivia said as she placed her head against her husband's shoulder. "Let's have a baby."

"Wanna cross something else off our list of missing things while we're add it?" The nanite mutant asked. Olivia leant back but kept her arms hooked around his neck. "Wanna go on that honeymoon we've always been planning?"

"Where to?" Olivia asked, immediately agreeing to that plan.

"Was thinking of a very expensive place that my Dad's been recommending back home, well it's more accurately dozens of expensive places." Matt announced.

"Back home? But with things as they are…" Olivia stated unsurely.

"It won't be so long for us, I swear. But… we deserve some happiness, too, don't you think?" Matt then added. "But there's also something else I need to do back home, something I have to pick up for Ruby and Evelyn."

"Oh a second agenda, huh?" Olivia formed a mock pout. "Using me like that, your own wife? That's a dangerous gamble." She said in a playful tone.

"Good thing I know you pretty well, then. Wouldn't you say, babe?" Matt said in a playful tone, matching her own.

"The only one for me…" She leant up and kissed him. The packaged doll falling out of the space between their bodies and landing on the roof.

As it collided with the surface, pressure was applied to the doll's stomach and it spoke in a childish manner.

"_I love you!_"

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs.)**

A beeping sound came out of Harry's watch as he flipped the lid open and spoke into his device, recording once more. "Journal log entry number 113." He closed the lid and spoke… truthfully and with fearless determination.

"Jess… I'm coming for you soon. I promise." He walked to the table beside the board with all of his equations. "I was thinking earlier today about the time when you were four. I took you to the planetarium, just you and me."

"I remember because it was the first time I took you out all by myself." He retrieved an item from the table.

He moved into the Cortex, continuing to record his entry. "The planetarium was crowded, and you held my hand for dear life, or maybe it was the other way around."

He headed for the exit, leading deeper into the facility. "But it was in the Mars exhibit that I lost you."

He entered the corridor. "Panic. I had that place locked down in one minute."

He entered the Pipeline area. "I had every security guard looking for you."

He walked up the ramp, towards the entrance to the Pipeline cell. "And I could feel the fear rise in the back of my throat and something else rising also…"

He entered the code on the key panel. "…Some… dark instinct inside me…"

He watched as the gate opened, revealing Turtle's cell. "…about what I would do…"

He sees the door opening, getting Turtle's attention and he looked at Harry who entered the cell. "… To the person who had taken you…"

He listened as Russell Glosson grunted in pain as Harry held up his head by his hair, forcing it back to have his nostrils flare and look up. "…The things I would do…"

He kept his eyes on the metahuman criminal, watching as he drove his gun-like device into his left nostril, making Turtle scream in further pain. "Unspeakable things."

He pulled the trigger, retrieving what he needed and Turtle's body going limp as he yanked it out of Russell's nose. "And it was in that moment that I realized, for certain…"

He let go of the criminal's head, watching him fall to the floor, his nose bleeding. Harry looked to his gun, the tip of the barrel dripping with the fresh blood drawn from the metahuman.

"…that I would do anything to get you back…"

X

Night fell over the Central City, entirely covering the streets and houses with shadowy darkness.

The only source of light to bring luminance in this darkened time are the headlights of driving cars, street lamps and the shining moon in the sky.

_WHOOSH_

But that changed in an instant when suddenly a blurring form speeding out of a blue hole came running… running at superspeed… with red lightning seeping out of his body.

Coming to a halt, the person in the blurring… yellow suit… looked around in confusion. His yellow suit with red lightning bolts enlightened with moonlight touching his suit.

Particularly, bringing light to the symbol on his chest… the emblem on his chest… the complete reverse to that of a certain speedster.

As his confusion intensified, the man in yellow took off his cowl, stopping his phasing and returning his eyes to normal, he looked around again. His blond hair shining with moonlight touching it.

Breathing heavily from exhaustion, he unclenched his hand and showed blue light coming out, revealing the familiar floating blue head of a certain AI. "Gideon." The metahuman greeted the AI.

"**Yes, Professor Thawne?**" Gideon inquired of the professor.

At this moment, Eobard Thawne held his head up as he asked. "Where the hell am I?"

He didn't have the foggiest idea what this city was…

Or what his presence would do to the world they are living in.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**Frankie and Caitlin's family just got a whole lot bigger with the addition of both Evelyn Sharp and Ruby Hale, both powered individuals from other universes. Multi-versal family is the new thing, peeps! ****?**

**But that was not the only thing to have taken place.**

**Following the defeat of The Turtle, which also meant imminent his death by the hands of Harrison Wells from Earth-2, a familiar face reappeared.**

**The face of the evil Reverse-Flash, Eobard Thawne himself… What evil could he have brought with him now?**

**With bad things comes good things also. Frankie learnt to accept her new sisters with the aid of her dear and loving Aunt Olivia Fury. And both her and her husband have decided to finally go on their own delayed honeymoon… with some goals for reproduction of theirs.**

**So next time, we will see how the team will handle the threat of Reverse-Flash without the trusty mutants and with the new additions of the new Snow-Fury daughters.**

**Stay tuned and find out.**

**Until next time, peeps!**


	24. Chapter 24: Freaks to Your Stations

**And now another bedtime story for all you wonderful readers out there in the world.**

**Thousands of thanks for all the great reviews and messages, means a lot!**

**And I'm gonna do something different now, and answer some questions from the reviews:**

**Starpottergeek: Thanks for your comments, and for now, in this season, I will not have Ruby or Evelyn get symbiotes. Maybe in season 3 of the story, I have some ideas on how that would fit in. But thanks for the idea, definitely got the gears in my head to turn rapidly. And I'm sorry for not responding earlier.**

**Guest DCDGojira: Please convey a wish of congrats and a happy life to your cousin and his fiancée. Wish the best for them both. And yeah, I've seen the teaser and love it!**

**Now, for this chapter, I took non-canon characters from DC Comics and used them here. They're not in the TV Show, and I read about them from .com. Blissed be the creator of that wonderful website.**

**I've also using two characters from another CW superhero TV Show. Some of the characters didn't have hero/ villain names, so I've come up with some myself.**

**The start is gonna be a bit strange, but it will all be figured out, don't worry guys. I believe in you guys!  
**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing from Marvel Comics, Marvel Cinematic Universe or CW's The Flash. The story is meant for entertainment purposes and is not meant to be taken seriously.**

**Now with that out of the way…**

**Without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 24: Freaks to Your Stations!**

Nightmare.

The smells certainly accompanied that horrific feeling.

Smells of rotten popcorn and animal excrement stenches the air, spreading over the entire interior of this large and tall place. This place was once a place for joy and entertainment but now it was something else entirely, something beyond dangerous and now completely ghastly, in the sense it was something hellish.

Those were the only things that coursed through the mutant's mind, but they quickly faded when realizing whom he stood before as Venom. But that did nothing and made him stagger back in fear, each of his steps planting his feet into the ground.

One of _him_ was terrifying, but… _Four_… he did not know what to think about four of him.

The sounds of deep dark cackles made him turn his head upwards, seeing _him_… _them_ swinging from the ropes. He could recognize the same red symbiotic skin with black veins anywhere, and those white eyes too.

Both Carnages above him landed on the ropes and continued cackling, the elemental staggering back again, the fear making him forego the small skirts around the two Carnages' waists. Their leotard-covered bodies leaving him with a chilling feeling.

The booming footstep coming in front of him made the mutant to him. Another Carnage. But one of a different size… A size that the mutant was familiar with… A Carnage in the size of The Hulk. Huge bulging red muscles with black veins that seemed to pulsate with each swipe of his long serpentine tongue.

But the one in the back was the mastermind. Carnage standing there in a black penguin tail tuxedo, his black claws touching the tips of his black handlebar mustache. His right hand placed at the top of the black cane, his left hand tipping his black top hat.

"**What's wrong, Dear Venom? Not liking the show?!**" The Carnage in the suit said with a cackle, throwing the cane into the air and recapturing it with his clawed hand in a dramatic manner. The other three Carnages joining in, laughing maniacally in unison.

"_What… How did we get into this hell?_" Seth thought as the Hulk-sized Carnage charged for him. The elemental's eyes filled with the humongous red shoulder as he continued to stand terrified.

X **60 Hours Earlier** X

Snow continues to fall over the entire city, a darkened alleyway not spared from falling coldness. Everyone in the alleyway not moving a single muscle, their eyes trained on one another with an unwavering conviction.

Eye Sight, Felicity Smoak hissing and sniffing as snow falls on top of her head. She loves Christmas above all the holidays. It was the holiday that was celebrated all over the world, in difference manners in different countries. But she is not one for snow, easily getting sick in these cold times, quicker than anyone else in this entire city. She could practically feel the snot hanging out of her nostril like a sick cartoon character.

Black Siren, Laurel, hated the snow and wiped it away as soon as it touched her body. In her current attire, she wasn't exactly suited for the snowy Christmas weather. She could feel every area of her body shivering, she was practically shaking like a leaf in the snow. A leaf in black leather to be exact.

Killer Frost didn't even feel the snow that fell on her body. Each snowflake paling in comparison to the coldness her body emits, not even worth acknowledging. She was too busy taking in the elemental's form. Her eyes couldn't keep them off his body, especially how he looked in that fetching new trenchcoat. She'd have to fight the urge to not just eat him right up.

Seth Fury shifts his eyes between the two metahuman criminals with great confusion. But another desire rose inside of the pits of his body, a desire to massacre those he considers threats right this moment. His partner responding to his feelings and thoughts and slithering underneath his clothes, ready for bond and strike them down in a moment's notice.

"Nice present, Felicity. I won't waste it!" Seth shouted and quickly retracted his sword out of his back, his hands wrapping around the handle.

"Wow!" Black Siren shouted.

"Calm down, boy!" Killer Frost urgently shouted to him, like she was commanding a hound.

"Seth, stop!" Felicity jumped in front of him, stopping him from attacking

The elemental stopped, looking at Felicity. "What the hell, Lindy? Damn it, Felicity." He corrected himself.

"Trust me on this." Felicity asked of him in a calm tone.

"I thought we were friends now… And now you're what? Trying to ambush me with two of Zoom's goons?" Seth asked coldly.

"No! I swear, it's not that!" Felicity exclaimed, hoping he wouldn't commit himself to that idea. "Please… Trust me, Seth. I beg you."

"_What do you think?_"

"**_She's not lying, it's not an ambush._**" Venom said, but his tone remained skeptical as they were in this situation. "**_But we shouldn't believe this couldn't be a trap._**"

"_Yeah, you're right._" Seth was still in doubt, trying to figure why the two criminals were brought here, but also why he was brought here. He sighed his concede and let go of the sword handle, not able to find a possible reason for this no matter how hard he thought about it. "I'm trusting you here, Felicity. Don't… misuse that trust, you won't like my bad side in anyway."

"Pal, I've seen your bad side already, you went Gitmo on Kendra when she went berserk and took down nine motels and hotels in one night." Felicity reminded him abruptly with a dry look. Seth realized she was right; the entire city has already seen his bad side now.

The technopath exhaled, happy she was able to calm down the elemental. Turning around on the spot she faces Siren and Frost, both relaxing as the mutant had lowered his arms. "Funny to see you scared for once, Laurel. Not to mention you Caitlin."

Seth snapped his eyes to the technopath, his expression passive but inside he was confused and shocked by her knowing the criminals' real names. At least, the ones they were born with before life diverted them down a dark path.

"That's not my name." Killer Frost stated angrily in a distortive voice at her old name.

"Not to mention not mine." Black Siren stated in the same animosity tone as her co-criminal.

Felicity rolled her eyes. "Come on guys, it's me not anyone else."

"You know them both? Their real names and everything?" Seth asked her surprised.

"I should. I went to med school with them both." Without even looking at him, Felicity could feel the mutant's eyes widen in shock. Turning to him, she elaborated. "The three of us got into medical school and we tried it out, just for the heck of it. It didn't go so well and-"

"And we dropped out." Killer Frost smugly said, like she was proud of dropping out of med school. "Real boring too." She gave the mutant a flirtatious smile. "Not enough fun being in a good-two-shoes school like that. More fun to reign in hell."

"Whatever you say, you're still the same old Caitlin Snow who used to sleep during those long-ass lectures back at med school. Even if you are sporting a new look with awesome hair and all." The technopath made a gesture to the icy metahuman's clothes and hair.

"If you got it, flaunt it, right?" Killer Frost gave a mock pose, making sure her eyes were focused on the mutant who remained passive.

Felicity chuckled and looked to Seth. Her eyes expanded to new limits when seeing him give her a frown. "What's with the frown?"

Black Siren chuckled and nodded to the icy metahuman. "She's here, what's not to frown at?"

"Take a look at the mirror lately, Siren? You're not exactly interesting." Killer Frost sniped back.

"Seriously what's with the look, Seth?" Felicity asked, not getting a response from him for a while now.

Seth then answered with a smack of his tongue. "You have a video of your old friend, who turned into an ice queen, and the guy you wanted help from, the same guy you had people follow for a while… kissing."

Felicity blushed, Laurel raised an eyebrow, and Caitlin smirked intrigued by this piece of information.

"You knew this the entire time… and you still have the video…" Seth gulped before nodding rapidly. "Pretty sure your pervert side is showing itself, much like your doppelganger. Except for the fact you pretty much jumped over a few levels and have the makings of a porn director now."

"Dude, come on!" Felicity didn't like his dirty thoughts.

Coughing loudly, Killer Frost got the technopath's attention. "Felicity, you got that video on you?" Seth gave her a strange look and the icy metahuman explained. "What? Girl's gotta entertain herself at night somehow, doesn't she?"

"**_Should have expected that one, Seth._**" Venom noted of his host who slapped himself after getting that flirty response.

Seth shook his head and then asked the more important question. "Why did you bring me here, Felicity? And why bring these two here, too?"

"We asked her." Laurel clarified.

"Why?" The elemental demanded.

"To thank you." Killer Frost stated, not at all helping the elemental to understand what's going on here.

"You're not making any sense, at all." Seth admitted. "Why would you wanna meet the guy who swore to kill you the next you'd meet?"

"Because of Blackfire." Felicity gave him a piece of the puzzle.

"I killed the bastard, what about him? Don't tell me he came back?" Seth fired off.

"No, you handsome dummy." Killer Frost assured him, getting his attention. "We wanna thank for getting rid of that annoying bastard once and for all."

"…" His lack of response and his questioning gaze told the two criminals to continue.

Caitlin nodded and inhaled. "We've never liked Blackfire's operations." Killer Frost used her right hand and tightly clutched her left forearm. "The way he profited of those girls' torments… We didn't like it, we hated it."

"We may be on Zoom's side but even we have our limits." The sonic cryer added. "We had to turn a blind eye to his operations because of Zoom."

"But then we saw the news of you taking out his operations, every last one of them, in a single night." Killer Frost smiled in appreciation. "You even challenged him and brought Blackfire back to Central City… and killed him before our eyes."

Black Siren nodded. "We wanna say… Tha-"

"Keep it!"

Seth's response caused the three women swing their eyes to the mutant in shock, each pair of eyes expanded to planetary limits. Their shock melted for a moment when seeing his eyes lose all life.

"You both admitted to turning the other cheek as these kids, children were forced into a hell that no one should experience… You ignored their suffering, because of what? Your stupid and pathetic allegiance to Zoom? Give me a break." Seth scoffed his disbelief and continued. "You were scared, and that made you want to _not_ interfere in his operations. You turned your back on those girls' suffering, when though with your powers you might have stopped him and got them out of there."

"You saw his powers, didn't you?" Black Siren said, pointing his bandaged and shaking arm. "How'd you think your arm got like that?"

"By standing up to him and fighting against that piece of scum." The mutant sneered, making shivers travel down the cryer's spine. "Yeah, my arm might be on the verge of bursting up like a water balloon," he clenched his right fist. "but if that meant protecting the innocents, I would happily give my arm, legs, my entire body for it. Even if it meant taking him down with me."

The conviction he was showing was incredible, shaking the very cores of the two criminals. It was enough to overwhelm the feeling they get when they see him don his demonic anti-hero persona. It was a conviction that was enough to overcome that of a demon.

"So if you wanna say thanks for doing something neither of you could? Keep it to yourselves." The mutant snapped at the metahumans. "I don't want thanks for protecting people, that's not why I do this." Seth stated and reminded them coldly.

"And remember this, Black Siren and Killer Frost: You're not the people I know," he made eye contact with Caitlin's doppelganger. "or the person I love… I won't hesitate to strike you both down when it comes to that." He turned around in an instant, the wind blowing against his new trenchcoat and making it flap in the air.

He walked to the exit of the alleyway. "Felicity, I'm gonna meet you tomorrow at a certain spot, I'll text you the place and bring Mera and Kendra too." Felicity nodded, even though he didn't turn to her.

Lashing out an arm the mutant shot out tendrils and wrapped them around them a lamppost before pulling on them, launching himself into the air.

Felicity lowered her arms, her hands slapping against the sides of her thighs before looking to her old friends. "Sorry, guys, didn't think he'd be this stingy like this."

"Considering what he's seen and how we are, it's not that surprising, I guess." Killer Frost stated, her voice sounding disappointing like she was in regret.

The technopath found that surprising and confusing at the same time. It was an unusual tone for the icy metahuman to use. "Hey, did he just admit he loves your doppelganger?"

"For the second time." Killer Frost confirmed in a sad voice once more.

X

"Wow…" Kendra said as she focused on Seth who stood on the obsidian ground surface.

The next day, things were looking strange. Those same things were also the centers of attention as Mera and Kendra stood on top of a hill, looking at the mutant with his right arm blazing with black flames who stood on the spot with obsidian underneath his feet.

Any other day, the Badlands would be a deserted area with nothing but cliffs of obsidian rocks and bedrock all around. Hills not too far from them holding forestry with large trees, rooted into the ground. Strong enough to go through the hard ground.

She and the Atlantean standing far from the elemental as he let his black flames travel up his forearm to envelope his entire arm with the abyssal flames. Even from their position, they could see his entire face riddled with sweat, drops of the body liquid sliding down his face and evaporating due to the intense heat emitting from the flames.

"He's come far, didn't he?" The flyer asked.

Mera unsurely shrugged. "He's got it into the rest of his right arm, but that's not much."

"Let's check on him, then." Kendra sprouted her wings.

The Atlantean placed her hand on her shoulder, stopping her from taking flight. "He told us to wait, Kendra. It's good we're here, but Seth only called us here because he was worried his flames might grow out of control. I can use water to stop his flames from spreading and try to put them out."

Tapping her friend with her right wing, the flyer gestured to her wings. "What am I gonna do? Flap my wings hard and hope they go puff?"

"I mean, it's… a possibility, isn't it?" Mera said in a playful voice.

"You're not…" Kendra stopped herself when seeing the mutant fall to his knees and the black flames fading from his arms. "Mera!" She jumped into the air and took hold of Mera, grabbing hold of the Atlantean before flying down to the ground level.

X

Seth panted heavily and felt his right arm shake. "Heat exhaustion?" He diagnosed himself. "Lovely." It was the only possible cause for him to feel this way. The prolonged exposure to unaccustomed heat is making him fatigue and collapse.

"Seth!" Mera shouted as she and Kendra descended to his side. The water-user rushing to him and taking out the water containers from her belt.

"No don't!" Seth stopped her, both looking confused. "I have to do this on my own." He brought himself back to his feet and flexed his right arm, reigniting the abyssal flames once more with his other hand grabbing it tightly.

Seeing the flames once more travel up to his envelop his entire arm, stopping at the shoulder, Mera worriedly asked. "Seth, maybe you should consider taking a break? You look like you're about to fall down."

"Nothing… but… Heat exhaustion." Seth spoke through gritted teeth. "Happens to the best of us… and I need to fight my way through the pain…" His teeth clenched, the flames on his arm growing bigger. "And make this element mine. Make it… Submit!"

The two women watched as the flames continued up from his shoulder, reaching the side of his throat. But it appeared to be stopping there, unable to travel further up his head. Unwilling even to continue onwards past the wall. It was like a virus met a wall that forced it into a halt, blocked by the immunity system.

"Come on, come on!" Seth began to chant repeatedly, ordering himself to fight through the pain that followed the dark matter element's spreading. Gasping he felt himself lose control. He unclenched his fist and was brought down to his knees once more, panting heavily. "Damn it."

"How long does this thing usually take?" Kendra asked.

"Taking in a new element takes time." The mutant raised his right arm again, tendrils coming out and wrapping bandage around his arm once more. "Normally around a few hours, but this is a dark matter element. It's way different and way more dangerous than any of my other elements."

"You have any idea on how to take control?" Mera asked him.

"No." Seth shook his head, using tendrils to wrap more bandage around his entire right arm. He got up and fastened the bandages with his left hand. "It's gonna take some major force to make this one my own. Major power and major time."

"But…" Mera waited expectedly.

"Gonna try again tomorrow or something, maybe." He sounded disappointed.

"You don't sound too hopeful." The flyer noted after heating his words.

"The pain is lessened now thanks to spreading the flames to my entire arm." The mutant started. "But the drawback is that the pain is now spread over my entire limb." He said with closed eyes, breathing in heavily. "The pain's gonna be worse when I try to use my flames again."

"Sorry to hear." Kendra said, unsure of what else to say.

Seth smiled appreciatively.

"**_Your phone is ringing._**" Venom informed, a tendril holding up his ringing phone.

Taking hold of the phone, he opens it and accepts the call. "Iris, what's up?"

"_Seth, I know you're busy with training, but do you have time later to help us out at the precinct?_" Iris asked.

"I'm done with my training for now, I can come by in a few minutes." He stated, briefly glancing at the two powered ladies beside him. "I got Mera and Kendra here too, want me to bring them along if this is metahuman problem?"

"_Please do so, yeah. The more help the better._" Iris expressed gratefully.

"Okay, see you in five." He hangs up and looked to them. "Wanna take a trip downtown?"

"Coppers back already, not surprised." Kendra joked.

X

**(CCPD, CSI Lab)**

With Barry sitting in front of his computer and typed away on the keyboard, Iris was behind and looking over his shoulder at the screen. "Huh?" The CSI scientist lifted his glasses as he noticed the lead CSI scientist on the case files.

"What's wrong, honey?" Iris asked.

Barry gestured to the files beside his computer. "Looks like Patty Spivot was a CSI tech on most of these… Strange cases."

Iris couldn't keep herself from chuckling at his words. Strange cases are the new normal for the police department. But even though she did chuckle at his words, she couldn't disagree with him.

The video footage for this case… was certainly strange… to say the least.

"Iris, Barry."

The detective and her husband looked to the left, seeing the elemental jump through his open window. Following behind him is Kendra who flew in with Mera in her arms. "You called?"

"Seth, I would appreciate it if you used the door like a normal person would." Barry strictly told the mutant.

"Normal's boring. Abnormal's the new trend, Barr." Seth quipped before looking to them with a serious expression. "But what did you need help with?"

"Come here, we need your metahuman eyes on the matter." Iris waved them over to their side to watch the footage they've gotten. Nodding they stood behind the CSI scientist who pressed a key on his keyboard, starting the video. "Others have seen the same, but we've stumbled upon a few of these cases, robberies that were met with little-to-no resistance even though the police arrived at the scene and had their guns trained on the robbers."

"But then things… got strange and the robbers walked away with their score." Iris nodded to the video. "Tell us what you guys see."

The three powered beings turned their attention to the computer screen, locking onto the video footage they played.

It started, displaying the insides of a bank vault, an uncountable numbers of radiant gold bars on dozens of each one of the shelves within the vault. A single metal table in the middle of it. Two men standing in front of it, both wearing strange clothes.

One is of a pale-skinned bald man with a humongous size, a size that made the mutant think back to the size of the emerald powerhouse that was the Hulk. This humongous man was clothed in black shorts and a black tank-top, the only hair on his face are his red eyebrows and his handlebar mustache of the same color.

Seth mentally noted his size wasn't just for show as he effortlessly placed ten gold bars into a brown duffel bag with a single hand.

The other pale-skinned man was also strangely clothed but displaying equally strange behavior. Like his companion, he sports a handlebar mustache, of a darker black color. He didn't do anything, merely leaning against the metal table in his black penguin tail tuxedo with a black cane spinning around in his right hand. His left hand placing his top hat back on his head.

"We got two strange ones here, it looks like." Seth commented after taking in their individual attires. "But they stole the gold and tried to escape."

"Tried and succeeded, it's more like." Iris pointed to the screen again. "Keep watching."

Returning their attention to the screen, they saw the bigger man take hold of all four duffel bags, swinging their straps over both his humongous arms. The man in the tuxedo made a gesture to the exit with his cane, clearly the brains of the heist. Walking to the exit, they exited the frame.

The footage then switched to the camera outside in the lobby. The two strangely clothed men walking into it and coming to a stop as they noticed four cops standing before them.

"Four cops responded to the silent alarm and rushed to the scene. Two men and two women and they met these two." Barry informed, pointing between the four officers and the two robbers.

Returning to the video, they saw the officers open their mouths and speak to the two robbers, most likely telling them to return the stolen goods and get down on their knees to arrest them after restraining them. But it didn't appear that jailtime was not on the robbers' agendas for that day.

The man with the top hat dramatically spun his cane around and then the strange things happened… for some reason… the two male officers turned to one another, while the two female officers fell to their knees, dropping their guns in the process.

The two men faced one another and then suddenly screamed; their firearms thrown at one another as though they were rocks. Each of them connected but did little to no damage before they charged for one another, both thrown into the ground and hitting each other like madmen.

"What the hell is going on?" Mera asked as she watched the two female officers curl into balls, looking to be breathing quicker than before.

The two men continued beating each other into a pulp, blood coming out of their mouths and nostrils after each strike. "They… They're going on all murder on each other for no reason?" Kendra unsurely commented.

"Looks like." Seth followed up in confusion.

"And while the officers are acting like it's WrestleMania or their own bedrooms, for some reason," Iris noted at the female officers' behavior. "the two robbers just walk out of the bank like they just came to make a withdraw."

"That's certainly one way to say it, honey." Barry agreed sarcastically.

"But what happened?" Seth asked.

"That's what we were hoping you knew." Iris answered, facing the mutant while her husband paused the video. "For some reason two of our officers fall to the ground and breathing like they're having panic attacks and the other two suddenly attack each other like bulls and trying smash one another."

"What happened to them after they got back?" Seth asked.

"The two men were sent to the hospital, badly bruised, broken ribs and blood loss." Barry listed off as first. "The two females are still here, downstairs but they're waiting for a doctor to come and do a check-up."

"Could be a metahuman, maybe." Kendra suggested.

"Would explain the giant who's able to lift gold bars with a single hand." Seth said. "The guy… I don't know about him."

"Seth could you check over the officers downstairs and see if you can get any clue?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, sure." He nodded and walked to the exit. "Be right back."

"I'm going with you." Kendra stated and walked after him, both leaving the room the next moment.

X

As both she and Seth walked down the staircase, Kendra looked to him and asked. "If the big one is power-based metahuman with superstrength, then the other one might be some kind of a hypnotist."

"Would explain his outfit." Seth mused and Kendra laughed her agreement, both finding the top hat-wearing man's outfit incredibly ridiculous. "But don't know about the hypnotist-angle, but definitely possible for him to be a metahuman like the other one."

"Metahuman Bonnie and Clyde, huh? Minus Bonnie and replaced with another Clyde." Kendra joked.

"Double trouble, looks like." Seth agreed as they reached the lobby floor. They turned towards the area with the desks.

When passing into the area, they saw the two officers by a desk, both heads pointing downwards in shame, assumingly. "That's them." Seth noted, also noticed the two officers wearing blankets around their bodies.

"What with the blankets?" Kendra asked, hearing footsteps behind her she turned and saw Iris coming towards them with long strides. "Detective West, what's up?"

"Iris, please, Kendra. You spent Christmas with us, after all." The detective told her. The flyer nodded her acceptance. "Just realized, most here don't know Seth's a doctor."

"Can't imagine why?" Kendra sarcastically said with a glance to the mutant.

"Don't blame me, they're the ones who don't ask." Seth feigned a defense.

Iris laughed and walked forward, stepping in front of the powered beings to address her colleagues. "Officer Addie and Officer Stone." The two women looked to see the detective. "How are you two doing after that scene at Central City Bank?" They didn't respond, returning their attention to the floor with redness coming over their faces.

Seth felt his partner mentally narrow his eyes on the faces of both officers, taking in the redness. "**_That… is interesting._**"

"_What do you mean?_" Seth inquired of his "other."

"**_Play doctor and find yourself for now, Seth._**" Venom quipped with a mental smirk.

"_Okay…_" Seth sheepishly answered and stepped closer to the officers. Clearing his throat, he got their attention. "Officers, I'm Seth Fury, a doctor. Detective West here asked me to give you both a quick check up."

"Okay." Officer Stone agreed, redness still plastered over her entire face. Officer Addie nodded her agreement, an equal amount of redness still over her entire face.

"Thank you." Seth crouched down before them both. "It's gonna be a simple check-up, nothing too grand." He assured them as they unwrapped the blankets from their bodies. The mutant looked to Officer Stone and placed his hands on the sides of her face, he trailed his right hand down to her pulse and gently applied pressure.

"_High blood pressure…_" He noted intrigued. He also took notice of the officer breathing quickly, the redness on her face growing deeper. "_Quick breathing… high pulse…_" He noted with surprise, getting confused at what the possible conclusion he was reaching.

Turning to the other officer, he did the same check up on Officer Addie. With widening eyes, he directed to his partner. "_You think…_"

"**_Oh yeah. These officers are-_**"

"_Don't!"_

Seth coughed and stated. "You two are good, just stay calm and… take it easy for the next couple of days." He received a nod from them both and returned to his full height. With a gaze to Kendra and Iris, a gesture to the lobby area, he directed them to follow him.

They walked into the lobby area and the mutant looked to them with a sheepish expression, as though he was struggling to find the right words. "This is gonna be awkward."

"Comes from the guy who openly stated a woman had gone into labor in the middle of this police precinct?" Iris stated.

"Oh right, I hope she and her family's doing well." Seth muttered before saying. "Those two officers… They're showing signs of arousal." Neither of the women could believe his words, their mouths gaping to new undiscovered limits.

Kendra raised an eyebrow. "Didn't think thrill seeking were part of being a cop."

"It's not." Iris looked in disbelief. "You're really sure?"

"My partner confirmed the same." Seth stated, and it appeared the words of confirmation from his "other" made them agree. "But they're… They look it's sort of unnatural."

"What do you mean?" Iris asked.

"They look… it looks like they… I really don't know." Seth rubbed his chin.

At that moment, the Captain of CCPD walked into the lobby. Julio Mendez, the dark-skinned authority figure looked to Iris West. "West." Iris looked to her Captain. "You ready to suit up for tomorrow's operation? It's gonna be a big operation, you know. We need all powerhouses on this one."

"I am, sir, as soon Barry stops trying to talk me out of this plan." Iris joked.

Julio chortled. "I can take a cut out of his paycheck, see if that'd help grease the wheels or something." He walked away.

"Will do, sir. See you tomorrow." Iris called out to her boss.

"What's going on tomorrow?" Seth asked.

The detective answered. "After the scene at Central City Bank, the Mayor is worried about the other vault of gold at the bank. So the gold is gonna be moved from Central City Bank and into Central City Gold Reserve, way more security that makes the bank feel more confident." A flash of inspiration came over the detective's mind.

"Wouldn't they just move the gold today instead?" Kendra asked.

"Not if they have to put everything place first." Seth stated

Nodding her understanding, the flyer spoke. "So what's the next step then?" Kendra directed to them both.

"We lay a trap for them." Iris said and smirked. "The two of you and Mera are gonna be there as extra security, while we transport the gold tomorrow."

"Not a bad plan, especially since these guys are interested in fat pieces of gold." Seth stated with confidence and determination. He needed to do this as his progress with making the new element submit to him had met a giant wall.

"I'll have Lindy bring in some of her resources to see if we can put a name on these two, somehow." Kendra walked to the exit after suggesting that.

X

**(Lindy's Base)**

Felicity Smoak fiddled with her phone, looking at the empty black screen as though she was waiting for it to announce another caller ID.

The call from Killer Frost… Caitlin Snow made Felicity continue her old and real self once more, accepting the person is again. But that person remembered the time she was in med school with both her and Laurel Lance.

The three of them doing whatever they wanted. Whether it be annoying the teachers with their antics, usually bringing alcohol to their lectures, or just plainly sleeping through the lectures and snoring loudly like animals. Felicity remembered those times. Even though she slept through some of the classes herself, she was always there to wake up her friends with a good and hard slap to the tops of their heads.

That would always end up with the hacker fixing them a round… No, _rounds_ of drinks. Countless bottles of Pinot wine for the woman who would become Black Siren. Endless rounds of Mai Tais for the woman who would become Killer Frost. Felicity only needed red wine for herself, she could lose herself in that beverage back then.

Unlike Felicity, the two others were affected by the deaths of their loved ones in their family.

But everything changed when the particle accelerator exploded and affected them, forever changing them and they became metahumans. One gaining the power to scream at high frequencies. The other gaining the powers of cryokinesis. The last one gaining the power to communicate with technology itself and ask them for aid.

Felicity reached for the bag of Big Belly Burger, opening it and pulling out three fries. Throwing them into her open mouth, she chews loudly as she keeps her focus on her phone screen. She briefly wondered if her old friends would contact her once more.

Along with that thought, she also thought back to the mutant who refused her old friends' words of gratitude after he disposed Blackfire.

She wondered what this led to, as she continued eating her fries, slowly making her way towards her awaited burgers.

"Stress-eating again, Lind?" Kendra asked as she stepped into her office.

Felicity threw her arms up. "Felicity now, and don't judge me, alright!"

"Right sorry." Kendra recalled the metahuman going back to her old name but had forgotten all about it.

"So what's the stats now? The CCPD transporting gold because of the latest break in at Central City Bank, maybe?" Felicity knowingly quipped.

Kendra narrowed her eyes. "Who'd you know that?"

Throwing her a mock stern glance, the metahuman gestured to herself. "Hi, Felicity Smoak, technopathic genius and notorious hacker. You may have heard of me?"

"Funny." Kendra took a seat on the chair. "But since you know about that…" she trailed off with a knowing look.

The technopath chuckled at that expression, realizing what it meant. "I checked their faces but I haven't found anything yet, no, sorry. Something strange did come up, though." Kendra waited for her to elaborate. "For some strange reason, Central City Circus came up."

Kendra remembered that name, that circus. "I remember that one. It was a damn popular circus for a long time, their ringmaster always leaving his audience in awe or something, right?" Felicity nodded while gnawing on her fries. "Didn't they stop or go down or something sometime later?"

"Yeah, people found the acrobats and other circus people them… freaky and stopped coming altogether." Felicity recalled.

Kendra chuckled. "Wonder what the hell this has to do with that old Circus?"

X

**(Zoom's Hideout)**

Icy mist swirled around her right index finger, forming a long sharp spear-like icicle. Killer Frost closed her left eye, narrowing her right one in a mock manner as reeled her right hand back. Thrusting it forward, she watches as the icicle connects with the cell that belonged to their former mutant prisoner. The sound of it shattering against the interior of the cell left Jesse Wells shaking as she was chained in her own cell.

As the ice queen's back was leant against the glass wall of their iron-masked prisoner, she swirled her finger around once more, forming another sharp icicle. This one she didn't throw. Instead she nibbled on the tip of the cold icicle, running its sharp tip over the surface of her soft bottom lip.

Killer Frost briefly imagined that Seth was back in his old cell once more, waiting for her to step inside of it once more to relish in her hot and cold presence. She would let him.

Her teeth lightly touched the tip of her icicle, she realized the chances of that happening would be slim. He wouldn't wanna do that, not after what he declared to her and Zoom's henchmen.

"What's wrong, babe?" Deathstorm asked her.

Flickering her hair, the icy metahuman looked to him. "Nothing, just chilling." She jokingly said, her tongue flickering against the tip of the icicle.

"Well, I can change that pretty quick…" Deathstorm trailed off flirtatiously as he stepped closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulled her close. His head bursting into flames and his eyes turning white following.

"And how would you do that?" She faked innocence while trailing her icicle along her boyfriend's cheek.

Deathstorm leant down and kissed her deeply, to which she reciprocated. Jesse groaning in disgust at their make out session.

But then Black Siren walked in and made a loud retching sound, like she was throwing up. She got the attention of the two metahumans. Mockingly she wiped her mouth and said. "I'm sorry, I just saw something very disgusting and it forced my breakfast up again."

"You mean your own reflection?" Killer Frost sniped with a rapid nodding. "I get that, not very pretty to look at."

Black Siren narrowed her eyes with a chuckle. "I can break ice with my voice and you really say that shit?"

"And you wonder why you don't have any boyfriends?" Killer Frost countered with a smirk.

Shrugging, she countered back. "Well, I hear Seth's on the market, might just go and fetch him." She had to force back her laugh when she noticed the blazing fire of rage dancing in the icy metahuman's eyes.

Deathstorm looked to the cryer. "Something else happened, Siren?"

"Oh yeah." Laurel recalled with an uplifted head. "Guess what's back in town?"

"What?" Killer Frost asked.

"The circus." Black Siren stated, watching the eyes of the other criminals widen instantly.

X

The next day, after having gotten a good night's rest, the elemental latched onto the side of a building with both planted on it and his claws digging into the surface. On his back, was Mera in her golden suit with her trident on her back. Kendra hovered beside them as she flew with her wings sprouted outwards, also fully suited in her suit.

Hearing the ringing and chiming sound of a certain truck, the three sets turned their gaze downwards to the source. Seth didn't know how to feel about the idea from his Earth used on this Earth too.

An ice cream truck drove through the streets, its horn ringing out loudly to get attention as it drove.

Mera crawled high up the mutant's symbiotic oil-like skin and looked at his face from his back. "Seth, you really think this plan will work?"

"**We trust Iris. Not just us, all three of us.**" The other powered beings agreed with a series of nods. "**But…**"

"But what?" Kendra inquired.

Venom narrowed his red eyes in the eye sockets of his white skull-extension. "**On our Earth we had a similar situation, one that ended up using this same plan. Transporting the targeted goods in a truck like this… the gold wasn't stolen but the truck was intercepted by the criminal.**"

"You stopped it." Kendra deduced.

"**Yeah, along with The Flash. One of my friends were in that truck… just like now.**" Seth said as the truck came to a red light and came to a stop. "**We're gonna have to stop this somehow.**"

"Wait look." The Atlantean got their attention, pointing a finger towards the car. Seeing that a group of children with their male teacher were walking towards the stopped ice cream truck.

"**Déjà vu.**"

X

The teacher stepped closer to the car window and knocked on the window, getting the driver's attention. Floyd Lawton, wearing a blue shirt with yellow suspenders and a funny paper hat with an ice cream cone embroiled on the left side, reached over and opened the window.

Coughing sheepishly, he told them sadly. "Sorry, no more ice cream." He tried to keep the persona as best as he could, but it was very difficult. Especially in this ridiculous outfit.

The teacher widened his eyes with a tilted head, argued with a nod to the horn on the top of the ice cream truck. "Then why's your music still playing?" His question came, the disappointed looks from the children coming as well.

Coughing again as though he was waiting for someone to help him, he stated. "Yeah, there's technical issues with that thing, won't stop blaring." He added with a laugh, the looks from the children beginning to feel like daggers.

He pulled away from the window and slid the window shut, the teacher continuing to give him looks of disbelief along with the children beside him. Sighing his defeat, the teacher led the children away. Floyd saw the light turn green and drove away.

From within the cargo of the fake ice cream truck, was Iris West along with other armored officers suited up in SWAT armor. Like on a certain Earth, their ice cream truck was a cover so they could transport the gold bars.

Having heard her partner's conversation with the male teacher, Iris pulled down the face mask. "Technical issues? Really, Lawton?" She forced back her laughter, despite how much it was trying to claw its way out of her mouth.

"Best thing I could come up with in this stupid get-up, partner." Floyd then voiced his thoughts. "Why am I the one to wear this stupid thing anyway?"

"Because you're the one who looks like a sad ice cream truck driver. It's more convincing this way, Lawton." Officer Laura Stone quipped and made the driving detective fume.

Iris looked to her colleague. "You sure about you getting back in the field, Stone? It's not been that long, and Dr. Fury told you to rest for some time."

"I need to be out there again, West. Whether or not your friend says otherwise." Laura stated determinedly, pulling her mask over her mouth again.

Iris nodded her acceptance and looked to Lawton again. "Lawton, you might wanna kill the music. We don't want any kids or other civilians around if our Goldfingers show up again."

"Alright, partner." Lawton agreed with her, coming to another stop and shutting off the music. A tapping sound came on his window, making him look in that direction and saw a man looking downwards. "Another one…" He opened the window and directed to man with the top hat outside. "I'm sorry, sir, but we're out of ice cream today."

A smirk appeared on the costumer's face; the upper half of his face covered by the rim of his black top hat and only showing the lower half. "Oh that is certainly unfortunate. But…" He held up his cane, Officer Stone's ears perking up at that voice. "I'm more in mood for a heavier treat, one with a certain _golden_ sparkle, if you will." The man stepping to the side.

Laura's eyes widened in realization. "Lawton, that's-"

Before Laura could finish her sentence, a large arm shattered the window and grabbed hold of Lawton's shirt. Within a second, that very large arm pulled the detective out of the window, like he was weed being pulled violently out of the ground. His screams emitting loudly.

"Lawton!" Iris screamed when seeing her partner snatched out of his seat. "Everyone out now!" She ordered her fellow officers, all of them rushing out of the backdoor. They came out of the backdoor, holding up their riot shotguns and pointing them at the man with the cane. The sight of them rushing out of the fake ice cream truck had dozens of citizens running away in fear.

But those riot shotguns didn't scare the man in the least, he merely stood with both hands on the top of his cane and his head looking downwards. The man in the top hat wasn't the only one to remain unfazed by the SWAT weaponry.

His much larger and much more muscular companion in a black tank top didn't look the least bit fazed by the weaponry. In his very large right hand, he was holding the body of Detective Floyd Lawton. The huge man noticed the group of armored officers, noticing one specific person amongst them. "Nate look there. it's that lady from yesterday."

"It's Nathan, Mr. Rose." Nathan lifted his head and narrowed his eyes at Officer Stone from yesterday. "Milady, I do hope I did not cause you any discomfort yesterday."

"What the hell did you do to me?" Laura demanded, cocking her shotgun.

"And put Lawton down, now!" Iris demanded as well.

Clicking his tongue repeatedly, Nathan wagged his finger like he was scolding a child. "I'm sorry, Miss Officer, but I am a gentleman. I will not raise a fist against a lady, no matter what." He locked onto all the officers with his eyes.

"Makes things easier-" Iris was cut off as she felt her body shake.

"I will not raise a fist nor harm a lady. But I have other means of handling my foes." Nathan said in response as Iris and the other officers began to shake. Lawton wasn't spared and began to shake as well. "For the gentlemen, it is time for them to soldier and power through their fears… For the ladies, a swirl of pleasure coming right up! We wouldn't them to harm themselves, after all."

All the officers dropped their shotguns, clattering upon collision with the asphalt.

The male officers snapped their hands to the sides of their helmet, trying to keep their head in check as they saw things appear around them. The officers tried to look one another help, but that only worsened things. One of them witnessed the head of his friend snapping off… and a large snake came out of the open hole, hissing at the looking officer. Another one saw his friend's head shaking from side to side, fritzing uncontrollably and shifting into the head of a clown with red hair. Another one saw his friend burst into flames before his eyes, boiling blood surging out of his melting eye sockets.

Each one of them screamed in fear, their shrieks reverberating throughout the entire city it seemed.

The ladies fell to the ground, blushing heavily and panting as well and didn't show any signs of stopping. Some of them fell to the ground on all four, others curling into balls.

"Haha, this never gets old." The muscular man laughed.

"Joey, you shouldn't laugh at the suffering of others. It's not gentleman-like." Nathan disciplined his muscular companion.

Crossing his arms over his chest Joey reminded him. "You're the gentleman of the two of us, not me." He empathized his point by laughing at the officers' situation, having already thrown Lawton away. The officer screaming as his worst fears came to meet his eyes.

… The Kool Aid man…

"That is indeed true." Nathan admitted with a sigh.

X

"What is going on down there?" Kendra asked with disbelief, she couldn't believe her own eyes now. These two guys… it looked as they are just toying with the officers, like their new playthings. Men writhing in pain and screaming their heads off and attacking their fellow officers. Women on the ground and… she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

"What are we going to do?" Mera asked them both.

"**It's obvious, we fight!**" The mutant shouted and pulled out his sword from his body. "**Hold on!**" He shouted in a roaring voice before leaping from the building and shot out tendrils, connecting them to buildings and swinging himself towards the scene.

Kendra followed suit and shot down to the scene, following the elemental and the Atlantean.

Venom dropped to the ground, Mera jumping off his back and Hawkgirl lowering herself into the ground. Seth turned his attention to the two men who stood before the group of writhing officers. Roaring loudly, he got the attention of the enemies while an array of pitch-black tendrils shot out of his back.

"Our audience grows, Mr. Rose!" Nathan exclaimed in a loud manner, thrusting out his arms to the sides dramatically. While he spoke, Joey grabbed the man and jumped backwards, dodging the tendrils that came for them. The sudden yank by his companion, made Nathan almost lose his top hat but he managed to snatch it before it landed on the ground. "That was unnecessary, Mr. Rose."

"And why is that boss?" Joey asked, retracting his hand from his companion's body, and cracked his knuckles.

Nathan nodded to the tendrils that both slapped the firearms away before wrapping them around the bodies of the officers and pulling them away. "It looks the so-called "Demon King" has heard of our wonderful performance and chose to grace us with his presence." He bowed like a gentleman when noticing the two women. "And bringing along wonderful companions."

Not bothering to listen to the man's words, the mutant used his tendrils to place the officers on the ground. He had to knock out the male officers with his tendrils, they kept trying to kill their own brothers in arms. Making sure Iris and Lawton were okay, considering their current state, he returned his attention to the two men. "**Metahumans, aren't you?**"

"Bingo!" Nathan shouted. "That is true, my Dear Venom." He gestured to himself and gave another bow. "I am Nathan, but you may call me Mr. Bliss." He flipped his top hat on his head again.

"Step away from the vehicle now!" Mera shouted, pointing her trident at them.

"If you know what's good for you, listen to her!" Kendra shouted, her left hand raising her firearm and her other hand holding her mace tightly. Inwardly she felt the name "Mr. Bliss" stick to her mind like glue.

"Madams, I do apologize for this, but I would prefer for you two to step aside?" He politely asked, his eyes focused on them.

Mera and Kendra raised their weapons, but suddenly… they felt themselves get dizzy. Their weapons falling as their muscles turned weak, their vision getting instantly blurry. Both of them falling to the ground.

"**Guys!**" Venom shouted. But he then diverted his eyes to his hands, seeing if he felt any differently. But nothing seemed to point to that.

"My apologies, Dear Venom, but I have refrained from using my powers on you," Nathan stepped back and gestured to Joey. "per my companion, Mr. Joey Rose's request."

"**Request?**" Seth directed to the muscular giant.

Cracking his fists, Joey stated challengingly. "I have wanted to trade blows with you for a long time now, Venom. I am Joey Rose, but others call me Strongman and I pride myself as the strongest man in this entire city."

Embedding his sword into the ground, the mutant flexed his clawed hands. "**Let's see if you still live up to that name, Strongman!**" He rushed forward, tendrils pushing his friends to the sides and out of harm's way.

Strongman rushed forward, reeling an arm back before thrusting it forward. The elemental raised his left hand and thrusted it. The two fists met, unleashing a shockwave that caused the ground to fissure.

Momentarily shocked by the sudden fissures under their connected fist, the elemental reeled back his other arm. His fist clenching and turning into adamantium before sending it flying. It met with the huge metahuman's face.

However, his red eyes widened to maddening new limits at the sight of the metahuman still standing, despite his face connected with an adamantium face. From the sides of his metal fist the mutant took notice of the uplifting corners of Joey's mouth, forming a gleeful smile.

"What, is that all, Mr. Venom?" Strongman asked. "That's not a punch." The metahuman raised his own fist, clenching before reeling it back. "This is a punch!" Just like the elemental did, Joey thrusted his hand forward and let it connect with his face.

But, unlike the mutant who stroke first, the metahuman's strike sent the mutant backwards, skipping on the asphalt like a stone skipping on a water surface. The asphalt cracked with each collision of the elemental's body.

Before his body touched the ground for the final skip on the asphalt, the mutant slammed his claws into the ground and flipped around to land on his feet. Raising his right arm, he wiped away the excessive saliva trailing down the side of his mouth.

Joey put his hands together and smirked victoriously. "Your power has been greatly overestimated, Mr. Venom. I am unimpressed!" He spoke in huge voice.

"**Not bad.**" Seth stated, in a mixture of impressed and unimpressed. But he was shocked by the power hiding within those fists. Last time he felt anything like this was when he faced off against The Hulk. Each of the emerald monstrosity's attacks sending him into the ground, battered on every connection like he was ragdoll. "**Let's dance.**"

"You first, Mr. Venom." Joey stated smugly, rubbing the tip of one of the handlebars on his mustache.

Behind them, Mr. Bliss laughed excitedly. "Now who will prevail in this battle of might? Man or Demon?!" He shouted, thrusting out his arms to the sides. He was committed to the role of an excited ringmaster and showman.

Turning his entire body into adamantium, the elemental rushed for the metahuman. Cackling at the sight, the metahuman flexed his muscles before charging himself. They neared each other for what would be a thunderous dual, but Seth jumped into the air and placed them on Strongman's shoulders.

Sparking lightning over his feet, the metahuman felt his skin sizzle at the stinging feeling of electricity connecting with his flesh. That feeling of pain was quickly overshadowed by surprise when Venom flipped backwards, penetrating the ground with his fists as though they're anchors, and throwing the power-based metahuman into the ground.

Not giving him a moment to relax, Venom detached from the metahuman jumped into the air. Tendrils shooting out and placed them on the ground around Joey's form. Both feet turning into adamantium and cloaking them with lightning, he pulled on them. His entire form coming down from the air like a sky rock and slamming into the metahuman's body, further embedding him into the ground.

Leaping backwards, the mutant looked at the downed metahuman. Sneeringly he heard two hands clapping and he looked upwards to see Mr. Bliss doing the applause. "Wonderful! As expected of the man bearing the name as Demon King."

"**You're next, Bliss.**" Venom growled at him.

"_Mr._ Bliss, please." Nathan asked of him in what sounded like a kind tone, but also sounded threatening. "And why focus your attention on the main attraction, my dear Venom," he gestured to himself. "when the first act is not over yet."

The sound of man laughing emitted…

Venom looked to the ground again, with widened eyes as he saw the metahuman Strongman slowly get back on his feet. His attacks that would normally leave holes or more fatal damages, only left bruises on Joey's humongous form. "That didn't hurt, Dear Venom. Not one bit." He mocked the mutant's strength, fake brushing off dust from his shoulders.

"**The heck…**" Venom breathed out in confusion, thinking that this metahuman have superhuman strength and superhuman durability that is identical to that of the Emerald Titan.

"Man surpasses Demon!" The metahuman exclaimed, driving his hand into the ground, curling his fingers under the surface before pulling his arm up. Venom watched as the strongman pulled up a huge portion of the asphalt with ease. "Here catch!"

With ease the metahuman hurled the portion of asphalt like it was a snowball, completely weightless and able to do damage still. Venom split his right arm into tendrils and wrapped them around the portion of ground. Swinging it to the side, he placed it on the ground beside him and looked back up…

Only to see a car travelling through the air and coming his way-

Crossing his arms ice grew over his arms and formed a shield, taking on the vehicle as it connected with his shield. The impact with his shield pushed the mutant through against the ground, his feet pushing up pieces of asphalt behind him.

Pushing the vehicle away, his vision was instantly enveloped by the charging metahuman who tackled him into the ground. Not giving him any mercy, the muscular metahuman grabbed hold of his legs with an evil smirk. "Nice flight, Mr. Venom!"

Within a second, Strongman brought the elemental up and swung him around, gaining more and more momentum. The metahuman spun around rapidly, before letting go of the mutant, hurling him away and into the side of a tall building, embedding him into the brick surface.

As brick pieces fell to the ground from the hole the demon was embedded into, the muscular strongman looked backwards to his companion. "I am unsatisfied, Mr. Bliss."

"Perhaps his name was only that: A name, on a man who can't live up to it." Mr. Bliss admitted with a disappointed sigh, he turned around with spin of his cane. "Let's go onwards, Mr. Rose. It is time for us to return home." He patted the side of the fake ice cream truck. "We have to bring back the goods if we are to feast like kings tonight."

"Understood!" Strongman loudly replied as he walked to the truck himself.

The two got inside of the truck and drove away.

As the two metahumans drove away, more pieces of bricks from the brick wall fell out of the hole. Then what looked like an avalanche of bricks surged out of the hole, revealing that the large elemental Venom pushing them away with his adamantium arm.

"**Bastard…**" Seth said with gritted teeth, his arm returning to normal.

Pushing off more bricks from his body, the elemental leaped out of the hole. Using a tendril, he swung down to the lanes again. "**They're gone.**" He concluded after looking around for the two metahumans. Widening his eyes, he realized. "**Iris…**"

The mutant rushed to his friend's side and dropped to his knees to look at her. Much like her fellow female officers, she was panting heavily, the effects of Mr. Bliss's powers still affecting her and the others. She managed to look up to his face. Fighting through the effects to the best of her abilities, she reached into her pocket while saying. "T-Take this with you…" she reached up and placed the item in his large hand.

"**Your metahuman alert watch?**" He asked in confusion when recognizing the item.

"Tr…Tra…Tracker…" She managed to reveal, the red eyes before her expanding. "We put a tracker in the gold transport, in case of it being stolen. My watch can track them and find them."

"**We'll find them, but now we're gotta focus on you.**" He lowered his hands, about to pick up the detective and her colleagues.

But then Iris pushed his right hand back. "Don't… Go after them."

"**Iris…**"

"We'll take care of the officers…" The breathing and panting voice came from Hawkgirl. Like the others, she was experiencing the effects of the metahuman's powers still.

"Trust us, Venom…" Mera said, pushing herself to her feet with her trident. "Take care of the gold and the metahumans."

"**…****Be careful…**" Seth agreed reluctantly, walking over to pick up his sword again. He didn't want to leave any of them alone right now, not knowing if the two metahumans had others in wait, ready to attack them. But he trusted them like he would with any of his other friends, they're not weak and are fully capable of taking care of themselves.

With that increasing his determination, he launched his fist towards a building, elongating his limb and digging his claws into the surface of the wall. Mimicking the actions of a slingshot, he pulled himself back a few steps before shooting forward and rocketing into the air.

Kendra narrowed her gaze on the mutant as he travels through the air. "Think… he'll be alright?"

"Good question…" Mera trailed. She didn't want to doubt her friend. But while she was incapacitated, he was being punched and beaten around like he was a ragdoll. She wondered why the large metahuman, known as Strongman, wanted to fight Venom so much.

More than that, she wanted to know why the strongman and ringmaster of the old Central City Circus are now walking down the path of crime.

X

Seth continued swinging for what felt like hours. He followed the GPS tracker on Iris' metahuman alert watch, but the only thing he knew for now was that the two metahumans had come to a stop, returned to their hideout.

But as he swung his mind returned to the fight between him and Strongman. Despite using his elements, adamantium and lightning, Joey Rose returned his feet and even managed to strike down him. Even going as far as throwing the mutant away with ease.

It was planned for the giant metahuman to be the one to fight him, while Mr. Bliss incapacitated the officers with his powers.

"**_You saw what that one did with his powers, right?_**" The symbiote inquired of his host.

"_What do you mean?_" He asked back while he reached the roof of a building, placed near the seashore with an immense view to the sea. Seth's eyes turned to the metahuman alert watch in his immense hand, seeing that it was loading, the signal nearby must be weak.

"**_The one in the strange hat have impressive control over his powers._**" Seth knew that he was referring to Mr. Bliss, but didn't understand what he meant. "**_Sounds like someone needs to hit the study books again._**"

"_Most of those books were virtual simulations, dumbass._" Seth in an annoyed tone reminded his "other."

"**_Same stupid stuff, just a bunch of stuff to yawn at._**" Venom stated, his host recalling how his partner would literally yawn or snore loudly while he was studying. "**_But that man, Bliss used his powers and targeted the officers, giving them different reactions based on their genders._**"

"_Yeah… Pleasure for the ladies and fear for the men… We can't underestimate this guy._" Seth stated adamantly. "_Let's find them and stop them, once and for all._" He stated when seeing the watch pinpointed the tracker again.

"**_We were waiting for you to say that!_**" Venom growled, hungering for sweet revenge after humiliatingly losing against that muscular metahuman. Shooting out a tendril, he swung towards the right and continued swinging.

He narrowed his eyes in surprise when a large pier came into his vision. An old one, judging by the old plants. But what took him by surprise was the humongous tent in the middle of it, a tent with yellow and blue striped fabric. Two tent poles within it and holding up the entire giant tent. Small openings used as ventilators around the two tent poles are opened up to let air travel into the interior of the circus tent. Many tent lines are attached to either metal pillars or the wood planks of the large pier.

Landing on the pier, he walked across the pier and saw that it wasn't just the circus tent here. The pier was also occupied with dozens of carnival shops. He passed by a shop where you can shoot a target and win a prize. He passed by a store for ring tossing, still filled up with a shooting field of hundreds of glass bottles. Next he walked past a shop for toppling a pyramid of clown faces by throwing balls.

"**Used to love places these…**" He recalled out loud, memories of the countless times he and his sister were brought to carnivals and festivals to have some fun with their father returned to the forefront of his mind. Shaking his head, he rushed towards the circus tent. According to the watch, it was where the gold and the criminals were.

He saw that the entrance was still covered by the tent fabric. "**_Looks theatric._**" Venom noted.

"**Let's pull the curtains on these bastards…**" Seth quipped and pulled the entrance fabric to the side and walked past the threshold.

Strangely enough, the mutant found himself walking into a pitch-black darkness. The entire inside of the tent was cloaked in complete darkness. Shifting his gaze around in search for the metahumans, but he didn't find them anywhere.

But his eyes narrowed in the middle of the blackened tent, focusing his blood-red eyes on the light touching down on the ground. For some reason, light from the spotlight was bouncing off something and hitting his eyes. Walking towards it with slow steps, and as he got closer towards the light with one hand shielding his eyesight, the mutant saw that it was a single gold bar.

Crouching down on a knee, Seth noticed that a small blank device, the size of a nail, was attached to the side of the gold bar. Reaching down to pick up the gold bar, he noticed that the small device was blinking a red color. "**The tracker…**" He deduced.

"BRAVO!"

The mutant snapped his head around, turning towards the sound of the exclaiming voice. Subconsciously, his instincts took over and hurled the gold bar like a baseball. While it didn't hit the entertainer, it did end up embedding itself into a wall…

… Right beside Mr. Bliss's head…

Exhaling in a dramatic manner, the metahuman took off his hat and used his top hat to blow wind into his face. "Mr. Venom, I do not believe that was the appropriate use of such a valuable piece."

"**To us, your opinion is as important as a buzzing fly awaiting its demise.**" He empathized his point with ice coating his claws, sharpening them. "**What did you do to those officers?**"

Blowing air out of his pursed lips, Nathan explained. "That was nothing more than my… gift to the noble men and women of this city. A temporary break if you will."

"**What… Did… You… Do?!**" Seth demanded in rage. His friends were on the ground, twisting and turning in a whirlpool of different emotions. He couldn't let this metahuman get away with that, no matter what!

Nathan smiled, showing a layer of evil mischievousness that was befitting of a villain. "Now how could I call myself a showman, Mr. Venom… if I were to reveal my greatest trick so early? It is after all…" He tipped his top hat down, making it cover one of his eyes. "Just the first act of our wonderful performance!"

He let out his final words with an exclaim, shooting his arms out to the sides.

The moment they did, spotlights above their heads lit up in an instant, shining down rays of light to the ground and illuminating the entire interior of the circus tent. That wasn't the only thing that happened when the showman swung his arms to the sides. The sound of circus music filled the atmosphere and the sound of overlapping cheerful laughter followed.

Seth thrusted his head upwards, looking up to see flying forms spinning the above his head. He registered them. Above his head were a series of thin, almost invisible, black tightropes, all of them attached to the towering pillars around them. The tightropes wavered as the flying forms landed on them, having performed their spins.

"Jumping in the air, leaping through the sky as though they are flying, the sisters who loved by the goddess of thunder herself!" The showman exclaimed in a dramatic manner, gesturing with his cane to the two leaping women. "Come close to them you will feel the free embrace of the open blue sky, but too close you will meet a thunderbolt from above! Ladies and gentlemen, these are none other than the Thunders Sisters of the Sky! Livewire and Bolt!"

Narrowing his eyes, he took in the two women. They certainly do look like sisters who landed on the same tightrope, waving their hands excitedly at him like overenergetic children. Both wearing dark blue leotards with lightning bolt emblems. Both wearing skirts over their waists and both having long white hair, resembling Killer Frost's hair. But then their differences revealed themselves when the two acrobats swung their hands, lashing out lighting and forming whips that they swung above their heads.

"**You control this circus of freaks?**" Venom directed to the showman.

Nodding he stated. "Even freak needs a place to call home, and we will protect it no matter what!" He gestured to an entrance covered by curtains. "Entering the stage next, is a man you're very familiar with, Mr. Venom! The man who embedded you into the very foundation of this city before!"

"**Him…**" He sneered in anger, rage rising to the surface and causing ice spikes to form on his knuckles.

"That is correct, Mr. Venom." Nathan stated and pointed his cane to the curtain-covered entrance. "The man who proved himself superior to the Demon King himself, the strength, the arms, the very muscles of this circus itself!" The curtains pulled away and revealed a familiar form. "Mr. Joey Rose, Strongman!"

As though the empty and disgusting seats in the audience seats were filled with cheering fans of all ages, the circus strongman exclaimed cheerfully and loudly. "Yeah!" One after another, the spotlights turning to his form, the muscular man began showing off postures after another, flexing his bulging muscles to imaginary fans. "You want me, you got me!"

"Wonderful, is he not?!" Nathan rhetorically asked before facing the mutant, gesturing to himself with his cane. "Not to forget, the mastermind of this house of wonders, the brains of this circus, showman in every way possible… Mr. Bliss!"

Venom shifted his gaze from left to right, up and down, making eye contact with the four metahumans. The two sisters leaping off tightropes and landing on other ones while their strongman cracked his fists for another showdown with the demon. Their ringleader standing passive and watching his people focus on him.

"**All these metahumans for us, huh? That's quite the welcome.**" Venom stated in a growl.

Laughing at his words, the strongman countered. "Did you not hear what Mr. Bliss said before, Mr. Venom?"

Lisa Gold, the woman known as Bolt, spun around the tightrope before casually stepping off it. Her left and right hand throwing themselves up again, shooting out lighting whips that wrapped around the tightrope, and stopping her fall and kept her suspended in the air in an upside-down position. "The first act: Venom Falling at the Hands of Strongman."

The other Thunder Sister Livewire, Leslie Willis, giggled and lightning began to spark around her entire being. The lighting completely enveloped her and then like a climbing shooting star, it thrusted itself into the air, travelling across it like it was its path, and entering a spotlight. The light from it began to spark and flicker rapidly before lightning came out of the bulb, still intact and functional, and touched down the ground, reforming the metahuman acrobat's body. "The second act: The Warriors of Bash Clashing against Venom."

"**Sounds too theatrical for our taste.**" Venom noted, his left hand taking hold of his sword and retrieving it from his pocket dimension.

"Well, like all newcomers, you must be open to trying things you're not used to, Mr. Venom. But worry not, I will be joining the fray as well… but only… and only in our third and final act of today's show." Mr. Bliss announced.

"**…****Can't wait to taste you…**" Seth stated, his serpent tongue licking the surface of his upper row of shark-like teeth.

"Haha!" Strongman shouted, rushing towards the mutant.

This fight wasn't gonna be like the last one, this time… he was gonna do way more than be some metahuman's punching bag.

Performing a backwards jump Seth launched his arms into the air and tendrils wrapped around the nearest pillar. Pulling on them, he yanked himself out of the metahuman's range and into the air. Locking eyes with a tightrope the mutant set his sights on that.

But then somethings wrapped around his neck, giving off a powerful blue illumination. Shifting his eyes downwards, he noticed that it the Thunder Sisters and their lightning whips that were around his throat. Feeling the pull on his throat, the mutant increased the strength of his tendrils.

However, that only made the experienced acrobats smirk in delight. Loosening the strength in their arms, the two Thunder Sisters felt themselves be lifted off the ground as the mutant pulled himself, and them up.

"Thanks for the lift." Lisa stated with a chuckle.

Landing on the side of a pillar, the mutant growled, his teeth reddening with a fiery glow. Unhinging his jaw, Venom opened his mouth and unleashed a blast of fire and wind. His head swinging left and right to strike down both Thunder Sisters.

Both sisters anticipated this. Their bodies turning into electricity and jumps into the spotlights once more, dodging the flame blasts.

Closing his mouth again, Seth saw that both began to ricochet between the spotlights. His attention shifting between the array of lamps. "**Nice try!**" The elemental shouted, jumping into the air tightened the grip around his sword. Elongating his left arm to immense length, Venom spun around and let his sword cleave through the spotlights around him, cutting off the metahuman acrobats' pathway.

"Hey, hey, Mr. Venom!" His plan came to an end when that voice called out to him while also wrapping both arms around his elongated appendage. Venom felt his arm held down by the two arms and saw that Strongman came up to the platform of the pillar. The mutant letting himself fall and place himself on the side of the nearest pillar, his eyes looking up to the strong metahuman. "You didn't forget about me, did ya?!" He tightened the hold, making his muscles flex in response.

"**Not by a long shot!**" Venom shouted and crawled up the pillar, his feet and claws tearing through the column with inch he crawled. Turning his right hand into adamantium, lightning sparking around his entire first he grabbed hold of the metahuman's face.

Roaring at him, he lifted the metahuman off the platform and then spun Strongman around before smashing his form into the upper half of the pillar. Retracting his fist again, the mutant clenched it with flames igniting around it. Once again, he thrusted his flaming fist into the metahuman's face. Unlike before in the middle of the city, the mutant was able to get a groan of pain and blood to come out, but both came out in small amounts.

Like before, however, Strongman did let a wide grin form in front of the fist. "That had more oomph to it than your previous strike, Mr. Venom." Lashing out his left hand, he placed it over the elemental's skull-like extension and clenched his grip over it. "But oomph is not enough to stop this act."

Pushing himself out of the pillar, the metahuman swung his right hand, placing it on the mutant's head. "Let's take this fight down a notch, shall we?!" He made good on his words as he pushed himself and Venom off the platform and descended to the ground.

Venom dug his sword into the pillar again, this time flipping around and kicking both feet into Strongman's stomach. The strike from both feet made the metahuman lose his grip and had him falling to the ground. Not going to let what happened before repeating itself, the mutant pulled out his sword and jumped down to the metahuman.

Both hands intertwining above his head, lightning sparking, fire igniting, wind mixing them together and adamantium strengthening his skin and earth strengthening his muscles. Descending to the metahuman, Venom brought down his interlocked hands like a sledgehammer. The impact caused a dust screen to blow up around them, practically covering them so no one could see what was happening in there.

Nathan was shocked to see the mutant bring down an attack like that, truly much like a hammer that could shatter many obstacles before him like glass. He waved his hand in front of his face to blow away the annoying specs of dust that connected with his face.

Slowly the dust screen began to fade. As it became clearer to see through, the ringleader of the circus saw that Venom was jumping backwards and his strongman was slowly getting back to his feet. "Well done, Mr. Rose."

"Didn't make much of a dent unlike last time, though." Joey admitted while wiping away blood from the edge of his mouth. "Still not down, Mr. Venom! None of us are!" The metahuman stated, gesturing to the tightropes and pillars where the two acrobats are. Both Thunder Sisters of the Sky waving and giggling like excited children.

Venom showed a dangerous grin. "**We can change that very quickly, circus freaks!**" He empathized his point with one hand spinning around his sword and his other one forming an ice scythe.

Mr. Bliss narrowed his eyes on the demon's weaponry. Either of those could leave more than a dent on his performers. One swing from either of those blades could put a swift end to their careers.

A smirk formed on his face… One of realization… Time for third act.

"Well done. Wonderful!" Nathan praised their fight, giving them an applause worthy of their fight. His performers and Venom looked to him with confused eyes. Spinning his cane once more, the ringleader said. "Now, Mr. Venom, I do indeed hate to rush through a lengthy performance… but… it looks like it's time for the final act."

"**Final act…**" Worry began to fill up in the mutant. He didn't like those words. "**_Be careful._**" Venom advised his partner.

Nathan's smirk widened and he made eye contact with his prey.

"The name of the final act…" Venom widened his eyes as the ringleader's words came out in distortive voice… not distortive… but morphed. A voice that made the mutant pale behind the oily symbiotic skin that covered his face.

"**The Demon King's Final Breath…**"

Horror replaced worry at what happened next to him… no, not just to him… to them _all_…

Their normal pale flesh shifted and turned, getting a new color. Turning into a red mass that spread over each of their flesh, quickly followed by black spiraling veins that came over them… Their faces morphing into that of the same mass, red and black.

The flesh of their heads turning into red. Black streaks covering their eyes, taking the form of black streaks. Those same streaks then opened revealing ghostly white eyes. The lower half of their mouths split open like a knife tearing through flesh, displaying shark-like teeth and serpentine tongues coming out all four metahumans.

Seth had to stagger back in surprise of what he was seeing, he had to take it in from a distance. Each step he took made chills travel down his spine. His heart, similar to that of a disobedient horse, rampaging wildly inside of his chest. Intense chest pain began to run through his body with each painful heartbeat that came. Every exhale came out shorter than the last one.

He didn't want to look at that face again. Neither did his partner… but they had to… Forcing themselves to turn their gaze to those faces of that horrific monster.

Their deep dark cackles emitting throughout the circus. His eyes turning to those overlapping cackles, the sight of the Thunder Sisters of the Sky now wearing the face and the forms of… Carnage… Jumping around and cackling as they landed on the tightropes. His fear rising to new heights, making him forego the skirts and suits that covered the sisters' bodies.

A booming footstep coming from in front of him made the mutant turn back to Strongman… no, another Carnage. A hulk-sized Carnage. His huge red muscles bulging and pulsating like each of them are bearing hearts. The black veins on his body looked like they were popping out of with each motion of his body. His mouth opening and his long serpentine tongue tasted the air with a series of swipes.

The mastermind of them all remained in the back. Mr. Bliss, Carnage, call him what you will, he was standing in the back. His red form with black veins remained covered by his black penguin tail tuxedo. With a cackle his left hand rubbed the tips of his black handlebar mustache for a short moment. He removed it from his facial hair and then tipped his black top hat while his right hand placed itself on the top of his cane.

Mr. Bliss cackled. "**What's wrong, Dear Venom? Not liking the show?!**" His hand throwing the cane into the air and recapturing it in a dramatic manner. His performers, all of them bearing the face of Carnage, joined in and laughed maniacally.

"**_What fresh hell is this?_**" The symbiote asked in shock of this situation.

The mutant had already replied with a thought of his own, just as the Hulk-sized Carnage charged for him. The elemental's vision filled with the humongous red shoulder as he continued to stand terrified.

"**_Seth, wake up!_**"

That roaring voice from his "other" snapped the elemental out of his terrified trance. Crossing his arms over his chest he turned his entire body into adamantium. This time he would try to go for a defensive strategy, time to be the shield this time.

That plan was not meant to be. Two lightning whips came from above, wrapping around his wrists. Forces on both whips made his arms spread outwards and pointing to the sides like chains holding them up. But then the blue illumination that followed the lightning magnified and traveled over his body. The adamantium skin on his body making that simpler for the two electrokinetics, their lightning whips sending thunderous lightning into his body.

His mouth snapping open and screeching in pain, Venom and Seth screaming at the painful high velocity of the lightning bolts that traveled through their bonded body. The symbiotic mass on their body rippling like a destructive wave entering the ocean. Both host and symbiote fought with all their might to keep one another from separating.

Their attention was diverted when the humongous metahuman slammed his shoulder into his body. The lightning whips tore from the strike that impacted with the mutant's body. Before Venom was hurled into the ground or another obstacle, Strongman, while still bearing the physical features as Carnage, took hold of his legs and swung him around.

Strongman increased his speed and slammed him into the nearest pillar. But he didn't stop there. He took the elemental by the head and slammed him into the ground repeatedly. Smirking viciously, he tightened the hold on his head and slammed his other hand into his stomach.

Unclenching his hand while still embedded in his stomach and his other one wrapped around his face, Joey Rose growled loudly as he lifted Venom above his head.

The two Thunder Sisters clapped and praised him, throwing in some wolf whistles to appraise his mountainous action.

"**Way to go, Strongman!**" Bolt praised him with wolf whistle.

"**Give him a good thrashing!**" Livewire stated happily at his action.

"**It appears that once again the Demon King has fallen at the hands of the superior being!**" Mr. Bliss announced as he spun around towards his strongman. "**Now it is time to exorcise this foul beast!**" He stopped his spinning, pointing his cane to the unconscious elemental in his performer's hands. "**Mr. Rose, if you please?**"

"**My pleasure!**" Joey agreed loudly without any hesitation, pulling back the mutant's body before thrusting them forward and throwing the mutant's body away.

Venom's body flew right through the walls around them and into the seats of the audience. Mr. Bliss scoffed at that, knowing what it meant.

Waving blur came over the ringleader's body and his performers' bodies, turning them back to their normal forms devoid of the Carnage symbiote. "Mr. Rose, was that necessary?"

"My apologies, Mr. Bliss… But that was a satisfying fight…" Joey Rose admitted as he stretched out his arms.

"Way shorter than I thought it'd be." Leslie admitted.

"But we did take him down, so no complaining now, Leslie." Lisa stated the reminder to her and got a mock pout as a response.

"Then let us put an end to today's show…" Nathan Bliss knowingly trailed off, giving his strongman the green light to continue.

Joey Rose smiled and walked towards the hole he made with the elemental's body, he would be one to pull the curtains over the demon once and for all.

This way, he and the others of this circus would escape further wrath of the menacing speedster.

"Wait, look!" Nathan stopped his strongman. Both them and the acrobats above saw that the hole was emitting something. A white icy mist that streamed out of the hole. "No, what is happening now…"

"So Mr. Venom can make mist too, huh…" Joey said surprised and rushed towards the hole with long strides. His hands flailing from side to side and wiping the cold mist away. He had already passed through the hole. But to his surprise he didn't find the elemental anywhere.

"He's gone…" Nathan deduced at his strongman's wandering and searching head.

X

**(West-Allen Residence)**

Hearing the loud whistle of the teapot brewing on the stove, Barry walked into the kitchen and shut off the stove. With a towel in hand he clutched the scolding hot teapot and lifted off the stove to tilt the hot water within into the three teacups he had placed beside the stove.

With the tea leaves already in the cups, he just had to wait some small amount of time before he could let the others enjoy the beverages. But that could happen while he checked up on them, he took hold of the tray and walked into the living room where he saw his wife, Mera and Kendra seated at the couch.

All three of them were wearing regret on their faces, mixed with disappointment and embarrassment. The three of them were taken down by a guy who didn't even move a single muscle. Seth was there as well, but he was also taken down in a fistfight.

Despite that, he still rushed after the two metahumans to try and take back the gold by himself. They hadn't heard any response from him, so they were worried sick now.

"I made some tea for you guys." Barry told them as he placed the tray with tea on the table. They only nodded their appreciation. Relaxing his mind, he told them. "Guys don't think too much about it. Seth's gonna take care of it and bring the gold back."

Iris chuckled at his words; she knew that the was trying to cheer them up. "Thanks, babe… but it's damn frustrating how we were beaten by those guys so easily."

"Not to mention the rest of the officers." Kendra added, her hand rubbing her forehead. "But Mera did you hear from Seth yet? We have to provide some backup if we can."

The Atlantean took out her phone and checked it for any recent messages. A frown formed on her face at the screen as she waved it around. "No, nothing yet. Hope he's okay."

Kendra took hold of a cup of tea while Barry stated. "With how angry he was from Lindy's surprise meeting with Black Siren and Killer Frost, I'd say he's got some reserve anger he needs to let out."

Having sipped on her tea, the flyer stated. "Depends if that guy in the top hat is able to do what he did to us to Seth as well." It sounded like she was doubting the mutant, but in actuality she was just being realistic about their situation.

"Yeah… But I wonder what the hell is the deal with the ringleader and strongman from the Former Central City." Mera stated and confused eyes from the others. Seeing them, she asked. "You guys don't remember the old Central City circus?"

"Vaguely." Barry replied and the others agreed with that statement with nods of agreement.

"It was this incredibly popular circus of the city. Even in Atlantis, we'd hear about it daily." Mera said. "But despite it being so popular and their ringleader, this guy Mr. Bliss whom we saw earlier, leaving the audience in awe, thousands of people in the public began to see them as freaks and stopped coming. Shame, it was really good too." She said with a sigh.

"For an Atlantean, you sure are all about that circus?" The detective directed to her.

"My husband and I visited that circus a lot of times, practically regulars. It was kind of our thing to visit it." Mera said, sipping on her tea. "I can't imagine that their strongman and their ringleader turned down the wrong path like this. They were big favorites back then."

"And now because of the particle accelerator explosion, both of them turned into metahuman criminals." Kendra said.

"Might not just be them." Iris said, getting their attention with confused eyes meeting hers. "I don't know much about the circus, or even visited it to begin with, but didn't they have more than ten performers or something?"

"Yeah, they did." Mera confirmed, recalling the moments where at least five sky acrobats jumped through the air and performed athletic marvels mid-air with ropes and other equipment. "They even had clowns and clown cars."

"C-Clowns…" Barry said with a gulp.

"Oh yeah, you don't like clowns." Iris recalled with a chuckle, her husband lowering his gaze and his hands trembling.

"But let's hope Seth calls us soon to let us know he's defeated the Circus community…" Mera thought up a good tease. "Maybe he's gonna return with a clown mask…" Barry paled at those words.

"Or a clown head." Kendra mused.

That last one sounded more like Seth.

X

He didn't know why. But he felt at peace for some reason. Maybe the bed he was laying on made him feel at peace. He felt like the damage on his had healed but he didn't understand how. His eyes were closed but he could feel something running down the sides of his face.

Hands… slender soft and small hands running over the mutant's face, even travelling down his head to his throat and massaging it. He began to stir as his body and mind recognized the feeling of those soft hands…

His subconscious took over, making him mutter. "Cait…"

"You can call me that, if you want…"

That distortive voice made Seth snap his eyes open. In an instant, he spun around and made eye contact with the ice-blue eyes looking into his own. Her white hair distracting him, covering one side of her face. She used her hand to push away to look at the mutant without anything blocking her vision. Her body clad in her usual attire, minus the dark blue leather jacket that usual was over her blue leather animal-print top.

Sending him a flirtatious smirk, Killer Frost said. "What's with that look? You want to sleep here again?" She patted her lap, "You didn't mind it before…"

"Don't play games with me, Frost." Seth sneered, inwardly feeling his gears turning backwards as he was so close to killer Frost now.

She chuckled at his words. "Who doesn't love a good game every now and then?"

Seth didn't reply. Instead, he took in his surroundings. He found himself sharing a bed with Killer Frost in what looked like a motel room with a single bed. The walls appeared to ratty and filthy. Speaking of the wall, he noticed a massive hole in one side. A strange familiar feeling slithered up inside of him and he looked to the door. Much to his dismay, his feelings were justified as he recognized that the door itself had been torn off the hinges itself.

Realization came over him as he recognized this very bedroom. He turned his cold blue eyes to Killer Frost again, layer of hate over each eye. "This is one of Blackfire's motels?"

"Ding-Ding-Ding, we have a winner." Killer Frost said with a distortive chuckle. She couldn't help but be intrigued by the level of hate his eyes show. A smile formed on her lips, her tongue licking her lips as she commented. "Remember, those eyes can't freeze someone as hot and cold as me..." She trailed off as she let a hand snake across the bedsheets to touch him again. "They just do the opposite…"

The mutant stopped her, placing his left hand over her wrist, pinning it to the bed. His action made the metahuman's smile grow even wider. He opened his mouth to speak with her but then his nostrils flared, taking in the air around them.

He locked eyes with her again. "Why does it smell burned in here?"

"Look to the floor, babe." She replied with a nod to the floor.

Following the direction of her nodding, he turned to the floor and turned wide eyed from shock. On the floor were comforters and blankets, even a few pillows. But all of them were burned and left charred. "Don't tell me your boytoy was here too? Cause I can break his nose more than I did last time."

"Not him, sweetie. You're the one who made this entire mess." Killer Frost saw his eyes return to her form. "While you were in Dreamland, your right arm began acting up and you also muttered a few names…"

"_My right arm?_" Seth turned to his right arm. Once again surprise came over him as he saw that his right arm was no longer wrapped in the special blue bandage from Atlantis and was left exposed with all the burn damage and scars. "The black flames burned through the bandage."

"Blackfire's flames aren't your usual cup of tea, babe." Killer Frost said.

"Not really, no." Seth said and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, placing his feet on the floor.

"Must not have helped with what Mr. Bliss did to you." Killer Frost knowingly stated.

Seth snapped his head to her. "You know about his powers?"

"All of his clown show… I met them once, not a fan." She said with a chuckle and swung her own legs over to sit beside the elemental. "Guessing you didn't get a refund for your visit?"

Not taking heed of her joke, the mutant directed to her. "You said I muttered in my sleep?" Mockingly she gave him a pout and a shrug. "What did I say?"

"Thought it was a name but didn't think so… but you did say "Carnage."" To her surprise, Killer Frost saw him tense up and clench his fists, each hand turning white. "Guessing that name means something important to you too."

"Bliss showed me someone, a face on four people… a face that I didn't want to see again." Seth said with a pale face.

"I know that feeling…" The mutant turned surprised and looked to her. "Bliss has this rule about using his powers. Depending on their gender, he manipulates their feelings to match them."

"Pleasure for women, fear for men." Seth realized what his own words meant and asked her. "He gave you pleasure, so how can you relate to me?"

"He didn't show me pleasure." Killer Frost smirked playfully. "You tell me your first, I'll you about mine."

"If you only have games and wordplay for me, I'll leave." He stated his condition.

"Aren't you a big grumpy and little a bit broody? It suits you do…" She watched as he didn't give off a single feeling. "He didn't give me pleasure because of what Zoom did to his crew."

"Zoom did something?" Seth asked.

"Bit of a story, gonna hold off on that for now." She answered. "But his powers work so that he can manipulate people's feelings, like they can feel pain or joy… even giving them hallucinations."

Seth chuckled. "That sounds like pathokinesis." She shrugged. He didn't want to her talk to her, worried that his feelings for the Caitlin Snow he loves would return to the surface and make him vulnerable. Worried that she would take advantage of that vulnerability to wrap him around her finger. He didn't want to be the person who was there for _this_ Caitlin Snow…

But he couldn't stop himself from revealing the hallucinations.

"The person I saw… It was the face of the man who slaughtered my son and fiancée… a man known as Carnage." Seth revealed, the icy metahuman's eyes expanding. "His face and form were plastered all over their bodies and… I was horrified to see that person again. I killed him once and now he was back again." He looked at his hands. "This time, I didn't get angry or enraged, I just felt overwhelming fear."

"That's Bliss's power." Killer Frost said, inwardly shocked at his confession of having a son and a fiancée. Judging from his words, she had a feeling this was before he met her doppelganger, Caitlin Snow. "Pretty annoying."

"What about you?"

"What about little ol' me?" She teased.

Seth chortled, unsurprised at her teasing. "What did Bliss show you?"

This time, Killer Frost tensed up and interlocked her hands. "He showed me Charlie."

"I'm guessing an ex?" Seth mused.

"No." She shook her head. "My brother." Seth snapped his head to her, complete surprise laid over his face. "I'm guessing the doppelganger of mine didn't tell you about her brother?"

"More like she doesn't have a brother to tell me about." Seth corrected her, his entire being still shocked

Killer Frost chuckled. "Can't imagine someone with my name and face without Charlie in her life."

This time he chuckled, lifting a hand and took hold of her one of her hair strands, showing her the snow-white hair. "Sorry to break it to you, but the Caitlin I love, she's not sporting this look. She's brunette."

"Sounds like I can still pull off that look." Killer Frost said with a flirty voice.

"…Sorry you lost your brother, Caitlin." Seth returned to her confession. "Sorry that Bliss showed you that."

"Sorry he showed you the face of the guy who killed your family." Killer Frost expressed.

"But why did another bad guy use his powers against you, another bad guy?" Seth inquired.

"He didn't like that Zoom killed off more than half of his crew, so he took it out on me…" Killer Frost raised an eyebrow in realization. "Oh yeah, it was about two years ago, right around the time Zoom got his name."

"Oh yeah, I've been wondering about that. What genius came with "Zoom"?" Seth asked, putting empathize on the menacing speedster's name with dramatic waves of his hands.

"That's an interesting story." Killer Frost started. "Like I said, it all began two years ago. The trusty and stupid CCPD got a 911 call about a hostage situation. Of course, it's a pretty bad situation, who knows what could have happened, hostage being killed off every passing minute or someone spilling milk." Seth gave her a dry look at her joke. "But funny happened next. When the SWAT team got there, there were no hostages."

Seth narrowed his eyes as he deduced. "It was a trap."

"Someone's got Lady Luck on his shoulder." Killer Frost nodded her head. "Zoom set a trap in order to show the useless police that they could not stop him." She made a show of counting her fingers. "And the evil speedster offed 14 officers. Men and women, he slaughtered every single one of them…" She showed a witty look, directing it to his eyes and held up one finger. "Except for one single sucker. Lucky guy was the only one left alive, left alive to tell what happened. Everyone in the city, except for our foreign but handsome Venom," he rolled his eyes. "knows this part of the story. The lucky officer described blue lightning "zooming" all about… as his comrades, brothers and sisters in arms, were murdered."

"Poor guy." Seth said in a saddened tone.

"That's one word for it. But it's not the one the officer thought of." Seth's interest was piqued. "You see, our officer here, he considered himself to be a lucky one. He was spared to tell the tale."

"So this one lived to tell the tale of the pitch-black speedster…" Seth clenched his hands.

Killer Frost nodded, quickly followed by a small but evil smirk. "Until Zoom went to his house that night and killed him too." Seth's eyes paled with hate. "Anyway, that is how he got the name "Zoom." Pretty cool for a bad guy, wouldn't you say?"

"For a bad guy…" Seth raised himself up and looked around the room. "Where's my sword?"

"On the floor, under the pillows and bedsheet you burned before. You must be a nightmare to live with." Killer Frost quipped.

"My Caitlin complained about it once, when I froze her pillow by accident." Seth said as he kicked away the burned and charred pillows and comforters to see his sword on the ground. He reached down with his right hand, taking the handle and let the sword sink into Venom's symbiotic pocket dimension.

"You know, if hero isn't much your speed at some point, you'd make a hell of a thief." She commented after seeing his humongous sword slither into his body. "But what is your plan against that guy? The next you see him; he might actually kill you with those freaks of his."

"Good thing, I can kill too." Seth cracked his fists, but his gaze lingered at his hands. Like he was seeing something more than just his own hands, like something else was on them. He shook his head of those thoughts and turned to Caitlin again. "You know the saying. Cut off the head of the snake, the rest of the body dies."

"Problem with that plan: Before you can get to the head, you have to break off the snake's fangs." The icy metahuman referred to Bliss' performers.

"That is true. Three fangs." Seth said.

"Four." Caitlin from this Earth corrected. Seth turned around to look at her again, waiting for her to elaborate. "I take it you met the two girls in leotards?" The mutant nodded. "There's a reason they turned out the way they did. A certain circus doctor of theirs used his knowledge and turned the two stepsisters into the metahumans they are today. Those two and the doctor are the three metahumans with lightning powers in the circus bunch. Better watch out for them."

"Tha…" Seth trailed off as he forgot to ask a very important question. "Why did you save me, Caitlin? You could have let those circus freaks take me out, but you didn't. Zoom would have been thankful for that. Why didn't you? You did say you're loyal to Zoom, after all."

Raising up from the bed, she reached for the bedside table and took out the folded leather trenchcoat Seth wears. Unfolding if for him she places it over his shoulders and says. "…Consider it my way of giving you the thanks you deserve, but don't want… at least from the likes of me…"

"Thanks, I guess." He said as he slid his arms into the sleeves and straightened out the jacket. "Answer me a couple of questions, then I'm out of Nurse Frost's hair…"

"Kinky." She kept being her mischievous self even till now.

"First off, is Jesse safe?" Seth asked.

"Safe as she can be in Zoom's hideout." The icy metahuman joked.

"Secondly, you know how to take care of Bliss' powers?" Seth asked her.

She made a show of tapping her chin as though she was thinking heavily. "You may wanna keep his eyes off you." Killer Frost vaguely replied and hoped the mutant would understand it.

The gears in Seth's mind began to turn, quickly realizing what the icy metahuman meant by those words. "His powers only work if he maintains an ocular meeting with his target or targets."

"Hey, some of us here dropped out of med school, mind explaining it so we all get it." Killer Frost rather demanded than asked.

"His powers only work if he can see his targets." The elemental simplified. "I just have to make sure that doesn't happen when I find him again." He walked to the door. But just as he reached for the door handle, he turned to Killer Frost. "Thank you, Caitlin."

Before Killer Frost could correct him, Seth was instantly walked out of the bedroom. As she was left alone, the icy metahuman chuckled. "No stopping that guy when he's on a roll."

She liked it.

X

**(Central City Circus)**

Mr. Bliss paced back and forth, his face completely washed over with annoyance and disappointment, regret laced over it. His plan that he spent a long time to come up with, his master plan to bring down the guillotine on Venom's neck, his plan to kill the proclaimed "Demon King" … all for naught.

Somehow the irritating demon managed to escape from this very tent. His plan was all of naught and he had to come up with another plan. A better one that would assure Venom's head on a spike and assure that he could get in Zoom's good graces, however little that might be.

Tearing off a huge chunk of meat from his giant turkey drumstick Strongman asked the ringleader with a mouthful of meat. "Mr. Bliss don't worry. We will take him out the next time we see Venom." He then raised his other hand, biting into the large cheddar cheese block in his hand.

Their doctor, he who was responsible for turning the Thunder Sisters into the metahumans they are today, looked to the strongman with a disgusted look. Using the sleeve of his long white doctor's coat to blow air into his dark-skinned face, trying in vain to get rid of the foul smell of meat. "Mr. Rose, please stop talking with food in your mouth, it is foul."

"Not to mention ill-mannered too." Lisa Gold pitched in, following the doctor's words.

"Got that right, Sis." Leslie agreed with her stepsister.

"Enough!" Mr. Bliss shouted to his performers, their talking not doing anything to help him come up with a new plan. "We have to find him again, and…" He impatiently tapped his cane against the ground. "Come up with a new plan."

Loudly chewing with an open mouth, Strongman suggested. "We have to lure him in again."

"Mr. Rose, unless you have an idea that's not already been put into action, try to close your mouth when chewing and _then_ come with a better idea!" Nathan sneered through greeted teeth.

The doctor waved his shaking hands around. "We will wait for him; he will return to us." He spoke in a tired voice.

Leslie looked to the doctor. "What makes you sure of that, Doc?"

"This one is a fighter, a great one. Great ones always return for a rematch." The doctor turned to direct his eyes to the strongman. "Returned to fight Joey, he did."

"That is true! No man or demon can defeat Strongman!" Strongman raised himself, flexing his muscles in a pose. "I will end him next time!"

"Doc's got a point; he did come back to fight us." Leslie agreed. "And since he lost against all of us, except for Doc, he might just have a bigger flame inside of him now."

"Yeah, he's gonna come waltzing right back to us!" Lisa stated with an excited backflip.

Nathan happy at those words, making him stop pacing and smiling happily. "You're right. He will return to us and he will lose to us again, this time…" he flipped his cane, "He will die at our hands!"

The audience had asked for an encore, and he would give them one.

X

Landing on top of a tall lamppost, Venom narrowed his eyes on the huge circus tent further into the pier. Both the host and his "other" sneered in anger at the sight.

Neither of them could handle how they were forced to experience the horrifying face of Carnage once more. They've been forced to see his face on three separate Earths now. On their home universe where they were raised and fought a multitude of battles with the serial killer. Then on their new home universe where they met their children and the love of the mutant's life. And now on this very earth with face and form taking over the forms of four demented Circus performers.

"_They were prepared for us last time… Prepared to end us both…_"

"**_But they failed._**" Venom said, using sensations of soothing emotions to quell his host's anger. "**_They won't expect us to come back so soon and face them again… Trust us._**"

"_They planned for our elements and attacks… We need to be unpredictable now._" Seth stated to his partner, entering a deep trance to come up with plans that would give them an advantage against the circus.

"**_We may have one option…_**" Venom stated while mentally pointing his eyes to the right arm.

Seth scowled in annoyance; he felt his partner mentally turn his eyes to his right arm. Following the same direction, he knew what this plan would mean. Blackfire's flames would definitely increase their chances of defeating the circus of metahumans.

But with the dark matter element only residing in his arm, it wouldn't be as effective against the other elements roaming the rest of his body. "_This one won't listen to me yet… If used, it could very well end up burning down the entire tent._"

Venom chuckled at that warning. "**_Every part of life is full of risks. We must venture towards those walls and climb over them with an iron will to change and be better than our previous selves. Or we just bring them down with a big sledgehammer._**"

"_The second one sounds more our style._" Seth admitted with a smirk.

"**Time to work!**" They said and launched his left and right arm, shooting out tendrils from both and latched onto the top of the tent. He didn't want to use a stupid front entrance. This time he would make one of his own design.

Taking out his sword and raising it high in the air, he brought it down to the roof and cut a large hole through it before jumping through it.

X

The five metahumans looked up, shocked to see the elemental jump through a hole and into their tent. Landing on the ground, he growled at the five of them. "**Expecting someone else?**"

Nathan turned around to face him, his strongman throwing away his food, the doctor spinning around in shock, the two acrobats turning into lightning and jumping through spotlights to reach the tightropes above their heads.

Tightening his grip on his cane, Mr. Bliss stated. "You came back for an encore, Mr. Venom? Wonderful!"

"**_He's lying._**" The symbiote notified his host.

Venom smiled. "**You seem to have lost your cool now, Bliss. What? Performance issues?**"

"N-Not at all, Mr. Venom!" Nathan stated stuttering a bit. "This is merely a surprise, but what performer would be unwelcoming to surprises? Let the show begin."

"With pleasure!" Strongman shouted, rushing for the mutant with clenching hands. Raising a fist, he thrusted it forth.

The mutant dodged it, jumping backwards with a backflip. He repeated the same action, jumping backwards with a series of backflips. He placed his feet on the side of a pillar and shot his left hand forward, splitting it into tendrils. All those tendrils wrapped around the metahuman's head.

Joey felt his vision be cloaked by the oil-like black tendril and tried to tear them off with both hands. But it only ended up with more tendrils wrapping around his hands and attached to his face.

Assimilating some of the tendrils into his fist again, he took the rest of them like a rope and pulled on them. With immense strength, strengthened by the earth element and adamantium, he pulled the metahuman into the pillar. The force slamming his head into the very structure.

"Strongman!" Lisa shouted and pointed her eyes to the mutant. Reeling back a hand, she threw it forward again and shot out a long lightning whip.

"Take this!" Leslie mimicked her stepsister's action and launched her own lightning whip.

Seeing the whips coming his way, he placed both clawed hands on the surface of the pillar. This time, he would act like a predatory animal.

And hunt!

Roaring his anger, he spun around and crawled up the side of the pillar. When the whips would come near him, he would zigzag to avoid them. Thrusting head to the side, he opened his mouth and unleashed a fire blast. Lisa's whip met the small fire blast, deflecting it to the side. Leslie's whip met the same fate, ended up with the whip shot to the side.

Lighting sparked around the elemental's body, increasing his speed and he crawled much quicker up the column. This time the lightning whips didn't come close to his body, only coming a bit close to touch him. Reaching the tightrope, the one where Lisa was standing on, Venom jumped from the pillar and landed onto the rope.

Bolt stepped back in fear. Last time, there was a plan that focused on overwhelming the mutant with teamwork and their performance-enhanced fighting skills. But his abrupt return made them fear now. But she still fought and swung her whip once more.

Retracting his sword from his partner's pocket dimension, Seth quickly swung it to meet the whip. The strike from his sword pushed the whip back. Before he could raise it for another attack, another lightning whip from the side wrapped around his fist.

Following the trajectory of the new lightning whip, the elemental saw Livewire holding her whip with both hands and rage lacing her eyes. "Stay away from my sister, bastard!"

"**Try it!**" He replied in a shout and reeled back his other hand, generating a water sphere. "**Catch!**" He threw the water ball after her.

Leslie dodged the water sphere, having to dissipate her lightning whip. She turned into lightning and jumped into a spotlight. Like before, she began to ricochet between the others before shooting towards her sister's rope.

The mutant jumped into the air and forming spheres of water into both hands. The moment he did so, Leslie joined her stepsister on the tightrope, and both looked upwards to him, their bodies riddled with lightning. But then their vision was cloaked, or rather, soaked as Venom threw both spheres into their bodies.

Both sisters screamed in pain as the water connected with their bodies. Lightning exploding out of them in a violent surge as they were drenched in water.

The doctor on the ground placed his hands on his head. "They're short-circuiting."

"I know!" Mr. Bliss growled in annoyance. He already knew of their weaknesses.

The outburst of lightning stopped and both acrobats fell off the tightrope. They descended at an immense pace. But before they could impact on the ground, Strongman rushed out of the pillar and caught before Thunder Sisters.

He looked at them both as they were breathing painfully in his arms. "You both okay?"

"Alive at the least." Leslie looked to Lisa. "You?"

"Good as I can be after that mess." Lisa shook her head. She looked to Joey. "You Rose?"

"Nothing but a dent." He assured them as he put them on the ground again. he looked up and saw Venom descending to the ground as well.

The elemental growled. "**Ready to give up!**"

"Not yet, no…" Nathan looked at the mutant. "Mr. Ve**nom…**"

"_Shit!_" Seth thought as they saw the performers take on the face and bodily features of Carnage once more. Red symbiotic skin covering them with black streaks popping out in a vein-like pattern. And once again Seth felt the fear within him raising to new and unbelievable heights.

"**Not again…**" Venom clenched his hand, turning into adamantium and began hitting his head. He tried to force the induced fear to get away.

"**Mr. Venom, that will not work. Not against my powers.**" Mr. Bliss stated confidently. but he was shocked at how the elemental knew of his powers. Not many knew of his powers. However, that knowledge won't help him in the least. Not with the way he was going. "**All of you, ready for another encore?**"

They nodded, even the doctor who decided to join the fray. The three lightning metahumans jumped forward, turning into lightning, and circling around the elemental before retaking their normal forms. The three metahumans lashed out their hands and shot out two lightning whips each. Leslie wrapped hers around the demon's right hand and pulled on it. Lisa wrapped hers around his left hand and pulled on the whips. The doctor wrapped his around his feet and pulled on it, bringing him to knees.

"**Finally…**" Nathan said with a sigh. "**This is not something an entertainer should do, but this time I will make the exception and quickly pull the curtains on today's show! Mr. Rose, if you'd please?**" He empathized with an urgent snap of his fingers.

"**Of course, Mr. Bliss. Thank you!**" Strongman slowly stepped towards the mutant. His fists cracking against each other. "**Thunder Sisters, Doctor… bring the light!**"

The three lightning metahumans knew what that meant, increasing their lightning output in response and ran that through their whips, electrocuting Venom and he screamed at the intensifying pain.

But that didn't keep Strongman from thrusting fist after fist into the mutant's face. A rain of humongous fists pouring down on his face. Not showing any signs of mercy, only increasing the speed of each fist coming down. Surpassing a rain, it was now a meteor shower of fists.

With each blow connecting with his face Seth felt like each one sends out shockwaves that connected with his face. He released ice to cover his face, even with spikes. But that did nothing to stop the fists. His fists just breaking them down with a single blow and watched as the pieces turn into smaller pieces from more blows.

Seth felt himself shackled and unable to move at all. The stinging pain of the lightning keeping him in constant pain. Not to mention restrained and on his knees. And each blow from the strong metahuman in front of him shook his mind so much it was akin to an earthquake.

Each blow… caused his mind to go blank.

And because of that… his elements had free rein…. Specifically, one that was uncontrollably.

The black flames erupted around his right arm, startling the metahuman performers for a moment. But that moment faded as the shock overwhelmed them like a tsunami when they saw the black flames erupt from his right arm. What happened next shook them to new limits, to the point where Nathan's powers were unfocused, breaking off the hallucinations.

They watched as the flames blazed and erupted around his arm, travelling up the side of his face and then spreading from there. His entire face was enveloped by the abyssal flames. Like a wildfire in a forest the flames then spread over the entirety of Seth's symbiote-enveloped body.

The lightning metahumans grew worried and released their lightning whips. Like the strongman, they stepped backwards out of fear of being touched by the black flames. The elemental's body fell to the ground, his body still blazing with the black flames.

"It appears Venom has fallen… fallen to his very own element." Nathan stated with a chuckle as he watched the dark flames dance.

But then another chuckle came. One that was dark and deeper than any humans could ever possibly chuckle. Humans or metahumans could even come close to that dark chuckle.

Nathan and his performers turned to the demon's body, still enveloped by violent dark flames. But then they saw the flames rise… no… they saw Venom rise.

The flames faded, revealing the mutant standing in his full height. Letting out a long exhale, he then formed a vicious smile. "**That's interesting.**" The metahumans around him looked confused, waiting for him to elaborate. "**All… We had to do… was let the flames… roar!**" With an arch of his body, the black flames returned to the surface of his body and dancing over his fists and the rest of his body.

"Impossible." Nathan said, his eyes focusing on the mutant, increasing his fear once more and bringing back the hallucinations.

"**That's the thing…**" The black flames ignited around his fang-like teeth. "**… We are the impossible! And those illusions won't work on us anymore…**"

"**H-How?**" Nathan asked, his voice morphed by the illusion.

"**Cause we killed that one…**" Venom stated. He was right, the fear of meeting and standing before Carnage had long since been vanquished. He made sure of that himself, with his own two hands he won against Cletus Kasady. With his own two hands, he would prove himself superior to the circus of metahumans now!

Strongman gave a growl and lashed his fist forward. His fist was intercepted by the elemental's palm, his claws bending and locking a hold around his fist. The black flames around his fist touched the strongman's hand and charred the fingers. Joey screamed in agonizing pain, to him it was like every cell in his digits were being incinerated.

Venom smirked and enveloped black flames around his right hand before thrusting them forward in a fist, slamming it directly into the strongman's face and pushing him away from him. The flame-cloaked fist left a mark of charred skin on the side of the metahuman's face.

"**Jo**ey!" Leslie exclaimed, her voice returning to normal as the hallucination faded.

"Bastard!" Lisa shouted, lashing out whips of lightning in rage. The doctor launching his own whips.

The mutant leaped into the air, avoiding the lightning whips. Attaching his form to the side of a pillar, the mutant gathered wind around his body and let the black flames around his body increase in size and power. Pressure from his feet caused the surface to crack. The cracks grew bigger when Venom jumped off the pillar.

The strength of his jump was too fast for the acrobats and the doctor. He landed behind all three and swung his adamantium arm like a hammer. Slamming his adamantium limb into the backs of their bodies, they were launched off their feet and into the ground. The strength from his jump increased the speed of his arm swing, making it impossible to dodge and left them unconscious on the ground.

Nathan shifted his eyes with disbelief to all sides, not able to process what his eyes were finding. Three of his greatest performers and fighters are all down on the ground before his eyes, their doctor no different and is on the ground.

"I-Impossible." Nathan staggered backwards, his eyes meeting the red eyes hiding within the sea of black flames that dances on the mutant's face. "This isn't how it was supposed to be… We were supposed to win and end you!" His back hit the wall, keeping him there.

"**You failed… and miscalculated… and you lost.**" Venom slowly fired off as he stepped closer to the metahuman. "**Show's over.**" When he stood before the metahuman, he opened his mouth to unbelievable limits like a snake and lowered it over Nathan's head.

"NOOOOOOOO"

With all intents and purposes, he wanted to devour the head of this bastard. But something pulled Seth… making close his jaw and instead raise a fist, turning it into adamantium.

Nathan continued to scream, not willing to accept the demon before was not going to devour his body and soul. His screams met a huge wall when Seth swung his adamantium fist into his face, sending him down to the ground.

"**_Show's over._**" The symbiote quipped, his host rolling his eyes.

X

**(West-Allen Residence)**

"You know, you could have asked us for help." Kendra angrily stated with crossed arms as she leant against the back of the couch.

The mutant had returned to the household and told the others of what had happened. When that happened, Iris and Floyd Lawton led a SWAT team to the pier and arrested the four remaining metahumans. Metahuman dampener handcuffs were passed between officers to remove the usage of the metahumans and their powers. A new product from somewhere in the city. Because of that the transport went easier.

With Barry and Iris making reports of the metahumans' arrests at the precinct, the mutant was left alone with Kendra and Mera back at the married couple's house.

"Sorry, just things went a bit off track." He sheepishly replied.

Stretching out her foot, the flyer kicked the mutant's leg and complained. "Still not cool, man. Really not cool."

"But upside of that entire mission." Mera announced as she walked into the room, holding unopened beer bottles for them. "Our friendly mutant here now has his black flames under controls. Definitely gonna give him a fighting chance against Zoom and his goons."

"Yeah." Seth looked to them. "You two been here in the city a long time?"

"Sort of, yeah." Kendra nodded`, Mera nodding in agreement as she handed them a beer bottle. "Why?"

Accepting the bottle and unscrewing the cap, Seth said. "I want to go to S.T.A.R. Labs. And you two are gonna go with me." He got wide eyes in response.

Seth spent the next few minutes explaining his reasons.

X

Hissing like a ravenous serpent and blue lightning crackled over his black suit, Zoom looked down from the top of the building he was standing on. His black eyes focusing on the large black prison transport van that was driving down the lanes.

He gave Mr. Bliss and his metahumans one job. _One_ job… and they still failed and lost Mr. Bliss.

Before, a long time ago, he made the mistake of _only_ reducing the circus team down to five. He should have brough them all to an end that day. That was a mistake…

… one that he would remedy now…

Zoom hissed once more before making his move…

_WHOOSH_

He disappeared in a zoom of blue lightning, speeding down the side of the building. When reaching the ground, he ran towards the lanes, phasing through dozens of buildings and making his way towards the large prison transport van.

With a growl, he passed by the prison vehicle and stood in its path. The transport van came to an abrupt stop at the sight of the crackling blue lightning that only belonged to one single being in the city. The two officers came out of the doors, their firearms already raised and pointing at the speedster.

But in a flash, he appeared behind one officer and twisted his neck. The other one heard the sound of her brother in arms falling to the ground.

"NO-"

Her scream came to an end when the speedster sped behind her and snapped her neck. Without giving her falling body a second thought, he turned to face the transport truck and sped over to the doors.

Giving a low growl, he raised his clawed hand and it began to phase. Pointing it to the metal door, he slowly pushed it forward and let it phase through the metal. When his claws felt the inner mechanics of the lock, he let his claws break it and cause a clattering sound to emit from within.

A series of gasps followed and it only made the menacing speedster smile. He opened the door, seeing the wide eyes of the five crewmates that belonged to Central City Circus.

"You!" Nathan Bliss shouted with horror all over his face and his performers have the same expression.

"**I am… Zoom…**" He reminded them with a demonic chuckle and lightning increased around his body. "**Your end!**"

_WHOOSH_

In a zoom of blue lightning, he rushed into the cargo van and closed the door at the same time, the speedster locking himself with the four other criminals.

And then…

Their screams came through the door… slowly followed… by the surging red liquid that kept the other four criminals out… their blood leaking through the small gaps of the door…

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**Our unlucky mutant witnessed the awesomeness of the metahuman circus. The first time didn't go so well, the second time and he had to be saved by the hot and cold ice queen, Killer Frost. The third time Seth was close to Death's door, but he prevailed thanks to the surprising event of his black flames erupting from within him and spreading to the rest of his body, giving him access to the abyssal flames. Thanks to that, he managed to surpass and defeat the circus of metahumans.**

**Question is, why did Seth spare the ringmaster of the circus?**

**He had the chance, literally holding his life in his hand. But he chose not to… wonder why?**

**Nevertheless, the mutant didn't have to put an end to the metahumans' lives as Zoom took care of that when the five of them failed their mission miserably.**

**But that was then, and this is now.**

**And now… Seth sets his sights on another location. S.T.A.R Labs. **

**So next time we will see how that turns out.**

**Stay tuned and find out.**

**Until next time, peeps!**


	25. Chapter 25: The Reverse-Flash Returns

**And now another bedtime story for all you wonderful readers out in the world.**

**It's been a while since the last update. Sorry for that, a lot have happened in my personal life that needed my attention.**

**Once again thanks for all the wonderful reviews and messages, means the world.**

**Now before we continue with the chapter, I'd like to say some things in honour of recently deceased people in the previous months.**

**The first is Naya Rivera who passed on July 8th. A wonderful person, mostly known for her incredible role in the TV Show Glee. I watched the show years ago, and enjoyed it thoroughly, and was in awe of Rivera's wonderful and incredible performance as Santana Lopez. My thoughts and wishes goes out to her family and hope they will remember Ms. Rivera as she was, a wonderful woman and a mother who protected her son above all else.**

**The second person to have departed this world too early is Chadwick Boseman who passed away on August 28th. An incredible person and actor, best known for his portrayal as Black Panther in the movie with the same title. Sadly the man lost a battle with cancer, but fought for four years and in those years inspired many people. He will be remembered as a hero by many. My thoughts and wishes goes out to her family and hope they will remember Mr. Boseman as the hero he is, a king.**

**I didn't have the pleasure of meeting either of these wonderful people but am no less saddened to hear of their early departure. Both incredible actors and even better people. They'll be missed by all who's lives they've touched and inspired.**

**Once again, my thoughts and feelings goes out to their families and friends.**

**Rest in Peace, Naya Rivera and Chadwick Boseman. The night sky got brighter with a couple of new shining stars like you two. People will look up now and remember you always and forever, looking over us all.**

**…**

**…**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 25: The Reverse-Flash Returns**

Sweat beads forms on her forehead as Evelyn dodges the incoming strikes from the wooden sword. Returning to her battle stance, she began to pant heavily with her eyes focused on her opponent. She knew she didn't stand a chance against someone who has more experience in swordplay, but her determination rose to newer heights, her hands tightening around the handle of her own wooden sword.

Evelyn dug her foot into the ground before rushing forward and swung her sword. But just as her opponent was swung his own sword, intend on clashing with hers, the metahuman used her powers and disappeared in a shroud of shadows.

Matt let his swing continue, cutting the shadows with his wooden sword. His niece had already disappeared, his attack not connecting with anything. He stepped back and held the sword with both hands on the handle. "Nice job, Evie! See if you can get a hit in now!"

Olivia and Matt decided to hold a training session for their two nieces, trying to increase their individual abilities. The nanite mutant would train Evelyn in the ways of both archery and swordplay, but he laid weight on her swordplay training as she appeared to be well-versed in archery. Evelyn needed better equipment so she can use her metahuman abilities to the fullest, but he didn't have the right material to make them here. And while he would train the metahuman, Olivia would train Ruby with her telekinesis. Their two powers and abilities are alike a certain degree. Both could move objects, even people, with their minds and with mere motions of their hands.

The mutants thought themselves to the perfect sparring partners, while Frankie was in the city and helping Barry out with any criminal activities that pop off.

Matt spun the wooden sword around with his left hand, slowly spinning around to watch his every blind spot. His eyes drifted downwards, seeing another shadow intertwining with his own. Eyes widened before he spun around and swung his wooden blade.

Once again, his blade paved its way through a cloud of shadows.

"Nice job, kiddo." The mutant muttered his acknowledgement.

Reappearing beside him, Evelyn swung her sword for his side. Having anticipated a sneak attack like that, Matt spun around and blocked the opposing blade with his own wooden blade. The nanite mutant smirked. "At least, you're not shouting "hi-yah" anymore when you're about to attack."

His niece blushed her embarrassment. "You're never gonna let that go, are you?"

"I'm a cool uncle, but even I got my limits." He proved his point when he parried the metahuman's sword downwards, torqueing it to the side and out of her hands. Another swing of his sword, he swept Evelyn's feet from behind and she fell to the ground.

Evelyn groaned. "Ow!" She panted and looked upwards to see her uncle's face. "Cool uncle, really?" She asked skeptically.

Laughing he reached out with his hand for her to take. "Welcome to the rest of your life, kiddo." Evelyn accepted the hand and was pulled back to her feet.

Rubbing her shoulders and rotating them, Evelyn said. "Training always hurt this much?"

"When taken seriously, yeah." Matt said. "But it's a good sign, it means you're taking this seriously, it means you're serious about this."

"Serious as I take it, I still haven't been able to hit you." She groaned, swing her sword and cutting the air.

Matt chuckled. "You're still new to using a sword, especially one that actually has weight in it. it's gonna take some adjustment and training to get used to it. But this isn't what you're supposed to use in the field."

"Not that I'm complaining, but if I can make a sword out of light, how's this supposed to help me in anyway?" Evelyn asked curiously and gestured to her wooden training sword with her free hand.

"For you to learn the basics." He informed. "The more you're used to a sword with weight, you learn the skills, the attacks, the blocks, and whatnot, then you're gonna be a quicker than a speedster with a sword of light."

Evelyn tilted her head. "But… that sounds more like the steps _after_ the baby steps." She noted.

"Sometimes you gotta run before you can walk." Unbeknownst to his niece, he was quoting his father. "You know what that means, right?"

"That, if the situations demand it, I have to perform tasks of a higher level of expertise and skill before I learn the basics." Evelyn stated confidently with a smirk. Her uncle raised an eyebrow in shock. "What? I was into parkour and gymnastics for years; I've had to adapt to situations and perform new tricks at an expert's level in tournaments."

He narrowed his eyes. "You won right?"

She smiled victoriously. "I did."

X

Olivia tried to keep a smirk from forming on her mouth to the best of abilities, but she was struggling to it.

The moment she begun her training session with Ruby, Olivia knew that she didn't need to be trained in terms of fighting. In previous training sessions, it became the former HYDRA assassin had the skills of an expert martial artist and didn't need polishing in that area.

The areas that needed fine-tuning are her ability to use her new gravity manipulation in a battle.

And having been a young girl with similar powers as Ruby… Olivia knew exactly which buttons to push and which not to push… though she focuses only on the latter!

"Come on, Rubs. I'm getting tired over here!" Olivia taunted with crossed arms, her eyes shrouded with pinkish psychic energy as she lifted rocks off the ground and hurled them at the young assassin-trained girl.

Ruby gritted her teeth, swiping her hands left and right, using her gravity manipulation powers to crush the incoming rocks and turned them to dust. "You know, you're starting to grind my gears!" She shouted, launching a wave of rocks herself.

"Really?" The psychic feigned surprise, stopping the rocks from her energy wrapping around the stones. She shook her head. "Hadn't noticed." Purely made out of the intent to annoy her niece, she had the rocks spin around before her.

The former HYDRA assassin glared at her. "You're getting a kick out of this, aren't you?"

"Of course, I am. Best way to teach my little cute, darling niece." Olivia showed a cute smile, and without any motion or gesture, she hurled the rocks back to her.

Ruby rolled out of the way, dust falling over her body from the rocks crashing into the ground. One rock came her way and used her gravity power to push it back.

Raising an eyebrow in intrigue, Olivia saw this as an opportunity to show off another trick that Ruby could take note of. Cracking the knuckles in her right hand, she let pinkish psychic energy course through it and concentrate it in her fist.

Within range, she thrusted her fist and let it slam into the rock. The energy inside of her hand unleashed and cracked the rock before it burst into pieces. Olivia shook off any small debris off her hand with a smug expression on her face.

Ruby rushed to her aunt's side, her face wearing a shocked expression after seeing the rock decimated by the psychic's fist. She stopped in front of her. "How'd you do that?" She exclaimed.

Lifting her fist, Olivia explained. "Concentrated my psychic energy into my fist, strengthening my muscles in the process before it slammed into the rock. The energy travelled through my fist and causes the rock to break with powerful shockwaves, that might seem surreal to the eyes of everyone around."

"Sorta like a two-hit punch?" Ruby deduced.

"That's one way to see it." The mutant confirmed. "You might be able to do it yourself, actually."

"You think so?" Ruby inquired.

Olivia nodded. "Think about it: You use the powers of gravity and literally lift things, you can force things down, compress targets and hurt them from all angles. Pretty powerful, you might be better with your powers than I was at your age."

"Think Dad said something similar." Ruby chuckled.

Her smile faded when seeing red-hot rage coming over the psychic's face. "Sweetie, when your Dad comes back, you're gonna see what happens when you piss me off. I'm gonna tear your father a new one."

Ruby gulped. "_Guess all women are crazy in the fury family._"

"_Crazy's our normal._" She heard the mutant project her thoughts into her mind.

Shaking her head Ruby asked. "By the way, where's Frankie?"

Pointing to the city afar, Olivia answered. "In the city, playing hero with Barry."

X

Racing through his hometown to take care of the newest danger that is taking place, a dozen of thoughts appeared inside of The Scarlet Speedster's mind.

"_There are many reasons why we run, but usually it's to avoid what's right in front of us… a decision to be made or a dilemma we have to face._" Though he thought that, his thoughts turned towards himself. "_Lately, for me, it feels like running is all I've been doing._"

He came to a stop, his feet pushing up gravel and stones as he halted his running. He placed a hand over his earpiece, asking the mechanical engineer at S.T.A.R. Labs. "What you got for me, Cisco?" Barry looked around. "And where the heck's Matt and Liv? Aren't they supposed to be here?"

A tired tone came through from the other end of the connection as Cisco stated. "_You've been playing Good Samaritan all morning. Take a break, like our two funny mutants who finally decided to go on their honeymoon, which means them going back to their own universe for a while so they have to pack their stuff._"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. They're packing right?" Barry asked Cisco.

But it wasn't Cisco answering his question. "**Yeah, they are.**" Magenta replied as she stuck herself to a wall over the speedster's head. She tilted her head. "**Or rather they should be, but instead they're focusing on training Ruby and Evelyn.**"

"_Yeah, they are._" Cisco added with an annoyed tone before turning to a serious matter. "_Are you sure you don't want to get to CCPD, give Patty your attention?_" He and the others on the team knew of what his girlfriend was going to do, accepting the offer to study CSI.

"No, I can see her later." Barry denied, he didn't want to have his attention divert to that now.

Too painful for him.

"**You sure about it, Barry? You might not have a chance to do it later.**" Magenta tried to reason with him.

But her words didn't work. Barry shook his head. "I can see her at work, she still works there."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Beside Cisco at the main console in the facility, Harry agreed with the speedster. "Cause we cannot afford to waste any more time."

Cisco reeled back in his chair with a look of disbelief. "What, cause we've just been sipping Mai Tais since you got here?"

Facing him, Harry countered. "I don't know what you been sipping since I got here, but Barry needs to get better, stronger, faster. We need to train to prepare for Zoom, and not waste time on silly things like honeymoons and new children."

"Oh, I see." Cisco brought his cup of coffee to his mouth. "You haven't had your coffee this morning."

Snapping to him, Harry corrected. "I had my coffee this morning. Don't slurp." Cisco slurped on his coffee. "Don't." It happened again. "Don't." Another slurp came. "Don't." he said in an extended tone, the engineer giving an extended slurp.

Cisco removed his cup from his mouth. "And don't give Matt, Liv or Caitlin a hard time because you're still grumpy. They have the right to focus on their own lives for a while, you know." He defended his friends.

"Fine… but still not the right time." Harry stood by his words.

Cisco narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You don't have many friends on your Earth, do you?" Parts of him felt like it was a rhetorical question. The computer in front of Cisco chimed, getting his attention and he saw what was on there. He called out to The Flash, explaining the alarm. "Runaway chemical transport truck heading south on Kester."

"_On it./ __**On it.**_" Both Barry and Frankie replied.

The sound of whooshing lightning came through the communication device after the speedster spoke, followed by the sound of slithering tendrils wrapping around something before catapulting herself.

X

Two overlapping police sirens continued to blare loudly as they gave chase, chasing after the runaway chemical transport that was in front of them. The truck itself going at immense speed and always staying ahead of it.

Because of the truck's unstoppable speed, it was nigh impossible for the two police cars to catch up to it.

Thankfully, they weren't the only ones to try and apprehend the runaway truck. That knowledge was made abundantly clear when the sight of a blurring red figure with yellow lightning trailing behind him and a small magenta figure swinging over their heads.

The Flash rushed to the left side door of the truck, Magenta landing on top of the truck roof. The two metahumans looked in from separate windows, the speedster looking from the side and the magnekinetic looking in from the windshield. To their united shock, they found didn't find any human or driver whatsoever behind the wheel.

"**What's the plan?!**" Magenta called out to the speedster over the blaring sirens racing behind them.

"How about a closer approach?" If Barry couldn't force someone out, he had to take on a hands-on approach. The speedster swung the door open and got in. After closing the door again, he tried the brakes but found it unable to respond to his action and didn't slow down. "Hey, I can't stop the truck! Somebody rigged it!" He urgently called out to his team.

"**Watch out!**" Magenta called out.

Looking up front, he saw the uncontrollable truck tear off the open door of a car to the side. "Sorry!" The Flash screamed out to the man who got out of his car, seeing the torn off car door on the ground.

Magenta crawled forward, looking up-side down at the other metahuman through the windshield. "**The brakes don't work, but your eyes should, you know!**" She chastised the speedster.

"Sorry!" He repeated.

"_You can't let that truck crash. If you do, you'll take out a whole city block._" Cisco informed the metahuman.

"Great. Thank you." He sarcastically replied, not like it was an obvious situation. "Thank you for that." Barry rapidly slammed his fist into the horn, making it blare and get people out of the streets. Putting his driving skills to the test, he turned the wheel and tried to steer away from crossing cars. "That was close, that was close."

"**Wow, wow, wow!**" Frankie shouted as she was almost flung off the rooftop because of Barry's driving. The claws on her fingers extended, digging into the rooftop, and anchoring herself to the truck to secure herself. "_Calling this driving is too far._"

Her "other" nodded frantically while mentally covering her mouth. "**_I'm gonna throw up!_**"

At that moment, Frankie wondered if a symbiote could actually throw up.

"_Oh, and the plot thickens._" Cisco muttered in horror. "_Uh, dead-end up ahead. You got to get out of there!_"

Barry didn't like the sight of the wall right in front of his path, the one thing he was bound to crash into. "Oh, come on." He looked around, seeing he could find anything to use, anything at all. His eyes lit up at the sight of a lug wrench. "Yes!"

He looked ahead. "Magenta? I'll unscrew the wheels, see if you can stop it from colliding!"

"**10-4!**" The magnekinetic replied and jumped off the rooftop.

_WHOOSH_

Barry sped out of the driver seat in a second, appearing around the large truck vehicle and began to unscrew every bolt on each of the tires. When he finally stopped, the tires then flew off the truck and went off into their own directions. The truck's cabin parts and the tank slid across the asphalt, giving off streams of sparks from the clash between metal and asphalt.

Frankie spun around the air, shooting out tendrils to send out further ahead of the truck. She landed on the ground, her feet digging into the asphalt and pushing up the ground. Spikes came out of her back and she arched her back, launching the spikes from her back with tendrils. They travelled past the truck, the spikes morphing into hooks. They slammed into the ground, hooking into it.

Magenta expanded the muscles in both her legs and her arms, the claws on her fingers expanding to the lengths of sabers. She thrusted her arms and pierced the radiator grille with her claws. The truck continued to travel without wheels, but it slowed down with Frankie in front of it with her claws. Thankfully with the tendrils she used as anchors and her feet in the ground, she managed to force the truck to stop… several meters from the wall.

Retracting her claws and her tendrils, Magenta bent over and panted. "**That was…**"

"That one was a little close." Barry stated as the officers from the squad cars rushed out of their vehicles and examined the truck. He threw the lug wrench to the ground. "Why didn't you use your powers instead?"

"**Would have been too easy.**" Magenta stated with a sigh as she stretched out.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

"Nice! Now can you please, please take a break_?_" Cisco pleaded the speedster over the comms. He turned around with a smug look, facing Harry Wells. "How's that for training?"

"Great." Harry flatly said and took his notepad. "Doubt Snow's kid will do much against someone who can run faster than the speed of sound, though."

"It's impossible to please you." Cisco rolled his eyes and stated. "Look, we're gonna catch Zoom. He's probably has his hands busy with Seth now, according to Ruby and Evelyn and we got Turtle locked up in the pipeline." Harry turned on his chair, facing him, unconvinced by the engineer's words. "All we got to do is use him to figure out how to steal Zoom's speed and then we'll get your daughter back."

However, both Caitlin and Jay entered The Cortex and the powerless speedster announced. "That might take longer than we thought."

"And why's that?" Harry tiredly asked, hints of annoyance clear as the skies in his tone.

Caitlin gulped and horrifyingly stated. "Because Turtle's dead."

Forming an expression that was equal to that of Caitlin's tone, Cisco turned to face the comms and microphone and connected to Barry's earpiece with a press of a button. "Barry, Frankie, we need you two back here, stat."

After Cisco removed his finger from the comms, Caitlin added. "I had Matt and Liv meet us down there too…" She quickly took out her phone and sent a message to her daughters.

X

At the scene of the chemical truck's abrupt stop, Barry heard the tone and brought his hand to the earpiece and stated. "All right. We're on my way."

The Scarlet Speedster ran away to meet up with his team.

But as the speedster of the present ran away to rendezvous with his team… a familiar future enemy smirked at the sight of the speeding metahuman who fights for justice.

Unclenching his hand, Eobard Thawne called out. "Gideon."

A device in the middle of his palm shines a blue light, from which the AI's head, Gideon is formed. "**Was the trip a success, Professor Thawne?**"

With a short chuckle the enemy of the future glanced in the direction of the speedster's direction. "I believe it was. I've finally figured out what time period The Flash is from…" He couldn't keep his smile from widening. "Now let's figure out a way to get home."

As the AI returned to the device in his hand… The malicious speedster from the future saw his end goal nearing him. The end of his reverse would soon come to be….

At his own hands…

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)**

With regretful expressions on their faces, Matt, Olivia, Caitlin, Cisco, Harry, Jay and Barry watched the dead body of The Turtle.

Caitlin was inside of his cell, in a crouch and checking over the results of her examination on her tablet. Olivia was beside her, worriedly and readily standing there with her whip in her hand. Barry was behind them with Matt beside him, the metahuman holding a clenched fist against his face.

As they stood before the dead body, standing in a thick broth of intense silence… Cisco broke the tension.

"He better not be pulling a Juliet." An array of shocked eyes turned to Cisco. "Yeah, that's right. I see plays."

"Pretty sure, this dude didn't have a vial of poison on him when we examined his body." Matt joked, this time being the one to get shocked eyes. "What? I've read the books."

"You're welcome, by the way." Olivia smirked, instantly taking all the credits.

"You read?" Jay shockingly asked the psychic.

"Language teacher here, Garrick. Gotta learn to love the classics." Olivia answered.

Caitlin shook her head before facing Cisco. "He's dead, Cisco and no trace of poison in his system." She added the last part for the nanite mutant's sake.

Harry directed to the bio engineer. "How'd this happen?"

Turning to her results, Caitlin revealed. "Preliminary brain scan shows an acute brain aneurysm."

Realization came over the powerless speedster. "The night we captured him. How's that for timing?" He turned to Harry.

Harry scoffed in disbelief. "What does that mean? You think I did this, Garrick?" Jay didn't deny it. "This man is the key to us stopping Zoom, the key to saving both my daughter and whoever this Seth is. Why would I want that?"

"Never understood why you do anything, Harrison." Jay admitted.

"That's fine with me, Garrick." Harrison looked ready to punch him.

Caitlin looked up. "Jarvis, did you see anything?"

"**My apologies, Dr. Snow, but I did not find anything peculiar the night of The Turtle's capture.**" The AI regrettably informed.

"Did someone shut Jarvis off?" Olivia thought out loud, directing her questioning eyes to her husband.

"Only four people with level of clearance: You, Caitlin, Frankie and myself." Matt stated. "Other way is to jam the cameras, with a EMP or something." He narrowed his eyes on the Earth-2 scientist's metahuman alert watch. "_Or foreign technology from another Earth…_"

Olivia schooled her expressions, having listened to her husband's thoughts.

Harry scoffed. "And I'm guessing you two think this is on me too, huh?"

"Who knows? You did point a gun at our niece." Olivia sniped. "Anything is possible with you, Wells."

"For the thousandth time, your little niece stole from my lab." He repeated.

Matt shifted his eyes to him. "Not her fault, your security sucks ass."

Barry turned around and said. "Guys, look." His words managed to cool down the two Earth-2 men and the overprotective mutants as he walked out of the cell. "We need to figure out how to stop Zoom. While Seth is there to fight him head-on, everything we've tried so far has failed. We need to start thinking outside the box." He then added regretfully. "I mean, we haven't even figured out how to close the breaches yet. Maybe that's where we should start."

Caitlin then reminded them. "We just have to make sure one is still open so Seth can come through, of course."

"Yeah, we don't piss off Seth. He'll be pissed enough at Barry for having him thrown into another Earth." Matt joked, his eyes noticing Barry shivering at what might happen to him.

"Regardless of how that guy might react to my home world, about closing the breaches?" Harry said. "That's a good idea. I'll get on that." He turned around to walk.

"I'll help." Cisco followed him.

Barry's phone vibrated, he took it out and checked out the message. "I've got to get to the CCPD." The speedster announced. "I'll check in with you guys later." He walked away too.

As Caitlin walked out of the cell, walking towards Olivia, Jay Garrick admitted with crossed arms. "Every time you think that Wells is on your team, something happens that makes you doubt it."

"No kidding." Matt agreed before turning to his wife. "You know what this means, right?"

"Yeah." Olivia threw her hands up to the sides. "Our honeymoon-"

"Is still happening!" Caitlin interrupted the two mutants with a stern look. "You're not using our prisoner's death as an excuse to bail out on your long-awaited honeymoon. Both of you are going, even if I have to bring in Felicia and force you both on that trip."

"Caity, come on, this is a sign!" Olivia whined, gesturing to the dead metahuman. "Too much shit happens in this place without us knowing. We need to be here and protect you guys."

"We can handle a week or two without you two." Caitlin said. "Plus, with Cisco never wanting to upgrade the security, this is bound to happen more than this one time."

"Not something a doctor should talk so calmly about, Caitlin." Matt commented in a shaking tone.

Sighing, she told them steadfastly. "The three of us are going to your apartment, with the girls and Felicia, and we're sending you off to your honeymoon once and for all. Even if we have to tie you both with chains and push you through the portal. Come on!" She forcibly turned the two mutants around and pushed them towards the exit.

"Caitlin, come on!" Olivia complained.

"Seriously?!" Matt complained next.

"Let's go!" The bio engineer shouted over their complains, continuing to push them towards them out of the exit.

X

At Olivia and Matt's apartment above JC's bar, Frankie was crawling along the side of a wall. Tendrils were coming out of her sides and holding up travel bags. Detaching herself from the surface of it she landed on the floor and placed the bags beside her.

"That's the bags from upstairs…" Frankie announced with a clap of her hands.

Ruby walked into the room with a bag in her hands. "Why are we the ones who have to help with their packing?" Uncaringly, she dropped the bag to the ground.

The two girls gasped when Evelyn appeared beside them with a bag herself. "Got the last one here."

Taking a swig of her beer and swallowing loudly Felicia chuckled. "Evie, you might wanna keep the "poof-ing around" to minimum. You never know what might happen in a room if you poof into someone's house."

The HYDRA assassin turned towards the adult. "And how come the only adult here is the one who's not doing any work at all?"

The infamous cat burglar twirled a pointing finger at the HYDRA assassin. "Sorry, baby, but you're confusing me with your Mama Snow. She's a responsible adult, I'm a fun one."

Ruby looked to be shocked at those words, at the words of Caitlin being her mother now. She wasn't used to it. It was impossible for her to suddenly replace the one who raised her and trained her to be The Destroyer of Worlds with the one who wants to adopt her.

Felicia saw the girl experiencing an internal struggle, her eyes narrowing on Ruby's form and growing concerned for the girl.

"How'd the training go with Iron Junior and Livy?" Felicia asked, taking another swig.

"Fine, still some room for improvement, though." Evelyn honestly replied.

"Learning a lot." Ruby said with an insincere tone. She faced Frankie. "How'd the training go when you met them?"

Frankie shivered. "I had to train with Aunt Liv, Uncle Matt and Dad, all three of them. Took a while for me to finally get the hang of my powers at that point."

"_Even though she fought against Carnage for her first go-around._" Felicia mused.

"But then I got the hang of it, and I then trained with Felicia for a few months." Frankie gestured to the cat burglar who waved.

But before she could act on that feeling of concern, the door opened and in came both Matt and Olivia, with Caitlin pushing them into the apartment.

"Caity, you can stop pushing us now, God's sake!" Olivia stated in a shout.

"Okay, fine. As long as neither of you try to flee or something." Caitlin said, pointing to them both with a stern look and matching tone.

Matt made a motion of lowering the tension with his hands. "Calm down, Caitlin. We just said we should postpone our honeymoon because we found Turtle dead in the Pipeline. Not cancel it altogether."

"Turtle's dead?" Evelyn asked with horror on her face.

Ruby chuckled. "Anyone up for turtle soup? Seems like a waste since the turtle was tipped over." Instantly getting eyes from everyone in the apartment.

"Ew." Frankie groaned in discomfort of her joke.

"**_Yummy!_**" Magenta excitedly said in her host's mind, her statement followed by a mental swipe of her teeth.

Turning to see the eyes on her, Ruby asked. "What? Too soon?"

"Yeah, and pretty dark, Ruby." Matt admitted.

"And pretty disgusting." Evelyn added.

Neither the nanite mutant's words nor the metahuman's words appeared to have any effect on Ruby's attitude.

Black Cat chuckled. "Caity, you sure got some strange kids now."

"Yeah, I know." Caitlin showed a caring smile and shifted her eyes between the three girls. She inhaled deeply and gestured to the two mutants. "Felicia, help me convince the lonely mutants to finally go on their honeymoon instead of helping us 24/7."

"Easy." Felicia pointed her eyes to Olivia. "Livy, stop trying to escape some happiness would ya? It's time for you and your hubby to slam both feet into a sandy-ass beach, get sand between your toes and drink Mai Tais from coconuts. Be happy, be selfish for once in your psychic-filled life. I want that, you want that, probably your husband wants that too. This time, focus on yourself."

Olivia couldn't disagree with the thief's words. She really wanted all of those things. Olivia wanted to be selfish now. She wanted to be happy with her husband, sitting on breach chairs at some incredibly lavish beach with Matt. Both of them sipping expensive drinks from private bars. Even if she drank from a coconut.

And more than anything… she wanted to commence some important plans with him… in private quarters.

"And you, Matty." Felicia pointed her finger to the nanite mutant. "Don't you want to finally go and be with your wife for a few weeks at some fancy-schmancy resort, eating and drinking expensive stuff? Use some of your Daddy's offers and finally have some fun with the love of your life, let loose and enjoy the fact that you married a crazy hot woman." She saw his cheeks blush at his last words. "If you don't, you're gonna find your precious Iron Knight suits on eBay, again."

"For Christ's sake, stop doing that!" Matt stated in a loud voice.

But he couldn't argue with her. He wanted to be his wife on their long-awaited honeymoon for a few weeks, even just a single week. Just as long as he was able to spend precious time with Olivia. He wanted to spend time at a resort, with her by his side. Finally let loose and… enjoy that the very fact that he married an incredible woman, the love of his life.

The two mutants shared a long look, no words needed for them to be exchanged.

Olivia sighed heavily before looking to Caitlin. "We're only gonna be gone for a week or two, okay."

"Three, four tops." Frankie pitched in. "We're gonna miss you if you stay away any longer."

"But you need some time between yourselves for once." Felicia stated.

"And I have made a device that allows you to contact us if, more possibly _when_ hell breaks loose." Matt said, holding out a phone-like device. "Jarvis is gonna be here as well, so don't worry. If anything happens, you can call us and we'll back in a jiffy."

"Which is gonna be unnecessary…" Evelyn trailed off slowly, taking hold of the device and flipped it around in her hand.

"Because everything is going to be alright." Ruby finished off.

Feeling themselves vastly outnumbered, the two mutants sighed their concedes and took hold of their bags. "Trust us and enjoy yourselves." Caitlin walked over to them. "Nothing's gonna happen. Just take it easy, and make sure to bring us good stories from your honeymoon, all right?"

"Definitely." Olivia gave the doctor a quick hug. She gave the same to Felicia. "Take care of them, will ya, Cat?"

"Of course, they're hopeless without me." Felicia quipped.

Matt walked over to Frankie. "Take care of your mother and your sisters."

"I will." Frankie hugged her uncle. "Have a nice trip, Uncle Matt."

Matt chuckled and unwrapped his arms from her before walking to his two other nieces. "You two… are still new to the family, but you'll love it with your mother and your sister… Take some time to know them."

"We will… Uncle Matt." Evelyn said with a smile, Matt ruffling her hair with his hand.

"Sure thing, Uncle… We'll give them the chance. Promise." Ruby said.

"Thanks." The nanite mutant briefly formed a suspicious look before looking to Caitlin. "Caitlin, do me a favor, would you?"

"What is it?" The doctor asked.

"After we leave, go to S.T.A.R. Labs, and tell Jarvis to initiate BMP" He instructed.

"What's that?" Caitlin asked, her daughters narrowing their eyes.

"A special protocol I installed in Jarvis, it's made to record some stuff, and keep Wells off my projects in Cisco's workshop." Matt explained, Caitlin nodded her acceptance. He inhaled and turned around to face his wife. "Ready for the honeymoon of the century?" He held up the interdimensional travel device that Director Fury left them.

"Let's make it one makes others jealous, shall we?" Olivia winked and watched as Matt pointed the device towards the balcony. The nanite mutant pressed the button, opening a small area of the sphere and shooting out a small laser. The laser connected with the open air at the balcony.

Dark-blue lightning sparked around the targeted area before spiraling around in a vortex. In the middle of it, a small black and dark-blue sphere of energy formed from the lightning. The energy orb grew bigger and bigger, stopping to emit a pulse that expanded the orb and turned it into a hole of dark energy.

"Off you go, and we better not see you any time soon." Caitlin joked in a mock serious tone.

"Call us if you need us." Matt told them and they nodded. He took hold of his wife's hand. "Let's go."

"Let's." The psychic replied.

Caitlin, Felicia, Frankie, Ruby and Evelyn watched as the two mutants slowly walked towards the portal. They watched as their bodies were slowly passing through the portal threshold and slowly enveloped by it with each step they took.

The portal closed on them, indicating the mutants reaching Earth-616.

Frankie looked to her mother. "Mom, you know if Uncle Joe's gonna be alright?"

Caitlin turned concerned. "What do you mean, honey? Did Joe come by before?"

"Yeah, he did." Ruby nodded. "He came and said something about… Francine not having long… Don't know what one is, though."

"That's his wife?" Evelyn vaguely recalled that name.

"Yeah… She's suffering from MacGregor's Syndrome, a disease known to arise in former addicts." Caitlin remembered reading up on the disease. "It's a genetic defect that creates fluid buildup in the lungs, which can lead to oxygen deprivation and multi-system organ failure."

"… Poor woman… Poor Joe…" Felicia said in an empathic tone.

"Don't you need to be there then, Caitlin?" Evelyn directed to the doctor.

Caitlin shook her head. "The only ones who needs to be there now, sweetie… are the West family."

"Hey." Felicia got the doctor's attention. "Know you just said no to the entire showing up at the hospital, but how'd you feel about going later to check on JC and her father?"

"Sure thing, Felicia." Caitlin agreed.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Simulations after simulations ran.

Harrison Wells lost count of the number of simulations he had to initiate in the small workshop. His fingers working at a nonstop pace, repeatedly pressing keys to try and get a better result from his merge simulation. The merging simulation of The Flash's DNA and the extracted DNA of The Turtle.

This is the necessary step that he needs to take to get his daughter back from Zoom. He had to…

Even at the cost of others' lives.

His feelings of saving his daughter again fueled his fire, turning the small campfire in him into a violent blaze. His fingers moving in a blur as he continued his work.

Harry turned his eyes from the monitor, turning them downwards to the keyboard and slamming his finger down on a key. His eyes shifting back to the screen and saw the results.

The two virtual DNA cells of the two metahumans shooting to each other and combining, merging into one cell. The screen zoomed out, showing a plethora of DNA cells of both metahumans. The same thing happened to the thousands of other cells and combining and merging into different cells.

"_Jesse… You're coming home… soon._" Harry thought to himself in triumphant. He had finally got the desired result, the one that assure that he stole the Flash's speed.

"It's not gonna work." Cisco announced in the hallway. Harry glanced at the entry as he closed the simulation window before Cisco's prying eyes saw it. The mechanical engineer entered the workshop with a tired expression. "Closing the breaches, that's like solving Einstein's riddle."

Rolling backwards in his office chair, Harry took out the flash drive from the computer while flatly revealing. "I solved Einstein's riddle when I was ten."

Cisco felt like the otherworldly scientist was bragging. "Yeah, well, maybe Earth-2 Einstein wasn't as clever as ours."

Harry then noted. "You realize this Earth is my Earth-2, right?"

Cisco didn't feel like getting into that mess. "Listen to this." He started. "What if we can figure out how to control my powers? We could find Zoom, get the jump on him."

"That's a good idea. You should get on that." Harry hoarsely said, turning around to face the computers.

"I need your help, Harry." Cisco said with an annoyed expression. "I would ask Matt, but he's on his honeymoon now and I need help."

"What you need, Ramon, is not Stark. What you need is to figure out what triggers your vibes." Harry stated after turning around to look at him.

"Exactly, and I don't know what triggers them." Cisco said. "It's completely inconsistent. Sometimes it's when I touch something that belongs to a breacher, sometimes it just happens."

Harry didn't agree with that. "There's always a cause. Cause, effect. Doesn't take Einstein to figure that out." He turned to face the computer again.

"Okay, so what is the cause?" Cisco asked. "You saw when I tried to vibe Dr. Light, when I tried to vibe you, took a while to work."

"Yes." Harry had a flash of inspiration. "Yes, it did." He got up from his chair and looked to Cisco again. "Meet me in the Time Vault." He walked to the exit.

"For what?" Cisco inquired but didn't get any response. Only a finger pointing to follow him.

Cisco sighed. "_Another Harry-awful plan._"

X

Following the otherworldly scientist's commands, Cisco walked through the darkened hallways towards the Time Vault. He wondered how Harry knew of the hidden vault of the facility, the vault that Eobard Thawne made for himself.

A place to hide his true side, his real side as The Reverse-Flash and keep making his plans in there in secret.

"Maybe I should have brought Frankie or something." Cisco muttered in slight fear, his form nearing the threshold of the Time Vault entrance. But had he done that, he would have had to face the cold fury of Caitlin. And that was a snowstorm he wasn't willing to face.

Nearing the entrance, Cisco saw that it was completely pitch-black in there. "Hello?" He called out, hoping for Harry to reply. He didn't get any, so he tried again. "Hello?" His voice echoed as he stepped into the Time Vault. "Harry?"

He walked deeper into the futuristic vault, still waiting for Harry to finally respond to his calls. But that was slim right now. With a sigh, Cisco whispered to himself. "Of course, now he's gonna make me wait in this freaky-ass braille room."

Of all the places, he wondered why Harry wanted this place to be the meeting spot between them.

After short moments, Cisco got his answer… in the worst possible way.

"Hi, Cisco."

Cisco let out a high-pitched scream. Spinning around he met Harry who spoke to him, wearing the suit of the ominous Reverse Flash. "Stop! Don't do that!" The engineer grunted in discomfort, placing his hand over his chest.

While darkness was still around him, the small light touching down on Harry's form gave him a horrifying and menacing presence. "I figured out your trigger." Cisco stopped heaving, turning his full attention to the Earth-2 native. "A rush of adrenaline." Harry stepped forward.

Cisco looked confused.

"Dopamine floods the brain." Harry now stood in front of Cisco. "And the quickest way to achieve that result…" The engineer looked absolutely struck by fear. "Fear!" In a quick motion, he wrapped both hands around his neck.

As predicted, a surge of dopamine floods Cisco's brain… and it comes to him in series of flashing lights.

X

_Cisco looked around, finding himself in a hallway of a facility. Definitely not S.T.A.R. Labs._

_He turned around, surprise meeting him at the sight of two armed guards with raised firearms. "Do not move!" One of them called out._

_The other guard stated in disbelief. "You can't be."_

_Cisco swung his head around, facing the same direction as the guards' eyes and guns. A new level of paralyzing fear struck him like a lightning bolt as he was forced to take in that familiar demonic form…_

_… __a form that he and his friends fought so hard to erase from this time… and the times that have yet to be…_

_The familiar form of the yellow speedster, glowing volcanic eyes of a demon pointing at the two guards. His red emblem of a lightning bolt still on his chest…_

_The Reverse Flash vibrating with unbelievable speed. It felt like Eobard Thawne was staring directly into Cisco's soul, freezing it somehow with a daunting gaze._

_WHOOSH_

_With red lightning erupting out of his core, the evil speedster rushed forward, speeding into one guard after another and slammed both of them into the nearest wall. Like bullets, the two guards ricocheted off the wall and into the ground. _

_Both of them knocked out unconscious._

X

The vibe ended and left the metahuman with a gaping mouth. He didn't understand why he was forced to experience that horror again. The same horror that he felt when he used his vibing powers for the first time, seeing the evil speedster penetrate Seth's heart with his hand… moments before meeting his own fiery demise at the hands of the elemental.

Harry saw the level of horror and fear on his face and asked. "What did you see?"

Horror intensified as realization dawned on the engineer.

"The Reverse-Flash… He's here."

X

**(Mercury Labs)**

The entire facility was on full alert.

The security alarms blaring like it was an enemy invasion. The CEO, Christina McGee, followed her two security guards into the lobby area to try and find out the source behind the security breach. The guards pulling out their firearms and holding them tightly with their barrels pointing downwards, awaiting the time to raise them at the sight of danger.

Christina swung her head around repeatedly, trying to find a glance or a clue to what or who the threat might be. But so far her eyes met nothing and no one.

_WHOOSH_

Streaks of red lightning attached to a yellow blur sped in front of the CEO, striking down the two guards and rendering them unconscious. "Oh my god."

"Christina McGee."

Christina turned around, coming face to face with the Reverse-Flash. "Who are you?" She asked in worry, his menacing form and his daunting voice sending snakes of shivers down her spine.

"You're coming with me." The Reverse-Flash demanded.

_WHOOSH_

But then a flash of yellow lightning sped into the room and revealed itself to the Flash. His hands letting go of Magenta who stood sharpening cl aws.

"Flash." Eobard stated in shock. His eyes going to the young girl in a strange suit. "Who are you?"

"**That's…**" Magenta said in disbelief.

"Eobard Thawne." The Flash stated in equal disbelief.

"You know who I am?" His voice turned back to normal as the evil speedster stopped vibrating.

Sparks of magenta erupted in Magenta's eyes before fading again. "**How are you here?!**"

"You died!" The Flash screamed.

Neither of their words appeared to faze the evil speedster. "Good to know." He looked to the speedster of justice. "And guess what, Flash. I know what time period you're from. So that means very soon… you will die. Your little sidekick too. Just sooner."

The evil speedster sped forward, leaping into the air with a raised fist and brought it down on the Scarlet Speedster's face. The impact sent The Flash off the ground and rolling into the ground.

"**Flash!**" Magenta shouted before facing the calm Reverse-Flash. Lashing out her hands, both morphing into sharp blades. "**You're gonna regret that, bastard.**"

"Your parents didn't teach you about good manners, did they?" Eobard mocked.

"**Don't talk about my parents!**" In rage, Magenta swung her swords for the speedster.

Reverse-Flash chuckled and dodged the strikes that came for him. Each of the blades coming for him came at slow-motion, allowing him to easily dodge the attacks before could even get the chance to connect.

But, as amusing as it was to see the young metahuman try to strike him and fail, it was getting tiresome.

He grabbed hold of the next swinging blade that came for him. When seeing the young metahuman's eyes widen, he spun around with increased velocity and hurled Magenta. Her form was slammed into the wall, the surface of it cracking from the ruthless attack.

Her form was about to slide down to the floor, but before that could happen Reverse-Flash appeared before her. His hand wrapping around her throat and pinning her to the wall with immense strength.

"More boring than I had thought."

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

"Frankie!" Caitlin screamed at the sight of her daughter's vitals dropping. She had Cisco upgrade the Flash emblem with a scanner that allows it to scan the vitals of those around him. This time it was scanning the vitals of her daughter and bringing the scans to the monitors at the base.

"Not going so well for her." Cisco noted with a fist pressed against his mouth.

"And Barry's down too." Harry flatly noted, he wondered what was happening over there. And he wasn't the only one to wonder that.

Ruby and Evelyn heard the same and knew that Frankie went there with Flash to provide backup. But from the looks of their vitals, it wasn't looking too good for them.

Evelyn's hands clenched; she didn't have the foggiest idea of what threat they might be facing now. But whatever they might be was a fearsome foe. Her body began to emit a faint light, mixed from darkness and light. Her makings began to form on her face.

"Mercury Labs."

The metahuman turned to Ruby who walked closer to her. "What?"

"Mercury Labs, that's where they're fighting right now." Ruby stepped even closer to her. "And I'm coming too."

Evelyn looked shocked and confused. "You want us to go?" She spoke in a whisper.

Not matching her whispering voice, the gravity manipulator said. "The speedster's down for the count, our sister is pinned to the wall and a crazy person choking her to death. None of these guys can fight, so wanna hop to it?"

"We haven't fought against anyone ourselves, not ones we could actually win against!" Evelyn whispered loudly. "You do know that, right?"

"I know that, Eclipse." Ruby said with a determined mind. "But right now, I can see our sister in a bind, and I don't wanna see her hurt. Do you?"

"…Hell no…" She grabbed hold of the assassin's hands. "Let's go!"

"What are you two talking about?" Caitlin directed to the two girls.

"We're deploying ourselves." The assassin stated adamantly. "See ya. Now, Evie!"

"Girls, no!" Caitlin screamed.

But her cry fell on deaf ears as Evelyn's shadows enveloped them both and vanished, teleporting them away.

X

**(Mercury Labs)**

Magenta flexed her body, shooting out sharpened tendrils that came for the evil speedster. But once again Eobard turned his body from side to side and dodged the strikes with ease.

His voice vibrated and he stated. "Not bad, pretty interesting power you have. But…" he raised his hand, vibrating it and held it up high like a sword cloaked in red lightning. "You're just not fast enough, though."

"**Die you bastard!**" Magenta shouted, her eyes brimming with shining shades of magenta.

The Reverse-Flash lets out a demonic chuckle. "You first-"

"Hey, ass-hat!"

But before that could happen, a shining ball of pure light connected with the speedster's form. The ball exploded upon contact, sending him away and away from Magenta.

Sliding down the wall and to the ground gave Frankie the chance to rub her throat. "**Ow.**" She groaned at the lingering pain in her sore throat.

"Frankie, you okay?" Ruby said as she came down to her side.

Facing her new sister, Frankie got wide eyes of shock. "**What are you two doing here?**"

"Saving your ass." Ruby quipped and saw Evelyn walk towards them. The assassin looked over the metahuman, seeing Barry still on the ground. "Man, that one's a weakling."

"Really? You wanna talk about that _now_?!" Evelyn chastised the former HYDRA assassin. She then felt a red light shine over her and her sisters, seeing that it was coming from the yellow speedster. "Who's that?"

"**Reverse-Flash.**" Magenta answered with a grim expression.

Ruby remembered that name from Seth's letter to the team, how he estimated Zoom to be faster than this speedster before them. "Let's see if he's worth the challenge then!" The assassin flung her hands forward, using her gravitational powers to hurl chairs and couches for the speedster.

But with him in a constant state of phasing, none of the launched projectiles made any damage. All of them passing through his body.

"His body's like Zoom's." Evelyn stated, though Zoom doesn't phase as much as this speedster.

"**Both are speedsters, they have the same powers, sort of.**" Frankie informed them urgently.

Eobard gave another distortive chuckle. "Funny… but let me throw now…" In a flash, he grabbed hold of two chairs and hurled them after Ruby and Evelyn.

The metahuman managed to use her powers, teleporting out of the way. Ruby wasn't as lucky and was hit by the chair.

Evelyn reappeared in a smokescreen, turning her eyes to Ruby who was on the ground. "Ruby!"

"Where're you looking?"

Eclipse turned around to see Eobard standing there, grasping her forearm and spun around. The evil speedster threw her into a wall, the younger metahuman groaning in pain.

Seeing both Ruby and Evelyn on the ground, anger began to fill the young magnekinetic, a surge of red-hot anger flooding her entire body. Magenta pointed her eyes to Reverse-Flash, both of them glowing with shining magenta.

"Interesting, little girl." Eobard admitted.

"**You're gonna pay!**" Frankie raised her hand, enlarging it before clenching it. Letting out a predatory roar, she slammed her fist into the ground. With her magnekinetic powers, she controlled the metal in the floor. With her control, she made the metal in the floor shake and vibrate…

Causing a quake to shake the very foundation of the entire facility.

The shaking made Tina McGee brace herself against the nearest wall. The Flash woke up after a lamp fell on his head. Reverse Flash lost his balance because of the unsteady floor.

Magenta had some interesting powers.

But Eobard Thawne was a genius in his time. In this time period, he is far superior than any of the so-called geniuses of this time. With a chuckle, he sped forward again with red lightning erupting from his body. He appeared beside the young metahuman and punched her, sending her into the ground.

He didn't feel like wasting any more time with these ones. Speeding away again, Eobard plucked the CEO off the wall and out of the building.

Barry finally managed to push himself up the ground and looked around in despair. Three of his two friend's daughters on the ground, hurt and unconscious. And more importantly…

Christina McGee was gone.

"No…" Barry muttered in horror.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Turning around Caitlin looked at her three children with a saddened look. All three of them placed on gurneys in the medbay. Frankie and Evelyn were asleep, needing the rest after a vicious fight with the metahuman criminal. The doctor saw that Ruby was still awake, with a wrap of bandage around her head.

"Think they'll be okay?" Ruby directed to Caitlin, concerned about her sisters' well-being.

"Frankie's a tough nut to crack, and you were with Evelyn, who also survived Zoom's prison." Caitlin said, walking to the former HYDRA assassin's side by the gurney. "None of you are easy to beat."

"You might wanna rethink that, seeing as this yellow speedster wiped the floor with us like it was nothing." Ruby commented.

"He's… something else." Caitlin hesitantly stated, curiosity sparking inside of the young assassin.

Ruby looked to her with a questioning look. "Aren't you gonna say something?"

"About what?" Caitlin asked.

Ruby scoffed, crossing her arms next as she started. "Aren't you gonna scold us for jumping into the battle without a plan?" Caitlin turned shocked by the inquiry. "Wasn't exactly the smartest plan."

"No doubt about that." Ruby awaited the incoming words, of how she was a failure, uncontrollable- "But you did it to save your sister, Ruby. I'm not gonna scold you for that. I'm proud of you and Evelyn for doing that, for your family no less. Nor should you ever be scolded for that. Besides, in this place, on this team, taking risky actions is part of the daily itinerary."

Ruby looked absolutely baffled by Caitlin's words. They were so unlike the words she was used to hear from her own mother. Her mother that spews words of disappointment at her in rapid succession like a water hose shooting at a forest fire. Of course, she would show a motherly and caring side, but that was mostly excluded to reveal itself in their private times. Like how she and her mother would eat breakfast together. It was a motherly kind and warm light.

Caitlin had that same light around her now, and unlike her doppelganger, it was nowhere near cold. It's a bright light, like the sun. It felt… nice… Great.

"Thanks." Ruby expressed with blushing cheeks.

Caitlin chuckled and cupped her hand. "But in the future, how about you and Evelyn wait for your uncle to make suits for you two, gonna be a huge help in the field next time."

"Next time?" Ruby turned intrigued.

Chortling at how Ruby lit up like a Christmas Tree at her words, Caitlin confirmed. "Much like with how Frankie is, I highly doubt I can keep you two from jumping into the field, especially with Frankie always out there at first notice. But yeah, you two can continue to go out in the field, but only when you have your suits ready."

"Deal." Ruby nodded with an appreciative expression.

Caitlin remembered what Matt instructed of her. "Jarvis, you there?"

"**I am, Dr. Snow. How can I assist you?**" The AI asked.

"Matt asked me to have you initiate a protocol, one called BMP. Can you do that?" Caitlin answered.

"**Already done, Dr. Snow.**" Jarvis informed.

Ruby looked past the doctor to see the speedster in the Cortex leaning against the main console's railing with a defeated look. "What's his deal?"

Caitlin, already knowing who she was referring to, answered. "Nothing good. Anything with that speedster… is nothing good."

"I know I'm still on R&R, but…" Ruby swung her legs over to sit on the edge of the bed, groaning throughout the entire action. "But mind if I listen in? Could be useful if I have to fight against that bastard again."

"Can I say anything to change your mind about that?" Caitlin rhetorically asked.

"Nope." And yet, Ruby still gave her an answer.

"Come here." Caitlin helped her up and walked out of the medbay and into the Cortex.

The detective saw Ruby and Caitlin together, smiling at them before turning to Barry. "You okay, Bar?"

Barry snapped out of his defeated trance. "I'm good, yeah. It's just a lot." He answered.

Cisco looked to Caitlin. "Evelyn and Frankie okay?"

"You know them by now, Cisco, they're fighters." The doctor quipped.

Joe then looked between the array of scientists around him. "Eddie Thawne died, so Eobard Thawne should have been erased out of existence, right?"

"Not necessarily." Harry said, getting all eyes in the Cortex to point in his direction. "It's possible Eobard was in the Speed Force, protecting him like a bomb shelter, keeping him alive and his timeline intact. It's what's known as a "timeline remnant.""

"Who's Eddie Thawne? Eobard Thawne? And what's a Speed Force, a Star Wars thing? And what's a timeline remnant?" Ruby rapidly fired off her questions.

"Eddie Thawne was my partner, and Iris's fiancée. He killed…died the day of the Singularity." Joe said.

"Eobard Thawne is a… distant family member, in the future." Cisco vaguely explained, getting wide eyes from Ruby.

"The Speed Force is the source of my powers and other speedsters' powers, it's what gives those infused by its dark matter superspeed." Barry explained, vibrating his right hand and sparking yellow lightning around his hand to empathize his explanation. "Thanks to it, we get the powers to time travel… and dimensional travelling."

"Oh yeah, the last one's a real peach. Travelling through 600 dimensional barriers is real nice." Ruby sarcastically admitted.

"But what the heck is the last one?" Joe snapped his fingers to try and find the word. "Timeline reminder? What's that?"

"Timeline remnant." Harry corrected the detective. "Here, let me…show you." He walked towards the nearest transparent blackboard. "This?" He turned around, raising his hand in time to catch the black marker that Cisco threw to him. "This…" He drew a circle after unscrewing the cap. "Is now. Here, today."

Harry drew a line from the first circle, forming another circle that's connected to the line. "This is the time Thawne comes from." Walking to the other end of the board, the scientist drew another circle. "This is the moment you all erased him from existence, but since Thawne is from the future," he drew a line, connecting the circle of Thawne being erased to the one where he comes from. "…this is where his timeline begins. That's why he's still alive."

"This Thawne has not yet traveled back in time to kill Barry's mother." Harry gestured to the circle to the right end of the board. He pointed to the middle circle of this current time. "He's here now in this time period for the first time. "Timeline remnant.""

"Explains why nothing's changed." Cisco said as he understood what Harry's explanation.

Ruby felt like her brain was being put into a mixer and the moment it turned on, her entire brain was turned into a mangled mess and scattering around in the mixer. She was that confused!

Too many pieces were not found yet to form the entire picture.

Barry nodded. "Yeah, it also explains why he didn't know my name or that we have met before. He didn't even recognize Frankie as Magenta."

"To him, you hadn't. Not until the future." Harry said.

A question popped up in Joe's mind. "If Thawne dies before he can time travel again, will that save Barry's mother?" Barry hoped that a good answer would come his way.

But Harry gave the opposite. "No. That's not how it works." He looked to the board with his drawings. "In our timeline, Barry's mother is already dead, and her death is a fixed point. Nothing can change that." Barry's face was riddled with familiar rage.

"That sucks." Ruby said with a scoff.

Cisco turned in his chair, facing his friend's new daughter. "I think I see why Seth called you a swamp mouth in his letter."

"Just means I'm cool." Ruby smirked.

Barry with an adamant expression said. "All right, well, I'm gonna end this, him, in this time once and for all."

Joe showed his dislike of his son's list of priorities and said. "Let's find Dr. McGee, then we'll figure out what to do about Thawne, okay?" Barry didn't nod or show his agreement to that plan. The detective then directed to the others. "I got to go check on Iris."

"Okay, Joe." Caitlin said and he walked away. "What's on your mind, Rubs?" She directed to the baffled look on the gravity manipulator's face.

"More like what's _left_ of my mind." Ruby corrected her. "I don't understand anything right now." Her hands rubbed her eyes with painful confusion.

"I can explain everything, when Frankie and Evelyn wake up, alright?" Ruby nodded impatiently; she was really hoping for Caitlin to help her fill in the blanks as quick as possible. Cause right now, her mind was so scrambled it'd give scrambled eggs a run for its money.

Caitlin smiled, but it was forced due to the other thoughts that brimmed in her mind. "Maybe Matt and Liv should come back."

Hearing her words, Barry smacked his lips and looked to the bioengineer. "Caitlin, I know you're worried about Dr. Gee, but we're gonna get her back and we don't have to interrupt Matt and Liv's honeymoon. They need to spend some time on themselves for once."

"I know." Caitlin nodded in agreement.

The speedster's mind clicked as he recalled something. "Oh yeah, speaking of Matt, didn't he have something to say to Jay.? Something about your "findings."" He had to distract himself, otherwise he'd find himself drowning in a sea of rage that appeared due to the evil speedster's appearance. "What was it?"

"It's about Jay." Caitlin reluctantly said, she didn't want to dive into this matter now, of all times. But she revealed it, nonetheless. "He's sick, and it's getting worse."

"He's sick?" Ruby asked, she wasn't particularly concerned for the man who doubted her to no end when they met, but her curiosity was stronger and birthed the question.

Caitlin explained, her voice raised so both Ruby and Barry could hear her. "Zoom stole Jay's speed on Earth-2, before the Singularity appeared on both of our Earths, and it affected him on a cellular level. I found out about it from a DNA test. We need to do something about it."

"But what? Is there like a medical procedure for useless tasteless speedsters turned useless humans?" Ruby asked.

Barry's eyes widened at her words. "You do know it's possible to be nice, right?"

"Yeah, but that's sounds boring as hell." Ruby smirked.

The doctor chuckled and patted her head. "Not exactly, Rubs, but there is something else I think could work." They looked to her and awaited her plan. "I think we should replace his dying cells with healthy ones indistinguishable from his."

"Is that possible? Doable even?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, how do we do that?" Barry asked.

Smirking as though it was compliment to her own idea, Caitlin answered. "We find his Earth-1 doppelganger."

X

**(Mercury Labs)**

Not a single soul was within the subarea of Mercury Labs. A ramp in front of a ring-like construction, surrounded by machines and computers of different sizes and made for different purposes.

But then two souls neared the machines.

"There." Reverse Flash pointed to the gate that he would make use of. The CEO of the facility beside him, his hostage there to aid him.

Following the direction of the evil speedster's finger, Christina saw a container-like device on the table, shining with a blue light and covered by a familiar device that she and her company have made. "Tachyons?" She inquired. "A man in a yellow suit tried to steal another tachyon prototype last year."

Finding it humorously Eobard laughed shortly as he realized the meaning behind those words. "I must have gotten stuck here once before and not been able to access enough of the Speed Force." He returned his attention to the tachyon particles in the device, pointing to it to get his hostage to follow the same direction. "Tachyons should do it. I want you to isolate and accelerate their energetic properties for me."

"I don't know if I can do that." Christina told the speedster.

The small smirk on his face dropped, his face turning passive and devoid of any emotions whatsoever. He turned his hand to face her, flattening it out like a knife… and vibrated it. "If you want to stay alive…learn."

At that moment, Christina McGee realized… she had no choice in the matter.

X

**(Central City General)**

(Starts off with Felicia walking into the hospital alone, as Caitlin is left with other business.)

Eyes couldn't stop pointing in her direction no matter what, and Felicia Hardy loved it. She got looks from both nurses and doctors as she strode through the hospital floor, a smirk taking permanent residence on her face.

"Gotta love being me." Felicia muttered to herself.

She planned to check on JC and her father in the hospital with Caitlin, but with her being busy she had to go solo. And she was happy, otherwise she'd have to share the catcalls.

Reaching the room, she stopped when hearing JC speak.

"_She paused on the lower step, looking at the flocks of people streaming towards the centre of town. Animals. Let them burn, then._"

Felicia raised an eyebrow at that harsh and cruel tone the happy bartender used.

"_Let the streets be filled with the smell of their sacrifice. Let this place be called racca, ichabod, wormwood._"

"Okay." She muttered to herself in shock. The bat burglar walked into the room, coughing loudly. "Hey." She got the bartender's attention. Felicia saw Joan holding a book as she was seated beside her comatose father.

Joan faced her. "Oh hey. Thanks for coming, Felicia." She hugged the cat burglar.

"What are you doing? Didn't expect to be you so dark." Felicia chuckled.

"Ah, you heard me, didn't you?" Joan chuckled and held up the book.

The burglar saw the title. "_Carrie_" and the author. "_Stephen King._"

Joan chuckled. "Dad loved reading a lot, Stephen King's his favorite author. One of many actually. I read online that reading favorite stories by favorite authors to a comatose patient helps them react a bit. This is the third story I've read out loud for him, but not nothing new."

"Keep trying, every little bit helps. Besides you're by his side every day, that's more than enough." She sincerely told the bartender.

"Thanks." Joan perked up when recalling. "Don't know if you know this, but Joe and Iris is down the hall in another room, checking on Francine."

Joe and Iris visited the bar before and told the young bartender about Francine returning to their lives and trying to right the wrongs of their past. Joan thought it was beautiful that she was trying to right the mistakes that she made. She didn't like that she was racing against the clock now…

…due to her condition…

"Might wanna go and check on Iris, see how she's doing." Felicia stated. Joan nodded her understanding. "You take care, alright?"

"I will, thanks for coming." Joan hugged her goodbye. But before the burglar reached the door, she called out to Felicia. "Hey, were those catcalls and wolf whistles for you?"

"Pretty sure they were for you, honey. You're quite a looker yourself." The thief winked before walking out of the hospital room. Walking through the hallway, she was shocked to see Iris and Joe embraced in a hug. She stopped a few meters from them, her eyes catching the tears trailing down the reporter's face and the saddened expression on the detective's face.

Catching sight of familiar platinum blond hair in the corner of her eye, Iris pulled out of the hug and turned around to find Felicia standing not far from them.

Joe followed the same direction as his daughter. "Ms. Hardy?"

"Hey, Wests." She greeted them. "Hope I'm not interrupting."

"It's okay." Iris assured her while wiping away tears.

"I'm gonna get some coffee." Joe told them before walking off, leaving the two women alone.

Sending a brief glance into Francine West's room, Felicia asked. "How's it going with your Mom?"

"She's weak." Iris croaked, trying to fight back the waterworks. "In pain, despite saying she's better."

"She's trying to be strong for you." Felicia noted.

"I know… and I was awful to her when we met for the first time, and she… she's just trying to be strong for me and my Dad." The reported shakily said.

Felicia stated to comfort Iris. "You were trying to protect your father, Iris. Don't blame yourself for that."

"I've already forgiven her… and it's so, so hard right now." The reporter exhaled. "It's not far. She just got back to us. Why couldn't she have come back earlier… I would have forgiven her back then, just like I've done now."

"Proves you're a good person, is all, Iris." Felicia admitted.

"Thanks." Iris managed to wipe off her tears, looking at the thief with clear eyes. "How's your relationship with your parents?"

"My mother's still in my world, but we rarely talk. My father's dead." She started, Iris facing her with undivided attention. "My old man was Walter Hardy, the thief before me with the name of Black Cat. His skills were apparently good, cause he eventually got the attention of a crime syndicate, The Maggia."

"He joined them?" Iris asked.

Shaking her head, she informed. "Nah, instead he got arrested and thrown in prison on Ryker's Island, another cool place in my neighborhood." She added with a chuckle. "But he died during an escape… I followed in his footsteps, and became the cool cat you know today."

Iris showed a sympathetic look. "Sorry about your father."

"It was a long time, Iris. Don't worry about it." Felicia turned her eyes to the hospital room entrance. "Does your mother need anything?"

"Just… My idiot little brother." She breathed.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

Ruby hummed her shock. Briefly.

Caitlin had a gaped mouth at that reaction. She told the former assassin about Barry's past, starting with the death of his mother at the hands of the evil speedster she and her sisters faced before at Mercury Labs. She even told of all the other things that followed, the particle accelerator explosion and the spreading of metahumans, good and bad.

But all Caitlin got was a hum.

"That's all? I expected more of a gasp or something else." Caitlin commented on Ruby's short display of shock.

Shrugging, Ruby admitted. "Sorry, but most of the things I've either seen or heard have been worse. I mean, my role models were three biological weapons and, later, a badass Inhuman."

"And don't forget being Zoom's prisoner after he plucked you out of your universe which is 600 universes away from this one." Caitlin added with a chuckle and Ruby joined in.

As they were sitting in front of Frankie and Evelyn, still unconscious on the gurneys, Ruby directed to the bio engineer. "How'd you and Dad actually meet?"

"You interested in that?" Caitlin asked with shock, she didn't expect Ruby to show interest in her life like that.

"Sort of, yeah." Ruby said. "Don't think Dad ever told me."

Leaning against the back of her chair, Caitlin started. "He saved me. Remember when I said Barry had been struck by lightning and put into a coma for nine months?" Ruby nodded. "After he woke up, Dr. Wells, Eobard Thawne in secret, told me and Cisco to keep a close eye on him. Barry had to help Iris-"

"His adoptive sister, right?" Ruby asked with a raised eyebrow. "Cause if so, why does he keep looking at her in a strange way?" It made sense on Earth-2, but not on this one.

"That's a can of worms I'm not going open." Caitlin sheepishly answered. "But… Like I said, Barry agreed to help Iris with helping her understand some science behind a special lecture. Me and Cisco followed, to keep an eye on Barry. It didn't go exactly according to plan, because a group of six robbers stormed into the place and raised their guns at everyone. After they took jewelry and other valuable items from the guests, they were about to leave, but a single security guard stopped them. He told them to drop everything and get down on the ground."

"But a single gun can't do squat against six others." Ruby deduced.

"You are correct." Caitlin confirmed. "But the robbers didn't get the chance to fire at the guard. Seth stopped them, showing himself as Venom for the very first time ever in the history of Central City. He stopped the robbers from hurting anyone, fighting them alone. It was incredibly brave and just incredible to watch the bullets bounce off his body like they were rubber bullets. He fought them, defeated them all. Well one of them escaped actually."

"Slow day at the office, huh?" Ruby quipped.

Caitlin laughed. "But it turned out that way because one of the gunmen fired a bullet… for me. Seth jumped in front of me and stopped the bullets from hitting me."

"But that was as Venom wasn't it? Not like Dad." Ruby inquired.

"True, but some time later, maybe a few weeks, Uncle Joe was poisoned by an evil metahuman called The Mist. Seth came to the hospital room to check on his friend. It was surprising to meet Seth for the first time… but it was… nice. He made me smile again." Caitlin said with a blissful smile.

Ruby wondered what she meant by that, but judging from the smile on her face, it was an unforgettable moment for her. Ruby didn't need to pry into it.

Barry walked into the medbay. "Caitlin?" The doctor turned around to face the speedster. "I just got an idea."

"Did you think of a better name than The Flash?" Ruby sniped.

Barry dropped his arms to his sides. "What's wrong with "The Flash?""

"Nothing." She lied with an obvious smirk.

Rolling her eyes, Caitlin inquired of the speedster. "What was it, Barry?"

"If we want to find Jay's Earth-1 doppelganger, then let's go to the precinct. I can access the city's database and see if we can find him. It'd be easier to keep it hidden from Jay if we do if from the station." Barry suggested.

"That's a good idea." Caitlin agreed and got up from her chair. "Let's go. Ruby, mind staying with these two here till they wake up?"

She gave an uncommitted shrug. "No promises, Dr. Snow. I'm a busy girl."

"Cute. Keep an eye on them and tell them to not work too much and keep them hydrated." Caitlin told her before walking to Barry. "Let's go then."

"Follow me."

X

A while later, in Cisco's workshop, Harry was working on a special pair of goggles. The last time this pair of glasses were used was when Cisco had to put into a trance of lucid dreaming to further investigate the strange dreams he experienced, the vibes he got following the time Barry ran back in time and changed the timeline.

Now, it was going to serve a new purpose, to strengthen Vibe's powers.

Cisco, who was looking closely as Harry worked on the goggles, asked. "So what did you do to my goggles?"

Shifting his glances between the metahuman and the goggles Harry answered. "I added a wavelength trigger to stimulate the fear receptors in your brain." He removed his screwdriver and welding tool and picked up the goggles. "Then I took what you already had to induce slow-wave sleep, upgraded it to get you to stage-four sleep." Cisco groaned at that sentence, standing in front of Harry.

Harry assured the native engineer. "No, this is good. This will give us more control."

"Okay." Cisco nodded, but still held skepticism on his face along with fear.

Making final adjustments to the goggles, Harry said. "Now I'll be able to dictate how long you vibe for." He held them out for the viber. "Put them on."

Accepting the upgraded goggles, Cisco glanced at them. "What am I gonna see?" He was worried. The last few months he's been seeing vibes of Earth-2 metahumans spreading fear and hurting his city. Before that, it was visions of Seth being killed by Reverse-Flash.

Now upgraded, he worried if they might melt his brain or overload his mind with vibes.

"I don't know." Harry shook his head. "Never done this before. You'll have to tell me so I can steer you where you need to be." The scientist saw the engineer's expression of fear and doubt growing and convinced him. "Ramon, you want to find Reverse-Flash, put on the goggles."

Though it meant to convince him, it came out like an order.

Cisco sighed his concede, he had to do it now. "Okay."

"Attaboy." Harry praised him.

Cisco took a seat in the nearest chair. Harry told him. "Go ahead." Sighing heavily, the engineer accepted his fate and placed the goggles over his eyes. The moment they were placed over his optical organs the goggles released a whirring sound, indicating them powering up and showing a green light in the lenses.

Then not one… but multiple vibes came to him.

X

_Cisco felt himself spinning inside of swirling room with various walls, each of them accompanied with vibes. All of them different, some of them he has seen others he hasn't witnessed himself._

_As the room continued to spin, Cisco let out in shock. "_Oh-ho-ho, yeah, man._" He noticed a vibe of the S.T.A.R. Labs facility. "_I'm in full on Vibe mode right now._" He saw a vibe of Venom and Flash standing beside each other, fighting Blackout. _

_The metahuman was impressed to see an event of the past._

_A strange shine came from the left side, making him turn to it and saw it was another one of Venom fighting. But his opponent was weird because it looked Venom… but at the same time it didn't._

_"__What do you see?" Cisco heard Harry inquire, his voice echoing while the metahuman was enthralled in the full-on Vibe mode._

_"_It's hard to explain. It's different events. Different events in time._" Cisco unsurely explained. "_Some of them, I've never seen, looks pretty bonkers, really._" He admitted, seeing Venom, Magenta and Flash fight strange foes that he's never seen before in this city._

_New threats perhaps? Or threats on another Earth? _

_He saw a pair of crimson red eyes shining at him… not unlike those belonging to the Reverse-Flash but… not the yellow speedster's._

_He also saw a strange man with a skull on his, looking around and… standing before Venom._

_"__Concentrate on The Reverse-Flash." Harrison Wells advised, his sentence snapping Cisco out of his trance._

_"_Okay._" Cisco said, closing his eyes and concentrated on the menacing speedsters of the future. Opening his eyes again, he saw in front of him a vibe of Reverse-Flash speaking to Gideon in the middle of the streets. "_I see him._" He informed the other scientist._

_"__Move toward him." Harry instructed._

_Cisco obliged, feeling himself close in on the speedster. He found himself standing in front of the speedster, but he didn't see him._

_"_Okay, now what?_"_

_"__Try to picture him with Christina McGee." Harry stated his answer to the viber's question._

"_Where the hell am I?_" _Eobard Thawne asked Gideon, but faded away due to that short vibe ending shortly._

_Cisco envisioned Eobard Thawne together with the CEO of Mercury Labs with closed eyes, waiting for the vibe to show itself. It then came to him, announced with a pair of voices._

_"__It's charged. You can go now." Cisco heard Christina's voice, he opened his eyes and saw them both in what was a small lab. "You said you'd release me."_

"_Yes, I did. Didn't I?_" _Eobard slowly replied._

_Then much like he intended to do with Cisco, Eobard Thawne raised his hand, vibrating it and pierced Christina's chest. _

_"_NO!_" Cisco screamed when seeing the Mercury Labs CEO fall to the ground, dead as a doornail. _

_In the vibe, Eobard turned towards the gate that swirled with energy. Putting on his cowl again, the evil speedster charged for the portal with crimson lightning erupting out of his body. Passing through the portal, the gateway unleashed a pulse._

X

The gateway pulse from the vibe forced Cisco out of full-on Vibe mode, the engineer gasping in shock of what he was forced to see and shot up to his feet again.

Harry narrowed his eyes on the sweating fear-struck metahuman. "Well, what is it?"

Fear and regret fell over Cisco. "She's dead."

Christina McGee is dead… Team Flash was unable to save her.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Caitlin was in disbelief. She and the others heard of what Cisco and Harry did and it overwhelmed her with a tidal wave of sadness. The doctor had been grateful to the CEO of Mercury Labs for a very long time, she helped her a lot with her and Frankie losing Seth or thought to have lost.

Ruby knew that Caitlin was a former employee of Mercury Labs, some time after the Singularity. They might have been closer than she thought.

Caitlin faced Cisco. "Dr. McGee is dead?" She wanted confirmation, the first time she heard it from him didn't sound right, or _feel_ right, for that matter.

Cisco rubbed his face and reexplained. "Harry and I were trying to hone my powers to find Zoom, and then we ended up using them, finding The Reverse-Flash, and that's when I saw him kill her. And then he left."

"So we're too late." Ruby regrettably said.

Barry widened his eyes at Cisco's words. "Wait, he left? What do you mean, he left?"

Cisco elaborated. "McGee built him some kind of speed machine and he ran into it and got flung back to the future." Barry breathed out his discomfort with that.

"Wait? That's possible? To go back to the future?" Ruby rapidly asked.

Glancing at her, Caitlin lowered her eyes at those stated questions.

Harry had a flash of inspiration. "You'd need superluminal energy to send someone through time."

"English, please." Ruby demanded.

"Tachyons." Harry simplified.

"Not helpful." Ruby shook her head with a frown. Harry didn't want to go into another explanation and walked to a computer.

Caitlin patted the former assassin's shoulder. "Another name is faster-than-light-particles. If someone used them, they could very well travel faster than light, and even, yeah, travel through time itself."

"That's crazy." Ruby admitted with an exhale. "You guys seen these tachyon things before?"

"We have and we can track their location once they've activated." Barry replied to Ruby.

Harry brought up a tachyon scanner to scan the entire city for the superluminal particles. "Anything?" Barry hopefully asked.

"Nothing." Harry answered.

Barry turned back to Cisco. "Cisco, you're sure what's what you saw?"

"I'm positive." Cisco said in a saddened tone.

"All right." Barry said in a tone that matched the engineer's own tone.

Harry narrowed his eyes with realization, turning them to the viber. "What else did you see?"

Cisco recalled everything from the vibe. "Aside from other strange vibes, in the one with McGee and Thawne, there was all sorts of weird tech everywhere. There was a clock."

"What's weird about that? Pretty standard for, like, every place in a city of any universe." Ruby quipped.

"Wait…" Harry had a revelation. "What time did the clock say?"

Cisco's mind returned to the vision of the vibe, envisioning Thawne and McGee in the lab. Beside them was a clock and he focused on that. Recalling the timecode, he informed the otherworldly scientist. "9:52, I think. H-How is that relevant?" he stammered confusedly.

Ruby scoffed and pointed a thumb to the timecode on the monitor beside her. "Cisco, it's 6:00 now, not 9:52."

Cisco shot up from the chair, his legs pushing the wheelchair backwards. "Are you guys telling me I can see the future?"

Harry flatly replied. "That's exactly what we're telling you."

"Those goggles are getting named immediately." Cisco commented with a serious look, Ruby chuckling.

Caitlin smiled joyously. "But that means Dr. McGee is alive."

"That's right." Harry confirmed.

"Yeah, okay." Barry said, cupping his hands. "We have 3 hours, 52 minutes to find her and stop Reverse-Flash. Let's do it."

"Yeah, um… Ruby, how's Frankie and Evelyn now?" Caitlin directed to Ruby.

"Snoring." Ruby chuckled. "But they're okay."

"Good, come with me and help me. When they wake up, they're gonna come and help us too." Caitlin stated and they walked

"The more the better, lead the way, Dr. Snow." Ruby said and followed the doctor.

X

(Note: Wally works on his car for the next race)

Inside of his darkened garage, Wally West is working on his race car. The hood was opened so he could work on the engine, a cart beside him filled with the tools he needed to fine-tune his vehicle. He had to make sure it was ready for the next race. But calling it a race seemed ridiculous, he'd win the loser's car in a heartbeat in the next race. A smirk formed on his mouth.

"_No better feeling than that._"

But despite feeling good about the races he'd easily win… he couldn't but feel a void in his guts, slowly growing.

His thoughts of the growing void came to a halt when noticing a presence beside him. He looked and saw Iris and Felicia.

"Nice nitrous kit." Iris praised.

"Not to mention nice wheels." Felicia admitted, grazing the door with her fingers.

"What do you want?" Wally asked groggily.

"You're gonna get caught one of these days. You know that, right? Get thrown in jail?" Iris reminded her idiotic street racing little brother.

"Oh, right? This is the brother who won't stop racing even when his sister or Dad tells him to." Felicia taunted. "Sounds like someone wants a spanking."

Wally gave them an uninterested look. "I'll stop racing when these hospital bills stop coming in. If that wasn't the case, it ain't none of ya' business."

Iris formed a saddened expression. "I saw Mom today. She says you haven't been by in a while."

Wally resisted the urge to scoff in disbelief. "Yeah, she knows why." He said angrily.

Felicia pitched in. "Apparently, your mother thinks your angry with her."

Blinking a few times, Wally exclaimed. "I have every right to be angry. Nothing for 20 years, then out of nowhere, she tells me I have a sister, I have- I have a father."

"Yeah, the same thing happened to me too, remember?" Iris rhetorically informed. "But that shouldn't keep you from seeing her before you can't anymore."

"You only get one mother in life." The thief added.

Wally shook his head, dropping the tools in his hands. "No. Look… that's not what it is."

"Then what is it, Wally?" Iris impatiently asked.

Not liking how he was being interrogated, he steadfastly said. "I got to go." He walked past Iris and Felicia, making his way to the exit.

"Last year, my fiancé died…" Without looking, Iris knew that her little brother came to a stop and looked back to her. "Unexpectedly." She turned and face her brother. "One moment he was here, the next… gone. I didn't get a chance to say good-bye to him, to tell everything he meant to me. That he was my world… that he was loved."

Felicia smiled.

"But today I got to say goodbye to your mom." Iris continued. "_My_ mom. And it helped us both find peace with what happened to our family." She could see her words slowly cutting through her brother's thick skin like a knife through butter. "Wally, don't make a mistake you're gonna regret the rest of your life." Wally lifted his head.

"Go see your mom while you still can." Iris told him.

He didn't say anything and walked away, leaving the two women alone in the ratty garage.

Felicia faced the reporter. "You know, your fiancé is a hero, right?"

"I know." Iris looked down. "Just wish I could tell him that."

"Yeah… but I have a feeling he does, even if he's not here anymore." The burglar admitted, Iris smiled at her words.

X

Stirring in the bed, Frankie opened her eyes and looked around. Remembering her fight with the evil speedster, Reverse Flash, she wasn't surprised to find herself in a gurney. She looked to the side and saw Evelyn hospitalized on a gurney herself.

"**_You're doing okay there, Frankie?_**" Magenta asked her host in concern.

Frankie chuckled with a wide smile. "Glad to see you're still kicking, Magenta."

"**_Gonna take more than that to stop me._**" Magenta said with a mentally proud huff.

"Hey, you're awake." Ruby commented as she stepped into the medbay.

"Yeah, hope you haven't planned the funeral yet." Frankie quipped.

Ruby smirked with a shrug. "Already had the theme planned: Alice in Wonderland." Frankie gave her a glare. "But don't worry, I'll call the funeral home and tell them the funeral's off cause my sister decided to come back from the dead."

"You're such a saint." Frankie joked and leant up against the back of the gurney. "How long have we been out?"

"Four hours, more or less." Ruby walked in with a water bottle in hand. "Caitlin told me you and Evelyn need to stay hydrated. But the latter is still sleeping so can't do much about her." She nodded to the other metahuman while holding out the bottle to the magnekinetic.

"Sounds like Mom, all right. Thanks." She expressed her gratitude for the bottle of water. "What happened to Tina McGee? She's okay?"

"Nah." Ruby took a seat in the chair. "She's in this Reverse-Flash's hands. But Wells and Cisco are scanning for tachyons or whatever to find him again before travels back to the future."

"Damn it, I missed a lot." Frankie said with a defeated sigh.

"Happens to the best of us." Ruby looked to Frankie. "But back at the facility, you… somehow, made an earthquake? How? Thought you could only control metal."

"Yeah… Something I remembered Dad can do and Felicia helped me out with this in secret." Ruby looked intrigued and gave her full attention. "Dad can control earth too, that's how he can cause earthquakes, only to the range of a room. Felicia told me I can apply the same principle with my powers in modern buildings. I've been trying it out by myself for a while, back at Mercury was the first time I used it in the field."

"Pretty great trick. Mind teaching me that one?" Ruby asked with a playful tone.

"Definitely." Frankie agreed with a nod. Seeing a shifting form in the corner of her eye, she sees Evelyn stirring her sleep. "Looks like she's coming too, as well."

Ruby watched as a pink tendril slithered out of Frankie's side and grabbed hold of another bottle of water.

Evelyn's eyes opened and she looked around, seeing both Ruby and Frankie turn their eyes to her. "Hey you two." She greeted them groaningly. "What happened?"

"We lost." Ruby stated grimly, Evelyn understanding immediately.

The tendril from Frankie's body swung towards Evelyn. "Here you go, Evelyn." The metahuman nodded her gratitude and accepted the water bottle.

While Evelyn took a swig of her water, Ruby looked to Frankie and saw the tendril slithering back into the magnekinetic's body. "Kinda cool, you have a symbiote in you like Dad."

"Yeah." Frankie showed a cheeky smirk. "Magenta's a perfect example of unplanned pregnancy that turned incredible."

"**_You bet your ass I am!_**" Magenta shouted.

"You gotta tell us the story on how that happened." Evelyn's expression fell, paling with realization as she shot to a sitting. "Wait. Does that mean there's a She-Venom out there and…" The thoughts in her mind cut off her own sentence.

"…Venom, Dad, and this She-Venom… did it?" Ruby continued after Evelyn, seeing as she couldn't finish her own sentence.

"… No…" Frankie simply answered, her sisters' spoken thoughts spawning unpleasant thoughts in her own mind.

Before they could dive into another conversation, Caitlin entered the medbay and saw Frankie and Evelyn awake. "Thank goodness, you two are awake. I was worried out of mind."

"Sorry, Mom."

"Sorry, Dr. Snow."

Frankie and Evelyn respectively stated.

"Don't worry, as long as you two are alright, I'm happy." The bio engineer smiled. "I gotta go back to work and search for Reverse-Flash." She clenched her right hand, all three of the girls noticing her action. "You three stay in here for a while, when we need you, I'll call."

"Alright, Mom." Frankie assured and the doctor walked away to continue her work.

"Frankie, what's wrong with Caitlin? She seems… angry." Ruby noted.

"Long story." Frankie started before getting into a long conversation of Reverse-Flash's actions, past, future, and erased.

X

In the Cortex, Harry was intensely looking at the monitor that ran the tachyon scanner, continuing to scan the city for tachyon activity. It's been doing so for the last three hours and thirty minutes and not a single signal revealed itself.

The monitor emits trilling sounds as another scan for tachyon particles was initiated. But with no result appearing, Harry stated. "No tachyon activity."

"We're running out of time. We've got to find them." Barry pitched in with a heavy expression.

Cisco then explained. "It'll take a few minutes for the device to reach full power once it's activated, but when we find it, you're gonna have to get there fast." Both he and Barry laughed at that joke, as if the speedster could possibly move slow.

Caitlin walked to Barry. "Hey, Barry."

"Yeah?" He turned his head to the doctor. Seeing the distance between them, he walked closer to her.

When close to her, Caitlin inquired. "Have you found out anything else about Jay's doppelganger?"

Barry formed a frown. "There's on Jay Garrick on this Earth."

"That's so weird. Everyone has a doppelganger." Caitlin smiled at her own words, realizing what they meant.

"What's with the smile?" Barry asked with narrowed eyes.

"Just thinking there's another one of me on Earth-2 maybe and might also fall for Seth too, or him falling for her. Might be fun, is all." Caitlin said with a playful tone. She didn't know if Seth would be lucky or maybe hold off till he sees the woman he really loves.

At the thought of his own doppelganger on Earht-2, he admitted. "I'm betting on him beating and or insulting my doppelganger mercilessly." Barry said, beads of sweat falling over his forehead. Shaking off the sweat drops, the speedster suggested. "But for his Earth-1 doppelganger, maybe just ask Jay. He's a good guy. Just ask him. I'm sure he'll tell you."

"Okay." Caitlin nodded with a smile, mentally hoping for Seth to be here to help her with this dilemma. Noticing movement beside her, she looked to the side and saw Joe walking around the corner. "Joe, are you okay? Francine is…"

"As good as she can be." Joe replied while rubbing the back of his head. "Barr, mind talking with me for a sec?"

"Yeah, hold on." Barry answered and walked to the detective.

Caitlin walked to the main console to sit beside Cisco. "Hey." He greeted.

"Hi." She greeted back, taking a seat on the chair beside him. "How's the search going?"

"We're getting bupkis right now, just like the past three hours." Cisco groaned, abruptly leaning against the back of his chair and exclaiming. "Really wish Matt and Liv hadn't gone on their honeymoon now!"

"We can handle this, Cisco." Caitlin encouragingly told him with a pat on his shoulder.

"Let them go off on their honeymoon or back to their own universe for that matter, it doesn't matter if they can't help here." Harry said in a hoarse-like voice while keeping his eyes on the monitor.

Cisco swung his eyes to the Earth-2 scientist. "Really, Harry? You gotta stop being such a sour pants? Come on, be like Jay for once and actually like Matt and Liv."

Harry faced him with a dry look. "You do realize your two beloved mutants did threaten to more or less decimate me and Garrick after Snow's new kids were brought here into this facility?"

"In their defense, both you and Jay suspected them of being Zoom's cohorts from the get-go." Caitlin said in defense for her children. Harry didn't say anything, and Caitlin sighed before countering. "Harry, look at it this way: Seth finds your child again and protects her, you, at the very least, _try_ to be nice to his children. Who knows, might do you so good."

"I doubt either of things will actually happen, Snow. Ergo, a waste of time." Harry argued immediately.

"You're really hard to work with." Caitlin commented.

"Never heard that one before." Harry sarcastically quipped with a glance thrown at Cisco who showed a wide grin.

Then the alarm blared abruptly. Its loud blaring alerting everyone nearby. Frankie, Evelyn and Ruby ran out of the medbay to check on the situation, Barry and Joe rushing in from the hallway. Cisco announced urgently. "Tachyons! 87th and Avenue J."

"Mom!" Frankie got Caitlin's attention. When her eyes faced her daughter, she was already clad in her symbiotic suit as Magenta. The lower half of her mask opened to reveal her mouth. "**We're going too!**"

"Fine, be careful." Caitlin said, she knew it was pointless to try and fight her daughter once she was set on something.

"**Barr-**"

_WHOOSH_

Magenta's words were cut short due to Barry speeding towards the mannequin and suited up, then speeding to her and picking her up.

Cisco looked to the location of the energy signal. "Must be one of Mercury Labs' off-site facilities."

Harry walked to them. "Hack into their se-"

"I've hacked into the security feed." Cisco stated.

"And once that-"

"I'm one step ahead of you." Cisco cut him off again as he's one step ahead of him, bringing up the security feed on their monitor. The engineer gulped at the sight of Christina walking towards the device beside the gate. "Oh no."

Caitlin had a bad feeling about this, Ruby and Evelyn rushing to stand behind her chair to see what's happening. The bioengineer calling out to them in the microphone. "Frankie, Barry, hurry up!"

X

**(Mercury Labs, Off-Site Lab)**

With her job done, Christina McGee hoped she would be let go and return home. She turned around, having checked on the energy source and looked to the evil speedster. "It's charged." She walked towards him. "You can go now."

Eobard Thawne didn't say anything to her and kept his eyes on the gateway. _His_ gateway home to his own time-period, able to return home with the knowledge of the Flash's time period and he could finally snuff the flame that was the Flash before he could become the man he is in his time.

"You said you'd release me." Christina reminded him hopefully.

At those words, Eobard made eye contact with his hostage. "Yes, I did. Didn't I?" He bemusedly said.

He empathized his point with his hand raised into the air, flattened like a knife, vibrating it with red lightning cloaking every inch of his appendage.

The fear in Christina magnifies by numerous levels and she found herself unable to make a single sound.

_WHOOSH_

But after he phased through the wall and let go of Magenta, sending her to the ground in a roll, Barry charged his shoulder into Eobard Thawne and hurled him into a fenced wall. Grunts and groans of pain came from his mouth as he collided with the fence.

Magenta landed on the ground beside Christina. "**Are you okay, Dr. McGee?**"

"Yeah, I am." She assured the young metahuman.

"**Okay, get out of here, NOW!**" Magenta shouted her urgency, the CEO running away instantly.

"I'll take the power source." Barry announced.

But Magenta morphed her hand into a long rapier-like blade and pushed the Scarlet Speedster back. "**Don't bother…**" Her white pseudo-eyes shining brightly with magenta. "**… I'll tear the whole thing apart!**"

The entire metal floor began to shake as the young metahuman focused her eyes on the gateway. Reforming her bladed hand back into a hand, she raised both hands and slowly clenched them at the sight of the gateway.

The machine and power core began to shake violently, bolts and screws shooting out of them both, clattering loudly upon connecting with either pillars of metal or the metal floor. Those small and pesky sounds were deafened by what happened.

Magenta clenched her hands violently, roaring loudly and the machines tore to pieces and flung all over the place. The power source shot towards the speedster's hand. Barry had to move out of the way as more metal pieces came flying his way.

"Nice job." Barry told her impressively.

Eyes still shining magenta lights, she countered with a scoff. "**One of has to do something right around here.**"

"_Yeah, still Seth's kid._" Barry thought to himself when hearing her counter. He vibrated his hand, shaking the power core in his hand and watched as they fell into small pieces and dropped them to the ground.

"That was my way home!" Eobard Thawne screamed.

Magenta rolled her eyes before facing him. "**Try Google Maps next time, all you need is a good internet connection. Genius, my ass.**"

Normally the young metahuman's humor would have sparked a laugh from Barry. But his rage was masking every part of his expression. "You're not going anywhere." He growled at the evil speedster.

"You haven't won here, Flash. Not you and your sidekick here." Eobard sneered. "I'll find another way back."

"**First, I'm not his sidekick.**" Magenta stated adamantly.

"Second, you're gonna have to go through us first." Flash followed with a statement of his own.

The evil speedster didn't pay any attention to the magnekinetic, devoting his sole, amused focus on The Flash. "You really think you're fast enough to stop me?"

"Let's find out, we got the numbers on our side." Flash confidently said, Magenta forming war axes on both hands. "

"Catch me if you can." Reverse-Flash challenged before speeding away.

"**You're bringing me with you!**" Frankie shouted to the red speedster.

"Alright." Barry accepted.

_WHOOSH_

X

The chase was long, felt like hours and both speedsters ran through the entire city. Their run came to an end near the warehouses near the docks when The Flash spun around and threw Frankie into the Reverse-Flash and both slid across the ground.

Spinning around, she jumped into the air before landing on the ground. Frankie gagged repeatedly as she felt her last two meals try to crawl up from her stomach. "**That's the last time I let myself be thrown.**" She groaned, fighting to push her stomach contents back down. "**Flash, you okay there?**"

Barry nodded and sped forward, forcing the evil speedster up and pinned him to the fence. "Not fast enough, Thawne." He grunted when he let a lightning-cloaked fist slam into the side of Eobard's face. "I will never lose to you again."

Magenta and Frankie watched as the Scarlet Speedster continued to let his fists fly, each of them hitting a vital spot with lightning increasing the strength and the speed. "**Flash calm down!**"

The speedster spun around, hurling Eobard for the younger metahuman. Widening her eyes, she jumped into the air with a flip. Her arms lashing out and attached tendrils to his form. Increasing her strength with her symbiotic powers, she swung the evil metahuman over her head and then slammed him down to the ground.

Landing on the ground, her eyes shined with magenta again before she clenched her hands and flexed her arms. The fences around her tore into pieces and latched onto her arms, forming metallic gauntlets that she used to slam Reverse-Flash into the ground.

She raised it high before bringing it down on him again. The metal on her arms shot off and wrapped around her right foot. Reeling it back, she thrusted it into Reverse-Flash's face and pushed him off the ground, pieces of the ground thrown into his head.

Before he could touch the ground, The Flash grabbed him again and spun around, slamming him into the fence again. "This war between us, it ends now!" Eobard screamed loudly as the Scarlett Speedster unleashed a gatling of lightning punches to his body.

"_Bar, you got to stop!_" Frankie heard Joe call out to the speedster, but it fell on deaf ears. "_Bar, don't kill him! Just bring him in!_"

"_Frankie stop him!_" Caitlin shouted to her daughter.

Magenta obliged and shot out her arms, splitting them off into tendrils. With quick abilities, she wrapped them around the Scarlet Speedster's limbs, and yanked him off the evil speedster, who slid down to the ground as he was no longer being punched into a fence.

"**Calm down!**" Magenta empathized her point with her tendrils tightening their hold on his limbs, making him groan in pain. "**You're gonna end up killing him.**"

Barry realized she was right and sighed heavily. "You're right, sorry." He panted and huffed, his eyes focused on the evil metahuman. "Get the cell ready."

Frankie exhaled, releasing her tendrils from his body. "**Good… Let's go.**"

But before that, Barry reeled back his fist and then swung it into Eobard's face, knocking him out.

Frankie raised both hands, her expression widened with disbelief. "**Come on, man!**"

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs)**

The metahumans returned to the facility, bringing Eobard Thawne into a containment cell and was now looking at a monitor, displaying the security footage from the evil speedster's cell. The evil speedster felt the camera lens zoomed on his form, turning his passive eyes to it.

Frankie was twisting and turning her sore joints as she looked at the screen too. "I hate how he looks so cocky and smug like that."

Caitlin stroked her hair. "Probably just being a sore loser, sweetie."

"Yeah, you kicked serious butt back there, Frankie. You tore the gateway machine into pieces with ease, too." Evelyn stated with a smirk.

"Thanks, Evie." Frankie expressed.

Ruby looked to the monitor. "Back to the matter at hand, is it okay to just put him in a cell like this?"

Joe nodded his agreement, facing the others. "Yeah, he can't…" He trailed off, the word he searched for lost to him and tried to mimic the word with his hands.

"Phase his way out?" Cisco helped him along. "No, he can't do that."

Caitlin nodded to the screen. "It's the same cell we used to hold Dr. Wells last year."

Thinking back to Frankie's story, Ruby asked. "That guy in the cell, wearing his…" She pointed a finger to Harry. "…Face. That's a totally weird and creepy thing."

"Like Zoom capturing metahumans and keep them in glass cells like trophies." Evelyn quipped.

Barry huffed and turned around, walking to the exit. Joe faced him. "Barry, where you going?"

"I'm going down there." Barry replied flatly as he continued walking to it.

"No, you're not." Harry stopped him. "The more he learns about you, the more you will alter the timeline."

"He killed my mom!" Barry snapped at him.

Harry countered. "He's from the future. He hasn't done that yet."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't that mean he doesn't know Barry's The Flash?"

"Exactly, he doesn't and he needs to keep it that way." Harry told them; Barry looked down in defeat.

Joe walked closer to Harry, arguing. "You already said that his mother's gonna die no matter what we do."

Harry argued back. "There's ramification any time anybody messes with the timeline, and it's impossible to predict what those ramifications are going to be."

"Like mutants from Earth-616 showing up on our world, changing the entire course of this Earth's future." Caitlin muttered to herself as she recalled the newspaper article from the future, showing her and Seth's future as husband and wife and him as a different type of demonic being. She looked to the speedster who still bears a look of despair and defeat. "Barry, you caught him and you and Frankie stopped him from killing Dr. McGee. In my book, that's a win."

Though he registered her words, he shook his head in denial. "This doesn't feel like a win. Not with all he's done to us, this city… our friends and family." His phone vibrated suddenly, and he grabbed it off the table. He saw the message and decided to dive into it. "I got to go." He walked out of the Cortex.

"I need to meet up with Jay now and talk about something else." Caitlin got up from her chair and took her coat. "Girls, you wanna come with me? It's at Jitters."

"Yes please." Frankie and Ruby gave Evelyn raised eyebrows. "What? I like the coffee." Caitlin giggled at her reasoning.

"Evelyn's a coffee addict, nice." Ruby joked. "Can't you just teleport us all?"

"Thanks, but a fast a trip with a speedster throughout the city that almost made me throw up, I'll have to pass on "shadowporting."" Frankie joked.

Cisco's head looked up at that name. "Shadowporting? That's a good name. I'm taking credits for that, Frankie!" he exclaimed and the young metahuman stuck out her tongue in mock retaliation.

"All three of you come with me, Jitters' waiting." The bio engineer stated as she had the three girls follow her like a general marching in front of her troops.

Cisco laughed and turned around to walk to the computer again. But he stopped when feeling something wet trailing down the inside of his nostril. He checked it with his finger, dapping his insides and saw it with specks of blood. He took hold of a napkin and cleaned his nostrils, seeing them both with blood.

Harry saw his action… and walked away.

X

**(CC Jitters)**

Caitlin and her three kids walked into Jitters after a short drive from S.T.A.R. Labs. Scanning the coffee shop she found Jay Garrick walking to a table with a cup of coffee. She waved back to him when the powerless speedster waved his greetings.

She faced her children and told them while pulling out a few bucks. "I'm gonna talk with Jay, you three get some coffee and relax." Caitlin handed the money to Ruby.

Holding up a single dollar, Ruby asked with a smirk. "Any chance we can use this for espresso?"

"No, espresso, you guys are incredible and hyper as is. Throw in an espresso-high, I won't be able to handle any of you." Caitlin sternly said, even crossing her arms to complete the look. "So I repeat, no espresso. I will ground you with housework for a month if see you guys drinking a sip of that stuff."

"Fine, Mom." Frankie agreed with her hands holding up like as she was facing a gun.

"Okay, Dr. Snow." Evelyn agreed with a nod.

"Alright. You go and take care of your powerless speedster." Ruby faced the metahumans. "Come on, guys, let's go get some coffee! The doctor's treat."

Caitlin ruffled Ruby's bleached hair before making her way to Jay.

Ruby gave the doctor a lingering look while straightening her hair. "Hey… Think Caitlin got a crush on that Garrick guy?"

"No way." Frankie said adamantly with a shake of her head. "Mom loves Dad. That's not changing even if Jay's here and Dad's on Earth-2, I swear."

"Yeah, you know how Dad is, you saw him on Earth-2, right?" Evelyn stated and then said. "But what made you ask this?"

"Just wondering why she's so determined to help Garrick. She's a doctor, sure, but is that all…" Ruby looked skeptic as the doctor took a seat before the powerless speedster. Parts of her couldn't help but wonder if there was something more to it.

X

At their table, Jay wrapped both hands around his mug. He formed a smile and asked her. "So, what'd you want to talk to me about?"

Caitlin inhaled deeply, steeling her nerves for what she was about to say. She would have liked to share this part of her life with Seth instead Jay. She's had multiple times, chances to reveal it to him but it was too much for her to drop in his lap. But right now, Seth is fighting on another Earth while Jay's here and needs help with his problem.

As a doctor she was obligated to help those in need, even if they didn't want it.

As a friend, she wanted to help him.

Not like in the past when she couldn't help a certain someone.

"My dad had multiple sclerosis." Jay turned empathic and listened as she continued heavily. "Every day for years, I watched this amazingly strong man fight for his life… and lose. And I thought I'd have to through that again with Seth." Jay looked confused. "Ever since he came to this world… he kept his secret away from us… that he was hurt and poisoned by a monster from his own Earth, that he was going to die. He didn't die because he killed the source of his poisoning, got a second chance at life, in a way. But the thought of him dying and losing him… it was unbearable…"

She turned her teary eyes to him. "So, I can't sit by and watch another man I care about, a friend, fight for his life and not do something about it. I tried to find your doppelganger. Same DNA, same cellular structure. I could replace your dying cells with his living ones." She formed a slightly shocked face. "But… you don't have a doppelganger on this Earth. It'd make sense if your Earth were further away like Matt and Liv's, but you should have one here with you being from Earth-2."

"Caitlin, there is a good explanation." Jay assured her. "Meet me at Hofherr Park tomorrow and I'll show you."

"Why can't you just tell me?" Caitlin inquired.

"Because you need to see for yourself." Jay told her.

Caitlin looked skeptical at that. "Fine." She conceded and agreed. "I'll have the girls come with me, it'd be good for them to be out of S.T.A.R. Labs and out of the house, too." She got up from her chair.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Caitlin tilted her head in confusion. Jay sheepishly elaborated. "I mean Ruby and Evelyn, they're still new to the city and this world, most of all. You wouldn't want to overwhelm them with new places and new experiences and everything, right? Could be too much for them."

"Both of them survived Zoom's prisoners, Jay. They can pretty much handle anything now." Caitlin told him before walking away to meet up with her children again.

Jay's hands tightened around his mug, his eyes pointed and focused on Evelyn's form across the coffee shop. He didn't know what would happen if _she_ were to be there tomorrow.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Pipeline)**

Eobard Thawne looked forward, looking through the glass door of his cell and saw the closed gateway in front of the cell. Even though he was locked in a containment cell that appeared to keep him from using his powers, he was too busy taking everything that's transpired since his arrival.

In this short time in this period, he learnt of the Flash's time period, his goal for time travelling to the past. But he also learnt of other valuable assets. A metahuman with the powers to morph her body limbs into weapons and control metal itself. Another metahuman with the powers to emit light and darkness from her body, giving them form and using them to strike her opponents. It was a marvelous feat. But so was the sight of a metahuman powers similar to that of telekinesis and hurl furniture like they were weightless like air.

He smiled happily at those memories returning to the forefront of his mind. He would remember all of them for the rest of his life.

Before the speedster could dive further into his thoughts and memories of the encounter with the three metahumans, his ears perked up at the sound of a familiar whirring sound. The same kind he heard of when the gateway opened.

Getting up from his sitting, he looked ahead and saw Cisco standing on the other side of the opening gate. Unlike the imprisoned speedster Cisco was wearing a cocky and smug expression on his face as he was looking at Eobard Thawne was encased like a bug in a cage.

Cisco's cocky expression magnified. "How'd you get your suit in your ring?"

The question threw Eobard off, making him narrow his eyes. "Who are you?"

He smirked triumphantly. "My name is Cisco Ramon."

"And we know each other well, don't we? We have a history together." Eobard deduced.

"You could say that." Cisco vaguely replied.

"And that's all you want to know? How I got my suit in my ring?" Eobard inquired, still in shock and confusion about this meeting.

Cisco stepped forward closely. "I want you to know that I'm the one who figured out you were back. _I _helped stop you." He pointed a finger to himself. "Me."

Reverse-Flash crossed his arms with intrigue and interest written all over his face. "And how'd you do that?"

"I have powers." Cisco revealed. "And I helped track you down and I put you in here."

Eobard turned surprised. "That's quite the ability you've been given."

"And here's what's so ironic about it." Cisco smiled. "_You…_" he pointed to the imprisoned speedster. "…gave me these powers." Eobard raised an eyebrow. "Have fun thinking about that while you rot away in this cell that you helped me build." he walked back and raised a hand to the panel. "Bye Felici-"

"Cisco, wait."

He turned around with a hurt expression, seeing Ruby walking up to him. "What's wrong, Ruby? You really ruined a perfect exit line!"

"Send me the bill, I have questions for this guy." Ruby pointed to the speedster who tilted his head.

"Alright." Cisco said and walked past her, momentarily stopping as he checked the insides of his nostril again. The tip of his finger coated with specks of blood again.

"Something wrong?" Ruby expressed her concerns.

"Nah, just… Don't spend too much time with this guy, he can't be trusted, okay?" Cisco advised her before walking away.

"Promise." She assured him, but the flat tone she used made him question her assurance.

"So what can I do for you, little girl?" He asked bemusedly.

"Little, but dangerous, pal. So watch it." Ruby threatened. "But I want to know… You traveled here to this period to kill The Flash?"

"Thought I made that abundantly clear to your sister." Ruby kept her eyes from widening but the surprise was clear as day. Eobard chuckled hollowly. "I'm a genius where I'm from, little girl, think what that makes me here?"

"A maniac with a God complex, seeing as you don't have a problem with time travelling and screwing up history." Ruby sniped.

He chuckled. "Is that so?" Eobard leant against the back of his cell. "Well, you know the saying about breaking eggs and omelets, right? Let me make it simple: Timeline equals eggs. Killing Flash equals omelet." The speedster made a show of dumbing it down for her by chopping the air with his flattened hands.

As she focused on the cell, Ruby clenched her hands and made it shake. Eobard shifted his eyes around the interior of the shaking cell. "Act like I'm a dumbass again, I will crush you with the weight of an entire planet."

"Well "dumbass" might be too hurtful, not wrong, of course. But I will say you're not the sharpest tool in the shed because of two simple facts." He held up two fingers for the young assassin to see. "First one:" He lowered the other one to only have one finger raised. "Your powers, whatever they might be, won't do you any good now, just like back at Mercury Labs. I'm faster and I can phase, not in this cell, of course, but that leads me to my second fact." His second finger joined his first one. "You shaking my cell like this, is just gonna cause something to shake loose and stop it from dampening my powers." Ruby realized he was right and stopped using her powers. "Smart choice, cause otherwise…"

He stepped closer to the door and pressed his arms against it along with his head. "I'd speed out of this cell, past you and into the main room… and kill everyone in there, quickly, and then you'd come back and see your friends dead… while I return home."

"Bastard…" Ruby growled.

Eobard chortled evilly. "Thought you'd have some family up there, after all. It'd be real sad if you were to lose them, right? Tragic."

"Touch them, I destroy you!" Ruby shouted enragedly.

"Only one family I want to kill, little… Ruby, right?" Eobard asked smirkingly.

"Ruby!"

Ruby and Eobard saw Caitlin Snow walking up the ramp in long strides. She tried to avert eye contact with the imprisoned speedster but found it difficult to avoid it.

"What are you doing here, Ruby?" Caitlin asked her urgently as she stood in front of her, trying to protect her from Eobard's influence.

"And who might you be?" Eobard directed to the doctor with crossed arms.

"No one important to you." Caitlin said in a cold but strong tone. "Ruby, we're going." She forcibly turned Ruby around and pushed her towards the exit.

"Bye bye, Ruby." Eobard waved mockingly to Ruby and the doctor who closed the gateway to the Pipeline.

When the door fully closed, Caitlin looked to Ruby. "Ruby, are you okay? You're not hurt or anything, are you?"

"No, I'm not, don't worry, Caitlin. Besides Thawne's in a cell that dampens his powers, he can't do anything." Ruby assured her.

"I know that, but… He's a snake, he can't be trusted even in a cell that takes away his powers." Subconsciously Caitlin's hands tightened her hold around Ruby's shoulders. "Don't talk to him, okay? He's done nothing but hurt this entire team, this city… our family." She added with a single glance thrown at the gateway again.

"Caitlin, you okay?" Ruby asked concerningly.

"I'm… I'm fine, but please…. Don't go near him again, he can't be trusted." Caitlin asked of her.

"Okay, I won't." She nodded promisingly.

Now she was sure… there was much more to this guy and his arrival than she thought.

X

After numerous things that called for his immediate attention, Barry made his way to the pipeline.

He just had to endure another painful meeting with Patty, another loved one to leave his life. His ex-girlfriend found out about him being The Flash, but he kept telling her she was wrong. That he wasn't the Scarlet Speedster. That what she was saying was insane.

Patty was persistent and wasn't gonna let it go so easily. She expressed that he didn't have to lie to her anymore, she expressed why he didn't tell her and why he's been distant. She understood it all. All she wanted from him was honesty, and wanted him to tell her the truth.

She even threw in ultimatum: Admit to be being The Flash, and she'd stay.

But he had to lie… to protect his loved ones from being targeted by the lines of Reverse-Flash or Zoom, or any other metahuman criminal.

He expected it, but the tears that fell from her eyes when he had to lie to her… broke his heart.

Steeling himself, he raised his hand to the panel and dimmed the lights with a twist of his hand. With his facial features and other features that might give away his identity to the evil speedster, The Flash turned the virtual wheel around to raise the gate.

It was time he spoke with Reverse Flash once more.

"Trying to check on Mr. Evil by yourself?" Barry heard Frankie ask him before she walked up to stand beside him. "Don't I'm gonna leave you alone to talk with the bastard."

"Think Caitlin will have another reason to doubt how mature I am." Barry said flatly.

"That is very possible, yeah." Frankie agreed as she further dimmed the lights to cloak her form. "But better than this guy getting in your head, right?"

"I saw you back there at the warehouse, you know. You were angry." Barry referred to her eyes shining magenta, the dead giveaway of her rage brimming.

"So were you." Frankie countered.

Finally the gate raised to reveal Eobard Thawne pacing back and forth in the cell. He stopped and looked to the two people on the other side, both covered by shadows. "You're the ones from the warehouse, the ones I fought before." He deduced before facing the tall male figure. "Is that you, Flash?"

As Eobard stepped closer to the glass door, Barry asked him. "Why do you hate me so much?"

Eobard inhaled deeply. "I didn't always." His eyes snapped to face the two heroes. "I don't know about the girl, but you Flash? I was obsessed with you."

"Hurtful." Frankie quipped.

"Oh don't worry, little one, that might change. But it's different with Flash." He looked back to the shadow-cloaked speedster. "For so long, I wanted to be The Flash. I spent years figuring out how you came to be. Duplicated the reaction… and it worked." He chuckled at the end.

"And you became like The Flash, your lifelong goal." Frankie finished off for him.

"Right, so what happened then?" Barry demanded.

He showed a passive expression, devoid of various, if not all emotions. "This ability to travel through time revealed a truth."

Frankie chortled. "What? That you're gigantic pain in the ass across time itself? You could have found that in a fortune cookie, you know."

"Far from it, little girl." Eobard returned his attention to the speedster. "I learned of my fate. My fate was to become your greatest enemy. I was never going to be The Flash, so I became the reverse of everything that you were. The more people you saved, the more you were loved, the more I had to take from you."

"That is why you killed my mother? That's why you ruined my life?" Barry demanded to know.

"Flash, calm down." Frankie told him, the symbiote slithering under her clothes to stand ready for fight.

But Barry persisted and stepped forward, close to escape the shadows that kept his identity hidden. "Because you couldn't be me?"

"I became better than you!" Eobard punched the glass. He was not going to be The Flash, nor would be compared to him. He's the reverse of him. "I am the one thing you cannot stop, Flash! Even with the help of one, two or dozens of heroes, you will never stop me!"

"No, no, no. Not anymore." Barry shook his head in defiance. "Our race is over. And you lost."

Eobard laughed unexpectedly. "Side from witnessing new heroes, new allies of yours, I've learned what time period you're from, Flash. And one day soon, I'll learn your name, the names of your allies," he threw a glance to the magnekinetic. "and… you can't stop it."

"Good luck, cause this is your tomb, bastard!" Frankie shouted; her eyes shined brightly with magenta.

"Your parents must be delighted to have a foul-mouthed child like you." Eobard poured oil over Frankie's inner flame.

"Fuck you!" Frankie growled.

"_Guys, we need you in the Cortex now!_" Caitlin called out to them via the speakers.

They looked to each other with worry before closing the gate and walking away to leave the evil speedster in his cell.

X

**(S.T.A.R. Labs, The Cortex)**

Things weren't looking good in any way for the team as they stood in the medbay, trying to stop a nose bleeding Cisco as he was experiencing something that appeared seizure-like. Harry and Joe tried to keep him from shaking with their hands pressing down on his torso, Ruby and Evelyn pressing down his flailing legs to keep them from kicking someone like rabid snakes.

Caitlin was standing in front of a computer and tried to find the cause behind her friend's sickness that left him in his current state, nosebleeds and seizing.

_WHOOSH_

Barry sped into the Cortex, dropping Frankie beside him. The two of them saw Cisco bleeding a stream of blood from his nose and shaking violently.

Frankie looked to her mother as she entered the medbay. "Mom, what's happening with Cisco?"

"He's experiencing an uncontrollable amount of electrical energy in his brain, putting him in a prolonged state of chronic seizing." Caitlin explained to her child.

Ruby looked to her. "Can we stop it?!" She shouted as one of Cisco almost kicked her in the face.

"Caitlin, what can we do?" Barry asked the doctor too.

Snapping around, Caitlin showed her distressed face. "I don't know."

"There's gotta be something we can do!" Evelyn screamed in fear, her arms still trying to keep Cisco's legs from striking them. Cisco's body arched violently, making her gasp in shock.

Caitlin had a realization and turned around to face her shelves, searching for the right sedative that could sedate Cisco. "Hold him down!"

"We're trying!" Joe exclaimed to the doctor as he tried to keep the engineer from flailing.

Harry shouted. "Sedate him, Snow, now!"

"Cisco, hang on!" Frankie shouted to the viber.

Finding an EpiPen with a sedative, she muttered to herself. "Benzodiazepine." Caitlin unscrewed the cap and turned to Cisco. "This should do it." Pressing the pen to his thigh, she pressed the button on the back of it and injected the sedative into his body.

Slowly Cisco began to stop shaking and his body calmed down. Joe sighed his relief. "Finally."

"Can't get any worse than this, right?" Evelyn rhetorically asked.

That statement came back to bite them in the rear… instantly.

Series of gasps and shouts, one accidental shadowporting, came from all the people as they saw Cisco's body strangely… become transparent and blurry.

Ruby dropped her hands to the sides. "Evelyn, you and yo- and she's gone." She realized when she couldn't find the metahuman of light and darkness anywhere in the medbay. "Of course, she is."

"What the?" Joe asked in frantic.

"What was that?" Barry asked in confusion.

"What's going on? Where the hell am I?" Cisco asked them, his voice coming out like his body, blurry and incoherent.

"Cisco!" Barry screamed.

"What's happening to him?" Caitlin looked to Harry, hoping his knowledge would find a solution behind this dangerous situation.

"It's the timeline." Harry realized.

"What does that mean, Wells?!" Frankie loudly voiced her confusion.

Harry frenziedly explained. "When you and- When you and Flash captured Reverse-Flash, we ruptured the timeline. That's what this-" He gestured to his nose. "All the blood and the seizures and that and all… Cisco is being affected to- to- By the changes to the timeline. The changes to the past or the changes to the present- This is what this is. We need to do something. We need to it fast!"

"Like what?" Joe exclaimed.

"And please, say it in way that is actually English!" Ruby shouted, shadows erupted in the corner of her eye and Evelyn returned to the facility.

"We need to restore the timeline." Harry stated before snapping his head to the Scarlet Speedster. "Barry, you need to get Reverse-Flash and send him back to the future as quickly as possible."

"What? Are you-" Barry couldn't believe him. "I just caught him! You want me to let him go?!"

"Keeping him here is killing Cisco!" Harry shouted ragingly.

Barry pressed both clenched hands to his head as Joe added. "Barry, if this is the only way we can save him, you got to do it! You've got to let go of Thawne!"

"I can't." Barry said.

"Cisco's gonna die if you don't, you dumbass!" Frankie shouted with her eyes shining brightly, rage and despair coming over her at the thought of losing Cisco.

"No, Frankie you forgot what you did at the lab." Barry sparked a fire of recognition in her mind.

"I tore the speed machine and the tachyon drive to pieces." Frankie recalled with a widely gaped mouth.

"Exactly." Barry nodded. "There's no way it'll reach a speed necessary to send him back home, not if its torn into a thousand pieces like it is now."

Harry looked down before revealing an alternative plan. "You can."

"What?" Barry asked in confusion.

"What does that mean?" Evelyn asked.

Inhaling deeply Harry elaborated. "Your speed coupled with Thawne's speed, that'll be enough to catapult him through the time continuum. You can do it."

Barry looked conflicted. But as he gazed at Cisco's form that appeared to fade away… he hardened his resolve. "All right. All right. Let's do it. Let's do it." He determinedly stated.

"You're doing the right thing." Frankie told the speedster.

"**_First time for everything, apparently._**" Magenta quipped to her host, despite the seriousness of their current situation.

X

Harry stood before the gateway to the Pipeline, walking over to the panel beside him and turned the virtual wheel and raised the gate. He made sure his energy rifle was secured around him with a strap as the gate rose.

It showed Eobard Thawne turning surprised and looking out to see Harrison Wells from Earth-2, armed with a rifle-like weapon.

"Time to send you home." Harry told him.

"The time paradox. Yeah." Eobard figured out the reason behind the visit. "You've all messed with something you don't understand."

"Can you do me a favor…" Eobard narrowed his eyes, turning his head with interest. "… and just shut up?"

The evil speedster laughed, Harry remaining passive and without emotions. But he did feel like shooting the smug expression off Eobard's face. "And how exactly are you going to send me home?"

Harry shook his head, not going divulge information to the mastermind that tormented this city for years. "Don't worry about it."

"You fixed Dr. McFee's tachyon device? Reassembled the machine after… Magenta destroyed it with her powers." Eobard asked, remembering the names of the young girls who stroke him before in this time period. Speedster brains had its advantages.

The scientist from Earth-2 walked to the panel again, opening the door to the evil speedster's cell. "No, I came up with a different method."

The door opened up, Eobard looking intrigued. "Is that so?" Harry hummed his answer. Stepping forward, he asked. "Who are you?"

Harry had his rifle pointed at the evil speedster, shining with energy as it was charged to shoot an energy blast the moment the trigger was pulled. The two of them held eye contact, an intense silence fell over them. Nothing could break the silence as the two stared at each other.

One looked at a maniac will wear his face… in the future.

A maniac looked at the other with an interested gaze.

"No one of consequence." Harry told him.

"No." Eobard disagreed, he remembered everything about the man's face. "I doubt that."

The evil speedster shifted his eyes to the side, seeing a stream of people walking up the ramp. Caitlin walked up with her children, Joe beside her with The Flash. Harry faced the group, turning to Caitlin. "Snow, shouldn't you be with Ramon?"'

Eobard took note of those names.

"I-"

Caitlin was interrupted as Frankie shook her left arm. "Mom, go to him. He needs you."

She looked skeptical, despite the logic of their words. Joe looked to her, "Caitlin, don't worry about your kids, I'll make sure they're safe. I promise."

Smiling, she said. "Alright, watch over them." Caitlin turned around and walked towards the exit.

"Frankie?" Joe got the magnekinetic's attention. "You stay there, alright?" he glared at the evil speedster. "Don't go anywhere near that bastard."

"Why would you say that? I love children." Eobard chuckled maniacally. "I'm good with them."

"Shut up, already." Joe growled.

The evil speedster chuckled and leant against the closed gateway behind him. He turned a smug expression to the Scarlet Speedster who was refusing to look back to his nemesis. "I win again, Flash." Barry faced the smug expression on Eobard's face.

Frankie stepped forward. "What does he have to now?".

"Is he just going to… run?" Ruby pitched in her question.

Harry nodded. "Sorta." He turned to look to Barry. "All you have to do is provide him with enough momentum to get him past the space-time barrier." The speedster nodded his understanding. "Hey, listen to me." The metahuman returned his attention to the scientist.

"Thawne knows about you. Right here, right now. This is where he learns about you, all of you. It's how he knows about S.T.A.R Labs, how he knows about Ramon, Snow, Snow's kids, how he knows about me…" Harry corrected himself. "The Harrison Wells from this Earth. And there's nothing I can do about it."

His next sentence made Barry feel like bricks press down on his chest, stopping him from breathing and hurting him continuously.

"There's nothing you can do about it."

Barry didn't like it. Or the words that came after.

"This is his origin story… and it's going to happen no matter what you do." Harry stated, much to the speedster's despair.

Barry was never gonna be able to keep his mother from dying at the hands of his nemesis. His mother's death was a fixed point in time… and that event will remain as such no matter what.

"But right here, right now…" Harry got his attention again. "…You can send him back to his time…. You can save your friend…"

Frankie stepped closer to meet the speedster. "Barry… this way you can save Cisco, he won't be hurt or worse… and you can move on with your life."

Joe was proud of Frankie trying to comfort his adoptive son. "She's right, this could be a good thing. You can finally let go of him."

But Barry dismissed their statements with a shake of his head, he knew what was going through Frankie's head. "It's not like with Cletus Kasady. Seth defeated him, ending his nightmares once and for all. And… he didn't do it for himself," he turned to face Frankie. "He did it for you, Frankie. Your Dad protected you above all else. Everyone in this city, at that. It's not the same. His nightmares are ended, but mine…" Barry felt Eobard's pointing at him from behind. "I could throw him three centuries from now… He'll always be a part of me, always a part of my nightmares."

"Small comfort, though." Evelyn expressed. "Cisco will be saved."

"Yeah… You're right." Barry walked with a sour expression to the Reverse-Flash. "Time to send you back where you belong."

Eobard smirked, leaning off the gateway to let it open and stepped around to stand beside the heroic speedster.

The gateway opened and Eobard looked into the inner ring of the particle accelerator. "We'll meet again soon, Flash."

"I know." Barry replied determinedly. "And every time, I'll be ready for you." Eobard pulled his cowl over his head.

Harry stood ready with the energy rifle pointed at the evil metahuman. Frankie's hands covering by the symbiotic skin and reforming them into blades. Evelyn's marks appearing around her face and she formed a light sword with her powers, holding it with both hands. Ruby clenched her hands, taking a battle position and ready to strike if Thawne were to trick them.

But their readiness to strike him was for naught as the two speedsters ran into the accelerator, disappearing in a flash of red and yellow lightning.

The two speedsters entered a race, running around and around in the inner ring. Their bodies and their suits themselves turning into blurs, lightning sparking and shining all over the accelerator ring.

But as the two enemies ran… something happened… or rather took form…

A white-ish blue-ish hole opened up in the accelerator ring. It slowly expanded and took the form of what soon appeared to be a tunnel. The tunnel elevated and placed itself higher up in the air. The two speedsters ran past it for what felt like the hundredth lap.

But as they neared the tunnel again in this lap, the two speedsters slowed down and Barry slung his arm behind the enemy speedster. Parts of him wanted to hurl and destroy Eobard. But for Cisco, he had to throw him back to the future.

And so he did.

Barry slammed his palm into the yellow speedster's back, using the velocity he's gathered through all the laps he's run and used it to catapult Eobard from the ground and into the air. Barry watched as Eobard Thawne's body disappeared into the hole in time and space.

The hole closing upon the speedster passing through.

Barry stopped and rushed up to the Cortex when seeing the hole close. He looked to the medbay. His eyes widening with happiness and surprise when seeing Caitlin hold Frankie with a joyous expression. She turned to the metahuman. "He's gonna be fine."

"Yes!" Evelyn shouted, shooting her arms out and wrapping them around Ruby.

"Really?" Ruby chuckled awkwardly, she wasn't the hugging type.

X

**(Hofherr Park)**

The next day, Caitlin and Jay walked around in Hofherr Park. The powerless speedster looked anxious, his eyes pointing backwards to see Frankie, Ruby and Evelyn follow them and shift their eyes around the park. The three powered girls were taking in the birds and bees that flew around the trees. They smiled at the sight of families of three sitting on blankets and enjoying picnics.

"We should go on picnics, too." Frankie suggested to the others.

"Yeah, could be nice. The weather's good." Ruby agreed. She looked to the powerless speedster who appeared anxious. "_What's with him? Got a stick up his ass?_"

Caitlin narrowed her eyes on Jay's form. "What's wrong with you?"

"Ah, nothing." Jay stuttered. "Just worried about Cisco after everything that happened yesterday, you know. Sorry I wasn't there to help."

"Don't burden yourself with that. Thanks to Wells and Barry, we managed to save Cisco from something indescribable." Caitlin assured him.

"Yeah, thanks to Wells." He recited with a skeptic voice. "How'd you get those three to come with you? Drag them out of bed?" Jay referred to the three girls following them.

"Threatened them with a week of house chores, nothing special." Caitlin quipped, Jay laughed at her joke. The doctor then revealed the truth. "Honestly, they just felt like coming with us, must be tired of the apartment, I'm guessing."

Caitlin returned to the matter at hand with a gesture to the park. "But I don't understand what we're doing here. What does this have to do with your missing doppelganger, Jay?"

Jay then explained. "Well, just like you, I thought that if I could find my doppelganger on this Earth, I could replace my damaged cells with some of his health ones. And believe me, I was just as shocked as you when I couldn't find a Jay Garrick anywhere on this planet."

Ruby smirked. "Maybe the thought of someone else wearing his ugly mug made him reinvent himself entirely, even make a new face." Jay throwing her a hurt look.

"Ruby, please." Caitlin told her, but still held a happy smile.

They reached a pair of benches. Caitlin and Jay took seats in the first bench, while the three girls took seats in the second bench.

"Took me a while to figure it out…" Jay continued as he sat down, making eye contact with Caitlin once more. "…but eventually I found him."

"Then where's your doppelganger then, Jay?" Frankie asked the powerless speedster.

He didn't respond with words, instead he hesitantly raised a finger and pointed it in a direction. The four of them followed the direction of his digit, seeing a surprising form at another bench.

It was the surprising form of another Jay Garrick… clothed in a pair of jeans. A shirt hidden under the dark blue coat around his body. Unlike the Jay Garrick they are with, the one of this Earth is wearing a pair of glasses.

"His name is Hunter Zolomon." Jay revealed.

Evelyn's body shivered at that name, but she couldn't explain why. Ruby and Frankie noticed her shiver, and mentally made a note of her reaction to the name.

What they didn't notice was Jay's eyes that narrowed greatly at her reaction.

"Hunter Zolomon? Why doesn't he have the same name as you?" Caitlin's question got Jay to return his attention.

He inhaled. "From what I could gather, his mother died during childbirth. He bounced around from family to family, but eventually was raised by the Zolomons."

"Okay, that answers one question." Evelyn realized. "But what about the second? Why can't he help you?"

Jay explained. "My DNA was mutated when I became a speedster." Caitlin sighed with a saddened expression. "There's only one way to reverse what's happening to me. If we can catch Zoom, I can get my speed back."

"That is if Dad haven't torn his legs off on Earth-2." Frankie pitched in.

Caitlin shifted her head in agreement. "That's actually a valid point, Frankie came up with."

Jay didn't know if she was being serious or joking. "I think I'd like to meet this Seth at some point when he returns of course. He seems… like a nice person."

"He is." Caitlin blushed. "Underneath a layer or two, he's a wonderful man and a great protector… And the man I love no matter what." She smiled.

X

A while later, the group of four separated themselves from Jay and returned home. Caitlin held the door open for her three children to enter. "Evelyn, Frankie, you two go upstairs. Ruby, I would like to check her hands again."

"Fine." Ruby obliged and took a seat at the dinner table. Caitlin used that time to walk to the kitchen to find a bowl and pour water into it. "Hella of last few days."

"Understatement of the year." Caitlin chuckled; she was certain nothing could compare to the having to send your mortal enemy back three centuries from now to save a dear friend. She opened a drawer and took out a towel.

"Caitlin?" She turned around to see Ruby looking to her. "You… Why'd you get so worried from me talking with Thawne?"

Caitlin walked to the table, taking a seat and dipping a towel into the water bowl. "… Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Ruby didn't accept that. "Try me."

Caitlin briefly made eye contact with her. Meeting a fire-like will behind those emerald-green eyes, she sighed her acceptance. Taking hold of the wet towel, she wrapped it around Ruby's left hand. "Barry… he time traveled before…"

"The one time he caused the Singularity, I know that." Ruby informed.

The assassin turned confused at the sight of her shaking her head. "That's not what I meant, Ruby." Ruby listened as Caitlin explained. "The first time Barry time traveled… was when the city was facing a catastrophic threat, a massive tidal wave that was caused by a metahuman who wanted revenge for the death of his brother. And Barry and your uncle and aunt, Frankie too, tried to stop the tidal wave somehow. But while that happened… Cisco did something else."

"You see, last year Christmas was interrupted by the Reverse-Flash who returned and broke into Mercury Labs. Just like he tried to do yesterday, Thawne tried to find tachyon particles. Back then it was to increase his own speed, not to return home immediately. To stop him from stealing the particles, and to get answers to a lot of questions, we worked with the police department and made a trap to hold him with force fields. It worked, for a while, it malfunctioned shortly after. Thawne ended up breaking out of it, killing a lot of officers, taking the tachyon prototype that we used as bait, and fighting Barry there."

"Didn't Dad or Matt help?" Ruby asked.

"They did, but only a bit later." Caitlin answered. "Even though they were all there, we still felt like we lost. Strangely enough, Cisco didn't find it possible for his machine to actually malfunction. So months later, he asked me to keep Dr. Wells, Eobard Thawne distracted while he used that time to investigate the trap. He… did and found out that the Thawne we trapped was a hologram or something."

"Thawne can be two places at once?"

Thinking back to Cisco's explanation, Caitlin answered. "Thawne called it a Speed Mirage, the ability to be at two places at once by using superspeed." Her eyes shut at the thoughts returning. "Thawne was about to kill Cisco because he found out about his secret, about him being the Reverse-Flash. But… Seth stopped him."

"Dad was there?" Ruby inquired.

"Yeah, and he pushed Cisco away and fought against Thawne." Caitlin inhaled raggedly. "From what Cisco said back then, their fight almost destroyed the entire room." Tears began to swell in her eyes. "Seth had Thawne pinned to the floor and was about to win… but Thawne stroke with his hand and pierced Seth's chest… and killed him…"

"What?" Ruby fought against the urge to shoot to her full height.

"Seth managed to take him out before he could die… but Seth did really die." Caitlin wiped a tear away. "Barry time travelled for the first time ever and he returned to a time before that event, thankfully preventing Seth's death and the destruction of Central City." She said.

Now all the missing pieces were discovered, and Ruby realized what was going on with Caitlin. The sight of Reverse-Flash, of Eobard Thawne brought back the feelings and emotions that overwhelmed at the thought of losing Seth to that evil metahuman.

Caitlin spent the entire time repressing the returning emotions and memories so she wouldn't break down in tears. She diverted her full attention to the three children in her care, devoting her entire focus to them and making sure they were safe.

To avoid pain that would tear her heart in pieces, she threw herself into the role of a lioness that would strike down anything that stays in the way of her family. Defending her cubs, no matter what or who stands before her. Powers or not, she'd be the protector of her family.

"Didn't realize… I'm sorry." Ruby expressed.

"Thanks. But Ruby…" Caitlin steeled herself. "I know it's gonna be harder for you and Evelyn here. Frankie's been bouncing around in foster care, she didn't have anyone for a long time. But you and Evelyn had, or have, in your case, parents. It's gonna be harder with me here as your adoptive mother, I know."

"Not gonna lie, it's been strange." Ruby stated.

"You don't have to see me as your instant Mom, and vice versa for me. But know this: I will always be here for you both and protect you to the best of my capabilities." Caitlin told her promisingly.

Ruby smiled. "I'll hold you to that…" she got up from her chair and surprised herself and Caitlin when she wrapped her arms around the doctor's form. "…Mom…"

"I swear… I won't fail you…" Caitlin reciprocated, wrapping her own arms around the young assassin's form. "…Baby girl…"

As she was hugging her new daughter, Caitlin's eyes caught sight of a framed photo of her, Seth and Frankie. A family photo. But it wasn't enough.

Their family had gotten way bigger now.

"_Gotta get a new one taken soon…_"

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**With both Olivia and Matt going back to Earth-616 to enjoy their delayed honeymoon, the team was once again fighting Reverse-Flash. All of their emotions and memories of the past returning them to them. Barry fought the evil speedster, Ruby, Evelyn and Frankie joining him in the fray. But they couldn't stop him from kidnapping Dr. McGee.**

**But thanks to Cisco vibing more dimensions, perhaps across time and space, they were able to find Reverse-Flash, save Dr. McGee and destroy the speedster's gateway to time itself. It led to a battle between Magenta, Flash and Reverse-Flash, the good guys winning thankfully.**

**Reverse-Flash was captured, thrown in a containment cell. Various members used that opportunity to have a private chat with the evil speedster. Cisco did to brag and taunt the speedster, to show who was smarter and who had won. Ruby followed to get some answers, but was outsmarted by the genius from the future, Caitlin interrupted her new child from further conversing with him and brought her away. Barry and Frankie spoke with him next, but it only lead to Eobard getting closer to finding out the Flash's identity.**

**Which he did, because the timeline was distorted and needed fixing, otherwise Cisco would be taken away. Barry had to fight against all his instincts and wishes and send Eobard back again. It helped because Cisco saved.**

**Iris and Joe had to deal with Francine being at Death's door and awaiting his arrival in a hospital bed. The reporter got a visit from Felicia who was with her when she went to find her idiotic brother and convince him to see his mother before it was too late. **

**Caitlin focused herself with another task, trying to fix Jay's body with the healthy cells of his Earth-1 doppelganger. But her search came to an unfortune end when she couldn't find his doppelganger, even with the facial recognition of both CCPD and S.T.A.R. Labs'. She went to confront the powerless speedster who revealed that his doppelganger could not prove helpful, even his cells, as the metahuman counterpart was mutated after exposure to dark matter and the lightning strike that made him the Crimson Comet.**

**Ruby learnt more and more about the story behind the Reverse-Flash's previous, or rather future visit to this timeline, and was shocked no less. But it kinda became the new normal for her.**

**Now, what will happen next?**

**Stay tuned and find out.**

**Until next time, peeps.**


	26. Chapter 26: Fragile Like Porcelain

**And now another bedtime story for you all wonderful readers out in the world.**

**Before we get to the story, I'd like to say thank you for the reviews and messages, means the world.**

**Now to answer some questions in the reviews:**

**Starpottergeek: Thanks for it, glad you enjoy the story and about giving Ruby and Evelyn symbiotes? Send me some ideas for names, maybe they'll show themselves later in the season or next season, still unsure. But I won't say no to names.**

**Ryu Otsutsuki: Thanks brother, remember to give yourself some credit. You help out a ton, man.**

**Ultimatrix bearer: Thanks, glad to hear you like the fury sisters, man.**

**Guest Review: Saw your review about making an evil Seth/Venom, and for now… I kinda have something of what will happen in the next one. But I will keep your idea in the back of my head, I swear. But thanks for the suggestions and reviews anyway.**

**And to the story, I'm used different characters from the DC Comics, with some changes, as well as characters from CW's Arrowverse characters. Additional names and heroes will be used, they are non-canon most of them. Inspiration have been taken from different TV shows, so some of the things you read in the chapter might be familiar. But changes have been made to it.**

**Like the previous Earth-2 chapter, I'm making use of another non-canon villain character. Also, a non-Flash-canon villain will play a big part in this chapter.**

**Background stories from some characters will reveal themselves, they'll be a bit different than canon.**

**One big note on this chapter: It's long. Strap your seatbelts, ladies and gents. Grab a coke and popcorns, or pizza. Or two. Or three of each.**

**Some special thanks to my friend Ryu Otsutsuki who helped me come up with an idea for an Atlantis-related business. You're gonna see it in the chapter, just think Atlantis Star Labs with its own name. Call it unique or not, your call, guys. But I like it.**

**Spoiler: More about Mera's background is gonna show itself, and I've made my own twists and turns on it. Plus, Seth's gonna find himself with a major weakness. Hope you enjoy it.**

**…**

**…**

**So without further ado…**

**ENJOY!**

**Chapter 26: Fragile like Porcelain**

Earth-1 or Earth-2. It didn't matter which universe it was Central City would be the same in either universes. A city that would always welcome the warm embrace of the beautiful sun and face every new day with happiness painted over their faces.

But… that was the goal, of course. Not the actual way of life on either Earths, as both are riddled with crimes.

The three cars with three robbers in them proved that exact point as they drove away. The open windows causing their money to blow out of the vehicle and spreading over the heads of the civilians on the streets. Various civilians shot their hands up, clutching onto the flying dollars.

Tires screeching like wailing banshees as they rolled against the asphalt. Vehicles continuing, even swirling as they turned when nearing an intersection. The headlights shining through the darkness to light the drivers' paths as they drove during this time of the evening. The drivers in each vehicle looked behind them, their eyes looking through their rear windows and saw they were still being chased by three heroes.

They didn't expect one of them to be piggybacking on the back of another one.

Leaping from one rooftop to another, his muscles in both legs bulging and increasing with the strength of both earth and lightning, Venom kept his eyes focused on the three vehicles. Getting close to the edge of the rooftop now, Seth jumped from it and onto another one before resuming his chase, running on all four to follow them. "**Looks like we get one car each.**"

Twisting her head around, her long red hair flowing around in the air, Mera looked over the shoulder of the elemental to gaze upon the three driving cars. Her left hand clutched onto Seth's shoulder with her feet pressing into his back to hold onto him while her right hand was wrapped around the staff of her golden trident. "Don't throw me okay? I'm not really built for being thrown from above, you know."

Flying through the open skies, her wings flapping rapidly to keep her airborne and to keep her current momentum so she could maintain her focus on the driving cars and the criminals. Both her hands holding onto her spiked mace and her firearm was Hawkgirl. Her eyes narrowed on the three cars before turning to Mera and Seth. "I can carry Mera for what it's worth."

Venom saw that the three cars neared a crossroad. He expected the three cars to each take their own turns and go down their own road. But he was wrong to assume that as the three cars separated, two going down their own road and the last one driving away by itself.

"**We're gonna take the lone wolf, you two take care of the other two.**" Venom told the other two. He didn't wait for a response as Mera jumped off his back and he lashed out both hands, shooting out tendrils and attached them to the nearest building. Pulling on them he shot himself forward, landing on the side of a building and rushing along the surface of it to follow the criminals and the car.

Kendra's hands were tightly holding onto the forearms of Mera as the flyer rolled her eyes. "Guy can be a pain in the ass sometimes."

"No doubt about that, but he's one pain in the ass we can handle right now." Mera giggled.

"That's gonna be up for debate." Kendra admitted before turning to down the crossroad to follow the two cars. "Let's go!"

"Right behind you!" Mera realized her position. "Or under you in this case."

X

"Outta the way!" The driver in the single car shouted to the group of children crossing over the streets. The children screamed in fear and jumped out of the way to avoid being pummeled by the criminal.

The two in the back looked behind and saw to their fears that the elemental was running after them like a mad animal, running on all four limbs to pursue the vehicle. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" One of them chanted in fear.

The driver looked to his mirror and saw both of his companions in fear of the elemental following them. "The hell are you dumbasses doing? Shoot that huge freak already!"

Both looked appalled by that idea and didn't expect bullets to do anything against the elemental titan. But it was better to try than not do anything at all. While the thug behind the wheel slammed his foot down on accelerator, both of his guys in the back cocked their Uzi machine guns. Their right hands around their firearms while their left arms raised and slammed their elbows into the rear window, shattering the glass completely.

The two thugs turned their machines guns to point out of the glass-less window, aiming them both at the elemental that continued to chase them. Their hands shaking and their firearms almost fell out of their hands.

The driver heard the lack of gunfire from his companions and a vein popped on his forehead. "Get your asses in gear and ventilate that son of a bitch before I throw you both out to distract him!" Their driver's "encouraging" words sparked the two thugs into action. Triggers were pulled, and the two thugs unleashed a hail of bullets for the demon.

Seth saw the bullets coming his way and raised his right arm, forming an ice shield to take on the bullets. He couldn't risk the bullets getting past him and pierce through the surface of the building he's using to run on. Windows leading into the house were under his feet, any of the residents in there could be hurt or worse.

He decided to change that.

Jumping off the wall, he landed on the ground before continuing. Wind and lightning strengthening his speed, he charged for the car. The bullets continued to come his way and the mutant jumped into the air. The bullets followed him, he unleashed tendrils from his back to pull him higher into the air.

Shooting out another tendril, he attached it to the top of a tower-tall building and swung from it. Detaching his tendril, he swung over the vehicle and his shadow passed over the car.

The driver took notice of the passing shadow that came over him, his face paling in response. "Oh shit." "_Should have just listened to my Mom and worked on the farm._" He thought to himself, regretting his decision to turn to crime and mentally sobbed.

Venom performed a flip mid-air before landing on the ground, his body still suffering from the momentum and pushed him against the ground. When he came to a stop, he raised his left arm. "_Let's try something new!_" He embodied his thoughts as he ignited black flames over his appendage.

"**_There's kids nearby, don't burn those thugs to a crisp in front of them._**" Venom chastised his host.

"**We know!**" He stated as the car neared him. Its acceleration increasing and when it got close enough to him, he wielded his arm like a sledgehammer and brought it down on the hood of the car, his fist tearing through the thing metal and connecting with the engine. With his fist embedded into the car, the thugs felt their getaway car slam into the demon and putting a stop to their escape.

His fist unclenched and he wrapped his claws around the engine before yanking it out of the vehicle. He crushed the engine with a mere tightening of his fist. Roaring at the three thugs, who immediately rushed out of the car and raised their machine guns at the mutant.

Before they could pull their triggers, tendrils wrapped around the barrels of their firearms before they were pulled away from out their grasps. Venom made the show of throwing one of them into his open maw and began to chomp down on it.

The three thugs shared a disbelieving look, before turning their ghostly white faces to the elemental who spit out pieces of the machine guns. "**Easy way, hard way…. Or ****_our_**** way…**" Venom smiled, displaying a demonic grin with pieces of the firearm stuck between his teeth.

"We surrender!"

The three thugs said in unison, holding up their hands defensively.

Venom sighed in annoyance. "**Not even a good chase, or resistance… What a bore.**" He held his left arm with his right arm to keep it from shaking.

He really hoped this evening would have been more exciting before he had to go to his appointment with Kendra and Mera.

X

The two cars drove closely beside each other, their road small and not meeting any crossroads nearby to find an easy escape. The drivers in both cars tried to find any alleyway they could drive into to get away but not even one appeared in their eyesight. Each of the thugs in the cars were worried about the huge demon that would come after them when he was done with their companions in the other car.

But tonight, they weren't going to deal with the demon from below. Tonight, the hunters are the Valkyrie from the skies and the Siren from the seas.

Flapping her wings with all her power Hawkgirl flew after the two cars, her hands still carrying Mera as she was airborne. She was getting closer to the two cars and shifted her gaze between the two vehicles. "Think we're close enough!" She shouted to the Atlantean over the wind blowing against her face.

"We are!" Mera confirmed, holding up her trident high up like a spear. "I'll take the one on the left, you take the one on the right."

"Got it!" Kendra agreed to her plan.

Mera smiled and thrusted her hand, throwing her trident after the car on the left. Paving a way through air force, the trident flew over the vehicle and embedded itself into the road ahead of the car.

The thugs were too distracted to notice the trident before them and their vehicle driving into the golden weaponry, the car springing forward and the three thugs shooting out of the car. Their bodies rolling on the ground like stones rolling down a hill. Their weapons following them shortly.

"Drop me here, I'll take care of this!" Mera shouted.

"Godspeed." The flyer shouted and dropped the Atlantean before flying ahead to catch the second car.

Mera rolled on the ground, stopping herself a moment later with her foot slammed into the ground. She got up to her full height and walked to her trident. The three thugs managed to get back on their feet, their bodies wounded and bruised, blood seeping out of their open wounds.

Plucking her trident out of the road, Mera faced the thugs with a triumphant smirk. "What now, boys? Wanna tango some more?"

"Bitch!" One of the thugs said, his shotgun pointing at the Atlantean.

Smirking she held up her trident for the thug to see. "Bitch with a trident." She corrected smugly before walking to the thug.

Managing to raise his other hand to the shotgun, the thug cocked his firearm. "Back off before you get a third eye!"

"You do know a shotgun fires off more than one bullet, right?" Mera mocked his intelligence. "You shoot that thing, honey, I'll get more than a third eye."

"Fine with us!" The second thug liked that outcome very much, if his crooked smile was any indication.

"One less problem for us." The last one said, his mouth forming to reveal a grin, but blood were all over his teeth.

She pointed the tongs of her trident to the thugs. "Sorry boys, but you three aren't so lucky." Mera slid her hand down to staff of her trident till it came close to the pommel. Spinning around, she swung the trident into the first thug's shotgun and knocked it out of the thug's hands.

While the first thug grunted in pain, Mera lashed her foot out, kicking the gun out of the second thug's hands. With her trident, she pierced the third thug's gun and yanked it out of his hands. The Atlantean spun her trident and slammed it into the thug's chest, pushing him to the ground.

Mera faced the two other thugs who withdrew butterfly knives from their jackets. "Cute boys." She challenged them and charged them. The two thugs ran forward to meet her. The Atlantean had her sights on something else.

Dropping herself into a roll, she dodged the two thugs and their knives. Raising herself with a knee to the ground, she launched her trident like a rocket and watched it pierce a water hydrant. Water began to sprout in a geyser of water.

Her blue eyes shining as she lashed her hands towards the water geyser, both hands coated in blue aura as she called the shining bright water to her.

All three thugs looked in her direction, shocked to see the Atlantean be slowly surrounded by water. The water separated and each pool of water floated on either side of her. "Stand down…" Mera clenched her hands, the water pools hardening them into spikes. "Or you're gonna be find yourselves stuck on a wall, with spikes in your asses."

The three thugs gulped in fear, raising their hands, and dropping their knives before falling to the ground on their knees.

"Three criminals off the street, and right before my appointment." Mera smirked.

X

Both thugs couldn't stop as they drove down through small road. The two thugs in the backseats shuddered repeatedly as they looked through their windows to find the flying being. They withdrew their guns from a duffel bag and looked around in worry. One of them took a gun and handed it to the driver.

"Thanks, just keep an eye out of that Hawk Lady." The driver urgently told them as he accepted the firearm, he used the side of his thigh to cock the gun.

"Think it's Hawkgirl, man." One of the backseat thugs corrected.

The thug beside him slapped his shoulder. "Doesn't matter if it's "Wonder Hawk" or something else, she's on our asses right now!"

The other thug felt a shadow pass over the vehicle, and he sweat dropped in realization. "Or _over_ them."

Hawkgirl lowered her gaze to the car before slowly lowering herself to the roof of the car. Kendra raised her mace high in the air before dropping it down on the flimsy sheet of metal. The spikes dug into the thin metal, hooking onto the car.

Kendra smiled and poured all her strength into her arm. She gruntingly pulled on her mace and watched as the roof was tearing off the vehicle. With a final pull, she yanked the metal off the car and let it fly out in the open, crashing against the road and lampposts.

The three thugs looked up to see the flying woman above their heads.

The driver grew wide-eyed. "Take her down!"

"That doesn't sound very nice." Mera quipped and saw the guns pointing at them. She flew forward in a spiral, dodging the bullets they fired off. Stopping the spiral, she faced the front of the car with outstretched wings.

Seeing the three thugs point the guns in her direction again, she flew forward again and lowered her hands into the vehicle from above, clutching onto the collars of the two thugs in the backseats. They screamed as they were pulled out of the car.

"Guys!" The driver shouted after his captured companions.

Kendra spun around, gaining momentum, before hurling both thugs into a wall. Both grunting in pain from the violent impact with the brick wall. She set her sights on the car again and flew after it with a big flap of her wings to increase her velocity.

Spinning in the air repeatedly, she lowered herself to the open roof and, in one swift move, and snatched the driver from his seat. Without a driver behind the steering wheel, the car was left to continue driving straight forward.

Kendra slammed the thug into the wall, pinning him to it while holding her mace to his throat. "The money you stole? All hidden in one single car, right?" The thug nodded frantically, trying to avoid the spikes on the mace with each nod. "Why are all thugs so dumb?"

"Screw you!"

"Wrong answer!" Kendra slammed him into the wall again, knocking him unconscious. The thug fell to the ground as the flyer let him go. Attaching her mace to her belt, she pulled back the sleeve of her left arm to check her watch. Checking the time, her eyes widened.

"Shit I'm gonna be late!" Kendra screamed before flying away.

X

The Scientific and Technical Advanced Research Laboratories, or S.T.A.R. Labs for short, is the pride of Central City. To many it was the facility of innovation and future developments. To others of younger ages, it was a place that inspired them to pursue the paths of forwarding this world with engineering or bioengineering skills, with science. To others it was the place that is crowned as one of this world's leaders in artificial intelligence, genetics and metahuman studies.

To others affected by an event two years ago… it was a place that changed humans into metahumans.

The facility brought forth different feelings for the citizens of Central City.

But tonight is very, very important to S.T.A.R. Labs lab assistant, Henry Hewitt, who was feeling anxious. The dark-skinned scientist was pacing back and forth in the hallway that is accompanied with various displayed machines and devices constructed in this facility, his eyes darting down to the wristwatch to his hand repeatedly. His wedding ring on his right hand reflecting light from the lamp and to the wall. His lab coat flapping and blowing up with the wind that he picked up with each hurrying step he took.

Henry looked down to his watch again and inhaled. "They're not coming."

"There's few minutes till the agreed appointment starts, Henry."

Henry turned around and couldn't help but smile. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of the brown-skinned female scientist walking up to him. Like him she was donning a lab coat over her usual clothes. Her long lustrous black hair flowing down her back and her dark brown eyes instantly calming him down. She crossed her arms over her chest, her own wedding ring shining. "Harmon tells me you're pacing back and forth again. What's the fake reason behind it today?"

Henry loves how his wife always bring up his inability to lie and still do it whenever he's facing her after pacing a lot. But she expected a lie, and a lie she would get.

Gesturing to his shoes, he answered with a lie. "I am trying to prove that it is indeed possible to burn off floorboard coating with the friction that is made from pacing alone. So far…" He swiped his foot against the floor. "More friction is needed."

"Just so we're clear…" Meena Dhawan-Hewitt stepped closer to him, cupping her husband's face. "You're never bringing your crispy burnt footwear to the house _if_ this so-called experiment works, you're gonna get rid of them immediately. Your shoes already smell horribly enough without the scent of a bonfire."

"They do not smell bad." Henry defensively stated, receiving a dry look and a raised eyebrow from his wife. "They smell bad?" He asked worriedly.

"Honey, it smells like you had a dead skunk nesting in your shoes." His wife quipped with frowned face. "But I can bear with it… and your quick-as-a-heartbeat nervousness."

At those words, the scientist widened his eyes. "Oh God, Mrs. Curry is coming in…" Henry checked the watch again. "forty-five seconds!

"Oh brother." Meena sighed at her husband's nervousness returning after a short break. "They're gonna be here and we're gonna make sure that when Dr. Wells returns, he's gonna smile after his vacation because he's gonna find us in partnership with the biggest Atlantean tech company on this world."

"I believe you're talking about me."

Meena and Henry turned to the side and saw her.

Mera Curry was standing before their eyes in a pantsuit, consisting of blue pants and a matching coat covering a white shirt. Her crimson red hair hanging off the side of her right shoulder. Her hands holding onto the handle of her green handbag.

Kendra Munoz-Saunders stood behind her in a golden-brown pantsuit and a shirt underneath the coat. Her long dark hair pulled into a ponytail. Her hands repeatedly pulling on the sleeves of her coat with a look of discomfort on her face.

Seth Fury stood beside the secret flyer in a pair of dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt covering his torso. His attire covered by the brown suede leather trenchcoat that Iris gave him for Christmas. His eyes shifted between the two scientists of this familiar facility.

"**_Familiar? How? Ours's not a museum like this._**" Venom reminded the host.

"_That is very much true, Venom. But still…_" Seth let his eyes wander and take in the museum-like area that is part of the facility. "_Feels nice to be around something so familiar. Other than the West house._"

"**_We doubt your concept of familiarity._**" Venom quipped.

"Dick." Seth muttered under his breath. Kendra raised an eyebrow at his mutter, making a mental note of it.

Henry coughed sheepishly before walking to meet Mera, his hands and feet shaking. He held out his hand and stammered. "Mera Mrs., meet you a pleasure it is, Hewitt Henry I am."

Kendra and Seth laughed at the way he was fumbling his sentence. His wife looked at her husband like he had two heads, both heads unable to form a coherent sentence. Mera giggled and held out her own hand, shaking the scientist's hand.

"Pleasure too it is, Hewitt Dr." Mera mimicked his way of fumbling and got a cheery smile from them both. "I believe I meet you last time I was here, but you had a different title back then, I recall."

"Yeah, that's right, promoted not too long ago." Henry nodded to his wife. "Now I'm able to work side by side with this one." Meena smiled.

Mera faced her. "I do not think I've had the pleasure of meeting this one."

"Last time I was on an assignment at Mercury Labs, helping them stabilize tachyon particles." Meena explained, the mention of tachyons making the mutant's ears perk up.

Henry showed a happy smile. "This is my partner in both work and life, Meena Dhawan."

"Meena Dhawan-Hewitt." His wife corrected him before turning her smile to the Atlantean. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Curry."

"Please, call me Mera." She told them before gesturing to the powered beings behind her. "These are my associates: Kendra Munoz-Saunders, a close friend of my personal life and an associate who works with our company when exploring ancient places are a need. This man is Dr. Seth Fury, a bioengineer and a civilian consultant for CCPD."

"Wide range, Dr. Fury." Henry said impressed. "Same for you as well, Ms. Saunders."

"Thank you, Dr. Hewitt." Seth expressed his thanks.

"Yeah, thanks." Kendra slowly replied gratefully, her body twisting and turning in her pantsuit.

Mera kept herself from chuckling at the sight of her friend struggling in her clothes. She faced the two S.T.A.R. Labs scientists. "So, what do you have in store for us now? I am curious as to what S.T.A.R Labs might show us now."

"Of course, Mera. How about a tour?" Henry enthusiastically suggested with a gesture of his hand to the hallway in front of them, display cases and other devices and machines made in this very facility.

"Lead the way, Doc." Mera quipped and followed the two scientists while gesturing for her companions to follow.

"It's an impressive facility you have here." Seth praised them.

"Thank you, Dr. Fury." Meena smiled and waved her hand to the group of school children being escorted by a female guide. "Thankfully, you're not the only one who thinks so now."

"There was a time where that wasn't the case?" Kendra asked after that strange statement.

"You a native?" Kendra nodded her response to Meena who let out a heavy sigh. "Then you must know what the local hero of the city paying the founder of S.T.A.R. Labs a visit. A public confrontation, or "Clash of Heroes" as some of media outlets calls it."

"Dr. Harrison Wells, the founder of S.T.A.R. Labs, have been known to show a dislike to The Flash before his disappearance. He didn't find the Crimson Comet's useful as Zoom was still round about. He still is." Henry continued solemnly but held a saddened tone.

"Wasn't there something more to it?" Seth asked. He recalled reading an article about this Earth's S.T.A.R. Labs in the newspaper earlier this week. He didn't know much about it, so the chance to hear it directly from an employee of the facility seemed like too good of an opportunity to miss and would fill in the gaps of his knowledge.

Meena started. "Over a year ago now, the founder held a press conference on the entire situation with the city, metahumans showing up left and right like they're daisies or something. But with most of them walking down their chosen path, a dark path, myself, my husband, and the rest of the team at our facility here, along with Dr. Wells himself, committed themselves to a new device, the new line in metahuman awareness apps."

Seth clicked his tongue as he connected the dots. "The metahuman alert watch that cops and many civilians wear on their wrists."

"Exactly." Henry pulled down his sleeve and revealed his own metahuman alert to the mutant's eyes. "All of the employees here have one. But The Flash didn't approve of this device."

"I can understand why." The mutant said, the two scientists facing him with questioning gazes. "The moment that thing on your wrist beep, it can instantly turn a beloved friend into an object of fear. And metahumans can easily be children, not just adults."

"That is true, but it's a rare case for a young metahuman to show up in this city. Only one have emerged, to our knowledge, but she was a criminal. So, nothing new there. Besides, we're not responsible for turning them into metas in the first place." Meena admitted and Henry nodded.

Seth didn't like that. It's like the entire workplace are okay with the fact that innocent people, even children at Evelyn's age, who turned into metahumans are not their responsibility.

He challenged the female scientist. "But didn't The Flash know something else about this mess. 11 hours before the first metahuman showing up, enormous blasts of dark matter radiation were silently expelled beneath this lab."

Henry spun around, wagging his finger. "That was never confirmed."

"Or denied." Seth countered, Mera and Kendra giving him looks. Both worried that he might cross a line he shouldn't.

"It's just what The Flash accused S.T.A.R. Labs of during his visit to the facility." Meena stated defensively. "Dr. Harrison Wells is the visionary behind this entire facility, behind the science that evolved this city. It's unfathomable to think that he would do something that would harm our home."

"Yeah, The Flash was wrong to think Dr. Wells's particle accelerator created the metahumans. Jay Garrick is much faster at assigning blame than he is at actual heroics." Henry stated adamantly.

Seth scoffed. "_The entire city knows his secret identity…. Can' think it was a good idea to not conceal his face._"

"**_Comes from the guy who turned into his better half in the middle of a police precinct._**" Venom chuckled.

"_Dick._" Seth thought back with a growl.

Gesturing to the facility around them again, Henry stated, getting Seth out of his trance. "What Dr. Wells has done here in S.T.A.R. Labs is change the world, unlocking the mysteries of the universe that others were too... apprehensive to try and unlock."

"And as he used to say." Meena recited his saying. ""And when you don't have the key to the lock, sometimes you have to kick in the door.""

"Sounds like a brutal way to make an omelet." Kendra muttered under her breath.

Meena clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she turned around to face Mera, hoping to change everything now. "Mrs. Curry, if I may be bold for a second?" The Atlantean nodded her consent. "The last time we received a visit from your company, your husband Arthur stated that you would not partner up with S.T.A.R. Labs due to the allegations that followed The Flash's accusations. So, what made you appoint a meeting with us today?"

"My husband and I talked about the partnership with S.T.A.R. Labs over a lengthy discussion at the office." Seth and Kendra knew that was a lie as she's spent the better part of the year here in Central City and not in Atlantis. Mera continued. "And we decided that we might wanna give S.T.A.R. Labs a second chance. I'd like to hear and see any ideas you two might have if our two companies were to join forces."

"Oh of course, that'd be wonderful." Henry excitedly stated with a wide smile, Meena elbowing him to try and lessen his excitement. The male scientist chuckled. "We already prepared some ideas that we'd love to show you now."

"Perfect." Mera smiled and faced her two friends. "Guys, the grownups are gonna talk. Stay here till I'm back."

"You're not that much older than us." Seth reminded her. Kendra nodding her head in agreement.

"Yet I'm the one who's the head of an Atlantean company here, guys. I'm the grownup now." Mera pointed both thumbs to her face. "Gonna be gone a while. Play nice." She turned around to follow the two scientists to a private room.

"Damn it, I really hope that meeting ends quickly, I want out of this stupid torture device ASAP." Kendra stated with a long sigh as she pulled on her clothes.

"Not a fan of pantsuits, I take it?" Seth asked with a chuckle.

"Did you not hear me call this thing a torture device?" She responded with a dry look.

Seth chuckled and then looked towards Mera walking into a separate room with the two scientists. "Hey, I never asked this till now, but what kind of company does Mera and her husband run?"

"You walk around with one of their new phone models and you don't know anything about the company themselves? You gotta learn how to use the internet, man." Kendra affirmed with a groan.

"When this city's not infested with dangerous metahumans, I will happily take my time and do a thorough search. But for now, could you answer my question, just to spare me the tediousness of starting up a computer?" He asked her in a pleading tone.

Kendra laughed. "Fine." She inhaled deeply. "Ocean Star labs is a highly advanced Atlantean facility. Like S.T.A.R. Labs is one of the world's leaders in artificial intelligence, genetics and metahuman studies, Ocean Star Labs is one of the world's leaders in marine life, sea-based technology with Atlantean steel, even medicine from rare medicinal plants at the bottom of the ocean. With them being in Atlantis, they ship their products to all around the globe to share their inventions. Their reach might go as far as S.T.A.R. Labs', or at least that's what people say."

"And Mera's the CEO." Seth inhaled deeply.

"Her and her husband, Arthur Curry are the co-CEOs of Ocean Star Labs. Mercury Labs, S.T.A.R. Labs, you name it, they're trying their hardest to partner up with them because of their groundbreaking marine technology and achievements. They're big game." Kendra finalized. She looked to the elemental and were shocked to see him wear a surprised expression as he looked in the direction of the conference room with Mera and the S.T.A.R. Labs scientists. "What's wrong, Seth? You look like you've seen a ghost."

Seth chuckled hollowly as he confessed. "Guess it just dawned on me I really don't know anything about you guys now. I mean, I know about your life kinda, with you and your wings from your explorer days, I know you about you and…"

Kendra noticed him of him trailing off and assured him. "Don't worry, you can say his name, it's not taboo or something like that."

He made eye contact with her. "Sorry, if I'm crossing lines."

"You're not." Kendra assured him.

Hearing her assurance, the mutant asked her again with a heavy sigh. "How're you doing with Carter's death and everything? You don't talk much about it."

"… As well as someone can be when losing someone important…" Kendra said, trying to fight back tears with clenching fists. "I hate how lost I feel when remembering him."

"Everyone has feelings hidden inside them, and they only reveal themselves under strong situations." Seth stated deeply. "It's natural. Human, metahuman, mutant, powered beings, enhanced beings, animals, they all have that in common. We're the same in that sense."

"And we shouldn't keep them to ourselves, otherwise we'd explode right?" Kendra asked with a knowing grin, or at least something that was close to that expression. "Think I got that one from the same fortune cookie, but thanks."

"Ah, you got me, you know my biggest secret: All the wisdom I have comes from fortune cookies." Seth chucklingly said.

"I'm an explorer, remember? Can't hide anything from me, Dr. Fury." Kendra smugly stated.

"But, seriously, you and Mera gotta tell me more about yourselves when we finally get some free time. We're friends, after all." Seth honestly said.

"Definitely. Friends who go out and fight crime, day or night. All we need now is a van and a talking dog." Kendra quipped.

"At least you guys got Scooby Doo in this universe, so not totally worthless." He laughed.

The flyer realized something. "That reminds me, why'd you wanna come here in the first place?"

Thinking deeply, Seth answered. "On my Earth, this very facility is the reason for all metahumans showing up in the city. But unlike on this Earth, I think, the dark matter wasn't contained and was released all over the city. So maybe I can talk with Harrison Wells and he can maybe shed some light on this situation."

"But with him on his vacation, what's next?" Kendra asked.

"Get stronger, find Jesse and then get to a breach and get out of Dodge." He revealed.

Kendra nodded. "Remember, if you need more help, you can contact us, we'll be there and help you out however we can."

"I know, thanks." Seth told her, holding onto his left arm.

"Hey, is your arm okay?" Kendra nodded to the limb.

"Sorta not." Seth made sure no one looked in their direction before pulling up his sleeve and his left arm. Kendra saw black lines running along his arm and paled at it. Covering it again, he added. "Think the black flames in me is still in disagreement with the rest of me."

"Can't you like… I don't know, order it to stop." She suggested.

"If I could train it like a dog, I would." He informed. "But it's takes a little more than that, regrettably. Best thing I can do now is not use this element in the field unless it's a last resort. Maybe barbeque Zoom or something with it."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Kendra said.

"Amen." His eyes perked up when noticing Mera walking towards them, unaccompanied by the S.T.A.R. Labs scientists. "Look who returns!" He exclaimed in a dramatic manner.

"Hey, guys. So got something strange." The Atlantean got their attention, as she faced the two with one hand in her handbag. "Do you guys know anything about Harrison and his life? His family, specifically?"

That question caught the mutant by surprise. "No, why? Does it mean anything?"

"Trust me, it will after you two see this." Mera pulled her hand out of the handbag, holding a photo. Upon closer inspection it was folded in half.

The side of that was seeable was a photo of Harrison Wells wearing a black business suit. Like on his Earth, with Eobard Thawne disguising himself, this world's Harrison Wells wears glasses as well. The sight of that smug smile on the scientist's face sparked flames in Seth's core.

"_God… If I see him, I might just lose it._" Seth couldn't help but think. That face was the reason why all his loved ones on the other Earth spiraled down into tears and despair and heartbreak. And right now, he was smiling right in front of him.

"**_Calm down._**" Venom told his host, trying to put a dimmer on his bubbling feelings of rage with arrays of soothing emotions.

Inhaling deeply, forcing the hateful feelings down and into a chest before slamming it shut, Seth turned his attention back to the powered women. "Okay, but what about his family?"

"We meet any of them?" Kendra followed.

"Heck yeah, we did." Mera unfolded the other side of the photo, showing it in its entirety.

Kendra and Seth widened their eyes in absolute shock. Disbelief coming over them in tidal waves at the sight.

With Harrison Wells's hands on her shoulders and wearing a happy smile was none other than Jesse. The same girl who was in Zoom's captivity for months… is the daughter of the man who created all metahumans on this planet!

"What the…" Seth found himself speechless at the sight of them.

"**_And the plot thickens._**" Venom added.

X

Grunts and groans of disgust comes out of both Iris and Floyd's mouths as they opened the doors to the prison transport van's cargo. The smell of concealed filthy air streaming out of the van caused the two detectives to hold their noses and cover their mouths and stagger backwards.

The news of the prison transport van transporting the former metahuman circus crewmen being attacked during the transport to Iron Heights reached every news outlet. But as it involved the deaths of two cops and what appeared to be the deaths of the former circus crewmen, Captain Mendez asked Mayor Snart to allow the CCPD to move the prison van to the police compound to examine it.

The mayor gave his permission and Captain Mendez asked Iris and Floyd to examine it in the compound under the precinct with Barry as the leading CSI scientist. Her husband had to examine some other things related to the case with the ME's office and had to pick up something else from his lab upstairs before coming down to meet up with her and Floyd.

But till her husband could come and enrichen them with his Crime Science Investigation knowledge, the detectives had to get…. Detecting.

While her mouth and nose are covered, Iris peers into the cargo. She was unable to prevent her shock from showing on her face.

The entire cargo of the transport van was impossible to look away from. Every surface, wall, and floor were splattered with blood. Hair and pieces of skin and flesh stuck to the seats like gum on seats in a school bus. Some of the blood is still fresh, dripping down the edges of the seats.

But something confused Iris, making her lean forward to examine the seats.

Despite all the immense carnage before her eyes, two seats weren't touched, unsullied by blood and are completely spotless. "How the hell did that happen?"

"What are you talking about, partner?" Floyd asked her, joining her and examining the cargo. He gagged at the sight, his breakfast, lunch, and dinner all trying to fight their way up. "Oh God!" His cheeks expanded, filling up with his stomach contents.

"Keep it in, Lawton." Iris reprimanded him. But inwardly, she had to agree with him. The remains of Zoom's slaughter were incredibly grotesque, almost making her vomit as well. She fought back the urge to vomit though and continued to examine the cargo. "Did the unis gather samples and hand them off to CSI?"

Floyd swallowed heavily, his meals from this day finally making their way back down his inner canals and into his stomach once more. Inhaling once more, he steeled his nerves and turned to face the cargo once more. "Yeah, they handed them off to Allen. We need our best CSI on this, right?"

"Yeah…"

Floyd noticed her trailing off and inquired. "Something else on your mind, partner?"

Reaching down to her belt, she clipped off her flashlight and turned it on. Iris pointed the light to one of the unsullied seats. "That one…" She shifted the light to the other unsullied seat. "And that one."

"What about them?" Floyd asked.

Jumping out of the cargo, Iris spun her flashlight around, shining light all over the cargo. "Every single surface of the back has blood, flesh, even hair. Even the ceiling has some, grimly enough… but…" she returned her light to the two unsullied seats. "These two seats don't have a single speck of blood on them, just around them. Or anything on them."

"You're right… but what does that mean?" Floyd asked.

"I have one idea, but whether it's true or not depends on what Barry finds. Did the other CSIs take photos of the crime scene?"

Floyd nodded. "Taken and already handed off to Allen to aid his examination."

"Good." Iris smiled.

The two detectives continued their investigation of the prison transport van for a while, trying to check for any other clues. Their attention turned to the side as the sounds of footsteps coming from the other direction. The two detectives found Barry walking towards them, one hand clutched around the handle of a suitcase and the other one holding onto a tablet.

Barry's nose scrunched at the uncomfortable smell of fresh and dried blood. He placed the suitcase down the ground, the tablet placed on top of it next, before taking out his handkerchief and covering his nose. "Dear God, that smell is foul."

"That might be putting it lightly, Allen." Floyd added with a groan.

Facing her husband, Iris asked. "What you got for us, honey?"

"Some weird stuff to say the least." Barry reached down to the tablet, picking it up and starting it with a swipe of his finger. "Do you recall the number of prisoners that were set to be transported to Iron Heights?"

Pulling out his notepad, Floyd skimmed through the pages till he found his notes for this case. "Five inmates, the two sisters, the doctor, the strongman and their ringmaster. Why?"

"Doesn't the number match?" Iris asked.

"Yes and no." Barry vaguely answered before turning his attention to his tablet. "You see, there's five different DNA sequences found in the samples."

"Five different blood types, hair, flesh, from the five metahumans." Iris deduced.

"Exactly." Barry nodded. "But strange thing is, there's not that same amount of bodies."

"There's less than five bodies?" Floyd inquired.

"Yeah, I checked in with the medical examiner before coming here, and they said only three bodies were recovered." Barry returned his attention to the tablet to list off the recovered bodies. "The bodies belong to the two lightning metahumans, Lisa Gold and Leslie Willis, and the last one belongs to the metahuman with superstrength, Joey Rose."

"Only those three?" Barry nodded to Iris' question. "Then that leaves-"

"The doctor, unknown name and of unknown origins but possesses lightning powers like the deceased two sisters, and Nathan Bliss, AKA Mr. Bliss, ringmaster of the circus." Floyd explained.

"Yeah, both of them are missing." Barry inhaled deeply, like Floyd did, to steel his nerves. He peered into the cargo. "I saw the photos and examined the dozens of samples that the officers brought me, and I have come to one conclusion."

"If we really know each other, I think you and I might be on the same page, honey." Iris commented in a grim tone.

Barry smiled and took out his own flashlight from his pouch. Shining light into the cargo van, he pointed the stream of it to the two undefiled seats. "You've seen these two seats, right? How they're not touched by either blood, hair, or pieces of flesh, unlike the rest of the cargo?" The detectives nodded their confirmation. "That means somethings, or somebodies, were there to take the blunt of the carnage, so that their front sides were splattered with blood and whatnot. Disgusting as it sounds, but it looks like the goal of this visit by Zoom was not rescue, but torture."

Floyd asked. "What are you saying, Allen?"

Iris put the pieces together. "Zoom didn't come to help out the metahumans he assigned to defeat Venom, he came to… reprimand them, in his own way." Floyd appeared to be lost and didn't understand her words. She bluntly revealed. "Zoom killed three of Mr. Bliss' crewmen in front of him, or rather he slaughtered them before his very eyes because of his failure to kill Seth." She corrected herself when realizing the immense carnage.

"But he left the doctor and Bliss himself alive and unharmed, why?" Floyd asked.

"Not unharmed, no." The detectives faced Barry with confusion written on their faces. "They found this in the cargo, and Captain Mendez wanted to get their origins back at my lab ASAP." The CSI scientist pushed the crate-like case in front of him with his foot. He put gloves on both hands before flipping the latches open and opening the lid.

The two detectives felt a tremendous cold air coming out of the crate and touching their bodies. "This was found at the crime scene." Iris and Floyd listened to Barry's words and looked at the contents of the crate-like suitcase. Their eyes widened to overwhelming limits at the sight of it…

…of _them_…

The crate's insides were filled with ice cubes, the source of that immense coldness coming out of it. But what was lying on top of them is what shocked the detectives.

One… was a severed arm… covered in the sleeve of a black suit. The torn edge of the arm splattered with dried-up blood.

The other one, placed in a small glass container… was an eyeball, completely glazed and without color… as it was no longer connected to the head of the person who bore it.

"Oh God!" Floyd felt himself unable to stop the torrent of his stomach contents and rushed off to the side to find a trashcan.

"… Zoom… Did this?" Iris asked her husband slowly.

"Unfortunately, yeah." Barry revealed. "It looks they all belong to the same person, Mr. Bliss."

"Zoom slaughtered his crewmen in front of him, torturing him, dismembering him… and then what?" She asked unsurely, she didn't know what to expect. She didn't know what to think or make of Zoom's intentions.

"Traffic cam footage shows blue lightning flashing away from the crime scene after his attack. Now it is impossible to see it on the cameras sure, but it is very likely he might have been carrying two bodies." Barry informed as he closed the case. "Everything points to Zoom running away with Mr. Bliss and the circus metahuman doctor, but the reasons for it are unknown for now."

"Whatever his reasons…" Iris pointed her eyes to the bloodied cargo. "They're sinister and dark… and won't let anything stop them."

"Can things get worse than this?" Barry asked.

He would regret asking these words.

X

**(Gotham City)**

Gotham City, home to population of 1.6 million people and is notorious for its hostile nature. Crime, corruption, and poverty were widespread to the point where the city itself came to be known as a "ghost city."

Despite being a major city in the United States, Gotham City is home to several important businesses and corporations. One of the businesses in Gotham City, however, had to shut down due to how it aided a serial killer in the past.

One who was still reigning, going strong, and running wild in the open world.

Smoke from adjacent buildings' pipes filled up the path that single person was using. Her entire being covered by thick white smoke as she travelled through it.

As the smoke dissipated, it slowly revealed her form. Clad in a skin-tight black suit. Her head covered by a cowl, bat-like ears on the sides of her head and only exposing her mouth and nose. Her eyes covered by reflective white lines. The chest plate is accompanied with a crimson red lining, forming a bat insignia.

A long black cape attached to her shoulders, flapping in the wind. Wind blowing it up, revealing it's red on insides. The greaves attached equipped to her body are dark red, her gauntlets are black and accompanied with red sharp three-pointed accouterments on the sides. Her greaves feature the same black three-pointed accouterments on the back of them.

Her belt equipped with a long black sheath, a handle sticking out of it.

The person in the bat-like black suit stopped before a fence. Her eyes narrowing on the lock. A smile formed on her face as she reached down to utility belt. She wrapped her hand around the handle with black wrapping and red ornaments. Slowly pulling it out, she unsheathed it completely and streetlight touched the crimson red bat-shaped guard.

Wrapping her other hand around it, she raised the sword high up in the air. The unique steel shining and bringing attention to the shades of blue along it, forming intricate ornaments.

With a sharp inhale she devoted all her focus to the lock before her eyes and her put all her strength into her next swing.

Unleashing a war cry, she swung her sword downwards.

Following the sound of two metals connecting, her sword cleaving through the lock and cut it in half. The metallic clatter of the two lock pieces colliding with the ground echoed throughout the alleyway. The person sheathed her sword as she opened the fence open.

Walking into the place she saw that it was completely dark, not a single light shining in the darkened room. From the clattering of her feet, she deduced she was walking on a metallic floor. The woman pressed her left hand on the nearest wall and let it wander around in search, hopefully finding a switch to illuminate the place.

The woman's hand stopped when feeling a lever on the wall. Wrapping her hand around it, she pulled it out down. Whirring sounds emitted all over the interior of the place before the lamps turned on, showering the entire factory with light. This allowed the woman to see her surroundings.

She saw various small staircases leading up to platforms. On each platform there are four large industrial vats and above them industrial mixers. She was at the right place, or at least she hoped so. She looked to the side and saw a sign attached to the world.

"_Factory for Mermaiden Skin Cream._" The title read, the text under it reading: "_Made with real crushed mother of pearl. Only the finest ingredients go into this rich cream which moisturizes and takes years off your complexion._"

"What?" The woman said, unsure if this was the place she needed to be at. Pushing the right side of her cape aside she pulled out her technologically advanced binoculars. Placing them over her eyes, she presses the side of it to activate the scanning capabilities.

A green shade came over the lenses as well as a bright green line to accompany the scanner. The woman swung her goggles from side to side, taking in the vats and other items she could see in the facility and scanning them for what she needed to find.

But she then got a result from her scanning, seeing that there wasn't a specific polymer in the factory…

It was taken.

"Gotcha!" The woman said victoriously before putting away her goggles.

The moment she clipped her goggles to her utility belt, she felt every muscle in her body freeze. It was a feeling that she knew all too well. A feeling that every citizen in Gotham City felt whenever they stepped foot into an alley.

She wasn't alone.

Slowly placing her hand around the handle of her sword, the woman inhaled deeply. In one swift move, she spun around and withdrew her sword and held it high, pointing it at the person behind her.

A scared yelp came from the person, followed by the sound of the jet thrusters.

"Cassie, it's me! Calm down!"

Cassandra Cain recognized that voice and saw it was her dear friend, making her smile. She could recognize him easily even in his new armor.

Like her own suit, her friend adorns a highly advanced armor designed to resemble a bat. A black and gray suit with retractable bat-like wings that also acts as thrusters, holding her friend airborne. Like her own cowl, his helmet dons a half faceplate, covering the upper half of his face from his nose up with a black visor. Metallic bat ears are equipped to the sides of his helmet to uphold the bat-like appearance.

His chest plate is light blast and features a shining bat symbol, emitting a blue light to illustrate the bat symbol. The back of his greaves and his gauntlets feature black spikes.

A sigh came from him as he opened his mask, revealing a dark-skinned young man with short messy black hair and black eyes. "Cassie, blade down, thank you!"

"Easy, Luke." Cassandra sheathed her sword.

Seeing the blade return in the sheathe Lucas Fox lowered himself to the ground with a thud and gave her a serious look. "Did we agree to meet in here or outside together?"

"Here." Cassandra pointed downwards to the facility. She saw the look on his face and corrected herself. "Or not?"

"Forget it. Onto another matter, why did you cut the lock in half with your sword when you could simply use your lockpicking tools?" Lucas asked.

Cassandra gave him a dry look. "Too much dork."

"Hey!" Luke exclaimed, not finding that insult necessary. But his eyes widened when realizing what she meant. "Work. "Too much work." That's what you meant, right?"

"That's what I _said_." Cassandra proudly said.

"Fine." Luke had his helmet slide on. Batwing gestured to the factory. "What'd you find out about the factory?"

Batwoman sighed defeatedly. "There's no polymer here."

"It's stolen?" Batwoman nodded her confirmation. "That means he's been here." Batwing wrapped around.

"His telling card's not here." Batwoman told him.

"Calling card, but yeah, you're right..." Batwing trailed off when noticing the lights above their heads flickering repeatedly before shutting off. "Hate these old factories, rent is never paid." His bat symbol on his chest shined response to his command. "Thank God I made this adjustment."

Batwoman takes out her sword and followed Luke. Batwing looked back and stated. "Try not to stab me in the back again, alright?"

"Yeah." Cassandra answered.

The two bat-like heroes walked through the factory with slow steps. Despite the light shining from Batwing's chest plate, they had to make sure they didn't accidently step on something. Cassandra twirled around, facing the other side and pressing her back against Batwing's back. Their blind spots covered and their weapons ready to be put into use.

"Ow!" Cassandra let out when felt Batwing stopped, resulting in her walking into his back. "Why'd you top?"

"Stop." Luke realized what she said. "Look."

Cassandra turned around, facing the same direction as her friend. She saw the light illuminate a certain object. Both her and Luke gulped at the object.

… what was attached to the railing… is a white porcelain doll… with red hair and wearing golden dress… A dress that looked closer to that of a one-piece suit… A suit made of small golden hexagons…like fish scales…

"He's going to Central City." Luke realized with horror all over his face.

"He's going for Mrs. Curry." Cassandra added with equal amounts of horror and fear.

X

"You're serious, Roy?! You're coming back as well?!" Felicity happily screamed her questions into her phone. She's been on the phone all evening, talking to friends. And she was ecstatic to talk to them again after so long. Even more so at the news they brought.

"_Calm down, Felicity, you're making my eardrums burst here._" Roy Bivolo told her with a chuckle. "_It's gonna be nice for me and Rosa to come back and see the old city again. Not to mention see the old gang again._"

"How's Rosa doing by the way? I haven't heard from her in so long." Felicity asked. Rosa Dillion and Roy Bivolo had been together for a long time now, following the awakening of their metahuman powers. The technopath considered herself a bit of a matchmaker when it came to those two, both pushed into each other's arms thanks to her introductions.

She thought it was a beautiful relationship as they both have optical-based powers.

Roy gave a chuckle. "_Same old Rosa. Not much else has changed, aside from the news that Blackfire finally kicked the bucket._"

"If you want to say thanks, you're gonna have to direct them to the Demon King." She said in a dramatic voice like she was introducing people to a haunted house.

"_Forgive me, but I can't help but think he got help from the residential technopath. You may have heard of her, surprisingly enough, she's in the same line of business as you. Bit of a loudmouth when she's happy."_ Roy stated.

"Funny." Felicity said with a chuckle before spinning around to face the screen on the wall. "But hope you're ready for a party and everything, you ain't the only one to return home." She looked to the list of names on the screen on the wall.

"_Had a feeling about that, glad to know I'm right. Don't tell me who, I'd like to check that one out for myself in a week or two. Need to tie up loose ends on my end in Keystone._" Roy informed.

"Take as long as you need, Central City's not going anywhere." Felicity assured him.

"_Glad to hear._" Felicity heard a clattering sound in the background on Roy's end. "_Gotta go, Rosa's still incapable of turning coffee beans into a drinkable beverage without shattering every mug in the house. Bye, Felicity._"

"Bye Roy." Felicity ended the call and thrusted both hands into the air. Spinning around she jumped into a victory dance. Swaying, swinging, jumping, twisting, and turning as she relished in the thoughts of her old friends returning to Central City.

The way she moved was like she was dancing to a song only she could hear in this room.

While she was dancing to an inaudible song, she didn't hear the door behind her opening and Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop walking in. They went to Big Belly Burger to get some food for the three of them as Felicity had spent the better half of the evening accepting calls from old friends.

What they expected was to find Felicity taking more calls when returning to the base, not finding Felicity dancing joyously.

They shared a look and smirked. They turned back to face their dancing leader and then clapped their hands, showering her with sudden applause.

The technopath gasped, her hair and eyes changing colors, snapping around to find her two friends clapping gleefully. "How long have you two been there?" She demanded with a pointed finger.

"Long enough to hope for the Mick Jagger." Marcus quipped.

"What made you put on the dance pants tonight, boss?" Tony said as he and Marcus placed the bags of food on the table. "We got you curly fries."

"Thanks guys, I'm starving." Felicity admitted as he retook her seat and opened the bag, taking out curly fries. "I've been getting calls from the those of us who left Central City due to the entire mess with Blackfire and all. They've been talking about moving back to the city."

"For real? You're not joking?" Marcus ecstatically asked.

"Trust me, it's real." She stated with a smile. "They're coming back."

Tony formed a skeptic look. "Not that I'm not happy about the old gang coming back, but are they 100% sure about returning? Zoom's still running around and that doesn't seem to be changing that any time soon."

"I know, I told some of them about that too." Felicity swallowed her fries. "But they said they're willing to return home, and this time take a stand and fight Zoom."

"Really? They're ready for that?" Marcus said intrigued, his hands clenching as he imagined fighting against Zoom with his old friends.

Felicity nodded with a serious expression. "Top's a go, Prism's a go, Bumblebee's a go, Hot Spot's a go, Icemaiden's thinking too and these are just some of them."

"Really? Damn that's many, right now." Tony said with a surprised chuckle. "All of them battle ready?"

"Gonna have to check on that with Mera, maybe she could lend us some swords or something to help us out. Some gear would be helpful, after all." Felicity sheepishly added. She had a look of realization. "Where you two been this entire time? I haven't seen you two for a few days. Thought I was gonna plan bachelor-party themed funerals."

"That's the way I'm wanna be send off!" Marcus shouted; he was happy Felicity remembered that. He leant forward in his chair and said, "I went to Freeland for a bit to check on some old friends and checked on those girls, made sure they have enough money for anything they need."

"I took a trip back to Keystone, had to meet up with some friends in there. You miss us too much, boss?" Tony teased.

"Yeah, not being with my two favorite minions is hell on Earth." She sarcastically let out. Laughing she confessed. "I just missed you two is all. It felt weird without you two."

"Come now, really? You've had Kendra and Seth and Mera too, right?" Tony smiled. "Hell, those two even went out with Venom and stopped a robbery, didn't think that was their thing."

"They changed with Seth's help. They might have a thing for the hero business now." Felicity told them. She heard a chime from her computer and turned to it. "Got an alert."

Marcus paled at that announcement. "Oh, that means nerd talk's incoming, we gotta bail, Tony."

"Yeah, we wanna be spared from that hell show." Tony agreed, both he and Marcus raised themselves from their chairs and rushed to the exit without bidding their farewells.

"Dummies." Felicity shook her head and checked her computer, seeing the message that it showed. And it caused her face to lose all color. Her hair and eyes and skin going through all shades of colors.

"Oh no…" She was horrified to death and shot up from her chair, snatching her car keys from her desk and rushed to the exit.

The message on the computer was illuminated by the light emitting from the screen on the wall.

"_B.M. is coming to Central City, Alert Mera._"

X

**(Zoom's Lair)**

"**What?!**"

Zoom let out a violent cry in rage as he drives a claw into the metahuman doctor's stomach, blood sipping out of the hole and making the doctor cough up blood. The evil speedster slammed the doctor against a cage in his lair.

"P-Please!" He begged with a bloodied mouth. "I can't do anything… I swear! I've tried everything."

Slowly and agonizingly twisting his claw in his prisoner's guts, Zoom growled. "**Try… AGAIN!**" his booming enraged voice echoed throughout the lair. His voice made the doctor cry streams of tears.

Black Siren walked over to them and let out a yawn. Leaning against another cage, she pointed a finger to the whimpering doctor. "Who's the crybaby?"

"**Bliss's pet doctor.**" Zoom growled and pierced another finger into his body. "**A ****_useless_**** pet doctor.**" the doctor let out more tears.

A darkly colored breach appeared beside them. Walking through it, Reverb, Killer Frost and Deathstorm appeared. The moment they stepped past the threshold the breach disappeared.

"Where you three been?" Black Siren directed to them.

Deathstorm flung a duffel bag to the cryer's feet. "Quick trip to the bank."

Crouching down to the duffel bag, Laurel opened it and saw it was filled to the brim with cash. Pulling out a wad Black Siren smirked. "Love it, thanks a million. Or two." She took notice of the specks of blood on it. "Huh, guess the dry cleaners didn't know what to do with blood."

"Or icicles." Killer Frost giggled manically with an icy mist emitting around her left hand. In the corner of her eye she saw someone new in a cage. Turning on her heels, she walked towards that cage. "Well, well, well… if it isn't the greatest showman on Earth."

"Not much of a showman now, is he?" Reverb stated flatly.

While bruised and hurt… Nathan Bliss… turned his one good eye upwards with a tilt of his head, making eye contact with Killer Frost. His right hand raising and tightening the bandage on the torn spot where his left arm was attached to, cutting off the blood circulation in the spot to keep him from losing more blood.

His black top hat torn at the edges and soiled with blood, but Mr. Bliss remained true to himself and tipped his hat. He managed to form a half-smile on his face, the other half riddled with claw marks. "Ms. Killer Frost-" He gagged a bit, coughing up a tooth. "My… apologies… for the mess… I haven't had the time to properly… tidy up the place…"

"Well, I tend to like a hot mess, so don't you worry about that, Bliss." Killer Frost chuckled. "Unless of course, you need… a hand." She laughed with a distortive voice. She couldn't help but find his situation laughable. After all this was the same person who showed her deceased little brother in front of her but only to punish her.

_WHOOSH_

Her cold icy laughter came to an end when she felt Zoom's presence behind her. Killer Frost was certain one of the blue lightning from his body touched her back, causing her to freeze in fear.

He hissed. "**Stop… playing… with broken toys.**" Killer Frost nodded and walked sideways to Deathstorm. Zoom faced Mr. Bliss. "**Your doctor is useless!**" He gave an animalistic growl at the end, the doctor on the ground gulping in growing fear.

"My apologies Mr. Zoom, but what I do is entertain my audience, not examine or treat them like the good doctor." Nathan explained. "Our respective areas of expertise are like day and night. But his experience in treating and modifying metahumans is great. Not as great as Mr. Harrison Wells, true, but great nonetheless."

Zoom narrowed his eyes. In a flash he brought the doctor in front of Nathan's cell, pressing his circus doctor against the glass. "**Your doctor is unable to help me! What use does he have exactly now?!**" Mr. Bliss didn't know how to reply.

The evil speedster noticed his hesitation. "**Answer me NOW! Or I will tear him limb from limb before your eyes, like I did with the others!**"

Sweat began to pour down the doctor's face, staining the glass. "Nathan, please. Tell him I can do more." In the corner of his eye, he saw Zoom raise his claws, cloaking each one with azure-blue lightning. "Nathan, I beg you! Pl-"

"He's valuable." Nathan suddenly admitted.

Zoom tilted his head. "**Explain.**" The doctor showed a gracious expression on his face, thankful that his ringmaster didn't leave him to die at Zoom's hands.

"If one of your henchmen were to be hurt in the line of... your… missions… desires… then a doctor at your disposal would prove invaluable." Nathan informed.

"You do know he's got a point." Black Siren agreed with the ringmaster. "Frost here never bothered to finish med school. So, if one of us gets a little more than a scratch we can't exactly go to her for med support."

Killer Frost faced her with a glare. "Like you're any better, Siren. Only thing you can do right is scream."

"Says you, Ice Cone." Black Siren countered.

"You see, Mr. Zoom?" Nathan got their attention again. "My… doctor can help you… when you're hurt or have returned damaged from battle."

"**Returned from battle… Hurt…**" Zoom considered the options in his head.

Even though they didn't say anything both Jesse Wells and the masked prisoner listened closely. They were curious as to what might happen next, if the metahuman doctor was to die now or if he would continue to live as Zoom's doctor when his metahumans were to be damaged.

Snapping the doctor around, slamming his body against the cell before Zoom growled while reaching behind him. "**One chance…**" He revealed a vial of blood and pushed it against the metahuman doctor's chest. The doctor instinctively grasped the vial with both hands. "**Use it well.**"

"W-W-W-W-What is it?" the doctor stammered.

"**You're a doctor… Figure it out!**" The speedster screamed in his face. He raised him high up in the air before throwing him to the other side of the lair, where various laboratory equipment was there. The doctor had to prove his worth now.

For some reason, the masked prisoner and Jesse hoped that the doctor used it well and succeed. It could very well show them the path of their current roads.

X

**(West-Allen Residence, The Next Day)**

The next day, Barry had returned home from a trip to the baker with freshly baked scones to share with his wife and Seth. But with Iris on a shift now, it only left him and the mutant in the West-Allen residence.

Placing the few scones on a tray, Barry took it and walked into the living room with it. He was slightly shocked to see Seth crouching… on the ceiling… while stroking his chin as he was in a thoughtful trance.

Barry placed the tray beside the coffee mugs and looked upwards. "Seth, could you maybe not sit on my ceiling? I'd hate to explain to my wife how there's footprints on our ceiling, you know."

"Oh yeah, sorry." Seth expressed his apology before letting go and falling. He spun around and landed on the couch with a thud. "Can I ask you something?" He inquired while taking a coffee mug from the table with a tendril.

"You just did." Barry quipped. Seth gave him a dry look in response. Coughing sheepishly, the CSI scientist stated. "Of course, go ahead."

Seth lowered the mug from his lips. "You and Iris knew about Jesse from the get-go, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Barry said as he picked a scone.

"About Jesse being Harrison Wells's daughter." Seth clarified.

Inhaling deeply Barry nodded before taking his mug of coffee from the table and blowing air on it to cool it. "Iris found about it a while back after you brought her and the other kids here."

Seth looked confused. "Why do you think Jesse didn't tell me about her father being Wells? I thought she trusted me with that sort of stuff."

"You have a kid her age. You know teenagers don't say everything they know to either parents or friends." Barry stated. "But I think she was worried that you'd leave her because of her father being responsible for all the metahumans in this city."

"I'd never leave her." Seth assured. "It couldn't have been easy for a young girl like her to have a father who's responsible for the metahuman outbreak. Poor girl."

"Yeah… and not to mention she's in Zoom's hands right now." Barry regretfully added. "We have to find her."

"Checked on S.T.A.R. Labs before with Kendra and Mera, we couldn't find Wells there. Apparently, he's on a vacation and Mera is the CEO of massive Atlantean company." He said with a chuckle. "I should really pick up a newspaper or something."

"I think I have some magazines from Atlantis upstairs in the master bedroom if you want to read some?" Barry offered.

"Yeah, sure, would go well with scones and coffee." Seth accepted and Barry smiled before getting up and walking to the staircase. The mutant watched him go up the stairs.

"**_You really wanna waste the day by reading magazines from Atlantis?_**" Seth heard his "other" state.

Taking a scone Seth put it in his pocket for his symbiote to enjoy. "_Just to kill some time today. We need to relax some time. And then we're gonna go and find Jesse and defeat Zoom once and for all._"

He leant against the back of the couch, his eyes closing as he considered taking a quick nap. "_For now… just R&R._"

_KNOCK KNOCK_

But fate had other plans in store for the mutant as he heard the front door being knocked on. His eyes opening with an annoyed expression. "Come on!"

"**_Ha-ha, sucks for you._**" Venom taunted.

Seth got up from the couch. "Could be for Barry you know." He suggested. With the CSI scientist still upstairs, he decided to answer the door. Opening it up, he saw who it was and instantly knew that it wasn't for Barry. "Nope, definitely not for Barry."

"Well, sorry to disappoint." Kendra sarcastically said and pushed the mutant inside before walking in and closing the door behind her. "Hey, have you seen Felicity?"

""Please, Kendra come in. How are you're doing? Last night was great with us stopping robbers wasn't it?"" Seth feigned offense with his mocking words. "Ow!" He shouted when Kendra kicked him. He noticed her sunken eyes.

"Not the time for that!" Kendra screamed, shocking the mutant into widening his eyes. Calming down with a couple inhales, she repeated her question. "Have you seen Felicity?"

"No why?" He answered her.

"She's missing." Kendra revealed with a worrisome expression. "Tony and Marcus brought her food last night but left because she got a call or something. When they came back later last night, she was nowhere to be found. They've been looking all night with me and Mera, but we haven't found her yet."

"Explains your current state of fatigue." Kendra turned surprised. "Doctor, remember?"

"Yeah, right. Sorry." She said as she pressed a hand to the side of her head. "I have headaches, and I can barely sprout my wings now." She managed to shake off bits of her fatigue. "We need all hands on deck on this, in case Felicity's in trouble."

Seth nodded. "Got it. Take a rest, I'll help the others find-"

"No chance." Kendra interrupted him. "She's still one of my most important friends, I am not gonna sit this one out."

"**_Stubborn one._**" Venom noted.

"_Always a good thing to have on our side._" Seth thought back with a mental chuckle. "Can't stop you that's for sure, so… Let's go!"

Kendra nodded her thanks before rushing out of the household with Seth following her. The door closed behind him with a tendril slamming it shut.

At that moment, Barry walked down the staircase with a stack of magazines. "Seth, could you help me with these?" He didn't get a reply. "Seth? You there? Was someone at the door?" Not getting a reply again he looked around from the side of his stack.

"Where'd he run off to?"

X

Grunts came from her mouth as Felicity continued to hammer the lock on the fence with a brick. She panted and stepped back, dropping the brick to the ground.

With her hands free, she used one of them to wipe off the sweat pooling on her forehead. She looked up the massive factory hidden behind the tall fence.

It's an old pudding factory that was once very popular here in Central City. Their pudding, coming in various flavors, was so popular that it practically outsold every time the stores opened for a new day.

"Mermaid Pudding…" Felicity read the name on the sign out loud to herself. She remembered how she and her friends would buy mountains of Mermaid Pudding for movie nights. She, Laurel and Caitlin would immediately dig into those cups as the moment all three of them met up in her dorm room. They'd stay up all night and talk about all kinds of things, ranging from school to boys to crushes. She couldn't believe that this factory was something else in the past.

"How things were simpler back then…" She admitted longingly. She missed how innocent her friends were back then, how they weren't aligned with evil people like Zoom or other horrific people in this city.

"No, no, no, no!" Felicity chanted to herself as she shook her head. She couldn't let herself dwell in the past. "Come on, Felicity! Think about Mera. She can't know about this guy being back."

Felicity picked up the brick with both hands, holding it high up in the air. Letting out a cry, she slammed the brick against the lock. Her force put into the strike forced the lock to fall into pieces. "Felicity 1, Lock 0." She dropped the brick to the ground and pushed the fence gates open.

With quick strides, she ran to the entrance door. Grabbing the doorknob, she tried to turn it, but it was impossible. "Locked, damn it." Desperation took over and she rattled the knob but to no avail. "Seriously damn it."

She was about to find another way in when she noticed a security keypad beside the entrance door. Felicity recognized it as one of Eugene Mechanic's old models. "Well hello Eugene." She greeted the machine before raising her hand and pressing it against it.

Static sounds echoed in her mind as she conversed with the security measure. Her hair turned into different colors as she focused on communicating with the machine. She smiled as series of happy static sounds reached her ears.

The keypad showed a green color and the door beside it opened with a clicking sound. "Thank you, Eugene." Felicity told the machine before opening the door and entering the factory.

"Dear Lord!" She exclaimed in shock when her nostrils took in the air with a sniff. It smelled like the air itself consisted of expired milk, rotten eggs, and bad sugar. Only rotten pudding ingredients that have continued to rotten even past their expiration dates remained in the humongous mixing vats.

Felicity saw that only slivers of light fell through the skylights and windows, causing very little light to shine in the interior of the factory. As she walked to the nearest ladder, she retrieved the can of mace from her pocket.

It was a strange choice of weaponry to use in a city filled to the brim with malicious metahumans. But she didn't expect to find any resistance in this factory since it's been abandoned for many, many years. Felicity reached the top platform, with her higher vantage point she could look over the entire factory.

Looking for a single important calling card of a certain person.

But even though it just started, her search came to a sudden halt when her ears perked up at the sound of rattling metal. She gulped and tightened her grip on her can as she raised it in front of her. Her hand shaking and sweating, her eyes darting from side to side, her hair and eyes shifting between an array of colors.

She feared what might happen next… worse… she feared who she might find…

Or she would admit to herself that she's overly paranoid and needs to reconsider her mother's advice about a trip to the mental institute.

The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she gulped again… at the sound of someone landing on the platform behind her, their weight landing on the metal platform made a thudding sound. She felt as though the hair strands themselves shaking.

A heat source hovered over her right shoulder.

"Fel-"

_SCREAM_

Felicity snapped around in one swift motion, screaming and pressed down on the valve, unleashing all the mace into the person's face.

"AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!" A male scream came from the other person on the platform, his scream drowning the sounds of his feet as he staggered backwards in pain. "Felicity, it's me!"

Her ears registered the voice and released the valve before lowering it. She saw that she's been spraying mace in Seth Fury's face. "Oh my God, Seth, it's you!"

"Yeah…" Seth nodded and turned his closed eyes to her. "Thanks for noticing." He wettened his hands with water and washed out his blinking eyes. The spray solution was slowly getting flushed out of his ocular organs.

"Oh my God, I'm so, so sorry. Thought you were here to attack me or something."

"Nope, just followed you." Seth replied. He would have seen her confusion but with his eyes still closed and experiencing the burning and bubbling pain from the mace it was impossible now.

"**_She's confused, partner._**" Seth heard his partner inform him.

"_Thanks._" The mutant told him before pointing his head to Felicity. "Are you okay?"

"Comes from the guy who just got pepper strayed." Felicity scoffed. "Wait, how'd you figure out I was here? And why'd you even look for me in the first place?"

Seth shook his head and coughed a few times, his eyes blinking to adjust his vision. "Mace-free now, awesome. Kendra, Mera, Tony and Marcus have been looking for you all night. Apparently, you disappeared before finishing your dinner and they're worried out of their minds. The four of them are exhausted and fatigued, they needed extra help, so they asked me for help. I even asked Iris for extra help with the search."

"She agreed to that?" Felicity asked with surprise in her voice.

"Yeah, why shouldn't she?" Seth asked with equal amounts of surprise.

"I am basically a criminal, you know. Not every cop in this city's gonna want to help someone like me. You know that most metahumans are treated that way." She told him honestly.

Seth scoffed. "Remember, not all criminals are like you with a good heart and has the respect of Iris's mentor." Felicity chuckled. "So yeah, they'd risk their health and their lives for you, especially with everything you've done for those who've been changed by the dark matter exposure under the city. And just so we're clear, I'm on the same level as the rest: I'd risk my life for you, a friend anytime and anywhere."

Felicity had to fight off the urge to cry. It was nice to hear that from a friend. Especially from a new one like Seth. "…Thanks… Means a lot."

"No problem." Seth turned to the matter at hand. "Back to business, what happened here and why are we here?"

"This was a factory for Mermaid Pudding, probably the most outsold product in any stores back in its time." Felicity started. "It's a really great pudding that apparently helped consumers lose weight and even betters your skin. Had the ladies lining up in front of the stores. Plus, they had a real good protein amount, that really made the guys dig into the stuff like it was their last meals."

"In its time?" Seth recited with confusion.

"It… got a bad reputation." She vaguely said. "Shut down completely, despite the factory itself being sold and used for pudding instead of skin cream."

"Skin cream?" Seth inquired and turned his vision to the humongous mixing pot beside him. "This place was once made for skin cream."

"Yeah, Mermaiden, a high-end moisturizing skin cream made with real crushed mother-of-pearl." She explained. "But because of Mermaiden's rep got exposed that made Mermaid Pudding shut down. But then again they did do something dangerous too."

Seth jumped onto a metal beam. "What kind of dangerous business could a pudding company get into?"

"Something to do with a pair of chemicals. You see that higher protein amount that Mermaid Pudding was known for?" The mutant nodded to her while walking along the surface of the support beam. "It wasn't… real. It was masked by something else, a pair of chemicals called… cyanide acid and melasine, I think."

The mutant dropped down from the beam and landed in front of Felicity. "Pretty sure you mean cyanuric acid and melamine." He pointed a finger to the side, Felicity following the direction of his digit and finding two containers of the chemicals, both labeled with their respective names. "Separately they're harmless. Mixed together, not so much. They create an impossible-to-detect toxin, melamine cyanurate, which over time causes renal failure."

"Renal failure?" Felicity inquired.

"The kidney stones stop work and can't remove waste and extra water from the blood or keep the bodily chemicals in balance. No to mention your kidney stones grows into the size of golf balls." Seth realized what he said and faced the vats. "This pudding gives more than just weight loss, good skin and higher protein."

"Mermaid Pudding poisoned their costumers…" Felicity said in disbelief. "But how in the hell could they make poisonous pudding without being found out?"

"It's because of the two chemicals you mentioned before. They've been infamously known to fake the appearance of a higher protein content, which you said got all the boys to eating the stuff and their other selling points got the girls rushing to the stores." Seth informed.

"Crazy fucks…" Felicity growled. "But that explains why this place was shut down and Mayor Snart demanded doctors to call in the citizens for a checkup."

"Yeah, some people are sick in the head. At least your mayor wants to keep his people safe." Seth faced her. "What about Mermaiden? What happened to them? They use poison in their product too?"

"No… something else." She said slowly.

Seth narrowed his eyes. "Care to elaborate?" He asked, but he hoped she knew it was more than just a request. "Why are we here in the first place, Felicity? You answered my first question, but not the second one?"

"Well you're here because you followed me." She teased with a pout.

"Don't try to be cute with me, okay?" Seth stated seriously. "Why are we here, Felicity?"

"I have to be here, but I can't tell you why, Seth. Trust me, I'm doing this for the city, my friends." She answered.

"Someone specific in our circles?" He asked. She didn't answer and tried to walk past him. But he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Felicity, come on, what are you not telling me here?"

"I'm doing this for our friend, I swear on my life. I don't even know if he's been here yet." Felicity said.

Her words got the mutant's interest to pique. "He who?"

Felicity shook off his hand and rushed forward, the crawled down a ladder. "I can't talk about it. And don't say I don't trust you because I really do trust you. You're my friend after all." She got to the ground level and walked onwards.

Seth jumped off the platform, landing in a soundless crouch and looking to her. "Thanks, but wanna prove those words by explaining everything to me, please?"

The technopath stopped. "All I can say is… a bad guy used Mermaiden to hurt people and he… he might back. That's all I can say." She turned around to look at his face. "Just trust me on this one, alright?"

"I do trust you, but why haven't you brought in Kendra or Mera? Either of those two are strong enough to put a tank to shame." Seth said, though he could only say that for Kendra's sake as he had to fight her when she went berserk.

"They…" Felicity didn't say anything.

"Alright, fine. I can't force you to spill your guts, least I can do is protect you while we're in the Factory of Poisonous Pudding." Seth's back covered with the black symbiote before his crystal sword came out of the symbiotic pocket dimension. "Words I never thought I'd say out loud."

Felicity chuckled and continued walking onwards. Seth walked to her side and took his sword in his hand with a spin of it. The technopath took out another can of mace. "How many of them you got?"

"Can't be too careful in this city." She argued and he agreed with a nod.

Then the sound of another metallic rattle echoed throughout the factory. Felicity gulped and faced Seth. "You didn't bring anyone else with you, did you?"

He shook his head as confirmation while his body was enveloped by the symbiote and his head engulfed, forming his Venom form. He narrowed his red eyes as he looked around.

"Can you see them?" Felicity asked.

"**No.**" Venom informed and let the tip of his sword glide over the surface of the metal floor, giving off sparks due to the friction. "**But they're here.**"

"Peachy." She sarcastically replied.

Their ears piqued at the sound of footsteps clattering nearby…. Right on the other side of the support pillar.

The two heroes readied themselves for a battle. Whether it be the unknown or known-

"CCPD! HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Felicity once again let out a scream at them and pressed down on the valve of her mace can while the mutant pointed his sword at them. A male shriek echoed in the building.

But then the elemental got a clear look at the people before them. "**Eye Sight, stop!**"

Heeding his words, she stopped and removed her finger from the valve. Felicity gasped when recognizing the familiar forms of the CCPD detectives before her.

Removing one arm from her eyes, Detective Iris West faced the two powered beings. However, Detective Floyd Lawton wasn't so lucky and began to spin around in pain as his eyes were closed from the painful mace.

"What the hell, Smoak!" Iris shouted as she gestured to her partner. "You just gave my partner a pepper spray facial."

"And he's not into it!" Floyd shouted his dismay.

Sighing his relief, Seth embedded his sword into the ground and walked over to the wailing detective. With his claws retracting he placed his right hand on Floyd's shoulder, keeping him from moving about, while his other hand raised into the air. Water drenched it before letting his huge hand run over his face. "**Hold still, we're washing the mace off your face.**"

"Careful you don't claw off his face." Iris holstered her firearm. "What are you two doing here by the way?"

"**Following and helping her.**" Venom nodded to Eye Sight. "**What about you two?**"

Floyd tried to answer but his words came out in incoherent muffles due the demon's hand still washing it. Iris took over with a nod to the technopath. "While we were on our search for Felicity here, a silent alarm was triggered at an abandoned factory. Our search didn't go anywhere so we called it in and wanted to take care of it first."

"**And here we all are.**" Venom chuckled; he removed his hand from Floyd's face. "**Mace should be gone but blink a few times to flush out the rest.**"

"Got it, Doc." Floyd accepted.

"Mermaid Pudding… Corrupt business right here." Iris muttered at her surroundings. "You found anything important here?"

"**Nothing so far. But now…**" Seth pointed his fingers to the two detectives. "**We got extra eyes now. Help us.**"

Iris smiled her response. "Sure thing, pal. Just gotta report the situation here, say it was a false alarm or something." She announced.

Seth nodded.

Felicity was about to open her mouth and speak but then something came their way…. Ricocheting off the support beams in the size of marbles…

They landed in the middle of the four people… small black capsules…

"**What the-**"

Venom's words were cut short as the small capsules exploded and unleashed a burst of smoke. The four people instantly began coughing as the black smoke entered their mouths.

However, a strange, but familiar sound of what sounded like a small jet got the mutant's attention, making him swing his head upwards. While he did find it odd to hear such a sound in a factory of all place, his interest was piqued as he hoped for the sight of a familiar flying knight in a high-tech white armor.

It was for naught.

With the smoke still strong, he managed to see the sight of a flying armored man, wearing a suit with thrusters at the sole of his greaves and his black wings.

Before he could get a closer look, he noticed the flying man coming towards him like a rocket. His speed appeared to accelerate and was coming closer and closer. Venom unleashed a tendril from his arm and used it to push Eye Sight away.

Seth couldn't dodge the flying man and ended up with the armored man tackling him off the ground. His body never even came to connect with the ground as the flyer increased the output of his thrusters and flew away with the mutant.

"Blow away, pal!" Luke Fox declared as he removed himself from the mutant's body and let him slam through a support pillar. "Big guy like pretty easy to get off the ground." He admitted flatly.

Forcing himself up on his feet once more, the mutant cracked his head. "**Big doesn't mean fat, cosplay. Who are you?!**" He roared his question to the man in the black armor with a shining blue bat symbol on his chest plate.

"Name's Batwing, and don't bother with your name. I know about you, Venom." Batwing stated.

"**Famous already?**" Venom quipped and covered his knuckles with ice spikes.

"_Infamous._" Batwing corrected. "I know about you, that you're a menace to this city and even to Gotham City." He snapped out both arms, pointing clenched fists at the mutant. Small panels opened on the back of his hands. "And I'm gonna fix that, now!"

"**Personal rule: Never take advice from animal cosplayers.**" Venom countered mockingly while tendrils came out of his back.

"I ain't that nice!" Batwing shouted.

He empathized his point with nanites forming in the opened areas on the back of his fists and then shot out in the forms of bat-shaped boomerangs. Venom jumped into the air with a spin, his tendrils following his motion and swiping the throwing weapons away.

Placing his feet on a pillar, Venom pushed himself off it with a leap and charged for Batwing. Stretching his right hand backwards, he lashed it out to strike the bat-armored man. Batwing's sole thrusters increased and propelled him into a backflip, dodging the mutant's attack and putting some distance between them.

"Take this!" Luke exclaimed, lashing out his hands and shooting out black batarangs from his hands.

"**Same trick won't work.**" Seth said as he crossed his arms over his body, each of the batarangs piercing his symbiotic skin and remained stuck in the sides of his forearms. "**Our skin isn't that soft; your toys could never pierce it.**"

Luke showed a smirk. "Doesn't have to pierce, just sticking is fine by me."

His words caused confusion to brew in the mutant's mind, but quickly dissipated at the sound of overlapping beeping. Venom turned his crimson eyes downwards and they widened at the sight of all batarangs stuck on his body beeping with red colors.

"BOOM!" Batwing exclaimed like a speaker.

_EXPLOSION_

An astonishing array of explosions went off after the batarangs finished their beeping and sending the mutant flying again, his entire body covered by the black smoke that followed the explosions. Once again, his body crashed through multiple support beams.

"Gotcha!" Batwing shot off and flew after the mutant.

"Venom!" Iris shouted in fear. She took out her holster while she faced her partner. "Lawton, get ready."

"Got it partner!" Floyd said and withdrew his gun with a spin. But it embarrassingly fell out of his hand and landed on the ground. "Damn it, not again." He groaned and picked up his firearm.

Iris would have laughed at his embarrassing moment but with their friend being blasted with explosions, her focus was heightened and devoted to defeating the bat-armored man. "Felicity, you stay here and out of sight."

"Got it, Detective West." Felicity walked behind a pillar for defense.

The two detectives rushed towards the fight between the two men. Iris and Floyd raised their guns and aimed it at Batwing. "CCPD! STOP RIGHT NOW!"

Batwing faced the two detectives. "I'm doing you a favor here, Officers."

"Favor rejected, pal." Floyd stated adamantly.

"So, hands up now, or we're gonna fire." Iris demanded.

"Not happening, Detective." Batwing said and placed his hands at his hips. Pressing the panels down on his hips for a moment, they opened and pointed at the detectives. With his visor, he highlighted the two officers. "_Have to disable shocking, they're just doing their jobs after all._" Luke reasoned to himself as he saw the shock symbol appear on his HUD. After disabling it with a red mark around it, he made it disappear as he turned back to the officers.

"Sorry, officers, but neither of you are getting in our way." He announced before twisting the panels on his hips, two blue bolas launched from his hips.

"Get away!" Iris pushed Floyd away before dodging herself with a jump and roll. They watched the bolas wrap around a pillar. Getting up to a crouch, she held her firearm with both hands and pointed it at Batwings. "Assaulting an officer is not gonna look good on your rap sheet, pal." Both she and Floyd pulled the triggers, letting out a spray of bullets.

The exposed part of his face got covered by a layer of nanites forming a glass-like plate. The bullets connected with his body but bounced off his suit. The bullets landed on the ground with clattering sounds that echoed in the factory.

The moment the two detectives stopped firing at him, Batwing stated. "Officers, I live in Gotham, I'd be an idiot if I didn't have a bulletproof suit-" He didn't get to say anything else as something massive was thrown into his back and made Luke slam into the ground.

Venom cracked his neck and tore off a metal place from the ground. Batwing pushed off the piece of the support beam with his thrusters blasting the metal off his body before jumping into the air again. "**Round two, Cosplay.**" Like a throwing star, the mutant hurled the metal plate.

Batwing threw two exploding batarangs at the plate, attaching themselves to it before exploding and unleashing a smokescreen as the aftermath.

Luke saw the smoke disappearing and that the demon had vanished. "Didn't take you for a coward, Venom!" He said the moment the nanites disappeared and revealed the lower half of his face.

A demonic roar brought the armored bat's attention to the side, finding the elemental on his feet and with his crystal sword in hand. "**Bring it, cosplay.**" He challenged the armored man from Gotham before jumping onto a pillar and leaping his way towards Batwing.

"We have to help him." Iris announced to her partner whilst reloading her firearm. "Come on Lawton."

"Right behind you!" Lawton shouted.

But before they could move, one black projectile spun in the air before coming their way and hit both officers' firearms, knocking them out of their hands and falling to the ground. "Ow!" Both Iris and Floyd groaned in pain as they were disarmed. The black batarang pierced into a nearby pillar.

"No." Cassandra Cain declared as she landed before the two officers. Batwoman unsheathed her sword and pointed it at them with both hands. "Venom's yours." The two detectives looked confused.

Batwing heard her words as he spun around in the air after being hit by the mutant's sword. "She meant ours!"

Black tendrils wrapped around his right leg and Venom pulled on them, swinging the armored bat far from them. "**Feeling cocky, cosplay!**" He taunted at how Batwing talked to another in the middle of their fight. He chased him.

Batwoman shifted her gaze to the mutant for a moment to take in his form and became impressed by what she's seeing. She returned her focus to the detectives.

Iris asked. "Who are you?"

"Batwoman." She answered with a glare. "No further!" Iris showed she wasn't willing to comply by taking out her police-issued extendable baton and extended it. "Fine."

Batwoman charged for the detective with a swing of her sword. Iris jumped backwards and dodged the sword. Rushing forward, she swung her stick for her head. Cassandra jumped backwards with a flip, her left leg lashing out and kicking the stick upwards.

Iris' hold on her stick was strong enough to keep it from being knocked out of her hand. Iris swung it down for Batwoman's head, but with a swift move she blocked the strike with the flat side of her blade. Spinning around, she changed her hold on the handle before slamming the pommel into the detective's stomach.

The detective held her stomach with one hand and kept her stick pointed it at Batwoman.

Cassandra performed a backflip, landing on the ground again before throwing a batarang. Like it did with her firearm before, the batarang hit the stick and knocked it out of her hand. Iris held her hand with her other one as she felt the stinging pain from being hit by the batarang.

"Partner!" Floyd came to the rescue and had picked up his gun. He aimed it at Batwoman and let out a war cry as he pulled the trigger.

_GUNSHOT_

The detective pulled the trigger in rapid succession, emptying the entire magazine. When he couldn't fire anymore, he looked to inspect his handiwork. His eyes widened when he saw Batwoman…

… completely unscathed… despite all the bullets he fired…

"Oh, come on." Floyd let out in dismay as he missed Batwoman with every single one of his bullets.

Batwoman was just as confused by this. She looked over her suit for any bullet wounds but didn't find any. With her eyes gazing downwards, she noticed Iris's baton and shifted her eyes between that and Floyd.

With an uncommitted shrug, she lashed out her right foot and kicked the baton forward. She watched as the baton hit Floyd's forehead and he fell to the ground as a result, unconscious from the swift strike.

"Wow…" Cassandra let out in shock, unable to form other words due to her shock.

Iris… was left speechless.

Venom jumped backwards, leaping off pillars till he reached Iris's position and landed beside her. "**We like Lawton and all, but you might wanna consider a new partner.**"

"Yeah, Deadshot's not exactly the best in the firing department." Iris agreed with a sigh.

Venom faced the two bat-like people, both standing side by side. "**Get ready, we need to fight.**"

"Hold them off for a bit, I need to get another gun." Normally, she'd resort to her spare gun in her sock, but it felt out while they were shocked by the sudden smokescreen.

"**Will do.**" Venom agreed hesitantly with a twirl of his crystal sword. "**But come quickly, they're no pushover.**"

"Figured that one out a while back, but thanks anyway." Iris shouted before rushing off to find her spare firearm.

Batwing scoffed. "Would say thanks, but the words of a menace ain't worth a damn!"

"**_Sounds like we've stolen Parker's thing._**" Venom quipped.

"_Not what I'd hope to get from Peter, to be honest._" Seth replied with his thoughts before turning to the two bats. "**Think you're attacking the wrong people here, cosplay.**"

"Wrong." Batwoman countered adamantly.

"We're attacking the right person. Don't know how you roped the police into this, but I wouldn't put it past a monster like _him_ to work with a menace like you." Batwing exclaimed ragingly.

"**Words aren't going to cut it with these two.**" Venom muttered and ignited flames around his left arm. "**Guess we're gonna have to cut down their weapons before reasoning with them.**"

Batwoman faced Batwing and nodded knowingly. Luke gave a knowing nod of his own to Cassandra.

They had the same thoughts, same plan.

A plan to take down Venom.

Cassandra rushed forward with her sword. Venom raised his left arm, clenching his fist and letting his bright flames completely envelope it.

"No chance, menace!" Batwing had his suit enable the shock capability on his bolas before locking onto Venom's form with his HUD. He pressed down the panels on his hips again before shooting out three blue bolas, sparking with electricity.

Too slow to dodge them, the bolas wrapped around the mutant's flaming arm and unleashed an overwhelming surge of electricity into the mutant's arm. Seth screamed in pain as the sensations travelling through his left arm, his flames dissipating from the lack of concentration.

Fighting through the pain, Seth managed to swing his sword for Batwoman who neared him. But surprise hit him like a truck when Cassandra jumped into the air in a flip and landed on his crystal sword. With the length of the blade, she used it like a path for her to run on.

The surprise that hit him vanished quickly and he opened his mouth, his teeth reddening before flames took their place on his teeth.

Luke smiled and lashed out both hands, panels on both hands opening and shooting out beeping batarangs. The array of beeping batarangs flew into the mutant's open, blazing mouth and exploded upon contact with the flames. Seth's handle on his sword released and felt out of his hand. Batwoman used that moment to jump off the sword, shooting high into the air.

Venom coughed repeatedly to flush out the massive smokescreen that resides in his mouth. The mutant swung his head, still coughing, and saw Batwoman aimed her sword for his face.

Thinking quickly, he used tendrils to pull the sword back to his hand. Using it as a shield, he blocked the bat's sword with the flat side. But it was part of the woman's plan as her sword glided along the surface of Seth's larger one and Cassandra retrieved smoke capsules from her utility belt.

Batwoman hurled her smoke capsules into the mutant's face, blinding him. Through the smokescreen she saw his eyes, red as blood, clear as day and threw more capsules into his face, unleashing more smoke in his face.

Taking out her bat-shaped grappling gun from her belt, she pressed it and wrapped the grappling hook around his throat.

Seth growled and wrapped his left hand around the thread and sparked lightning around his digits, the lightning following the grappling rope and travelling down to the handle. Cassandra saw it and let go of her grappling gun.

Tearing off the remaining rope from his neck, Seth generated wind around his left hand and slammed it into the ground. The wind he unleashed from his hand cracked the ground and blew away the smokescreen, clearing up his vision, and the vision of his enemies.

Cassandra looked shocked, both hands holding up her sword and readied herself for another deadly fight. Venom made eye contact with her and walked to her.

But Luke wasn't gonna let that happen. The thrusters on both his soles and his wings flared before shooting down for the mutant. He crossed his hands like he's gonna cross chop the demon and torpedoing himself into his stomach. The output from his thrusters managed to push Venom backwards.

Seth's feet embedded into the ground and pushed up pieces of the ground. Venom grew tired of being the punching bag. Releasing his sword, tendrils shot out of his body and wrapped around nearby pillars. Each of the tendrils turned into adamantium, strengthening their hold on the pillars. With the added support of his tendrils, Venom stopped himself from being pushed.

Taking hold of Batwing's right wing, he swung him around in a spin before hurling him into the ground like a savage animal. Lucas Fox shot himself into a roll before jumping into the air, steadying himself with his thrusters.

Venom was surprised to him still airborne and, aside from his right wing lightly dented, still intact.

Batwing read his thoughts. "Atlantean steel can handle the water pressure of the deep ocean. Against something like you, it's more than you can handle."

The mention of Atlantean steel did make him narrow his eyes in intrigue. "**Talking so much now, cosplay? Scared, are we?**" Venom taunted, with ice spikes forming on his fists again.

Lucas laughed. "Batwing don't get scared." He proudly stated before flying forward once more with increased velocity. Hoping for this outcome, Venom opened his mouth and released a long blast of flames. Seth watched him dive right into the flames.

Out of the flames, Batwing appeared and slammed his right fist into the mutant's jawline from below. Before he could get a moment to recover, Luke unleashed a series of strikes with his fists, each attack aimed at Venom's face.

Clenching a fist himself Seth turned it into adamantium before driving it into the Gotham native's stomach and pushing him into the air again. His return flight into the skies was short-lived when Venom wrapped his tendrils around his armor and pulled on them.

Rotating his body, he forced Batwing's body and into the ground, his body smashed into the ground and mowing through it with the mutant dragging him around. Roaring like a vicious animal, Seth leaped into the air and swung the bat into the nearest pillar.

Luke screamed in pain as he rolled on the ground. While the attacks didn't penetrate his armor and go through his flesh and bone, he could still very much feel the shockwaves that came with each of Venom's attack.

But he couldn't let mere shockwaves faze him. Not now.

Batwing returned to the skies with a single jump. His eyes meeting the mutant's. "_I haven't tested it yet… But… A menace like Venom is a perfect guinea pig…_" Luke pressed his chest, energy shining in the chest plate.

"Congrats, Venom!" Luke announced to the mutant, his confusion visible on his face. "I made this after I saw your fight with Zoom at CCPD." Venom widened his eyes as Batwing crossed his arms. "Figured it out? Well, too little, too late!"

Batwing uncrossed his arms in a violent motion, the energy gathered in his chest plate released in a massive sound blast that connected with the mutant's body. The ground shaking and cracking from the destructive blast emitting from his blaster.

**_SCREAM_**

All of that went unnoticed by Venom as he felt the sound attack pierce through his body like heavenly thunder strikes attacking him, every single one of his cells feeling the sound blaster's strike and forcing him to the ground.

"Gotcha!" Batwoman shouted victoriously with a thrust of her fist.

"You're done for, Menace!" Batwing declared steadfastly.

Hearing her friend's screams of pain, Iris quickened her search for her spare firearm. It looked like her gun was nowhere to be found in this entire abandoned factory.

"Iris!"

She snapped her eyes to the side and saw Felicity rushing towards her. "I told you to stay out of sight, Felicity."

"I know that." Felicity assured her. "But if I listened to you, then I couldn't find this for you." She held out her hand, the detective's spare firearm in it.

"Smoak, you are a bloody wonder." Iris expressed gratefully and snatched her firearm again. She checked the ammunition before facing Batwing. "Gotta figure out how I can help out Seth."

"Aim for his chest plate." Iris turned surprised by the technopath's suggestion. "It's the source of his sonic blaster, that's his Achilles's heel."

"Alright." Iris obliged and aimed her firearm at the bat symbol on Batwing's chest. She would trust Felicity Smoak and her technical wisdom. Seth's life depended on it now. Her aim focused on Batwing's suit. She pulled the trigger.

The gunshot echoed throughout the abandoned factory, reaching everyone's ears.

The bullet travelled through the air and hit the armored bat's chest plate. It didn't penetrate, but it did form a large crack on the symbol following the impact.

"Damn it!" Luke shouted. Not because of the damage, but because of what it led to. He spiraled out of control, the sonic blaster continuing to emit its destructive soundwave and the damage shorted out the amplifier… making it unleash a much stronger pulse.

Batwing tried to get the amplifier to work once more, to get it under his control, but all appeared to fail. He even tried to direct the increasing sound blast back to Venom by steadying himself in the air with his thrusters. Even that didn't stop his malfunctioning weapon.

Venom, now free of the sonic hell, panted heavily. "**Hate…Sound…**" He let out in pain as he was on the ground.

"Batwoman get out of the way!" He warned his friend as the elongated sound blast came her way.

Cassandra lashed out her grappling gun and shot out the hook, wrapping it around a pillar above her head. Releasing her fingers from the trigger, she let herself be pulled up in an instant. She neared the pillar, but the sound blast came her way, towards the grappling line.

"Batwoman!" Batwing screamed in fear.

But a shard of ice shot towards Luke and slammed into his left wing with incredible force, shattering upon impact. The strike to his left wing made the armored bat change the trajectory of his sonic blaster.

Thanks to Venom's unprecedented strike to his wing, Batwing's sonic attack didn't meet Cassandra and flung towards the other side.

Venom managed to jump away from the berserk sonic blast with a leap to the pillar above him. But that only paved the way for the sonic stream to connect with another pillar. Its destructive power bending and shaking the metal on one side of it. The metal gave away and tore into the foundation, shockwaves tearing through the pillar and reaching its top. Bolts went flying as the shockwaves tore them off and the pillar… tilted to the side.

Iris and Felicity looked up and saw the pillar coming down on them. The technopath snapped her hands out, pushing the detective away and out of harm's way.

"Felicity!" Iris shouted. Felicity closed her eyes.

She didn't want to meet her immediate death with open eyes.

However, she didn't feel her bones be shattered or crushed by the immense force of a humongous pillar. Instead her ears perked up at the strange sound of metallic clanging, two metal meeting each other in a collision.

Felicity opened her eyes, pointing them upwards and they widened in shock.

Standing above her with both hands above his head and holding up the pillar was Venom, his symbiotic black skin slowly turning into adamantium like his clawed hands. His entire body slowly turned into adamantium and he lifted the pillar higher up.

"Seth…" Felicity panted.

"**Eye Sight get… Cosplay's suit to shut down!**" Venom shouted through gritted teeth as he kept the pillar up.

"I can't without touching the tech itself!" Felicity told him.

"**Glad to know now!**" He shouted sarcastically.

With his hands placed on his bat symbol Batwing tried to patch up the wound on his chest plate, trying to fix up his sonic blaster. But it didn't do anything at all and continued to make the armored bat spiral out of control.

Iris aimed her gun at Batwing once more. "**Don't!**" Venom stopped her from taking a shot. "**Last shot didn't go so well, did it?**" He reminded her.

"Oh right." Iris lowered her gun. "We gotta get rid of that pillar now!"

"**Get Lawton and Eye Sight out of here, we'll hold them off.**" Seth ordered the detective. "**We'll take care of the bats!**"

"No chance I'm leaving you alone hERE!" Iris countered loudly as she was forced to roll out of the way from an incoming sonic blast. "This is why I hate Gotham natives!"

"**Not the time, West!**"

"Oh right." Iris realized since her friend was holding a huge pillar up with his hands right beside her.

"Damn it, it won't work!" Batwing shouted as he failed to fix his sonic weaponry for the millionth time and resulted with another disappointing result. "Son of a bitch!" Cassandra looked up in dismay, gulping at the sight.

They were finished.

But then something came flying… no… Spinning through the air like a disk. Batwing saw the object coming close to him with a golden shine. Upon closer inspection he saw that it was a trident-

Before he could stop it though, the trident pierced into the middle of the bat symbol on his chest with its pongs. The sonic blaster stopped working and forced the armored bat down to the ground in a crash.

"Batwing!" Batwoman rushed to him.

But before that could happen, with a beat of her wings, Hawkgirl charged into the fight and plucked Batwoman off the ground. Performing a spiral, she elevated to a higher position and unleashed a cry while holding onto the struggling Cassandra Cain.

With another cry Kendra smashed the bat into the wall and pinned her to it. Batwoman tried to get her weapons, even thrust her head into the flyer's own but nothing worked. Hawkgirl smiled, her hold on the bat strengthening. "Bad girls have to be put in their place when they're acting naughty. So, stay put, okay?"

From on the other side of the pillar, Mera appeared. She stopped when recognizing the two bat-like heroes. "What are those two…" The Atlantean shook off her thoughts before rushing to Batwing.

Lucas's eyes widened in shock. "Mrs. Curr- OW!" He stopped mid-sentence with a loud scream when he felt the trident yanked out of his chest plate.

"We're gonna have a talk about your choices, young man!" She scolded him before rushing to Venom. "Venom, you okay there?"

"**Your eyes seeing something else?**" Venom countered sarcastically in a shout.

"Someone's cranky." Mera teased despite the seriousness of his situation. She lowered her smile and stepped backwards. "Hang on." Her eyes shooting upwards and searching for a certain pipe. "Bingo." She found it.

Spinning the trident, she held it over her head with one hand and reeled it back. She launched the golden trident and let it pierce into a pipe. The golden weapon didn't stay long in the pipe and gravity forced it down to the ground. The moment the trident fell out of the pipe, water immediately began rain down on them.

Mera's eyes shined bright azure-blue and a similar blue aura emitted around her hands. The raining water stopped raining and gathered around the Atlantean's form in a vortex of water. The water compressed into two spheres. Clenching her hands, the two spheres exploded and unleashed into two massive currents. The currents bounced off the floor before she flicked her hands upwards, the currents following the same direction.

The two currents pushed the pillar off the mutant's hands and slowly placed it on the ground. The very moment the pillar left his hands, Seth dropped down to his knees. His right hand taking off the bolas on his left arm before facing the Atlantean. "**Thanks.**"

"You're welcome." Mera smiled.

Kendra flew down to their sides with Batwoman who was tied with her own grappling hook. "Anyone want _bat_ service?" She quipped. Raised eyebrows were directed to her. Shifting her eyes between them before sighing. "Oh, come on, that was golden!"

"Not really, no." Felicity admitted, Kendra giving her a glare. The technopath walked to Iris and held out a hand. "Detective?"

"Thanks." Iris accepted and accepted the hand, letting herself be pulled up by the technopath. "And thanks for saving me back there."

"You're welcome." Felicity nodded.

Mera turned to the two bat heroes. "Now, are you two gonna explain yourselves or what?"

"You know these two, Mera?" Kendra asked while Seth used tendrils to pull up Batwing and place him beside the flyer, restraining him with the tendrils wrapping around his armored form.

The Atlantean gave her a wide-eyed look of shock. "Yeah, I do. So, do you and Felicity, Kendra. It's Luke and Cassie."

Felicity and Kendra got wide eyes. They turned their faces to the two bat heroes and examined their faces and their bodies. The technopath walked to Batwing, placing her hands on the sides of his mask. Using her powers, she conversed with the suit itself.

The helmet dissipated into nanites and returned to the suit. Felicity lowered her hands when recognizing the familiar face. Lucas Fox smiled sheepishly. "Hey Ms. Smoak. Long to no see. How's it hanging?"

"I'm gonna try to forget the fact that you were the reason why I was almost turned into a frigging pancake, just this once. But only because I haven't seen you in years, Foxy Lukey." Felicity stated and Luke frowned at that old nickname.

Kendra pulled off Batwoman's cowl, revealing a familiar short black-haired face. "Little Cassie Cain's back."

"Smock it off." Cassandra said embarrassed. Venom narrowed his eyes at that.

"Now you two got some explaining to do." Mera pointed a finger to Venom whose symbiotic skin retracted into his body and revealed Seth Fury raising to his full height. "Because I'd really like to know why you two suddenly tried to kill my friend," she shifted her finger to Iris. "And a police detective?"

"And Lawton." Seth chimed in.

Mera shook, truly surprised by that. "He's here too?"

Their ears perked up at the familiar sound of a man snoring. Lawton is taking a beauty sleep now.

X

**(Felicity's Base)**

Seth, crouched on the floor, wrapped bandage around Iris's forearm. She got hurt from the fall to the ground after Felicity pushed her out of harm's way. The mutant didn't find any broken bones thankfully, just small wounds and bruises.

Tightening the bandage with a knot, he saw the expression on the detective's face. "Too tight?"

"Nothing I can't handle, Doc. Thanks." Iris expressed her gratitude as she got up from her chair. She faced Felicity, Kendra and Mera who all stood with crossed arms in front of the two Gotham natives, both of whom with their heads held down.

Both are out of their suits, now wearing their civilian clothes. Cassandra Cain stands in a red t-shirt and dark blue jeans; a black biker jacket covers her torso over the t-shirt. Lucas Fox wears a formal work tuxedo and a tie.

"So, can someone explain to me what's going on here?" Iris demanded to know, her eyes shifting to the two bat heroes. "And why I shouldn't have these two brought down to the station?"

"That's something we'd all like to know as well." Mera admitted. She waited for Kendra to pitch in too, but a glance towards the flyer told her she wasn't gonna get that.

Kendra's stood on unsteady feet, her eyes closing repeatedly. Her muscles were so sore and tired from working all night that she didn't even bother covering her mouth when she yawned. It was so loud that must have echoed throughout the secret underground base.

The Atlantean knew she was sleepy from last night, she had fly all over the city and at a high altitude in search for Felicity. But right now, she was truly surprised that Kendra was even able to remain standing right now.

"Kendra?" Mera shook her.

"YEAH!" Kendra exclaimed. Whether she did it to scream herself awake or because she was too tired was unknown to the others. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"Nothing special, but here's an idea." Mera patted her on her back. "How about you go to the spare room and take a nap? You know, like Tony and Marcus did. I'll tell you everything going on here later, so just go and take a cat nap, alright?"

"Wonderful idea…" She trailed before walking off. Calling it walking didn't seem right as it looked Kendra was dragging her entire body through the door.

The moment the door closed; Felicity chuckled. "That was hilarious."

"What to know what's _not_ hilarious?" Mera glared at the technopath. "You disappearing last night without saying a word and suddenly being found in an abandoned factory the next day, with Cassie and Luke almost killing Iris and Seth! So please explain!" She snapped her head to the Gotham natives. "That means you two, as well."

Luke honestly said. "We came-"

"Because of me!" Felicity interrupted, she got shocked looks from everyone in the room.

"What does that mean?" Seth asked. But then his partner spoke to him.

"**_She's lying._**" Venom informed. Those words made the mutant school his expression, keeping off any surprise as he made a mental note of it.

"_Stay ready, something's fishy._" Seth told his "other."

"**_Copy that._**"

"Yeah, me too." Mera crossed her arms.

"Me three." Iris nodded.

Felicity was happy that Mera didn't notice the confused looks from both Cassandra and Lucas. Thinking quickly, the technopath revealed. "I-I-I got a message from Lucas yesterday, saying that he and Cassie wanted to come to Central City to… visit their old teacher again!" she faked enthusiasm.

"Teacher?" Seth asked confused.

"Mera's their old teacher. Long story, tell you later." Felicity stated before getting back to her excuse. "Now, Luke said they've gotten stronger and they wanted to show it to them. Cassie came with the suggestion of doing that by fighting Venom himself." Both Gotham natives turned wide-eyed.

"Let me guess, they didn't tell you about them harboring some grudge against him?" Mera asked.

Felicity gave a sheepish nod. "Yeah… My bad. Plus, I didn't think they'd both be armored up in new suits and armor and a sonic blaster that almost killed Seth."

"Or actually tell Seth himself." Iris noted, getting a feeling of what's going on here.

Keeping up the appearance, Felicity gave a sheepish giggle. "Yeah, thought if Seth knew of this, he wouldn't take it so seriously. So just kept it a secret for their sake." She nodded to them.

"Yeah…" Seth trailed off with an observant look, taking in everything from their posture and their words. "Pretty serious attitude your students had, Mera."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I know it's not gonna mean much from me, so…" Mera glanced to her two students. "Both of you explain yourselves now."

"Why'd you call me a menace?" Seth asked.

"And I'm still waiting for a reason to _not_ process you both." Iris pitched in.

Cassandra turned to Lukas and gave him a pleading look. He nodded; she didn't want to talk right now so she wanted him to take over. Taking in a deep breath, he started. "We're sorry for how we suddenly attacked you Dr. Fury, and for how we acted back in the factory. We were… fueled by the Crows description of you. How you are a menace to this city and any city you might step into…. It clouded our judgement and made us act irrationally. Hope you're not too… mad at us."

While most of his focus was devoted to figuring out the meaning behind Felicity's words and her lies, Seth did listen to the Gotham native. He gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Luke. In my neighborhood me getting attacked and called a menace is what I call a Tuesday."

"We're cool?" Cassandra asked.

"Water under the bridge." Seth assured them. He gave a suspicious glance to Felicity quickly before turning to Mera. "Didn't take you for a teacher, Mera?"

"Long story." Mera recited Felicity's words. She turned to the technopath. "And next time, try to at least involve me if my stupid kids are involved, okay?"

"Pinkie swear." She promised the Atlantean with a wiggle of her pinkie. Felicity gulped and turned to Iris. "So, Iris, is that enough to not process them?" she asked hopefully.

"Well… They both assaulted an officer with deadly weapons and caused excessive property damage to a closed-off area." Now both Gotham natives began to sweat like crazy. "But…" She locked eyes with Felicity. "Since I do owe you for saving me back there, Felicity… I'll let it slide this time." They sighed in relief. "Just remember this isn't Gotham, you can't just go blasting off and throwing every weapon you have on you, alright?"

""Yes, Ma'am!"" They obliged immediately.

Iris smirked victoriously. Her smirk faded when her phone chimed, and she reached into it. Pulling it out, she saw it was Floyd. "It's Lawton, gotta take this." She walked out the door.

When passing the threshold, Iris accepted the call. "West here."

"_Partner, you busy?_" Floyd asked.

"Not really, no. Just wrapping up some small stuff. Why? Need someone to brush your teeth after your beauty sleep?" She teased.

"_Funny._" Floyd chuckled. "_But no, we had a couple unis scour the old factory after what happened back there. And they found something strange, even by our standards. The Captain's here, he said he recognizes it and he want to bring you and Allen in on this. Something you might help with, because Chyre had something to do with it._"

"Chyre…" Iris turned confused by the mention of her late mentor. "…Okay, will do."

"_Good, Barry's already here, so we need just you right now._" Floyd stated before hanging up.

Iris walked to the exit, curiosity brimming inside of her body.

X

A camera flash shined over the milky white figure in the abandoned factory of Mermaid Pudding. The light reflecting off the brooch on the white silk that was around the neck. The body of the figure clothed in an exquisite white dress. The feet clad in beautiful blue small shoes that appeared to those of a pro ballerina. The index and middle fingers of the feminine left hand curving upwards like a hook, allowing it to hold the silk tissue.

The entire figure was held up by a black belt wrapped around a pillar.

While its clothes and its stillness would indicate it's a human-sized porcelain doll… but to those who stand in front of the figure right now could see the truth…

… it is too real to be… a porcelain doll…

"What the hell?" Floyd asked. He really didn't like how this week was going. First, he and his partner had to be the ones to inspect the crime scene after Zoom's break in and slaughtering the metahumans from the circus. Now he had to inspect this new crime scene with this new level of horror.

He dreaded the thought of what might fall into his lap next time.

Barry was conversing with a pair of forensic photographers, looking at the photos they've taken for his own research of the crime scene.

"Lawton!"

The detective turned around, seeing Captain Mendez coming towards him in long strides. When reaching his side, the captain shifted his eyes between his detective and the poor woman that was hanging on the pillar.

"Captain." Floyd greeted his captain.

"I'd like to ask any leads, per usual, but this scene…" The captain had to make eye contact with the glazed blue eyes of the… "dolled up" woman. "Only one person could have done this."

"Yeah, but there is something else that's really interesting." Julio Mendez gave his detective his full attention. "Spoke with Allen few secs ago, he said there's no DNA traces on… our victim here. Not even fingerprints."

"What's that got to do with anything? Can't see how that's interesting, Lawton." Julio admitted.

This time Floyd got confused. "You don't recall how _he_ did it before?"

Julio chuckled. "For the sake of his discussion, let's say I don't."

"When he used to place a victim before, there'd be fingerprints on the victim's body itself." Both the detective and the captain snapped their heads around to find the familiar insightful voice. Detective Iris West walked to them, casting an uncomfortable glance at the victim's body. "Can't believe Barton Mathis is back again."

Floyd nodded. "You and me both, partner."

Their captain shifted his eyes between them. "Back up a bit. What's this about DNA traces not on the victim?" He gestured to the body with a wave of his hand.

"Chyre told me about this case thousands of times, and wanna know what was always on the victims' body?" Iris rhetorically asked. "Barton Mathis's DNA. Unis and CSI would find loads of incriminating evidence on the victims."

"Blood, hair, skin cells, even found other bodily fluids at some point on one victim, strangely enough." Floyd listed off.

"That's weird." Julio added. In his years he didn't expect to hear that

"Not really, if the guy is confident as hell with an ego the size of Texas." Iris admitted. "Barton got so good at getting away with his murders that he didn't even bother cleaning up his victims, his "dolls" like he did in the beginning."

Floyd pitched in. "Like he was toying with the cops."

Julio ran a hand down his face while he inched closer to the victim and breathed heavily. "I remember when this guy was just a small-time punk doing jail time in different stations. Now a big-time serial killer with a very specific M.O. now." He shook his head at the thought of the hundreds of other victims that fell into the hands of Barton Mathis…

…The Dollmaker…

Julio turned around and faced Iris. "West, you gonna be okay handling this case?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Iris asked confused.

"I remember that this case, like with Blackfire, almost drove Chyre off the tracks and very close to a spiral of misery. Like he was-"

"Obsessed with Mathis." Iris cut him off. "Yeah, I remember. He was always like that with cold cases, he worked on them endlessly no matter what, even at the expense of his own health. But I can handle this, I swear."

"I'm only asking because I'm your friend and your mine, you know. I promise." The captain honestly told him.

"I know that, Captain. I'll approach this professionally, without losing focus or myself." Iris chuckled and looked to her partner. "Plus, I have a partner here who will stand with me." Floyd assured that with a confident nod. "And my husband will keep my sane and focused."

"Happy to hear, West. But don't trust any of those two with weapons, alright?" Floyd gave him a mock glare. Julio chuckled. He took on a serious expression and told them both. "I'm having you two take care of this case. West, you're primary and Lawton you're secondary." They nodded. "This man got into the heads of every single precinct in all the cities he struck. No one's every caught. Not here in Central City, Gotham, Star City, not even Atlantis. Let's try to make this last city on the maniac's murder tour, alright?"

"We will, Captain." Floyd affirmed with a nod. "Iris has all Chyre's notes and files, we'll dig right into them."

"Good, get to it. And West?" Iris faced her captain. "Be ready for anything, alright? Barton's no metahuman, but he's a slick as an evil mastermind." He told them before walking away.

"Gonna get Allen, and then pit stop at your place?" Floyd asked with a point of a finger.

"Yeah, let's have a murder session at my house." Iris quipped.

X

"Two pies, three medium Big Belly menus, one large big belly menu, three medium sodas with ice, one large soda with ice, large chocolate milkshake with extra drizzle." The young cashier announced as she produced the bags, two boxes of pie and the holder with the five beverages. As her customer reached into his pocket for his wallet, she asked with a smile. "Big party tonight?"

"Would have loved that honestly." Seth chuckled. "Nah, big work thing with some friends. I drew the short straw and got to be the errand boy." He took out the money, holding it out for her. "Here you go."

The cashier replied. "Thanks, hope you come again." she said gratefully.

Seth smiled before walking to the exit of the fast-food restaurant. Despite this being a popular fast-food restaurant, not a lot activity was here. Ten people are inside the restaurant right now, including himself. Had it been ten couples or families then it'd seem more right.

But with people still in fear of encountering Zoom or other dangerous metahuman criminals, they'd minimize their time outside of their comfy safe homes.

"**_We need to help this city somehow._**" Venom suggested to the mutant.

Seth pushed the door open with his shoulder and walked out of the restaurant. "_Definitely. But we need to find Zoom first and find Jesse and the masked prisoner._" He looked around for any prying eyes before jumping onto a wall. As though it was a street walk, he walked up the wall with tendrils and his hands keeping the items from falling.

Venom curiously asked. "**_Think he's gonna keep them at Ascension Hills?_**

"Parts of me doubts that heavily." Seth said out loud, now assured that no one would hear him on the rooftop of a building. The symbiote slithered out of his body and forming a skin-tight version of his usual suit. His body wasn't clad with the bone and spine-like protrusions now or his usual demonic face.

A tendril shot out of the back of his right hand, latching onto another building, and jumped off the building. Whilst swinging he made sure that tendrils were holding onto the food items. "We need to find another breach soon… be ready to get out as soon as possible."

"**_After we've found Jesse and the other guy… Who do you think he is?_**" Venom asked.

"What do you mean?!" He inquired in a shout as he ran along the wall of a building.

"**_Do you think that man is a metahuman? What is the reason behind him being Zoom's prisoner?_**" He heard his "other" inquire.

Leaping from the building, he unleashed tendrils from his arm and attached themselves to another building. Pulling on them, he launched himself like a boulder hurled from a catapult into the air. "Maybe just another human like Jesse? Another chess piece he needs? Maybe he's leverage for something bigger."

As he landed onto another building, he heard Venom state. "**_Zoom might be using him for something else._**"

"Whatever the reason…" He landed on the street, now finding himself standing before the West-Allen residence. "We're gonna save him no matter what." he walked up to the porch, the symbiotic skin retracting back inside of his body.

He opened the front door and walked into the household. "Wow." Seth let out in shock at the sight.

In the middle of the living room the entire table was overflooded with open folders and open files and dusty old boxes. Sitting around the table are Iris, Barry, and Floyd. The mutant noticed towers of boxes on either side of the couch, stacked on top of each other till they reached the armrests.

"You guys been busy." Seth announced his presence.

"Oh hey." Iris greeted him without looking at him, her focus devoted to the files in front of her and the ones in her hands.

Barry turned his head to him. "You got everything?"

"We're starving here, man." Floyd stated, a rumble emitted from his stomach.

"Rejoice, starving souls!" He spoke a like a messiah, holding up the food items. "For here, I bring you the means to end your pesky cravings: Big Belly Burgers."

The two males exclaimed happily and rushed off their seats to grab the bags and drinks before walking away for plates and cutlery they stated.

Seth chuckled. "Can't believe they want cutlery for burger and fries." He noticed Iris hadn't moved from the spot. Retrieving a box of pie from the back, he walked to her. Sitting beside her, he held the pie in front of her face. "Want a slice?"

"Later." She gently pushed the box out of her field of vision so she could return her focus to the files before her. "Got to focus on work."

"I admit I like the entire "all work, no play"- thing you got going now." Seth placed the box on the table. "But, as a doctor, starvation is no good look on anyone, or for your health, for that matter." He stated with a chuckle.

This time Iris faced him and asked. "Isn't this how you… SHIELD agents do it? Pour everything in you into working the case? Think that's how Chyre used to describe you big government types."

"Of _this_ universe, perhaps." The mutant clarified. "But of course, you're not wrong, a lot of SHIELD agents work cases with everything they can find in their tool kit." Iris looked smug as it sounded like her behavior was justified.

Seth smirked. "But…." He got her to turn to him again. "SHIELD knows the importance of working in a team, that way everyone helps each other and not a single person feels themselves with the pressure of a single case."

"Good point. Wanna help?" Iris quickly asked, holding out a folder to him.

"Of course." He reached out for the folder to take it.

"But!" She pulled the folder away before he could take it. Seth raised an eyebrow. "Be warned, this is one case."

He snatched the folder from her hand. "I know the deal, West. One case, one case file and folder." Seth opened the folder and checked the file.

Iris shook her head and gestured to all the boxes around them. "All the boxes you see here…. All part of the _one_ and _same_ case."

"What do you mean?" Seth turned to her with shock.

"Look at the name of the city on that one." Iris directed to the file on her hand.

Turning his eyes to the top of the file in the folder, Seth narrowed his eyes at the name and location. "_Starling City Police Department._" The detective opened another folder, pointing a finger to the top of the file with the name. "_National City Police Department._" She opened another folder, repeating the same action. "_Gotham City Police Department._" Repeating the same action. "_Opal City Police Department._" Another file he read out loud. "_Atlantis Police Department._"

"_Central City Police Department._" Iris held up the folder in her hand. "All because of one man."

"I regret not asking this sooner, but… Who is this?" Seth faced to her.

"Barton Mathis." Iris stated. "Media calls him the Dollmaker." She handed him a file which he looked at. "He got that pretty name because he suffocates his victims with a flexible polymer that he pours down their throats and then he dresses them up like dolls."

The detective saw Seth's eyes widen at the sight of the crime photos, the photos of his victims. Each of them appearing to be young women, suffocated with residual polymer in their mouths and dressed up like dolls. "...Sick bastard…"

"Those are his… He didn't start out with these young women." Iris vaguely started. "Barton Mathis… he targeted kids, boys and girls for a… trial run… At least twenty victims that've discovered, even more. And that's just the number in our city."

"This guy has attacked all these cities, with the same M.O. and what? Not been caught yet?" Seth fired off in disbelief, his hate and rage blazing inside of his core at this very moment. "How'd he get away?"

"No idea." Iris confessed. "But he always got away from a city he's attacked, and always purposely leaves evidence on his victims, damning evidence I might add."

"Anything that can help us with finding that bastard and put him behind bars?" Seth asked.

Iris narrowed her eyes at that sentence. She looked a bit suspicious at it. Shaking her head, she answered. "No, but because of that… I think we might wanna resort to help… outside CCPD."

"You think Felicity can help us?" Iris shrugged unsurely to his question. "Think there's something more to this mess, but I don't know what."

"You mean with her being at Mermaid Pudding?"

Seth nodded. "Something seems off with her lately. Mera's two students come to Central City suddenly, long way from Gotham City, and Mera doesn't know about it, and Felicity just blurts out a reason that sounds believable… but just doesn't feel right."

"You wanna check this thing out?" Iris asked.

"Definitely. But first…" Seth used tendrils to bring food bags to their laps. "Time for some grub."

"You just convinced me, Dr. Fury." Iris opened the bag and took out a curly fry.

X

"I swear I'm gonna be on first flight tomorrow morning, Dad! Calm down." Andrea Rojas told her father over the phone while she and her assistant, Natalia Knight walked through the darkened streets of Central City with their bodyguards.

Andrea had traveled to Central City from National City for a business trip to get sponsors from some wealthy people in the city for her company that she wanted to start up. Both she and her assistant had to dress up appropriately for the meetings today. Meaning they had to bring out the pantsuits. Andrea went for a black pantsuit; her assistant chose a red one.

Their two bodyguards went with their traditional black suits, white shirt underneath the coats and black tinted glasses over their eyes. Their right ears accompanied with comms devices.

"I'll be back in National City tomorrow, I promise." Andrea finished off before hanging up on her father.

Natalie looked to her boss. "What's wrong, Boss? Daddy still give you a hard time?" She teased.

Thrusting out her elbow into her assistant's arm, Andrea said. "You know how my father is, Nat. He always worries about my well-being, especially in this city of all places."

"Can't argue with that logic, ma'am." One of the bodyguards had to agree with her father.

"Glad to know our bodyguards are chatty." Natalie joked, once again hissing in pain from her boss slamming her elbow into her shoulder.

The other bodyguard glanced to her. "Rather us be the strong and stoic type, Ms. Knight?"

"Nah… I can handle chatty." Natalie teased.

Andrea rolled her eyes as she and her group turned down a corner and walked down to their long dark blue car, like that of the length of a limousine. But thankfully not as long.

"Why'd you guys park it so far away, guys?" Andrea asked her bodyguards as one of them opened the car.

"Best spot in the house, Ma'am." One of them answered.

"Dearie me, one of you owes me a foot massage later tonight for this torture." Natalie quipped.

"Good thing we're on the clock 24/7 then, Ms. Knight." The other one quipped back.

"Okay, horndogs dial it back a bit, you're with other people right now." Andrea reminded them as they reached their car.

Suddenly a strange metallic clatter came from the other side. Both bodyguards snapped around, drawing their guns, and pointed them in the direction of the clatter. They made sure they protectively stood in front of their clients to keep them safe. The two women gulped and placed their backs against the side of the car while holding each other close.

"Who's there!" The first bodyguard demanded to know while cocking his firearm.

"Step forward, NOW!" The other bodyguard shouted.

Strangely enough, the two bodyguards then found the source of the clatter…. Rolling towards them…

The two bodyguards and their two clients lowered their gaze to the rolling metal… finding it to be a can.

It connected with the tip of the first bodyguard's right shoe. Sharing a glance with his colleague, he reached down to the can and picked it up. Rolling it around in his hand, he saw that it was a canned… soup. "Soup?"

"What?" Andrea asked.

"_German Minestrone Soup_?" The second bodyguard read out after leaning over to read the name.

"Is this some joke?" Natalie asked confused.

"Soup does wonders for the skin complexion."

The two women screamed in shock when they and the bodyguards snapped around to face the direction of the male voice that shocked them.

Out of the shadows walked a white man towards them. Slick bleached blonde hair shining from the light touching down on his head. His brown eyes covered with a pair of glasses. His body clad in a green overall jumpsuit with blue stripes on sides of his arms.

"Stay right there!"

"Who are you?!"

Despite the orders and the demands from the two armed bodyguards, the man didn't even seem to acknowledge their presences. He, however, turned to the two women. "You two must try minestrone soup, it does wonders for your complexion, enrichening your true beauty."

"Thanks for the tips, Skincare. You can leave now!" Natalie shouted.

Andrea reached for her phone to call for the CCPD.

But just soon as she pulled it out of the pocket, it was pulled out of her hand by an invisible force and slammed into the brick wall. Natalie's phone pulled out of her hand next, meeting the same fate as her boss's phone and slammed into the same brick wall. Both cellular devices shattering into pieces.

Andrea and Natalie screamed in shock.

Clicking his tongue at them, the strange man looked at them in a stern expression. "Dears, you must know electronic devices can cause your skin to wrinkle, you can't use them." He sighed at the sight of the two men.

"I do not see the need for you gentlemen." Barton Mathis stated with a smirk. His smirk fell, he pointed a finger to the first bodyguard. "Farewell."

The bodyguard felt his throat be squeezed from all sides by an invisible force. His gun falling out of his hands. Feeling like a noose tightened around his neck, he was pulled into the air. He managed to gasp and try to fight through his closing windpipe.

The other bodyguard saw his friend levitating in the air, thrashing, struggling, and fighting against whatever was holding him up in the air. But his struggle came to an end when his friend's head turn around with a snap, his neck facing the other way.

His eyes glazing… and his lifeless body falling to the ground.

"NO!" The second guard shouted in despair.

But his despair ended when Barton pointed a finger to him. "Bye bye." In a second, the remaining bodyguard's neck snapped, his body falling to the ground with a heavy thud.

Both Andrea and Natalie screamed at the top of their lungs at the sight of their two bodyguards dying before their eyes. Barton slowly walked towards them, his eyes roaming over each inch of exposed skin he could find on them. The boss held up her hand and pointed her metahuman alert watch towards the man. She had just gotten the watch today as a show of appreciation from her new sponsors.

Now was a perfect time to use its capabilities.

She pointed it at him… but it didn't even chime as the distance between them got smaller and smaller.

"Why isn't it working?!" Andrea began to hit the watch repeatedly with her other hand.

"That will do you no good, Ms. Rojas. I am no metahuman." Barton placed a finger under her chin, gently pushing her head up to examine her skin. "Beautiful skin indeed… but…" He shifted an eye to the side, focusing it on Natalie.

"_You_… need to be eternalized…"

In response to his words, Andrea was suddenly launched off the ground and into a trash can. Her limp body slid down the large metal can and connected with the ground.

Natalie paled. "Andrea-"

"Shhhh!" The Dollmaker covered her mouth and pinned her to the car. "Don't scream…." He wanted to speak more but… her skin spoke to him and he ran a finger across her cheek. "You have such beautiful skin."

Tears ran down the sides of Natalie's face.

X

**(West-Allen Residence)**

After the three police precinct employees and the mutant had eaten their food and researched through the Dollmaker case files from all the different precincts throughout last evening, they decided their next course of action for today: They wanted to talk to families of the previous victims to see if they could find a connection between them. Without anything pointing them in other directions than that, Seth decided to call Felicity for a long talk.

But he didn't answer her phone, so he contacted Tony with the number Felicity gave her before.

"Tony you there?" Seth asked as the line finally connected to the metahuman.

"_Yeah, I'm here, what's up, Seth?_" Tony asked.

"You know where Felicity is? I need to have a chat with her, but she didn't answer her cell when I called her." Seth told him.

Over the line, Tony let out a sigh of declination. "_I know she's not here man, she told me and Marcus that she had to take care of some other stuff. Thankfully, she told us that she had some stuff this time._"

"Okay…" Seth slowly responded. "_First she shows up in a factory without telling any of her people she's going. Now she tells them and goes off to do some stuff…_" He couldn't help but think. Sighing, he said. "Do you have any idea of where she might be? Pretty important chat I need to have with her."

"_I can send her a message, but that about all I can do for you, man._" The metahuman answered.

Seth sighed his reluctance. But with no better options right now, he answered. "With her not there, I guess that'll have do, Tony. Thanks. But hey? If you guys need help or anything, I'm just a call away."

"_Thanks for the offer, will take it if we need it._" Tony replied happily before hanging up.

Closing the flip phone, Seth examined it. "…Atlantean steel… Gotta ask Mera more about her life." He admitted to himself and placed his phone back in his pocket. He turned around and saw Iris picking up her gun and holster from the table. "Where's Lawton and Barry?"

"They said they wanted to meet up with the nearest family of Dollmaker's previous victims." Iris checked her firearm and the ammunition. "Gotta get some bullets from the precinct, only got three bullets left."

Tilting his head from side to side to like a scale, he stated openly. "Gun with six bullets or mutant with a crazy-ass huge sword?" Iris gave him a dry look with a smirk. "Just saying." He sarcastically replied.

Iris asked him. "That reminds me, how are you doing with that new black flame? You got it under control now?"

"I guess so." He snapped his fingers, lightning a black flame on the tip of his index finger. "I don't get massive burns now, since its spread out through my body. Still feels weird like an ache when I use it." The flame dissipated. "But I will not use it here in the city. Those same flames have been used to hurt so many people in this city. Also, because my left arm is slightly charred do to using it before, so there's that."

"In that case, smart choice keeping it under wraps." Iris agreed. "Oh yeah, Barry and Kendra told, groggily so, that you now know about Ocean Star Labs in Atlantis."

"Yeah. How come I never heard of that one before?" Seth asked himself. Feeling smug Iris took hold of a magazine from the couch and held it up to his eyes.

"_Ocean Star Labs, the wonders of the deep scientifically advanced to greater heights in Atlantis._" The magazine read.

"Okay, just gotta open my eyes more." Seth embarrassedly announced.

"Nice solve, Mr. Governmental Agent. Looks like your training finally paid off." Iris countered smirkingly. The mutant responded by sticking out his tongue. "Ready to go to the precinct before finding Felicity to talk to her?"

Gesturing to the front door, Seth stated. "After you, Detective."

The moment the last word came out of his mouth Iris's phone chimed. She saw it was Floyd calling her. "Go for West. What is it, Lawton?" Seth stopped in his tracks and faced her. He watched her expression contort from curiosity to shock and then… to horror.

"I'll be there in five." She hung up. "We have a new crime scene, Dollmaker struck again."

"Lead the way." Seth repeated and rushed after the detective.

X

Iris and Seth arrived at the crime scene, both finding it to be an alleyway near the offices of wealthy businessmen and businesswomen. The alleyway was blocked off from both sides with police barricades and police officers standing in front of them. Near the barricades, they found an ambulance with open doors and a shaking woman sitting in the back, wrapped around in a blanket, with a paramedic beside her and holding up a flashlight pen, shining light in the woman's eyes.

The detective held up her badge, it was new officers standing before the barricades. They didn't recognize her, so she had to reveal her badge for passage. They stepped to the side and allowed the two to enter the crime scene.

Seth looked around, finding two covered dead bodies on the ground. They weren't far from each other. He also found Barry crouched by the bodies, a small case with an open computer beside him. While the CSI scientist placed a cotton swab into the computer, Seth saw Lawton talking with witnesses.

He walked to Lawton while Iris spoke with her husband. When reaching the mutant came close to him, he asked. "Lawton? What's the situation here?"

"Thank you for your time, and please remember to give your statements to the officers." Floyd instructed the witnesses who nodded before walking away. Turning to Seth, he revealed. "Me and Allen were on our way to the first family, as planned, but things got a bit hairy when we got a call over the radio to come to this scene."

Lawton gestured to the two bodies and walked over to his partner and her husband. Barry noticed the two coming to them, informing them. "These are the two victims: Both bodyguards from a pricy security service. Names are coming in soon."

"What is it, a mugging gone wrong?" Iris asked her partner and husband, hoping that either of them would say that it wasn't Dollmaker who struck.

Her husband replied. "Doesn't seem like it. Neither of the victims have DNA on them, no fingerprints or anything, their firearms are still fully loaded so they didn't shoot at the perp. But somehow their necks were still twisted. And according to our victim, they were hurt by a metahuman who didn't set off her metahuman alert watch."

"The girl at the ambulance had a watch that didn't go off?" Iris inquired, her husband nodding. "Anything else?"

"The perp…" Floyd inhaled sharply. "The guy who attacked them touched the skins of the two women…"

"Then that means-"

"Dollmaker struck again." Iris interrupted the mutant. Her eyes widened when realizing her partner's words. "You said _two_…One of them is kidnapped."

"Yeah. Talked with the victim, Andrea Rojas before and gave me her statement. She didn't say everything, her head hurt a bit." Floyd stated.

"Andrea Rojas is that businesswoman from National City who wants to start up a tech company of her own, Obsidian North." Barry informed.

"If the business CEO is still here, who was kidnapped?" Seth inquired.

Floyd nodded to Andrea. "Come with me." The three of them followed the detective to the ambulance. The paramedic was in the back of the ambulance van, looking for other stuff while Andrea remained seated in a blanket wrapped around her. "Ms. Rojas?"

"Yes?" Andrea shakily answered. "Did you hear anything about Natalie yet?"

"No, I'm sorry, not yet." Floyd expressed sincerely. "This is my partner, Detective Iris West. Our CSI, Barry Allen and our civilian consultant, Dr. Seth Fury. I know it's difficult, Ms. Rojas, but could you please repeat what you told me before for my colleagues' sake?"

Andrea nodded. "Okay. I was on my way to our car from a business meeting with my assistant Natalie Knight and our two bodyguards. My Dad hired them in National City and had them go with us to Central City and escort us. But we heard a clatter and all of sudden, a soup can came our way. We picked it up and it was German minestrone soup."

Barry leant closer to his wife's ear. "We found that can, fingerprints from victim one and Mathis."

"Of course." Iris breathed unsurprisingly.

"Please continue, Ms. Rojas." Seth told the victim.

Nodding her head Andrea resumed her statement. "Suddenly a man showed up, telling us how minestrone is good for skincare." That was an obvious trait of the serial killer's M.O. Rumors of the past spread of how he'd give beauty tips to the victims or their friends and family. "We got scared and that man told me and Natalie has… beautiful skin."

Iris narrowed her eyes. "Has be Dollmaker. What else, Ms. Rojas?"

"I tried to use my metahuman alert app, b-b-but it didn't work. He- he twisted their necks without touching them, without coming near them. But my app didn't work." Andrea empathized with a wave of her watch. "I thought it was broken but he said he wasn't a metahuman. But if he wasn't…" she gulped at the memory of her two bodyguards dying before her eyes. "How could he have killed them? How could he have kidnapped Nat then?"

"We'll find out, I promise." Floyd stated. Normally detectives weren't allowed to make promises to someone when investigating a case as it could lead to the detective's judgement be heavily clouded by their promise. They wouldn't be able to think with a clear head.

But the detective chose to promise now for Andrea's sake.

"But what else happened?" Iris impatiently asked.

"He said… something about Nat being _eternalized_. That one I don't get." Andrea admitted, but those words caused the gears to grind the minds of those questioning her. "He only focused on Natalie and just… threw me away. Why?"

Thinking back to Joe West in his universe would ask for clues, Seth stated his inquiry. "Ms. Rojas is there anything about the strange man could tell us? Anything about his clothes maybe or something?"

Once again Andrea's mind returned to the events of the last night. When thinking of his clothes, she stated. "For some reason, he wore an overall jumpsuit. Green of all colors."

"**_Cause that's the issue here._**" Venom quipped.

"_Course it is. Fashion police might come and sentence him to life in prison._" Seth replied to his partner.

"Wait…" Floyd got their attention and pulled out a rather dusty and ragged notepad. "Why does that one sound familiar…" He asked himself while flipping through the pages. "Bingo! Chyre you genius. They wear overalls at factories."

Iris pieced it together. "He's at the old Mermaid Pudding factory!"

"Go, I'll wrap things up here." Floyd told her.

Barry looked to Seth. "Seth, go with her. She's gonna need someone to watch her back."

"On it. Plus, I need someone to watch mine." Seth agreed while Iris spoke in her phone. "Who are you talking to?"

"The captain." She removed the phone from her ear and walked towards the car. "Had him keep officers ready and geared up for backup if we need it. Let's go!" she rushed to her car with Seth behind her.

X

**(Mermaid Pudding Factory)**

Pushing the doors open, Seth and Iris reentered the factory. One armed with his crystal sword, the other armed with her firearm. They walked slowly side by side as they walked deeper into the old factory.

Seth noticed that despite this place being a location for a crime scene, there wasn't a single officer, barricade, or police tape left. "How'd you get the place cleared so quickly?"

"I didn't; The captain did." She turned to him. "The mayor wants the entire police department on high alert. Mathis struck dozens of cities and never getting caught. The mayor and the captain couldn't waste time letting officers focus on a single crime scene instead of catching a notorious serial killer."

"Makes sense. But can't believe this guy always attacked every single city he's been in." Seth halted and faced her. "How many people would he kill before moving to a new city?"

Iris sighed. "In the beginning, when he did it with kids, he killed five children in a city before moving to the next one. With young women he killed seven before moving on."

"You mentioned before Chyre or you couldn't figure out how he targeted them right?" Iris nodded with a regretful look. "We're gonna make sure Natalie Knight doesn't end up dead."

"Let's hope we can." Iris looked around the abandoned factory. "Mathis is cocky and confident in his skills to disappear without a trace, that's why he keeps leaving DNA on his victims…. But to think him giving off such an obvious clue and bringing us here… scares me, actually."

"We're gonna find and defeat this guy, Iris." Seth tried to ease her mind. But it was obvious that his words proved to do very little to ease her. This man… the Dollmaker had left trails of bodies, dolls in his paths. Despite how many are riddled with hundreds of clues, every city that's tried to apprehend him failed in their attempts.

Only resulted in them digging more holes for the young women or children this monster has turned into dolls.

"That reminds me of something." Iris got the mutant's attention. "We should have brought Mera with us."

"Why's that?" Seth inquired.

"Dollmaker did something that didn't fit his pattern. In Atlantis, he didn't kill five children or seven young women; he killed ten children and eleven young women before moving on to the next city." Iris stated, surprise coming down on the mutant like a thunderbolt.

"That's so many." Seth said, he was truly astonished that Dollmaker killed twenty-one innocent people in Atlantis. "But yeah, maybe Mera would-"

"YOU BROUGHT MERA HERE?!"

They snapped around to face the screaming voice. Seth's body instantly enveloping by the symbiote and enlarging into Venom and Iris cocked her firearm.

But both lowered weapons when registering the familiar faces. Standing before them are Felicity, Cassandra Cain in her Batwoman suit and Lucas Fox in his Batwing suit. The two women remained standing on the ground while their male companion hovered in the air.

"**What are you three doing here?**" Venom asked as he lowered his blade.

"What? Here?" Felicity asked with a sheepish expression. "Not much… just… Sightseeing." Sweat is practically oozing out of her.

Iris narrowed her eyes and gesturing to the suited heroes from Gotham… and Felicity's can of mace. "You bring your toys to all your sightseeing?"

"You can never be too careful, Detective." Luke quipped while in the air.

"Yeah, cause this is Gotham." Iris sarcastically countered. The smile on Luke's face fell. "What are you guys really doing here?"

"Shopping." Cassandra replied with a small smile, her hands lowering and had the blade of her sword pointing to the ground.

"Okay, time to drop it." Iris wasn't in mood for any games now. "What are you three doing here? Answer me honestly, or I'll have to ask you three to leave the factory. We're here to find a serial killer, not play games with you guys."

"Why?" Cassandra asked.

Iris gave her a stern look. "It might not look like it, but this is a crime scene. Right now, you're trespassing. So honest answer. Now." She demanded.

"I…" Felicity stopped herself.

Seth narrowed his eyes. "**Felicity? Do you know about Dollmaker?**"

For the first time in a long time Seth saw all colors drain from Felicity's face. This was very similar to the drain of color she'd experience whenever Blackfire's name would be uttered in her presence. "You know about him?"

Seth noticed a similar look of horror and drainage of blood on the Gotham natives' faces.

"The entire police force is on high alert, spread all over the city to find Barton." Iris explained. "He struck again last night, kidnapping a woman by the name of Natalie Knight. According to the victim's boss, who was with her, Mathis was wearing some work clothes similar to that of big factory workers."

"**Like this one.**" Venom focused on Felicity. "**But that doesn't answer the question. Why are you three here?**"

"…" Felicity was at a loss for words. She decided to come clean. "You know what I said about this place being the factory for skin cream." Venom nodded. "And that it was shut down."

"**You told us yesterday, not last year. Get to it!**" He impatiently stated.

"Ethyl paraben and sodium laureth sulphate." Venom and Iris looked shocked at the technopath's sudden words. Felicity elaborated. "It's the proprietary formula for the skin cream they made in this facility, Mermaiden. A lot of the Dollmaker's victims had traces on them."

"That formula… I think some of the kids that Mathis killed had that on them as well. The young women too." Iris recalled.

"Yeah, I know." Felicity stated, Iris's surprise rising to the surface like magma about to erupt from a volcano. "This was how Barton chose his victims."

"You knew that!" Iris shouted baffled. Felicity didn't even get to nod as the detective scoffed disbelievingly. "Why didn't you tell the CCPD about this? You could have helped a lot of people, Smoak!"

"And you think I didn't, Detective?" Felicity countered angrily, her hair and eyes changing colors rapidly. It looked like it was a rainbow appearing all over her head. "I did help! I shut this entire factory down!" Her skin rippled like a wave travelling through the ocean.

"**Calm down.**" Seth told the technopath.

Felicity looked like she was on the verge of breaking down. Her hands clenching and her eyes shifting along with her skin. It looked like she was about to explode from the surge of changes to her body.

Luke saw what his friend was going and lowered himself to the ground and made eye contact with the detective and the mutant. "Felicity had the formula and realized that was how Dollmaker found his victims. She sent out that information to trusted sources, informing that their product is defective. Mermaiden shut down in every city, thanks to her. But that didn't stop Dollmaker from killing. Before kidnapping his victims, he finds abandoned Mermaiden factories in different cities and steals the residual polymer in them."

"It's the same he uses to suffocate his victims." Cassandra added.

"Wouldn't they have been cleared out?" Iris inquired.

"No one knew that he used their polymer too, so they didn't see any reason for that." Felicity informed while running a hand down her face, dismay and frustration written all over her face. "I tried to take down his sources of polymer by taking down more of Mermaiden's facilities, even the ones that's not even close by."

"**With Batwing and Batwoman here, it must mean he struck Gotham City.**" Seth deduced. He got his confirmation when Felicity nodded. His red eyes shifted to the detective beside him. "**Chyre didn't know anything about this?**"

"Nah, he didn't. At least, it wasn't in his notes." Iris announced. "But did he know about this?" She directed to the technopath.

Felicity shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I never told him. If he did know it then he must have found out about himself."

"**But why'd he chose kids?**" The mutant asked.

"Mermaiden said their skin cream could bring cause great skin complexion for children and that it'd show when they grow into their teen years." Felicity stated. Sighing she admitted. "I've been trying to rack my brain on how he's choosing them now, but with no success."

"Well that's great." Iris sighed her frustration.

Venom faced Felicity, confusion all over his face. "**Why didn't you want Mera here, Felicity?**"

Gulping loudly, she replied. "This is…. Look, Mera can't be here. She's not… Dollmaker… We're not bringing her into this!" she shouted adamantly. "This… is too much for her. She can't know he's back."

A clatter echoed throughout the entire abandoned factory, reaching the ears of the many citizens. All of them snapped around and widened at the person standing there. But Felicity was the one who paled and losing all color in her.

Standing beside the golden trident that fell out of her hand was Y'Mera Xebella Challa Curry. Clad in her golden one-piece suit consisting of fish scale-like hexagons on her body. Blue eyes wide as planets and shock increasing as it continued to fall over her like rain.

Iris and Seth saw that she didn't look the least bit alive, not like she usually is. All life left her core, leaving a lifeless body no devoted to follow its primal instincts. That persona was something that the mutant recognized. It was a persona that he's donned himself…

… a persona that he would turn to and use it like an axe and cut down the heads of his enemies… even if that meant becoming abominable demon…

A being that belonged in deepest pits of Hell…walking on the Earth…

"Doll-Dollmaker's here?" Mera asked shakily. None of her friends answered. They didn't need to. The Atlantean got all her confirmation when her two students and Eye Sight gulped heavily. Through their masks and changing hair and skin, she could see that her worst fears had come true. "He's here."

"Yeah… He is." Felicity answered.

"And you didn't want me to find him?" Mera rhetorically asked with wet eyes, she heard the technopath's words before. "Why? Why didn't you want me here, Felicity, huh?"

"You know why, Mera." Felicity answered slowly. "Last time he was near you… You almost lost yourself."

"Because I have a right to!" Mera roared, shock now coming down on her friends. She rushed towards her friends with long strides. "You know what he did!" She shouted into Felicity's face.

"I know, Mera. But please understand." The technopath pleaded.

While they traded words, Iris faced the mutant. "You know what they're talking about?"

"**We've known them as long as you have, West.**" Seth reminded her with a counter. "**But what hell is going on?**"

"Good question." The detective nodded.

Neither of them knew what was going on between Mera, her students and Eye Sight. But the look on the Atlantean's face was so filled with horror, drained of so much color that it left her body to resemble that of a corpse.

Ears perked up when the sound of hands clapping reached them. The six of them turned around to face the source. They found a strange man stepping out of the darkness. Familiar slick bleached blonde hair shining despite the darkness surroundings. The sick and evil brown eyes, swirling with malice and sick intentions, covered with a pair of glasses. His body clad in a green overall jumpsuit, a green apron covering the front of it.

Mera's eyes expanded at the sight of that horrific man. The memories of her past returning with a vengeance the size of Jupiter.

"Good to meet you all." Barton Mathis greeted them. But his eyes narrowed Mera. "Ah, Dear God. Mrs. Y'Mera Xebella Challa Curry. What a pleasure it is to see you again."

"Again?" Iris noted surprised.

"**_He can pronounce her full name?!_**" The symbiote inquired.

"_You're focusing on the wrong things today, Venom._" The mutant chastised his "other." Any other day, he would have spent time trying to figure out how this became a thing, but for now?

Seemed like the issue before them seemed more important.

"Dollmaker." Luke shouted and jumped into the air, hovering in the air with his thrusters ablaze.

Iris pointed her firearm at him. "CCPD! Get down on your knees and put your hands now!"

"I am sorry, Detective West." Dollmaker expressed in what was a sincere tone, but it didn't sound anything like that. "But if I was to do that…" He snapped his fingers. As if cue lights began to shine behind, illuminating an area with a special someone. "I wouldn't be able to tend to my guest."

The others saw who it was. Struggling through her straps on a tilted metal table was Natalie knight. Her eyes widened to their limits, pointing at the gathering of people looking at her and Dollmaker, making her struggle even more in her binds. A mouth gag placed on her mouth and keeping it agape. A tube connected to the gag, paving way for the polymer to travel down her canal when it's to be poured into the other cylinder that's placed on a tall stand, like an IV stand in hospitals.

Beside the struggling Natalie was a table with a lit burner. A tripod stand placed over the burner, heating up the contents of the long cylinder glass. The gray polymer liquid in the cylinder boiling quickly.

Dollmaker stroked his captive's cheek longingly. Because of the binds, Natalie was unable to recoil from his touch. "She's a little inarticulate."

"You sick bastard!" Luke shouted.

"Sick?" Barton snapped around and faced the armored bat. "On the contrary, I've never felt better. Fresh air agrees with me." He took in the air of old pudding ingredients with one long inhale. "The air of this place is what I consider home. Feels… refreshing."

"Don't get used to it." Batwoman withdrew her sword with a swing of it.

"My dear…" Barton laughed mockingly while putting on his long black plastic gloves. "Prison is never gonna be a card in my hand, or in my near future."

"Barton, release Natalie Knight now." Iris demanded.

"**Let her go!**" Venom roared.

"And allow her to wither away in a mediocre and forgettable life. No. No, no, no, no, no." Barton chanted as he acted like he just heard the most ridiculous commands ever. "I can't allow that, Mr. Venom, Detective West. She deserves so much better."

Taking hold of the cylinder glass he walked to the IV stand with the other class. "She deserves to see her beauty preserved. Pristine…. Forever…. Eternal." He examined Natalie's skin once more with a close examination with his eyes.

"Oh no you don't!" Batwing announced, lashing out his hands and shooting out batarangs from the back of his hands, spinning throughout their travel in the air. Each of the batarangs beeped with red lights as they were accompanied with explosives.

But they never connected with Dollmaker's body. They stopped spinning mid-air, only a few meters from the sick maniac.

"What the hell?" Luke lowered his arms while remaining shocked.

Venom turned to Iris and Felicity. "**He's a meta, isn't he?**"

"No, he's not." The detective replied, holding up her metahuman alert app that didn't beep in proximity of the sick criminal. "Surprised it's not beeping near Eye Sight."

"They're easy to hack." Felicity commented.

Dollmaker clicked his tongue loudly, the sound bouncing off the walls in the old factory. "I am no metahuman, Detective. That would be my associate who's keeping your friend's toys suspended."

His associate revealed himself, lowering himself from the ceiling without any aid whatsoever. The others before them were baffled to see the man. Bare chested, revealing his thin and slender brown skinned body. Sitting cross-legged like a monk, his legs clad in baggy light brown pants and a red loincloth hanging down from the front of his waist. His forearms and his palms wrapped in filthy ragged bandages. With his dead black eyes pointing to them, his head covered by a red dastar with a green jewel on the front of it pointed at them.

But what got their attention was the array of stitches across his mouth, keeping it closed and shut.

"Who's that?" Felicity asked with her hair and skin and eyes changing colors.

While quietly mesmerized by her, Dollmaker answered with a gesture to his levitating associate. "This is my associate. Forgive his lack of chattiness, his stitches make it very difficult for him to introduce himself or engage in a conversation. But this is Rajeet, former member of the Central City Circus… but now… he's Orion."

Rajeet didn't speak, only giving them a menacing glare, sending chills down their spines.

"That's how Mathis got away every time we got close." Iris deduced.

"Correct, Madam Detective." The sick criminal gave her a bow as a reward.

"_He's from the circus too._" Seth thought in surprise. He expected his time with the circus had come to an end after dealing with them.

Barton chuckled as he noticed the look on the elemental's face. "Do not worry, Venom. Orion is not one for petty grudges. He didn't like his old crewmates. But now to focus on the matter at hand." He faced Orion. "Orion, please take care of them while I tend to our guest."

Growlingly Rajeet raised an arm and clenched his hand. In response to his action, the batarangs in the air began to spin again. The bat-shaped boomerangs shot towards Batwing. Exclaiming his shock Luke lashed out his arms again, shooting out more batarangs to meet them. But the ones he shot out met the same fate as his first ones and was forced to fly back to him thanks Orion's powers.

The first ones dug into his chest plate as did the others. Rapid red beeping emitted from the boomerangs before exploding. The air emitting from the blast hurled Batwing far away in a spin.

"Batwing!" Batwoman glared at the telekinetic.

She pulled out her grappling gun and pulled the trigger. As the grappling hook travelled across the way Cassandra pulled out her sword. Once again, Orion raised his fist and his palm faced forward with his eyes pointed to the hook. The hook stopped mid-air before, like a serpent, spiraled around and struck for Batwoman.

Releasing her gun Cassandra jumped backwards in a flip to dodge the hook. Landing on her feet, she swung her sword. Sparks went off when the sword and hook met each other. The number of sparks increased as the two continued their clash, resulting with Batwoman staggering backwards while fighting her own grappling hook.

"**Telekinetic.**" Venom noted annoyedly. While he is used to deal with his telekinetic sister, an unknown telekinetic could prove to a hassle. Especially since he hasn't encountered any metahuman with telekinesis before.

He couldn't risk holding back now, not this time.

He faced Iris and Felicity. "**Stay back, we'll handle them.**"

"Better idea: you handle the flying monk while we take care of Mathis." Iris suggested persistently. She didn't wait for a response and rushed towards the serial killer.

"Think I'm gonna stick with the detective on this one, buddy." Felicity admitted before rushing after the detective.

Seth nodded rapidly. "**Yeah, your can is needed.**"

"No offense, you suck at sarcasm with that face." Felicity snidely said.

"**Hurtful.**" Both Seth and Venom stated, but in all honesty, they wondered if they should take her word seriously as she can literally change her face if she so desires. He turned his attention to Rajeet, who's focus was solely devoted to Batwoman.

Spinning his sword around, the mutant jumped onto a pillar. He ran up the surface to gain momentum before jumping off it. Flipping in the air he raised his crystal sword high in the air before bringing it down in a heavy swing.

With a single eye pointing at the mutant, Orion used his telekinesis to push him away with tremendous force. The criminal telekinetic used his powers to stop his flight and held him in the air. Another push of his powers, the crystal sword in his hand was yanked out of his hand. His eyes never meeting the mutant as he forced two tall pillars off the ceiling and launched them after Venom.

Fighting through the telekinetic force on his mouth, Venom forced his mouth open, flames igniting along his jawline and unleashed a fire blast. But much to his surprise, Orion pointed his eyes on the fireball and waved his finger away, redirecting the fireball to avoid collision with the metal beams.

The beams met their target, slammed into his body, and launched him into the ground. Seth turned his entire body into adamantium, thrusting out his arms and pushing the beams off his body before returning to his full height. He turned to the metahuman again, his eyes widening in response.

Orion remained levitating in the air with his telekinetic powers and spinning around him like a planet orbiting the sun was the fireball Seth blasted before.

"_He can use his telekinesis on elements?_" Seth thought, shocked at the sight before him. He didn't think any telekinetic could measure up and control elements with their mind. He couldn't keep the smile from forming on his face, the fire of challenging one who could surpass his baby sister burning bigger and brighter than ever. "_The world continues to grow bigger._"

Forgoing the retrieval of his crystal sword the mutant thrusted his arms to the sides as he took a predatorial stance. Claws on both hands emitting cold icy mist before ice formed on them, forming elongated icicle claws on each hand. Flexing the muscles in his legs, the floor cracked before the elemental charged for him.

The fireball spinning around Orion came to a halt, stopping in front of his levitating form. He launched the fireball for the mutant, but Seth leaped from the ground and dodged it. Jumping from pillar to pillar, he neared the telekinetic. He launched his fist to connect with his face, but it met an invisible wall.

"**Fuck!**" Venom growled when realizing that once again he was in a telekinetic hold. Tendrils slithered out of his body but didn't get the chance to strike the telekinetic as more force was applied to them, pinning the black tendrils down on his body, forcing them back into the mutant's body.

Growling through his stitches Orion swung his hand forward, catapulting the mutant away.

Seth showed his persistence, digging his claws into the nearest pillar that he was close to slam into. Spinning around the pillar with his claws acting as anchors, he let go and landed on another pillar, growling angrily. He didn't like being this guy's toy.

"Time for us to tag in!"

Venom turned to the side and saw Batwing reentering the fight while carrying Batwoman with his hands under her armpits.

Batwing spun around, gaining momentum before throwing his partner towards the telekinetic. Batwoman took out her spare grappling gun and shot the hook, watching it wrap around a pillar. Using it, she swings towards the telekinetic with both feet lashed out.

A flick of Orion's finger and he unhooked the grappling hook from the pillar. But it didn't stop Batwoman as she performed a spiral jump and withdrew her sword. She came close to him and swung her blade. Rajeet avoided the strike by pushing himself backwards.

Cassandra landed on the ground, performing a backflip, and pulled out batarangs from her belt when landing again. Batwing saw her action and raised both arms, pointing them at the metahuman criminal with panels opening on the back of his hands before launching batarangs.

Both bat armored heroes watched their batarangs coming for Orion. While he did notice the bat-shaped weaponry coming his way, Rajeet took notice of something in the corner of his eye. Raising a single finger, he forced the boomerangs to stop while turning towards the side and finding Iris and Felicity making their way towards Dollmaker.

With a wave of his hand, he sent four of the batarangs away towards them. But they didn't connect with the women's bodies, only stopping them when the weapons embedded into the ground in front of their feet.

Iris turned her gun to the metahuman. "Don't do anything stupid, Murmur!"

Sighing out loud in annoyance, Barton stated. "Rajeet, my friend, please refrain from hurting them too much, but do remove them right now. I have to focus on Ms. Knight, after all." He smiled at the shivering and fearful girl. "I have, and I will, turn her into something special. Special… despite the swollen feet…" He noted with a gesture to his captive's feet.

"No!" the detective snapped her firearm at him. But it was pulled out of her hand by an invisible force. Shot into the air and quickly disassembled before Iris' eyes. "Damn it." she groaned at the sight before facing the telekinetic as the pieces of her firearm landed on the ground with overlapping clattering sounds.

"We gotta get her out of here." Felicity stated horrified.

"I know, but that guy, he's not gonna let that happen." Iris gestured to the telekinetic. She looked upwards; her eyes fixated on the water pipes. "Mera. She can help us here. Rajeet won't stand a chance against her."

Felicity knew what she meant, her eyes turning towards the Atlantean. She was unsurprised to find Mera standing frozen on the spot. Her blue eyes pale as snow and without life and focused on Dollmaker. Her current state was akin to that of paralyze.

"I don't think we can count on her now." The technopath told the detective.

"You guys are gonna tell us _everything_ after this is done." Iris demanded, to which Felicity frantically nodded.

Before any of the women could speak another word, the two of them found themselves be lifted into the air. They were pulled high into the air before spinning around and floating in front of Rajeet's form. He thrusted his fist and launched the two women in an instant, both screaming their hearts out as they flew.

Venom shifted his gaze to them. Urgency filled his core and he jumped from the pillar. Crying out loud, he launched his arms, stretching them out. He wrapped them around their bodies and pulled them into his arms. With them safely in his arms, he returned to the ground and gently placed them on the ground. "**Both of you okay?**"

"Yeah." Felicity nodded.

"Thanks for the save." The detective pitched in.

"**Don't mention it.**" The mutant expressed. He and the women turned to the fight ahead of them, seeing Batwoman and Batwing hurl exploding batarangs at the telekinetic. But they met an unfortunate turn of events when Orion used his powers to fly around him before sending back to the bat heroes, exploding in their faces, and sending them away with the immense air emitting from the explosions.

Her body violently slid against the ground, but Cassandra managed to push herself up and performed a spin, landing on her feet again. She looked up and saw Batwing steady himself with his thrusters. "Batwing!" she pointed to the sparks coming off his back.

"Don't worry about it." Luke assured her. He did run a scan of his suit while hovering in the air.

Dollmaker smiled at his associate's performance. "Wonderful, Rajeet, my friend." He praised him. "But now… to the finale…" He faced the woman on his tilt gurney, the cylinder with liquid polymer still in hand. "Please pay attention everyone… what comes next…"

He stared at the cylinder on the tripod stance beside him. "… is really quite exquisite..."

Those words echoed in Mera's words. Like an awful sound that corresponded with a horrific nightmare she couldn't stop reliving every time she closed her eyes. An event from years ago she didn't want to see… nor want to remember.

For the last year she's been success in trying to hide her nightmare, suppress it with all her willpower. Unbeknownst to them, her close friends, new and old, helped her bottle her horrific memories and burying it deep, deep inside of her.

But those words he uttered… what he was going to do to Natalie Knight… echoed in her mind, shattering the very bottle that contained her feelings and memories of that horrible time… every last one of them… flooding her mind with a vengeance…

And she saw red.

"NNNNNOOOOO!" Mera yelled out as she thrusted out her arms to the sides in one violent motion.

Every single waterpipe above their heads began to creak, shortly, before they burst open, unleashing a shower of water to fall over them. Her friends, now completely drenched from the water, faces her with utter shock. The telekinetic gathered all water above his head in a sphere, making sure not a single water drop touched his form. He applied the same for Dollmaker who watched with interest.

Her eyes and hands releasing a shining azure-blue aura, intensifying as Mera growled, her hands clenching and gathered the water raining down to her, forming spiraling rings of water around her body. Thrusting out her palms, she shot hardened water spikes from the spiraling water rings.

Orion clenched both hands, compressing the water sphere above his head and forming a disc of water. Swiping his right hand, he hurled the disk. The hardened water spikes collided with the water disk. Their clash resulted in a burst of water splashing around, but their collision sounded like shattering glass.

Mera performed a reverse sweep with her right leg. While no one was behind her, she did kick her trident up into the air. Following up with a spin, she jumped into the air before thrusting out her foot and kicking her trident after the telekinetic.

The telekinetic thrusted out both hands, palms facing forward and stopping the trident from connecting with his body mere inches from him. With another push of his telekinesis, he sends it back again with a violent thrust. The Atlantean stretched out her left leg to the side, water concentrating and wrapping around her foot like a rope. Spinning around, she kicked the trident with her foot, the water attached to her foot slithering past her foot before pushing the trident into the air.

As it descended into a spin, Mera kept her eyes on the two criminals. Rage continued to rise, surpassing that of a tidal wave. Reaching over her shoulder, she grabbed the trident when it came close to her. Growling loudly like an enraged animal, water from above continuing to drench her form and gather around her, the aura on her hands intensified, displaying a brighter shine of blue.

Taking a stance, she spun her trident, spinning it around her body with impeccable skill and otherworldly precision. Water around her converged to her feet, gathering in a huge puddle of water. The water rose and formed a stream, connecting and following the pongs of the trident.

Her friends and the criminals watch as the speed of the Atlantean's movements increases, her weapon turning into a blur. Her friends took a step back when watching a familiar steam emitting from the trident, but this time in larger quantities. They could practically feel the steam touching their bodies. They knew that the water she was wielding was converting into something hot, gaining a reddening new color.

Embedding her foot into the ground, she thrusted out her trident and projecting a burst of heated water. Using the powers of her trident, the shooting water converted into bright red flames.

Orion formed an invisible telekinetic wall, blocking the beam of flames. But the powerful flames pushed the telekinetic wall back and pushing it against the levitating metahuman. With a single glance to the other heroes, and the large elemental, the telekinetic slightly changed the invisible wall's position, deflecting the burst of flames.

Seth saw the flames coming their way and opened his own mouth, blasting a blazing flame blast from his mouth. The two flaming attacks met each other, but Mera's deflected flames instantly overwhelmed his and continued to strike him. The mutant was forced away with a blast, smoke emitting from his entire body as he crashed into the ground.

Under the other circumstances, Mera would be concerned for her friend's safety.

But now at this current moment her focus was on the criminals before her. Rushing forwarding, her feet kicking up water with each step, she began to spin her trident once more. She was spinning her weapon fiercely

The telekinetic lowered himself till he was floating before Barton Mathis and brought up a thicker telekinetic wall with a flick of both hands.

Jumping into the air, performing a marvelous flip, Mera threw her spinning trident. It connected with the telekinetic wall, resulting in it bouncing off due to the force and the added momentum of the trident's accumulated force.

Retrieving the trident with a quick snatch before returning to the ground. With the trident back in her hand, Mera quickly resumed her spinning. The velocity once again increasing and the golden trident turning into a golden blur.

However, another thing happened as soon as she resumed her violent spinning. The water spinning turned into a much clearer shade of blue before converting into crackling lightning. But unlike in the past, the lightning she was generating was far more violent than before. Statically generating huge amount of lightning around her like a cage of the crackling element.

Dollmaker sighed his annoyance. "Time to finish this. Beauty never stops aging until I find it and right that wrong." He didn't bother facing Mera and turned to the struggling woman and raised the container in his hand to the cylinder container on the stand.

"**NNNNNOOOO!**" Venom roared and unleashed a fire blast from his mouth.

"Stop it!" Batwing followed up with exploding batarangs from his hands.

Batwoman took out some of her own and threw them in the same direction.

Mera let out a war cry and thrusted her trident, projecting a beam of lightning towards the two criminals.

Despite all those attacks that very well could end the life of a normal human such as him… Dollmaker smiled…confidently.

_EXPLOSION_

The attacks met the two criminals, causing a humongous smokescreen to fall over their area, completely masking their presence.

"Did we get him?" Mera impatiently asked.

"We had to… Metahuman on his side or not, no way could Mathis and his dog have survived that many attacks." Iris stated, but her statement came across as hopeful thinking.

"What comes next… is really quite exquisite…"

Their worst fears revealed themselves when they heard that man speak again, a faint sound of sloshing liquid following his voice and quickly accompanied by the fearful muffled shrieking of Natalie Knight.

With a swing of his arm, Seth threw a gale of wind at the smokescreen and blew it away to get a better look at the scene before them.

Their eyes quickly filled with horror when seeing Orion still levitating before the serial killer and his struggling victim. Neither of them hurt, or at the very least scratched.

"B-But how?" Felicity asked with shock.

"The sound of an esophagus slowly hardening…" Barton continued admiringly, his focus devoted to the liquid polymer he stole from Gotham pouring into the cylinder. Once he had emptied the container in his hand, he turned his attention to the tube. "Like a symphony." He continued as the polymer travelled through the tube.

Seth diverted his eyes to the ground, seeing a huge hole there, smoke and smoldering red glows in it. "_Orion diverted my flames and the exploding boomerangs with his telekinesis down to the ground, creating an immense explosive gust that blew Mera's lightning and the rest of the attacks to pieces. Cancelling them out._"

If it hadn't been for the symbiotic skin covering his skin, it would have been visible to see the sweats pouring down his form.

Mera's eyes widened when seeing the tube slowly filling up with the liquid polymer, reaching up to the entrance to Natalie's mouth.

"STOP IT!" The Atlantean shouted and launched her trident like a javelin. Venom formed ice spikes on his right hand before throwing them like blades. Batwoman threw more batarangs and as did Batwing.

"Her beauty is to be eternalized, not to be waste away by the rotten poisonous products of the world around her." Dollmaker snapped his fingers.

Orion responded to the cue, lashing out both hands with a muffled cry and pushed the attacks back with a shockwave from his telekinesis. The shockwave continued and pushed the heroes away.

Seth grabbed hold of Felicity and Iris with both hands. Mera saved herself by sliding against the ground and anchoring her to it with her trident. Batwoman decelerated her fall with her mentor's own technique, anchoring herself to the ground with her sword. Batwing used his thrusters to steady himself once again.

They turned to face Barton… who placed the tube and gag into the cylinder container in the tripod stand. He spun the stand around to face the results of his gape-dropping work. "Her beauty… it's for the entire world to enjoy. After all…"

Along with the heroes, he watched his work. Natalie Knight still as a corpse on the gurney… remains of the hardened polymer blocking her mouth's entrance… Like the polymer, her entire body had been hardened… and left nothing more than… doll.

"Everyone loves a pretty doll…"

"You monster!" Mera shouted, tears wetting her eyes.

"I wouldn't go so far, Mrs. Curry." Barton feigned hurt. He turned towards the heroes, his eyes taking special notice of someone amongst them. Shaking his head, he announced in a happy tone. "I believe it's time we bid… Auf Weidersehen!"

Orion clenched his hand, bringing down pillars in front of them and creating another smokescreen. It quickly dissipated and showed that the two criminals had disappeared, along with the eternalized doll of Natalie Knight's body.

"No… Not again." Mera muttered through gritted teeth. She swung her head and glared at Felicity. "This is your fault, Felicity!"

Eyes were raised and confusion fell over them like a curtain.

X

"This is your fault, Felicity!" Felicity couldn't do anything but accept Mera's screams. Seth, Luke, and Cassandra listened to the Atlantean scream her discontents. "That woman… her blood is on your hands."

"Natalie Knight." Felicity stated. "Her name was Natalie Knight." She'd remember the name of that poor young woman whose life had been snuffed out and turned into a plaything for the rest of her life.

That didn't seem to dimmer down Mera's hate. "Natalie's blood is on _your_ hands!" She growled at her friend.

"Okay, that's enough!" Seth stepped in with a shout. For a moment, he grew shocked by the Atlantean's cold gaze that pointed at him. He schooled himself and objected. "Mera, Felicity wasn't the only person there. I was there, Luke was there, Cassandra was there, Iris was there…. We _all_ failed Natalie Knight. Her blood is on all our hands. Don't think it's just Felicity's fault."

"It _is _her fault!" Mera stubbornly announced.

"Mrs. Curry-"

"No!" Mera interrupted Cassandra's words, making her student step back in fear till she stood beside Luke. She turned back to the mutant with a hard glare. "Felicity kept this from me. I could have done more if I hadn't been kept in the dark, Seth."

"You weren't the only one." He objected. "A lot of us were."

"And yet, with all of us there, Dollmaker still won and turned another young woman into a doll, right before our eyes!" She shouted into his face. Mera turned back to face the technopath. "What else are you hiding from me?"

"I'm not hiding anything else from you, Mera, I swear." The metahuman told her pleadingly. "But you know what this guy did to you in Atlantis." Seth narrowed his eyes intriguingly. "I didn't want you to-"

"Get revenge, huh?" Mera scoffed in disbelief. She didn't say a word. but instead, she turned around and walked to the exit.

"Where're you going, Mera?" Felicity asked.

The Atlantean turned her head to her with a snap. "Wherever I have to go, doesn't involve you." She gritted her teeth. "You know, I stood by your side the entire time Blackfire was in this city, even after he left the city and hurt you and the group. Even when he took Thea…. I was there for you and everyone else…" tears trailed down the sides of her cheeks. "So why won't you be there for _me _now?"

"Mera!" Felicity called out to her, but she was already out the door.

Seth turned his head to the technopath once more. "Wanna tell me what's the deal now?" Felicity looked hesitant, avoiding eye contact with the mutant. "Felicity please! I'm worried as hell right now, with my friends at each other's throats now. You gotta tell me what's going now."

"I can't… It's personal." Felicity said, her eyes meeting Mera's students and wordlessly telling them to not say anything with her gaze.

He narrowed his eyes. "More personal than helping you out with Blackfire despite being watched from the shadows by you and your friends? More personal than helping you get Thea back from that hellhole? More personal than still helping you despite you getting bounty hunters to follow me?" Came the rhetorical reply. "Tell me what the hell is going on."

"I can't." Felicity persisted.

"Fine." Seth surprised them with his sentence. All three of them facing him with that same amount of shock. Each one of them expected him to show more persistence than this. They thought he'd keep digging more and more till he struck oil. But he just… gave up?

He turned around and walked to the exit. "I'll figure it out myself." He announced before passing through the exit… leaving the three to sit alone in the silence.

X

**(CCPD precinct, Captain's Office)**

Captain Mendez closed the door to his office, locking it and closing the binds to keep out any prying eyes. Assured that no one would interrupt them or eavesdrop them, he walked back to his desk. His eyes meeting his detective, Iris West with serious eyes.

Though his eyes softened when taking in the remorseful expression on his detective's face. "Iris, are you doing okay?"

It's been two hours since the events at the abandoned factory took place and he wanted his detective on the scene to report everything. When she had done so, Julio Mendez closed off everything in his office to avoid anyone listening in.

"Think you know better than that, Captain." Iris said, her hands turning white as she kept them clenched. "Natalie Knight was turned into a doll right before my eyes and I couldn't do anything about it."

"Her body was found around an hour later and is brought down to the medical examiner's office." The Captain informed. "Still I can't believe Mathis got away because of a metahuman who worked with him. A powerful one at that." He noted in shock at the fact that another member of Central City Circus was still alive.

Iris's regretful look intensified. "We had powerful people on our side, yet we couldn't even make a dent on that guy's defenses and lost… Natalie died…"

Her captain gave her a soft look and stated. "We can't win them all, Iris. There's gonna battles we lose, people we lose… what we can do is remember their lives, soldier on, and continue fighting to make sure others don't meet the same fate. It's what Chyre would have wanted for us, for you." To empathize his point, he turned a framed photo around and displaying the photo of Fred Chyre in his official police uniform from a medal award ceremony.

"You miss him?" Iris asked.

"Course I do. We graduated from the academy at the same time, and we were both up for the Captain position." Julio added with a hollow chuckle. "At times I feel like I only got this job because he died… Feels like I cheated my way to this position…"

"You deserve this position, Captain. You worked hard at every turn, at every corner and didn't show any signs of stopping. Didn't you compete with Chyre for cases at some point?" Iris asked, she vaguely remembered her mentor saying something along those lines in the past.

"Right to the point where we both considered kissing the former Captain's ass just to get the best cases." Julio stated with a chuckle. "I miss that old coot…"

Iris narrowed her eyes. "Know he's dead and all, but aren't you both the same age?"

"Hey! I still have a few good years in me, West." Julio didn't like to the implication that he was old. They shared a chuckle. His chuckle faded before inquiring. "But is there anything you heard from Dollmaker that might help us somehow? Anything can help."

"I think we should lean on the Atlantis angle, there's more to it. He killed more victims in that city than any other city."

"There's a reason for that…" Julio deduced.

"Yeah, and I think it involves Mrs. Mera Curry, co-CEO of Ocean Star Labs." Iris continued.

Julio placed his clenched fist against his chin as he was in a thoughtful trance. "Good thing I'm a step ahead then." He took a seat in his chair and opened a drawer, reaching in and pulled out a file folder. "I contacted an old friend of mine from Atlantis and asked him for help."

"Who?" Iris asked as her captain slid the folder across the desk towards her side.

"Does the name Orm Marius mean anything to you?" Julio stated his question.

Iris got wide eyes and quickly snatched the folder. "Of course, I do. He's a police captain like you and commands a huge police precinct, most of the officers are former Atlantean soldiers and he commands them like a well-oiled machine."

"Yeah, he's great. He's an old friend of mine and I asked him to mail over any files he had that could help us out with the Dollmaker case." He cupped his hands together, both index fingers pointing to the file folder before his detective. "This is the files he had. But it's mostly about his victims, not much else."

"You shared some of the facts we figured out, about the metahuman Orion helping him?" Iris asked she flipped through the files. Her captain nodded his confirmation as she read through the list of victims. "These… are a lot… Wait." Julio narrowed his eyes on her.

Iris lifted her head and turned to her captain. "There's a name here that I want to look into. Can I keep the files?"

"You're the primary on this case, Iris. Anything you need, you're gonna get. Anything to get this bastard off the streets and into a cell at Iron Heights." The captain assured her.

"Thanks, Captain." The detective expressed before walking out of the office. She closed the door behind her and looked around. Her eyes meeting the eyes of her husband and her partner. "You guys were waiting for me?"

"Of course, honey." Barry said with a soft smile.

"Always, partner." Floyd stated as a follow-up.

"Thanks, you guys." She smiled happily. "Did the medical examiners find anything on Natalie's body that could help us?"

"Nope. She's clean." Barry answered.

"Okay, I think I have an angle that can help us." She turned her eyes to the sides before stating. "I have an idea on how to stop him, but we need some more information."

"What'd you need?" Floyd asked.

"I want some files on Atlantis residents and a list of their kin, focus mainly Dollmaker's victims and their kin." Iris asked her partner.

"Sure thing, I'll have a few unis to bring up the files we have from storage." Floyd declared before walking off to the officers.

Iris said. "Let's go back home, I wanna see if I can string together some thoughts I have."

"Of course, honey." Barry nodded.

"Guys." The married couple turned to the side and saw Seth walking up to them in long strides. "Am I interrupting in something?"

"Yes and no, I mean we only have a serial killer loose in the city." The detective sarcastically said.

"Funny." Seth chortled. "But I was wondering if you could help me with something."

"Something to do with Mera blowing a fuse, maybe?" Barry asked. "Iris told me everything."

"Yeah about that… I think it's something to do with-"

"Revenge." Iris cut him off. "I thought the same, but I think it's more than that. I wanna check on it back home. Give us a hand, and we can kill two birds with one stone."

"Count me in." Seth agreed and allowed the couple to pass by him and walk towards the elevator with him following behind.

_DING_

The elevator chimed and opened, revealing a familiar couple standing before them. Jasmine and Derek, the former holding their baby girl, Frankie in a cradle hold. The mother was wearing a red summer dress with flower patterns. Derek was wearing a black shirt under a gray hoodie and blue jeans. Their daughter was a wrapped in a white blanket.

"Jasmine, Derek?" Iris greeted in surprise at them.

"What brings you three here?" Barry asked.

Seth didn't ask the married couple any questions, his focus was on the little girl in Jasmine's arms. Little Frankie cooed happily at the sight of the doctor who brought him into the world. Her small eyes were looking directly into his and her small arms kept reaching outwards for him.

"Looks like Frankie's growing up well…" He told the parents longingly. He couldn't help but think of his own daughter Frankie and how he couldn't wait to get back to her and their much larger family soon.

"Yeah, she's growing up like weed." Derek joked.

"She's our little miracle." Jasmine lovingly admitted. Her smile and tone faded when her eyes met the detective's. "Detective West, is it true that Dollmaker returned to Central City?"

"Regretfully so, yeah." Iris had to confess. "Is that why you're here?"

Jasmine gulped. "Yes… We know it's a lot to ask, but we were wondering if we could have an officer escort us to a safe location."

"We're worried that this monster might target our child, he used to go after infants, after all." Derek said.

"No need to say more." Iris turned around. To her luck, she found Floyd walking towards her with a pair of folders. "Perfect. Lawton."

"Hey partner, got those files you wanted." The detective handed her the desired files.

"Thanks. You remember these three, don't you?" With a wave of her hand, Iris gestured to the family beside her. Floyd assured her he remembered them, and she said. "They're looking for an escort to safely return them to their house, they fear Dollmaker might find them."

Floyd understand their fears. "I'll have a uni join me and personally escort them to a safe location, assuming it's alright with the family, of course?"

"By all means." Jasmine spoke for the three of them.

"Lead the way detective." Derek stated.

The detective was about to walk away but he remembered the important case they've been assigned to. "All okay with you, Iris? We still have our case."

"It's fine, Lawton. Go and make sure they're safe." Her partner assured him.

Floyd smiled his appreciation and waved the family, wordlessly telling them to follow him. They obliged and followed the male detective.

"Let's go, we got work to do." Iris instructed the mutant and her husband before entering the elevator.

_DING_

"Iris?!"

The other elevator opened, following its opening chime, Joseph West rushed through the door and shouted his daughter's name, getting her and the others to face him. The lounge singer saw them and rushed to them.

"Pop, what are you doing here?" Iris asked shockingly as she moved forward to meet her father.

Joe brought her into a hug, tightly embracing his daughter. "I heard what happened. You faced that bastard, Dollmaker, didn't you?"

Iris managed to pull out of the hug, shock covering her face. "You know that?"

"I'm a lounge singer, baby girl. I get people talking with my voice." Joe stated.

"Okay, but what are you doing here?" The detective asked.

"I can't sit idly by while you are facing off against that maniac, with a meta on his leash." Joe sternly said. "I'm having a chat with your captain right now, getting off this case immediately." He went to walk away.

"Pops, wait!" Iris grabbed his forearm with both arms, pulling him close again.

"You can't do that." Barry added.

"It's gonna be hard to get her off this one, Joseph." Seth pitched in.

"What're they talking about?" Joseph turned to his daughter.

Iris exhaled. "Captain Mendez made me the primary on this case." She could practically see steam erupting from her father's ears. "Pops, hear me out."

"Better be good." Joe agreed.

The detective steels her nerves. "This is an important case, Pops. You know what this sicko has done to numerous cities, he's killed young women, children too. This is one of the cases that Chyre was unable to solve. I have to do this, for him… but more importantly for all the women he's hurt, to finally give their families the comfort they need and deserve… and so others don't have live in fear of Dollmaker hurting them."

"But why does it have to you, Iris?" Joe asked in a desperate pleading tone.

"Because the Captain knows I'm the only one who can handle this case as Chyre's disciple and finish what he started." Iris countered. "You had Chyre become my mentor when I joined the force, he helped along and got me to where I am now. I owe it to him to finish this case."

"Chyre had a lot of unsolvable cases." Joe reminded his daughter.

"Not like with the Blackfire case or this case." Iris countered. "This is a case that I have to do and solve, for Chyre's sake." She inhaled deeply. "Pops, why do we have to go through this every time we talk about my career. Ma was okay with me joining the force. She was ecstatic at me becoming a detective, and she loved that you helped make that possible by asking Chyre to mentor me. Wally liked that his big sister's hard work paid off. Granted, he feared the thought of me storming into his dorm room and handcuffing him in front of his friends."

"Yeah, he told me about that. Pretty sure he had a nightmare. Wallace was practically begging for a therapy session." Joe chortled.

"But they loved that I got to where I am. I know Ma's gone now; I know Wally's devoted to studying engineering. But they loved what I am doing… Why is it so hard for you to do the same?" Iris wanted to know.

He sighed. "I'm never gonna be comfortable with my daughter on the frontlines on the war against Zoom, makes the War of the Americas seem delightful." Joe gulped. "I lost the woman I love to this job, I lost my best friend because of this job, I'm gonna be damned if I lose my daughter too."

"You won't lose me, Pops." Iris hugged her father, who reciprocated with his arms wrapping around him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Said that once before…" Joe sent a glare to his son-in-law. "But then you married _him_."

Seth looked to the shivering CSI. "That man's never gonna be nice to you, is he?"

"Do you even have to ask?" Barry countered.

Iris pulled out of the hug, giving her husband and the mutant a look. "Pops I got to-"

"Go." Joe finished off her sentence knowingly. "Go, be the best detective I know you are. The one your mother and brother's proud of."

"Thanks, Pops." Iris kissed her father's cheek.

"And you two?" Joseph got the attention of the two men behind her. "Take care of her, otherwise I'm gonna hunt you both down and string you up."

"Lovely as always, Joseph." Barry chuckled.

Seth smirked. "_I think I like this Joe._"

"**_You're messed up._**" The cannibalistic symbiote retorted.

X

**(West-Allen Residence)**

After returning to the household, Seth started out by explaining everything that happened at Felicity's base. He focused on Mera's attitude and how secretive Felicity was. Iris and her husband skimmed through the files they got storage while listening to the mutant. They shifted between those files and the files from their captain to find any similarities between them.

"And when I realized I wouldn't get anything from Felicity, I decided to figure out what's the story behind this mess myself." Seth finished off.

"You hoped to get our help with the precinct's database?" Barry assumed.

"Best idea I could come up with since the one technopath I know is cagey." Seth replied.

"But you really think this has something to do with Mera and her being from Atlantis?" Iris asked, wondering if she was on the same path as the mutant.

Seth shrugged. "Normally, I'd say it's just a hunch, but far too many things point to there being a connection between Mera, Atlantis and Dollmaker. Mathis seemed to even recognize Mera and really know her. Mera was horrified at the sight of him, even losing her shit. And there's the fact that this guy did kill more people in Atlantis than in other cities. Too many things point to that for it to be a coincidence."

"They recognized each other." Iris pieced the dots together. "Something's there… we just gotta find out what."

"And the _how._" Barry said, the others turning to him for an elaboration. "We found out how Dollmaker chose his victims in the past… with Mermaiden. But what about _now_?"

"Good point…" Seth thought back to Natalie Knight at the factory. "_What made Mathis chose her?_" he placed his hand on his chin and tried to think back to anything that could aid them in their search. "_Why… her…_"

"**_From what we know this guy's obsessed with skin complexion and the figure of his victims. Maybe it's linked to that._**" His "other" pitched in.

His head perked up with intrigue before mentally asking his partner. "_Figure? He didn't say anything about her form. Only her skin specifically. He did say she had beautiful skin and all that._"

"**_That's not all he said about her._**" The symbiote reminded him "**_He said something he'd turn her into something special… despite her… Swollen feet, we think it was._**" Venom unsurely stated.

"_Oh yeah, he did mention Natalie's swollen-_"

Realization dawned on him. "Swollen feet." He said out loud, garnering the attention from the married couple. "Barry did the M.E. manage to finish an autopsy of Natalie Knight's body? It might have been impossible with her turned into a doll, but anything will help."

Barry looked shocked, causing him to hesitate before opening another folder in front of him. "I'm assuming you want a file on the state of her organs."

"Yup." Seth confirmed, and an instant later he got the file from the CSI scientist. "Thanks." He expressed quickly. Quickly scanning through the file, he found what he was looking for. "Bingo!" He announced at his findings. "Natalie had early signs of renal failure."

"That's the disease that most got from eating Mermaid Pudding, which shut them down." The detective noted.

"I know, Felicity told me." Seth told them. "This means that she was chosen because of the renal failure symptoms in her body, which showed themselves outside because of her swollen feet."

"So, he chose this one because of she… would die?" The detective asked.

Barry added. "If we were to think along the same lines as Mathis himself, then, despite the state of their bodies, dying or not from possible renal failure, he'd manage to prevent that by pouring polymer down their throats and preventing them from aging."

"Preventing them from be hit by the same conditions as the rest of us, suspending them in a state that's true perfection and beauty… Eternalized beauty itself before dolling them up to truly fit his image." Seth added. "Guy's a sicko."

"That clears up his new way of choosing them." Iris said. "But now… what about the connection between Atlantis and Mera and Dollmaker…"

_KNOCK KNOCK_

Barry got up from the chair and walked to the entrance door. "Wonder who it could be?" He asked himself before opening the door. "I'm sorry, but who are you? I don't believe we've met."

"No, we haven't, Mr. Allen." A familiar voice that only Iris and Seth recognized told the CSI scientist. "But I have met your wife and Dr. Seth Fury who also lives in this house. May I come in, please?"

Barry looked to his wife who gave him a nod. Nodding back, he turned the person on the other side of the door. "Please, come in Mr…"

"Fox. Lucas Fox." Lucas clarified before stepping past the threshold and entering the house. "But you can call me Luke." He turned to the detective and the mutant. "Good to see you two again."

"What brings you here, Luke?" Seth asked suspiciously.

Luke cleared his throat. "I wanted to talk with you all about Mrs. Curry's outburst both at the forsaken factory but also at Ms. Smoak's base." Iris nodded, gesturing to an empty seat for him to take. "Thank you." He accepted, taking a seat in the chair. "Seth, Detective West, Mr. Allen, how much do you know about Mrs. Curry?"

The couple faced Seth for the answer, he's the one who's spent most time with the Atlantean.

On behalf of his friends, he answered. "I know she's an incredible fighter with a trident, with hydrokinesis, co-CEO of Ocean Star Labs and I know she's married to Arthur Curry, the other half of the CEO couple at Ocean Star Labs."

"How long do you think Mr. and Mrs. Curry have been married?" Came the question from the Gotham native.

"Guessing more than a year or something, around two years, perhaps." Seth guessed.

"Try six years." The bat hero revealed.

"Seriously?" Barry let out with wide eyes.

"Yeah… and they haven't seen each other in an entire year." Luke added, surprising the three people in the house. "It's because of what happened when Dollmaker struck Atlantis." They didn't say anything, they wanted to hear the Gotham native reveal the reason behind Mera's volcano-like eruption.

Luke nodded his acceptance, he was gonna tell them everything. "You see, Barton killed twenty-one people in Atlantis, ten children and eleven young women-"

"We know that already." Iris impatiently stated.

"You also know that one of those eleven women was Mera's twin sister, Hila?"

If it was possible for thoughts to emit sounds, then it would have happened this very moment and cancelled out whatever sound that might come from the outside world. Thousands of bricks fell on them and shattered all thoughts they had roaming in their heads. They wanted to hold their heads because they felt their minds cracking like walnuts from the immense pressure from the bricks slamming down on their thoughts and shattering them.

"Judging by your shocked expressions, I'd say you didn't." Luke dryly said. "But that's why Mrs. Curry showed such wrath before. This man… Mathis took the life of Mera's best friend from her… her sister…- her nemesis… her protector… her partner… Mathis took Hila and turned her into a doll… displaying her like a some sick prank in the middle of an open street."

"Mrs. Curry lost someone dear to her. She wants revenge for that… you guys have to understand that was why she went off the rails like that." The Wayne Enterprises employee continued. "Dollmaker took the children of innocent people, took the young women, sisters, daughters, friends, maybe even mothers, and turned them into dolls to fulfill whatever sick desire he has. There's more to it, but that's something I don't know anything about. I'm sorry." He apologized for his lack of information.

"Don't worry about that, Luke…. But… Mera lost her sister?" Seth scoffed in disbelief. He couldn't believe that she went through that. He thought he had lost his sister when she was pulled into another universe, and that made him mad.

But Mera really lost her sister and she… was always happy. Despite being with him and Felicity and Iris and Barry… Mera Curry was always happy and smiling with them. She was a savior, a protector, a guardian, a caretaker… Someone who was loving and caring.

… a true hero…

"She never said anything about that." Seth leant forward with a saddened look, his elbows touching his kneecaps while his hands intertwined. "Mera kept that bottled up… she caged her own emotions and didn't show it… Who could she do that?"

"Even the strongest metal, even that which can survive the water pressure of the deep ocean, has a breaking point. A point that makes the metal crack and shatter like porcelain." The Gotham native stated with clenching hands, each one slowly turning white and his bones cracking within.

Barry faced her. "Luke, if I may ask, what is your relations to Mera?"

"And how does that involve Cassandra? Felicity called you both Mera's students." Iris added.

"Bit of a long story…" He trailed off when seeing the looks on the others' faces, they wanted the whole story.

"We were both people of Gotham City. I was studying hard and worked hard with technology to be like my old man, Lucious Fox. I was set on going to MIT, but something happened… And I decided to not do that and began boxing. Despite never admitting to MIT, I was approached by Bruce Wayne and he hired me to work at Wayne Enterprises and eventually I was appointed to head up Wayne Security."

"Bruce used to brag about having some really smart guy on his side." Iris recalled.

"Yeah, I heard that too." The Gotham Native remembered. "But… because of what happened to me… I had a lot of rage inside of me." Judging by the look on his face, they could see that he had suffered the loss of a dear one. "I didn't know what to do with this rage, I just kept it bottled up and didn't want anyone in. I just spend hours, even days in a gym and kept beating a sandbag." He flexed his hands. "One time I couldn't even feel my hands because they were so numb from hitting the sandbag."

"Cassandra was kinda the same." They turned shocked by him suddenly switching to the other bat hero. "Cassie was raised in an orphanage and she kept getting into fights. Eventually, when she was old enough, she got bored of the orphanage and ran away from the place and lived on the streets, she didn't do much talking and focused on movement and physicality above all else. She didn't know anything about her parents, but that's must be where she got her physical attributes."

"That explains her condition. She's dyslexic, right? And has a thing for malapropisms." Seth asked.

Luke nodded. "It's form of dyslexia anyway, it mainly hampers her ability to talk, read and write. Life at Gotham Orphanage didn't do anything to help, they just left the kids to their own devices and didn't help them evolve. She was that way till she was 17."

The detective understood the skills behind Batwoman's incredible close-combat skills and the technical power of Batwing's suit. "That explains your skills and your suits. But what about Mera and her role in this?" Iris asked.

Nodding, he stated. "Mrs. Curry came to Gotham on a business trip. It got a little out of hand because of a gang started causing trouble and tried kidnapping some of her associates." He chuckled. "I don't know how it happened, but the gang dragged the associates into an alley, the same one Cassie was occupying, and I was passing by with groceries. Something came over us when we saw those gang members just drag those innocent people, and next thing we know we're fighting them. Mrs. Curry shows up with the police to find us helping her associates up to their feet. The police wanted to process us, but the associates spoke up for us and, along with Mr. Wayne and Mrs. Curry's statements, convinced the officers to let us go."

"The next day, while me and Cassandra was just minding our own business in our separate places… Mrs. Curry showed up and gave us an offer." The others turned intrigued. "She asked if we could somehow make a difference in our city. If we had the right tools, weapons, the right tech, that we'd use them to change and protect our city, despite being a hotspot for crime… When she asked me that question, I couldn't help but think back to the feeling I got when saw her associates run back to the safety of their friends. I smiled at it, and I wanted to make sure more people were safe and protected. I said yes… and trained with Mrs. Curry for more than a year along with Cassie. When she was sure of our skills at that time, she decided to head back to Atlantis and let us grow on our own."

"You didn't see her since then?" The mutant asked.

"No." Came the answer with a shake of Luke's head. "Me and Cassandra wanted to make her proud and show her, and prove to ourselves, that we could protect our home." He stated proudly.

"With the skills you showed before, Gotham doesn't have anything to fear." Seth assured the Wayne Enterprise employee. The mutant leant his head back, looking straight up to the ceiling with an emotionless chuckle. "I'm guessing Mera's the one who supplied Felicity and her team with the team and the place for their base?"

"Yeah, that's right. Why?" Luke stated with a nod.

"Fuck, so much I didn't know about that one." Seth leant forward again. "All this time I thought she was one of Felicity's friends that she brought in to get intel on me. One that turned out to be a very good friend to me afterwards. Turns out she's the one who started their life. And yet she has so much baggage and didn't let anyone see it."

"She's tough." Was all Luke had to say. "But I'm scared of what she's gonna do now."

"You're afraid she might cross a line she can't get back from?" The mutant said, his question came out as a statement. "We'll stop her from nearing that line, Luke. You have my word."

"Thanks, Seth." Luke said, but his face was accompanied with forced smile and the words came out in a skeptic tone. "But… With Mrs. Curry the way she is now, I doubt anyone can stop her."

"We'll stop her." The detective assured. Iris looked to the table, her phone shaking and closing in on the edge. "What's with my phone these days? It's keeps being blasted with messages." She groaned her surprise before picking up her phone and getting up from the seat.

"I gotta see if I can contact Cassie." Luke stated and took out his phone before walking to an empty spot to talk in private.

Barry looking to Seth, saw him have a regretful expression. "You doing okay there, Seth? You look a little…" he trailed off.

"I know." Seth chuckled. "Just this entire thing… Mera's been helping me this entire time, keeping the girls safe from Zoom, she didn't tell me about her sister's death, about Dollmaker… I can't imagine how much pain she might be in."

"I'd say you'd be the one to have an idea, wouldn't you agree?" The CSI scientist surprised him with a question.

Hollowly chuckling, he responded. "Guess you're right. Losing my son and my fiancée was no picnic, or something I could ever forget, no matter how long it's been or how much I'd try to change it. I just bore it with me… fueled me till I got him, and I did. Then I finally moved on."

"What about Mera?" Seth turned confused by Barry's question. "You got the guy that made your life a living hell. What will you do when Mera finds her guy? Stop her or help her?"

"I would…" That question left him speechless. Confliction grew in him. Feelings of what to do when he finds Mera again.

Would he help her and avenge Mera's sister and the lives of the dozens of people Dollmaker killed? Or would he have to stop her friend from crossing a line he's crossed multiple times?

"Strange." They turned to the side and saw Luke looking at his phone with a confused look. "Cassie didn't take the phone, neither did Ms. Smoak."

"Try calling Kendra." Seth suggested.

Luke tilted his head. "Thought about that, but with her still on bedrest, I didn't wanna ruin it for her."

"Guys!" The three snapped their heads to the detective who rushed towards them. "Saint and Sinners has been attacked!"

Horror came over them like a sudden rainstorm.

X

In a matter of minutes, after speeding through dozens of traffic lights in the city with the police siren blaring crazily, their car finally reached the edge of the city and driving up to the Saint and Sinners bar. The four of them got out of the vehicle and saw the place.

The entire bar was in shambles. Only thing before them are rubbles and crushed bricks. Walls fallen to the ground, broken into pieces with smoke raising up and dust scattered all over the ruins. Booths and chairs bent and broken in two. Shattered glasses spread over the ground. Bottles with alcoholic liquid spilling out their contents.

While it was in small amounts, they did find specks of blood splattered over some of the walls. Along with the red liquid that courses through the veins of every living being, strangely enough, they were also small white liquid spots.

"Dear God." Barry covered his mouth in shock at the sight.

"Cassandra!" Lucas rushed ahead of them and frantically looked for his close friend.

"Dollmaker and Orion did this." Seth muttered with clenching hands. In the corner of his eye, he saw Iris pulling out her phone. "Iris don't!" He quickly snatched the phone out of her hand with a black tendril.

"Why not, Seth?" She turned to the mutant.

Seth reasoned with her. "Despite all the good they've done for the city, metahumans, good or bad, are still seen as criminals. You call this in, they're gonna hunt down Felicity and the others like they're dogs. Can you honestly stand there and tell me they're gonna do differently?"

Iris huffed as she did see the logic behind his words. All metahumans, aside from The Flash, have been criminals. Even the young ones like Evelyn has been such. The detective sighed. "Okay, then what's your plan?"

"Let's see if we can find our friends first, then you can call this in. If they're not when the cops show up, they're in the clear." Seth told her.

"Fine, let's find them." Iris got her phone back and rushed ahead to search.

The mutant arched his back and shot out tendrils. They wrapped around various big pieces of walls and rubble. Turning into adamantium, they lifted the rubble with little effort. "Come on, guys. Where are you?" He muttered to himself in hopes of his friends' safety.

"Cassie!" The Gotham native called out for her friend. He pushed rubble away to try and find her, but to no success so far.

"Wait!" Barry got their attention, his finger pointing towards a pile of brick walls. Strangely enough the pile was shaking. "Something's over there!" Fearing what might meet them, Iris pulled out her gun and Luke took a boxing stance.

Following the direction of his finger, the mutant jumped forward and landed on a nearby spot. He wrapped tendrils around the biggest parts before tossing them to the side.

With the biggest parts of brick walls pulled off, the remaining ones shook once more before they were pushed away with a shockwave. Devoid of the broken pieces of walls, Tony Woodward and Marcus Bishop were able to show themselves once more, beside them was a spiraling green gas form that kept spinning like a drill. Shakedown lowered his bruised and bleeding arms with a series of pants. Clenching his fists, Girder turned his body back to normal and fell to the ground with sweat pouring down his face and blood leaking down the side of his mouth. Slowly the gas spiral turned into a man, showing the familiar form of Kyle Nimbus in ragged, torn clothes.

"Guys!" Seth called out and jumped to their side. While he was shocked to see Kyle on this earth using metahuman powers, he focused on his friends. "Are you guys okay?"

Marcus faced him. "Not really, man. Not really." He repeated through his panting.

"Dollmaker attacked." Tony breathed out. "We had to keep those walls up the entire time with our powers."

"Felt like hours with those piled on." Kyle added.

Iris looked between the three male metahumans and found Kendra on the ground, both wings stretched out and drenched in blood and alcohol. Blood was seeping down the side of her forehead, running over her left eye. Even more blood was seeping out of her back and forming a small puddle behind her. She was unconscious from blood loss. "What happened to Kendra?"

Tony glanced to the flyer. "She fought them, but she lost. She was hurled through walls and smashed around the place like she was a jackhammer."

"We tried to help, but that… Orion guy wiped the floor with us." Marcus stated breathlessly.

"And brought down the entire establishment at the same time." The gas metahuman dreadfully commented with a shift of his eyes, taking in the bar's current state. "Can't believe it."

"Where's Cassie?!" Luke exclaimed.

"She… ran after them." Kyle answered.

Lukas paled and rushed to the car. He pulled the backseat door open, reaching into the vehicle and pulled out a black metallic suitcase. "I've going after them!" He took hold of the handle with both hands, pulling on both sides and the handle split open. The Gotham native slammed the suitcase into his chest, whirring sounds emitted, the suitcase dissembled and latched into his body.

Seth and his friends watched the larger parts of the suitcase turn into nanites and spread of his arms and legs. Finally, his chest, back and head was covered by the nanites and forming his Batwing suit. "They're not getting Cassandra!" He shouted and the thrusters on his soles and on his wings blazed before jumping into the air. He took flight.

"Cool." Barry said impressively.

Seth looked around in search. "Wait, where's Felicity?"

"Dollmaker took her." Marcus groaned.

"What? Why?" Iris asked shocked.

"… She's his type, his ideals incarnate."

They looked to the mutant in confusion. "What do you mean, Seth?" Tony asked in concern.

The mutant faced them. "Barry, you said we had to think along the lines as Mathis himself to figure out why he killed Natalie Knight. That's how we found out her renal failure, and now we have to do the same."

Barry's eyes expanded in realization. "Felicity's the perfect specimen for him to turn into a doll."

Tony faced the CSI scientist with a baffled look. "Allen, English, please! Why does he want Felicity?!"

"Because of her powers, Tony!" Barry exclaimed. "She's a shapeshifter, she can change her eyes, hair, her _skin_ into anything she wants."

"Which Barton noticed back at the factory, marking down his next target." Seth continued. "He kidnapped her… and he's gonna eternalize her."

"But they could be anywhere now." Iris commented.

"We have no idea where they might be now." Marcus groaned.

Looking down to his feet, Seth noticed the strange white liquid from before. He crouched down on his feet and dipped his finger into it, coating the tip of it. Raising it in front of his eyes, he examined it and rubbed it with his thumb. He brought it closer to his nose and took a sniff. His face formed a scrunch at the smell. "Oh God, rotten milk."

"Rotten milk?" Iris inquired. Her eyes fell before asking. "You mean-"

"From the factory, most likely, yeah." Seth said as he returned to his full height. "This means he really was here." He referred to Dollmaker.

"Might not be him." Iris started. "Remember, there was one lady who brought down water on all of us, possibly mixed with rotten milk."

"Mera saw this damage…" Seth paled and crunched his teeth. "I gotta go find and stop her."

"How are you gonna find her? You don't have a tracker on her." Barry said.

"Then I'll jump all over the city and find her, best way I got now. I'm not a speedster like The Flash, I'm Venom." Seth stated, his form enveloping by the black symbiote and enlarging his body till he looked down on his friends as Venom. "**_We're_**** Venom and we're going.**"

"Wait!" Marcus groaned and reached for his belt, plucking off a compass with blue metal frame. "It's a special tracker from Atlantis, it can track nanogold, the same type of particles in Mera's trident." He threw it to the mutant who grabbed it with a tendril. "We're coming as well, you know."

"**You do you, we'll find Mera.**" Venom knew it was hopeless to convince them of letting him handle this. "**Iris, call the cops after they're back in safety.**"

"I will, I'll come after you and help you, I swear." The detective promised the mutant.

"**We're gonna need it.**" He expressed his gratitude. Lashing out his hands, he latched them onto the nearest rooftop before pulling on it. He slingshot himself to the wall and crawled along the surface of it to find Mera.

X

Ground cracked under her feet before Mera jumped off the rooftop. She landed and resumed running, her hand clutched tightly around her golden trident, the pongs gliding against the roof and giving off sparks due to friction.

She couldn't see anything else. Her eyes were only filled with rage, and only one vision was struck on her mind. The bleeding pulp of Dollmaker's body after she's done with him! She's gonna make him pay for everything he's done. She's gonna make him pay for suffocating her twin sister, dressing her up like a doll before displaying her in the middle of the streets and showing off his latest achievement.

She couldn't stop him from killing Natalie Knight and turning her into a doll. But she would be damned if she couldn't stop him from killing Felicity.

She'd make sure of one thing: The last thing Mathis would see is her face right before she rams her trident through his heart and watches him choke on his own blood, right before his soul is dragged down to Hell.

… and she'd watch it happen patiently.

Mera spun around before landing on a rooftop with two water tanks. She ran towards the end of the rooftop.

"**Mera!**"

But a demonic voice screamed after her, a large crystal sword traveled through the air and pierced into the ground before her, forcing her to stop in her tracks. The Atlantean turned around, finding the Venom running alongside the side of a tall glass building.

Seth jumped off the building, landing behind Mera. The symbiote slithered into his body before he walked closer to her. "You're not going anywhere, Mera." He plucked the sword out of the ground. "You're not going after Dollmaker."

"Don't involve yourself in this, Seth. This doesn't concern you." Mera said adamantly. "You don't know anything about this." She went to walk past him. Regardless of him being a dear friend of hers, she wasn't gonna let him stop her. He didn't know about her pain-

She felt a pull on her forearm and saw Seth with his hand wrapped around it. "I know…. I know about your sister, Hila."

Mera's eyes widened. "Luke told you, didn't he?" He didn't answer but his expression spoke volumes. "Tell one of your kids a horrible event one moment, the next moment they blurt it out when I go through a phase."

"Is "going through a phase" a synonym for "blowing your lid?" Cause that's what it looked!" Seth countered.

"Don't involve yourself!" She shook her forearm out of his grip, glaring daggers at him. "My sister's dead because of that man! Dozens of others are dead because of that man! Why shouldn't I get revenge for Hila?! Why shouldn't I get justice for all the parents who lost their babies, their daughters?! Why not?!"

"…" Something left the mutant speechless. Her eyes. The blue eyes in her sockets was clouded with something. Not anger, not rage… not murder… Something more akin to the feelings that everyone has… and feels.

…Fear…

"What else did Dollmaker do?" Seth asked. Mera turned confused, but before she could open her mouth the mutant stopped her. "Remember that you can't lie to me, I have a symbiote in me that can detect the truth. I'm asking because I can see fear in your eyes, fear worse than anything Blackfire did to this city. What did he do to you, Mera?"

"… I want children." Mera surprised him with her words. "I have always wanted to have children for as long as I can remember, even more after I married Arthur. But I could never… take that step. Because Dollmaker said he couldn't wait to see my baby… and make him or her… eternal."

"He was gonna turn your child into a doll." Seth stated.

"I haven't seen my husband in a year… I'm afraid of being intimate with him because it might lead…" Tears fell from her eyes; she couldn't force herself to finish the sentence. "I don't want to spend another minute away from Arthur… I want to be a mother… and I won't let Mathis stand in my way." She tried to walk past him again.

"You cross that line; you'll never be the same." Seth stood his ground, blocking her from continuing onwards. "You'll never be able to look at yourself the same, you'll never be able to look at your loved ones the same. You won't even be able to look at your hands the same anymore."

At those words… coming from Seth… Mera couldn't help but scoff.

"That's rich coming from _you_. Seth, you've been killing ever since you came to this world, and guess what?! You're the same as ever!" The Atlantean gave a chuckle. "Hell, you pride yourself on killing even! You've been killing even more than Zoom has! So do not stand there and tell I shouldn't kill because you're the very last person to say that to me!"

Her eyes emit blue aura as does her hands as she steps closer to his face. "Get. Out. Of my way. Now!" She growled like a carnivorous animal.

But despite all her words that she said, Seth didn't faze. His expression schooled and displaying an emotionless look akin to a corpse's hollow dead eyes. "We both know, it's gonna take more than words from making me move." He strengthens his words by covering his arms with symbiotic mass and morphing his hands into claws. "I ain't moving, and I ain't letting you go and kill Mathis."

"I had a feeling you'd say that."

Mera's words barely reached the mutant's ears before her golden trident was swung around her body before slamming into Seth's body. The strike to his stomach sent him flying, making him dig his sword into the ground to anchor himself, thus decreasing his speed and keeping him on the ground.

He looked up to see Mera rushing towards him. The symbiotic mass spread all over his body, forming his alter ego's form. The teeth of his skeletal mask extension over his face reddened with smoke coming out of his mouth. Sparks went off before he widened his maw and unleashed a fire blast.

It flew towards Mera but as she continued to run, she spun her trident around till it turned into a blur. The flames connected with her spinning shield, dissipating upon contact. Following the flames' disintegration, she jumped into the air, performing a flip. Cocking her hand, she launched her trident after him.

Twirling his sword around, Seth swung it and let it connect with the trident's pongs, redirecting it so it pierced the ground beside him. The attack left him distracted and the Atlantean used that opening to slam her fist into his face after returning to the ground.

Mera clenched another fist and thrusted it forward. Seth blocked her fist with an adamantium fist, twisting it and pulling it down. Gasping in pain, the Atlantean swung her foot back and raised it high to kick his head. The mutant raised his sword, blocking her kick with the blunt side of his blade.

But the shockwave from the kick travelled through the sword and connected with the side of his head, ringing throughout his ear. Mera grabbed hold of his throat and embedded her foot into the ground, before pulling the elemental over her head. Letting out a cry she threw the mutant away.

Spinning around, he landed on the ledge of the rooftop and clenched his hands, lightning sparking over his fists. "**Mera stop!**"

"No way in… HELL!" She screamed, the two water tanks on either side of her exploded with clenches of her shining hands. The water from within them burst and gathered around the Atlantean. Thrusting out her hands, she unleashed the water in a flood that swept the mutant off the ledge, hurling him off to the other building before them.

He was slammed into the building, glass shattering. He pulled himself out of the side of the building, his form devoid of the symbiotic skin. Seth cracked his neck while brushing off debris. "_Felicity, you wanted my help with Blackfire when you already had a powerhouse like Mera on your side?_"

"**_You might wanna take a look in front of you…_**" Venom slowly said with a gulp.

He obliged to his partner's words and looked ahead… Shock paralyzed him.

"Spoke… too… Soon…" He muttered to himself.

The water that Mera flooded him with was converging back to her spot, raising up to and forming together into a sphere. Her eyes still locked onto the mutant's form as the sphere reshaped… taking on a long… serpentine form… made of water with each curling finger she used.

Seth gulped when seeing the water sphere completely reformed and taken the form of a …huge water cobra.

It spiraled around the Atlantean's body, opening its mouth to hiss at the mutant like a real cobra.

"_Felicity… You had Mera on your side, and you needed me, why?!_" Seth screamed inside of his own head.

"Didn't expect this, did you, Seth?" Mera said, villainously amused by his shivering.

"Remind me to never piss you off again." Seth tilted his head.

Mera stroked the underside of her water serpent, making it twist in pleasure. "So, you'll back off?"

Forcing himself back to his full height, he rotated his shoulders and said adamantly. "Like I said, Mera…" His head was engulfed by the symbiote again to take on his Venom form. "**We're not letting you cross that line.**"

"Then you're gonna get bit!" She thrusted out her hand, the water cobra hissing before striking. Its long serpentine physique made it easier for the water-shaped animal to stretch over the distance between buildings to reach the mutant.

He jumped out of the way, latching onto the wall and crawling upwards. The water serpent traveled through the building, similar to how a real snake would travel through water and chased him. He spun around, just in time for the serpent to strike him, and swung his sword.

Hardened watery snake fangs met the crystal blade. Curling her fingers from the other building's rooftop, Mera commanded her aqua serpent to push the mutant forward. She watched as Seth tripped and fell onto his back, her serpent slamming its head against his body. Releasing its hold on his blade, the serpent tilted its head and crunched onto his body.

Seth turned his entire body into adamantium to shield himself against the sharp edges of brick stones behind him and the hardened aqua fangs. The snake paved its way through the side of the building and smashed through the ledge of the rooftop. "**Let go!**" He screamed into the snake's face, piercing his sword into the snake's right eye.

Gritting his teeth, he cut through the right side of the snake's head, cutting from the eye, and slashing its jaw. With the side of its jaw cut, Seth was finally freed from the water serpent's fangs. Rolling on the ground, shooting a brief glance at the bruises on his adamantium torso, he opened his mouth and blasted flames at the serpent.

The snake hissed at him as the flames connected with its body but doing little damage before charging for him, slamming its head down in a flurry of attacks. Venom dodged the first strike, the next one he dodged too. The elemental generated lightning around his arms before thrusting outwards for the serpent's head. The lightning shook the water serpent's head, causing the water to ripple violently.

Venom growled his annoyance when the shaking water hardened once again. "**Stupid water animal.**" His blood-red eyes widened when realizing what he could do against this animal. "_Really need to brush up on my chemistry._"

Standing his ground, Seth placed his sword on the ground and clenched his hands. Hissing once more, the aqua serpent thrusted its head to the mutant again. Icy cold mist emitted from his entire body, he thrusts his arms forward and connected them to the upper and lower halves of the snake's head.

Using all his strength, he fought through the pain of being pushed against the ground again whilst the ice formed on his hands. The ice travelled across his hands, reaching the tips of his claws, and connected with the serpent's head, freezing the hardened water. Growling loudly, he poured his all into freezing the snake's head and watched his ice element travelled across the water-shaped animal's body.

After a few moments, the entire snake was now frozen solid.

He staggered back and fell to his knees. Even though it wasn't on his forehead, he tried to wipe away sweat from his head. His body was experiencing the toll of fighting a series of battles from the previous days. And a fight against a frigging serpent made of water did not help in the slightest.

"Not bad." He looked up to see Mera walking to him with slow steps. "Thanks for turning my snake into a rooftop decoration."

"**City needed more pretty things.**" Venom chuckled as he forced himself back up, tendrils wrapped around his sword before yanking it into his hand. "**Stop this… now, Mera. It's not too late.**"

"I stop… Felicity joins his victims as another porcelain doll, like my sister." The Atlantean stated steadfastly. "You… won't stop me."

"**Guess our dance continues, Princess.**" The elemental grinned with his sword held high.

Mera rushed forward, thrusting her trident forward. The mutant blocked it with his sword. They exchanged blows with their weapons. Using her superior skills, the Atlantean performed a quick spin of her trident and slammed the mutant's sword out of his hand using the pommel of her weapon.

Venom jumped into the air, dodging the next and split his arms into tendrils, wrapping tightly them around her body. Landing behind her, he swung her around with a few spins. Roaring demonically, he slammed her into a billboard, the force crashing it right in the middle and forcing it into two.

Retracting his tendrils, he reformed his limbs and ran forward. "_I'm gonna end this, Mera. For your sake!_"

He couldn't let his friend cross that line… She didn't deserve to fall into that darkness, to be enveloped by it and become a servant to the darkness. Mera wasn't gonna be strung by the threads of darkness… she would escape the Dollmaker's puppeteering, but only be a puppet to darkness itself.

Mera got out of the smashed billboard, a single eye drifting to Seth… narrowing as he charged for her. "I'm sorry, Seth." She muttered and pointed her hand at him. A blue aura came over her palm… a single tear ran down her cheek… before she clenched her hand.

…

…

He didn't understand how or why… but for some inexplicable reason, Seth was unable to move. He struggled to even move a muscle. "**W-Wh-What?**" He struggled to even form and utter words. It was like his muscles themselves was fighting against his commands.

"**_Why… We can't move!_**" Venom stated.

Through their symbiotic connection Seth could feel his partner being unable to move just like him.

"**H-How?!**" He growled his confusion loudly.

"I always thought it was weird." He managed to turn his red eyes upwards, facing Mera again. Her hand was riddled with her blue aura. "But it makes sense, doesn't it, Seth? Your body is an environment for elements, one of them is water… Your body holds more water than a normal human's, making it easy… for me to control your body." She empathized her point with a flex of her fingers, forcing the mutant down to his knees.

"**You… can control… our body?**" He asked, he tried to make tendrils come out of his body, but they couldn't even slither out of his body, let alone form.

Mera nodded. "Yeah… you know I always thought it was weird how I could feel water whenever I was around you… I was gonna let it slide, out of mind and all that. I never thought I'd use it on you, my friend." Tearfully, she slowly closed her hand like she was choking him. "And I have another theory… your water, your elements travel through your symbiote."

In response, the mutant and his "other" truly felt they was being choked. Both giving out groans of pains and almost screamed, the symbiote skin forcefully retreated into his host's body. His head split right open and revealed Seth's face, sharply taking in air like he just submerged from a dive. His body devoid of the symbiote, pain spread all over his face.

Gasping, paining and agonizingly taking in air, Seth managed to speak. "Mera… Y-Y-Y-ou c-c-can't, please!"

Tears fell from her eyes, rolling off her cheeks. She managed to choke out her words. "I'm sorry, Seth… But I have to do this for my family." She raised her other hand, blue aura releasing it from it and the force on the mutant's body strengthened, making the ground crack. The Atlantean saw his flesh rippling, her hands responsible for moving what his body holds.

"I'm sorry."

Emitting a cry, Mera thrusted her arms to the sides, as though she was pulling something apart…

Three hardened water spikes sprung out of Seth's stomach, blood dripping down their tips. Blood came out of Seth's mouth, his hand covering his mouth to keep it within, but to no success. He looked up to the Atlantean again…

… his eyes taking in her blue sobbing eyes...

Mera grunted and lashed her hands to the side, Seth following her motion and falling over the edge.

For a moment Mera considered checking his condition after falling to the pavement. But her rage rekindled and made her set Barton Mathis as her highest priority instead. She ran towards the direction of a place she knew he'd be at…

A place that appreciates eternalized beauty.

X

"…eth…!"

"…Set…!"

"SETH!"

_SLAP_

"Ow! For fuck's sake!" Seth cursed as he let out a painful grunt as he felt the palm, and claws, slam against the side of his face, knocking him awake and right back into the light of day. He tried to move but his body writhed and twisted in pain, the wounds from Mera's last attack still left open.

He could still move his head, shaking it and looking upwards to find the hurt and battered faces of Tony, Marcus and Kendra looking down at him with concerned expression, the latter had her talons released. "Not that I'm ungrateful, but why the claws?!"

"Because I was in middle of a mani-pedi before your ass needed saving!" Kendra quipped, briefly considering the option of slapping the elemental… more than a few times. She grunted through gritted teeth. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, what happened to you, man?" Marcus asked, holding out his hand to help him up.

Seth accepted the hand, letting himself be pulled up and fought through all the painful sensations travelling through him. Tony shot forward and aided his friend. "Thanks guys." The mutant expressed. "Mera did this."

"No way in hell!" Kendra exclaimed her disbelief and in anger of the mutant suggesting this was the doing of the kind-hearted Atlantean.

"Sorry but it was." Seth had to bearer of bad news, their faces scrunching up in surprise and shock. "Fun fact, she can control the water inside of me."

"Mrs. Curry can't control the water in people." Tony noted.

"She can if that person is a mutant with more water than a normal human being because of his powers." Seth groaned. "And she turned my insides into the sides of a pin cushion thanks to it and made my partner slither back inside of me too."

"Lovely." Tony chuckled.

"What about Mera? Did you…" Kendra saw the look of disappointment and defeat on his face. "She defeated you, right?"

"Yeah." Seth nodded. "Kicked my ass and is making her way to wherever Mathis is." He narrowed his eyes. "How'd you guys find me?" Sniffing, he smelt the air. "I smell like a dumpster, why?"

Marcus scoffed, nodding towards the flyer. "Kendra here wouldn't let us heal properly and had us rushing all the way here in top gear. We found you unconscious right here, beside a broken dumpster. Most of its trash scattered over you." He raised his bleeding sunken hands. "My hands ain't built for continuous vibrations."

"My body's not exactly in top condition either." Tony rubbed his aching muscles in his arms and shoulders, groaning in response.

"At least neither of you have a broken wing." Kendra complained, arching her back and lashing out her wings. Her right wing still bleeding, blood soaking some of her white feathers. "We need to get going now! The police might already be at his location."

"What?" Seth questioned with a shout.

"While you were strolling through Dreamland, SWAT cars and police cars sped to the Bisque Museum." Kendra saw his look of confusion. "It's a building that was known for giving visitors a taste of Germany, the birthplace of porcelain dolls. It's means that's where Mathis, Felicity, Luke, Cassie and Mera are right now. Including Iris and the other cops. We have to help them, they're not gonna stand a chance against Orion or Dollmaker."

"Agreed." Seth groaned in pain, holding the holes on his stomach. "_You know, Venom you might wanna give a hand with these wounds. I die, who's gonna handle your obnoxiousness?_"

"**_We'll stick with Olivia if that happens._**" Seth was mildly shocked with how quick that response was. "**_And we are helping, slowly. If we hadn't, you'd be dead right now, you dumbass._**"

"_Better chances of Hell freezing over than Liv sticking with you._" Seth noted. He twisted and turned his sore body to the best of his abilities. "Let's go."

"Fine, let's fly." Kendra flapped her wings, but blood began to shoot out of her wounded wing. She fell forward.

The mutant grabbed her. "Calm down, you're more likely to pop and lose your wing on the ground before ever taking flight. Let me handle this one."

Once again, her talons stuck out, digging into the mutant's shoulders as she gave him a glare. "This bastard destroyed a place that I call home, hurt my friends, kidnapped one of them, caused endless misery for another, and you expect me to let you handle this alone?" She repeatedly shook her head. "No way in hell. This is my family, and I ain't letting anyone get themselves mixed up in this mess. Even you, Seth."

"First, take your claws out of my shoulders." He demanded. She obliged, taking out her claws. "Second, you are still in no shape to fly." Seth sighed and shocked her, pulling her up and carrying her in a bridal carry. "Third, I can't stop you from going, but I can at least make sure you don't fly and die."

Gruntingly he had his "other" envelope his body. When fully enveloped he began to pant in pain. "**Let's go.**"

"I'm in your hands, VeNOOOOOMMMM!" Kendra screamed at the end when suddenly Seth began to jump from wall to wall while carrying her. A tendril coming out of his back and wrapping around his sword before pulling it into his body.

Tony and Marcus shared a look as they were left alone. "… They didn't want extra help?"

Marcus shrugged his shoulders unsurely. "Heck if I know. Wow about we just go after them?"

Tony nodded. "Sure, but…" He trailed off, pulling out his wallet. "You got any cash on you? I don't have anything for an Uber."

"Oh, come on!" Marcus screamed.

X

**(Bisque Museum)**

Her hair changing color and length at rapid speeds as Felicity used all her might to struggle her way out of the straps that kept her bound to the metal tilt gurney. But they were too tightly bound to her body to escape. Her mouth wasn't covered so she could direct her head to the other side, to Dollmaker's side.

"You're not getting away with this!" Felicity screamed. She felt a chill run down her spine when the telekinetic metahuman floating above her growled at her.

"Rajeet, please be calm, she is our guest, after all." Barton reminded without facing his associate. He turned away from his table with chemicals and equipment whilst the polymer boiled over a burner to face his "guest". "Isn't this nice, my dear?" He walked over to the shapeshifting technopath. "We're here to today to appreciate your beauty, a beauty that changes at a single heartbeat… and be thankful for its gift in this world."

Her hair and eyes changed again, facing the sick criminal. "Yeah, it's like frigging Thanksgiving. Except for your floating friend who makes mummies look like hot underwear models."

Orion growled, a scalpel from the table spinning out of it and pressed against the technopath's throat. Felicity gasped when she felt the small cold blade slowly apply pressure to her larynx. She was certain the blade was an inch from breaking the skin, even a single gulp could cause the blade to cut her skin.

Sighing his annoyance, Dollmaker grabbed the scalpel and removed it from her throat. "My dear, please do not provoke my associate, he does not like jokes, or take well to insults. And Rajeet, please refrain from hurting our guest, she deserves to be eternalized and without any scars." He tilted his head around disapprovingly while he stroked the side of her face, to which Felicity tried to pull away from. "Maybe a little too much fat in the skin."

"Hey!" Felicity exclaimed in anger; she didn't like to be called fat by this sicko.

Barton chuckled at her reaction. "Rajeet, if you'd please?" He held out his left hand. Orion used his powers, flicking the gag with the top and the stand with the cylinder to him. Grabbing the gag and tube, he placed it over the technopath who fought back. "Please, do not struggle, it's gonna remove the ceremony of this wonderful moment!" He growled as he finally manages to place the gag over her mouth, forcibly keeping it open.

"Perfec-"

"CCPD! HANDS UP!" He was cut off when the doors were kicked open and police officers in SWAT gear stormed into the building. Leading the entire unit was Detective Iris West and her partner Floyd Lawton, both suited up in their own SWAT gear.

"Barton Mathis, Rajeet, put your hands up in the air and step away from the victim!" Iris demanded, she had shout over the series of metahuman alert apps beeping and chiming behind her.

"I am sorry that will not be possible, Detective." The criminal said, he turned to the floating metahuman. "Rajeet, please help make our guests more comfortable."

Orion raised his hand-

"No chance!"

Before the floating metahuman could use his powers on the SWAT unit, a batarang spun through the air and made its way to him. Flexing his eyes on the batarang, Orion stopped it mid-air with his powers.

Batwoman landed on the ground, taking out her sword and spinning it before she pointed the tip of it at the criminals. "Top now!" Heads turned with confusion at the bat hero's words.

"Sorry, my dear, but that is not possible…." Barton trailed off when his ears perked at the sound of a close beeping, turning his eyes to the batarang suspended in front of his associate.

Unlike the explosive ones that beeps with a red beeping, this one is beeping with a white color.

"Boom." Cassandra Cain exclaimed.

The batarang exploded, emitting a blinding light in Orion's eyes, causing him to cover his eyes with his bandaged hands.

Batwoman lashed out her hand, throwing out more batarangs. They beeped with a red color and exploded when coming close to the floating metahuman. The air burst from the explosion send the metahuman into a pillar.

"Gotcha!" She ran forward to intercept the metahuman who slid down to the ground.

Dropping his arms to his sides, Orion sent the female bat hero a scathing glare. Telekinetically forcing a beam above his head off its position and hurled it at Batwoman.

"Not on my watch!" Batwing shouted and quickly stopped the metal beam with a pair of exploding batarangs, redirecting it away from his friend. Batwoman stopped and faced Lucas who stated. "You shouldn't go after them alone."

"I'm not." Batwoman quipped with a smile.

Batwing chuckled. "You damn joker." The two Gotham heroes faced the telekinetic who levitated back into the air. "Together, now!" She didn't even have to respond before she and her partner hurled batarangs again.

Iris called out to her fellow officers. "All of you focus your fire on Orion, we take him out first, Dollmaker's easy pickings!" The officers opened fire, concentrating them at the floating metahuman.

Growling through his stitches like an animal, he lashed out his hands, forcing very single bullet to suspend in the air before him. The batarangs met the same fate stopping the air. Pointing his eyes to the armored bat, he unleashed another muffled roar and swung the batarangs after him.

Luke spun around to dodge the batarangs, but he was too slow, and they pierced into his wings, slashed the thrusters in his soles and cut his chest plate. With his thrusters damaged Batwing lost both balance and control of his flying, almost slamming into a metal pillar.

"Batwing!" Batwoman shouted her concern. But before she could she do anything to save him, her cape was pulled up by an invisible force, her arms pinned to her sides as she was pulled into the air. Her vision cloaked as her cape was suddenly wrapped around her head.

Directing his arms to the two bat heroes, Orion slowly clutched both hands as though he was choking the lives of two people. He took control of the two Gotham heroes and used them like flying mallets, slamming them into the CCPD SWAT brigade. Most of the officers hit the ground, flying in the air and slammed into the pillars nearby. Others tried to stand their ground. Dodging and shooting the metahuman to the best of their capabilities but to no success.

Some of the officers tried to block the attacks with their ballistic shields, but they were unable to stop the flying bat heroes that used as battering rams. At one point, whilst trying to defend themselves with their shields, the officers lost their barriers thanks to Orion's powers. With their shields gone, they were left wide open for the controlled heroes to slam into their bodies.

Dollmaker watched chucklingly as his associate was shamelessly attacking the officers. He turned towards the table and took hold of the container, filled up with the boiling hot polymer. "Let us… begin the ceremony."

"MMMMMMM!" Felicity tried to speak but her words didn't help with the gag. She resumed her struggling instead.

"My dear, that is not going to help you in any way." Dollmaker told her with a shake of her head.

"Don't you… HURT HER!"

Once again water pipes above their heads burst open and water rained over every inch of the place. The criminals, heroes and officers turned their eyes to the side and saw Mera slowly walking towards them. "You're mine, Mathis." The Atlantean growled at the criminal.

"As always you have forgotten about my associate, Rajeet, Mrs. Curry." Barton pointed a finger to his enraged, drenched telekinetic associate.

"I'll make sure both you and your friend are six feet underground after this." Mera growled.

Orion spread his hands, waving them around and flinging the two controlled bat heroes towards the Atlantean. With the skills of a puppeteer he used the Gotham heroes to slam into additional officers along the way.

But Mera wasn't going to let that continue. She crossed her arms over her chest. Blue aura formed on her hands and her eyes shone with a luminous blue shade. Uncrossing her arms, she forced the water raining down on them to converge on her controlled students.

Twisting her hands and curling her fingers, she formed two spheres around the Gotham heroes. She brought her students to her side and away from the floating metahuman's range. Mera controlled the water around her, making it spiral at high speeds before shooting out in the forms of water tentacles. With her control, she wrapped them around the officers and pulled them out of harm's way.

The only officer left was Iris West who kept firing her gun at Orion, but all her bullets were stopped mid-air before falling to the ground as they had lost their velocity. "Damn it!" She cursed at the sight of her bullets failing to hit their mark.

Dollmaker smiled at their attempts to defeat his associate. He raised he cylinder with boiling polymer, tilting it and pouring the contents into the container on the stand beside him. Felicity's eyes widened as the container was slowly filling up with the polymer, her struggles increasing tenfold in response.

Both Mera and Iris saw the same and horror filled them. ""No!"" Both redoubled their efforts to try and defeat the metahuman, the first and only obstacle that blocked them from taking on Dollmaker.

They had to hurry… otherwise Felicity would turn into a pretty doll with rainbow hair.

X

A second later, Venom jumped through the window and entered the Bisque Museum with Kendra in his arms. He lowered the flyer to the ground and fell to his knees immediately, the symbiotic skin on his body slithering back in.

"You're not looking too hot, man." Kendra noted, her back still leaking blood.

Seth sent her a dry look. "Well, I still have three open holes in my guts, Ms. Bloody Back." He quipped. The mutant looked ahead, seeing Mera and Iris trying to take down Orion but all their attempts ending in failure.

But what really caught his attention was the polymer being poured into the stand's container, slowly travelling through the tube.

"Shit, we gotta do something." Seth cursed, but from this range he couldn't do anything. His elements can't do anything from this distance either. Long range attacks could very well hurt the officers and his friends.

Kendra steadied herself with one hand on the mutant's shoulder, keeping herself up despite the pain spreading in her back. With her other hand, she took hold of her firearm. "I got this."

"Think you can hit the tube from this distance?" He had to ask.

"Not the tube, but Mathis." Kendra clarified as she looked across her barrel, locking onto his shoulder. "I can't risk aiming for his head, he's too close to Felicity, his shoulder will have to make do."

"Then I'll take care of the tube." Seth said, with his eyes shifting around the place. "… Somehow." He saw Mera still fighting the floating metahuman. "Got it." His smile formed a smirk which expanded when the symbiote skin coated his entire arm, claws forming and muscles growing bigger.

"What's your plan? Last time I checked; close range fighting doesn't involve sniping." The flyer quipped.

"I don't need sniping for this, I just need Mera to see this." He announced with water slithering out of his palm, forming a ball.

Kendra's right eye narrowed. "You take care of that, I take care… of… _him!_" She announced with a shout, pulling the trigger of her firearm.

_GUNSHOT_

X

Thankfully, Mera's attacks and Iris' gunshots covered the flyer's gunshot. Orion was busy using his powers to deflect all the bullets and the water attacks coming his way to take notice of the single bullet coming from afar.

Dollmaker was unable to see the bullet and ended up with it digging into his shoulder at a high velocity. The sick criminal gritting his teeth and staggering backwards, falling, and landing on the ground with a thud.

Mera looked shocked. "What the?" She turned her head backwards, following the direction of the bullet. Her eyes widened when seeing Kendra and… Seth standing there. "But why…" She muttered to herself in shock.

The flyer lowered her gun, facing the mutant next and see him condense the water sphere. "Get going, Venom!"

"No need to…" His entire form expanded till he stood as Venom once more. "**Tell us twice.**" He placed his left foot ahead, planting it into the ground and anchoring himself. Unleashing a loud roar, he thrusted his right arm and launched the water sphere.

Kendra followed the trajectory of his water attack… it was headed towards Mera!

"Why are you attacking Mera? Are you mad?" The flyer exclaimed.

"**Not attacking.**" Seth smirked. "**She just needs… to ****_see_**** it.**" Taking in a sharp intake of air, he called out. "**Hey, Princess, on your left!**"

Mera heard his demonic call, turning around to see the water sphere coming her way. In the corner of her eye, she saw the polymer slowly inching up the tube and closing in on Felicity's mouth. She realizes what Seth's plan is.

Concentrating on the water sphere, she clenched her hand, taking control of the mutant's water sphere and swiped her hand in Felicity's direction. The water sphere's speed increased and flew like a missile. Orion didn't see it, his telekinesis used to deflect the detective's bullets.

The water sphere slammed into the gag and the tube, knocking it out of Felicity's mouth. The stand and container fell to the ground, shattering and spilling the liquid polymer all over the ground. The technopath coughed and gasped as she was finally able to breathe properly. "Thank God!" She screamed.

Venom looked to Kendra. "**Think you got more in the tank?**"

Kendra forcibly spread her wings. "I'm ready."

Fighting the pain erupting in both their bodies, the two jumped forward with their sights set on Orion. The mutant managed to leap from pillar to pillar, the oily black skin on his right arm turns into adamantium before thrusting it. The limb elongates and strikes.

But before it could ever connect with him, Orion stopped with his powers.

However, that was anticipated and Mera appeared behind him, spreading out her bloodied wings and raised her mace high up. Crying loud, she brought down the mace in one heavy swing. The spiked mace hit the thin husk-like metahuman, the force behind her strike forced Orion down to the ground.

Retracting his arm. Venom turned the rest of his body into adamantium and engulfed his adamantium frame with lightning. The elemental ran forward. Jumping into the air, he slammed his shoulder into the telekinetic, simultaneously damaging his body and causing lightning to travel through him. Orion gave a muffled cry before being send into a wall, bouncing off it and into the ground with a heavy thud.

Kendra descended to the mutant's side, who turned his body back to his normal black symbiotic skin. Seth and the flyer fist bumped each other in victory.

"Guys?" Felicity got their attention. "Not that I'm not loving your entire moment there, but just wanted to let you know that Mera went after Dollmaker, and she's gonna kill him-"

"**We'll** handle it." Seth stated as his symbiotic skin retracted, oblivious to the fact he just interrupted the technopath. He took a step but halted when another wave of pain came over him. "Screw it!" Slamming a hand over the three holes in stomach, ice crackled over his stomach and covering his holes. "_Gonna have to make do._"

The pain was still there, but in smaller waves, and he managed to move forward and give chase. He needed to stop Mera from making a huge mistake.

"Hey!" The technopath called out. She sighed, still in her restraints. "Kendra, give me a-" She stopped when she saw the flyer flat on the ground. "Perfect time to fall unconscious." She muttered her annoyance.

"I'm still here, you know." Iris announced her presence as she took out a small knife.

The technopath smiled. "You're my hero."

X

Barton ran at full speed, his left hand clutching his wounded and bleeding right shoulder. He had to run away and get out of this place.

Without Rajeet on his side his chances of escaping exponentially fell, nearing zero at catastrophic velocity. If he didn't get away right now, he'd be spending the rest of his days in a cell in Iron Heights. If that happens, hundreds of women with impeccable and gorgeous skin would wither away because of the natural course of time.

If he lets that happen, he'd be committing a crime greater than genocide.

He had to get away.

"MATHIS!"

He stopped and turned his head around, eyes widening in shock, and his head leant back as a golden trident came flying, passing by his face. One of the pongs grazed the criminal's cheek, a small wound opening with blood leaking. The trident dug into the ground, each of its pongs fully embedding into the ground.

Barton spun around and was met with a fist slamming into the side of his face. He fell to the ground, two broken teeth, soaked in his blood, falling out of his gasping mouth. He managed to push himself up, but a swift kick connected with the side of his stomach, sending him rolling on the ground.

More blood came out of his mouth when he coughed, the red liquid splattering and soaking his beard. Another kick to his face knocked his glasses off. Forcing his eyes upwards, he was met with a foot slamming down on his throat. He tried to remove it, but even with both his hands he couldn't push if off his windpipe.

But through his closed eyes, he managed to see Mera Curry's azure-blue rageful eyes looking down at him. And though he could feel himself slowly lose consciousness, his vision turning blurry, he could still see… her lovely skin… only richened by the surging wave of rage crashing inside of her.

"Such… Beauty…" He managed to utter before he lost his consciousness.

Mera hated he lost his consciousness. She wanted him to die at her hands, with eyes open and the last thing Barton would see is her face.

But this… would make do… so she could finally rid the planet of this vermin!

Clenching her hand, blue aura erupted around her fingers and water gathered around her hand. The water reshaped, elongating, and forming it into a water blade. She raised it high up, the blade hardening for the blade to sharpen. "This… is over!"

"Mera, don't!"

She didn't even have to turn around to know who it was that called out to her. But she did so anyway, and saw Seth jumping towards her, leaping from pillar to pillar. Calling water to her free hand, she drew it back and in response, the water forming into compressed water arrows floating in front of her fingertips.

Thrusting her hand forward, she discharged the water arrows and they shot towards the mutant.

Landing on the ground, Seth looked ahead to find the water arrows coming at him in great velocity. He crossed his arms over his chest, turning into adamantium. The density of the metal skin would assure the water arrows wouldn't be able to penetrate his skin and damage him.

But those thoughts were instantly demolished when the water arrows connected with his arms, piercing through his adamantium forearms with little to no effort. The elemental fell to a single knee, ending with his eyes pointing upwards to the Atlantean, his teeth gritted and pain coming over his body.

As his body turned back to normal, he panted. "Full of tricks today, huh, Princess?"

"Did you know waterjet cutters can project a high-pressure jet of water, powerful enough to cut a wide variety of materials, even diamonds can't stand chance against them." Mera told him. "I don't know much about the metal in you, but I know it can't do squat against a waterjet."

"Pretty sure… my other elements are in the same boat, but only against you though." Seth smirked.

Mera didn't respond. Instead she turned towards the downed criminal under her foot. "You can't stop me from this, Seth…" The water blade on her hand hardened further, making it shine like light touching down on steel. "I'm gonna end him."

"You probably don't want to hear it from me. Massive hypocrite, yeah, I know… but you can't kill him, Mera." The Atlantean turned her disbelieving eyes to him. "I'm the last person… in this entire city to say this, but you're never gonna be able to hold… your loved ones, your children, or your husband, if you take Mathis's life."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Atlantean asked.

Seth hissed sharply, forcing himself to his full height. "Think… you can hold your loved ones with hands stained with blood?" He saw her eyes widen. "You hug them, you pull away from them and see blood on their bodies, the blood of those you've slain. You… take his life, you're gonna fall into a pit of darkness, without a sliver of light shining into it. Even if you have children, even if you have a loving better half, you're be worried…that the darkness you're about to fall into will affect them. I know a part of you feels that way right now."

Mera scoffed. "What makes you think that?"

Nodding to the downed criminal, he stated. "Cause he's not dead with a hole in his chest. Plus, you're still listening to me, aren't you?" He saw the water spear on her arm rippling, softening at his words. "Parts of you know that you're gonna regret taking his life."

"What makes you think I'd ever regret taking out this bastard? He killed so many innocent people, babies even, my sister was one of them." Mera growled.

"You'd be killing to get vengeance!" Seth shouted. "I have killed many before, I bear them. I admit I killed someone, the man who killed my son and my fiancée before, but if I didn't kill him, I would have been dead by now and friends of mine would joined me. But you take out Dollmaker, you're gonna be a puppet to a level of darkness you can't handle."

"Which you can?!"

"Because it's been part of my life since I was a kid!" The mutant screamed back, shocking her. "I was hit, embraced and fell into darkness at a young age. At that point, I was forced to adapt to it, to be embraced by it to survive. But Mera… you don't have to fall into the same darkness." The water spear was beginning to drip, slowly falling apart.

"What exactly are you saying?" Mera asked shakily.

"You choose vengeance, you want revenge for your sister, all the people that's been hurt by this bastard? Kill him and stain your hands with his blood." He pointed to the criminal. "Then kill him right now, drive your spear into him without listening to whatever I have to say anymore. Be like… me." Seth held a finger up. "Or you chose justice, taking this bastard, hand him over to the cops and let them throw his psychopathic ass into a cell, make him rot alone for all eternity, without ever getting the chance to touch another innocent person again… Be a… hero."

He gulped loudly, the very sound of him swallowing the gulp becoming the only sound in the room. "You know this, but you need to hear it… Whichever you choose, it's not going to bring back your sister or any of the people that he's killed… But it will be a step for you two finally overcome your fear and you be a real hero, keeping dozens of others from meeting the same fate as your sister."

Blue eyes meeting each other. "But it's ultimately your choice? Justice or vengeance? What's it gonna be, Aqua Princess?"

Like rocks sinking into the big wide ocean she had let everything sink in her mind. Words he uttered, pants of pain he let out, even the expressions he formed on his face.

Would she really walk down a path of darkness if she were to rid the world of this psychopathic scumbag?

She faced Barton. The very incarnate of twisted sickness. An utterly disturbed psychopath who took sadistic pleasure in killing women and babies and dressing them up like they're his playthings, his dolls. He did it, for no clear reason other than his own entertainment. He's a pathetic excuse of a man, a sick being with a fetish for his victims' skin… the sole reason he targeted them for.

Mera didn't want to, but she understands his sick way of thinking. She knew that, in his own insane way, Barton was doing those innocent women a favor as he treated them as showpieces, claiming their beauty will be preserved, eternalized, and won't wither away with age.

He's a calm and sick man who spoke to his victims like a piece of art. Not even human.

_SCREAM_

Shouting, Mera swung her hand downwards, bringing down the collapsing water spear.

For a split second, Seth considered clenching his eyes and waiting the sound of a spear tearing through flesh and bones and pierce Dollmaker's heart…

…Instead of paving its way through the criminal's chest, it was brought down to the ground on Dollmaker's right.

Seth turned his eyes to the Atlantean who slowly stood up, water dripping down her right hand and hitting the criminal's face. Mera faced him with an appreciative smile as she stepped off Barton and walked closer to her friend. "I'm not gonna walk down the same path as him." She chuckled. "I'm not gonna choose vengeance. Justice is on my side."

He winked. "Glad to hear." Seth smiled.

Groaning came from behind the Atlantean, both powered beings turning towards the sound and finds Barton slowly perking up. His vision still blurry, but he managed to make out Mera's form. "Mrs. Curry, this is tru-"

"HI-YA!"

_WHACK_

Both Mera and Seth wore shocked expression when they saw Felicity suddenly appear, screaming a war cry and hitting the criminal with a metal pipe. The strike to Barton's head knocked him out instantly. "Appreciate that, bitch!" She shouted at him.

"Nice hit, Felicity." Mera told her.

Seth tilted his head with conflicted emotions. "Little too much on "Hi-ya"- part, but to each their own."

Felicity glared at the man. "This guy is a bastard, he doesn't deserve it easy, not after what he said. I should hit him again!" She pulled the pipe over her head, loading for another swing.

"Okay, calm down, Psycho." The mutant told her, wrapping a tendril around her metal pipe and pulling it out of her hand.

"But you should have heard him!" she screamed, her eyes shining with tears. "He called me fat."

Mera's jaw hit the ground. "_That's _your issue?!"

"**_How many times has this one turned into a blonde? Something looks to have rubbed off._**" The symbiote said.

"_Amen to that._"

X

From the ledge of the opposite building, Seth remained crouched and watched as Iris and her fellow officers escort Dollmaker into a prisoner transport van. He sighed at the sight though.

While he spoke with Mera, keeping her from killing Barton, Orion used that opportunity to slip away as Kendra was distracted and Iris was tending to her fellow officers while Felicity went after the mutant and the Atlantean. It was a hard blow, but Iris and the rest of the police department was more than content with taking the serial killer Barton Mathis AKA The Dollmaker.

As he saw the officers place Barton into the van, the mutant rubbed his stomach and winced at slight pressure he applied to the holes in his stomach. "As much as I hate this, I need R&R." He told himself.

"Take a trip to Atlantis then, the hospital got skimpier nurse outfits than the ones in Central City." Mera quipped as she walked to him while placing her golden trident on her back.

Seth threw her a dry look. "Tempting, but think I'll just stick with a nice couch and a blanket. Only doctor I want around is my loving girlfriend." The perverted parts of his mind took over and suddenly the image of Caitlin in a nurse's outfit popped into his mind.

His face reddened at the image… and another part had a different reaction.

"**_Get your mind out of the gutter._**" Venom teased.

"_Shut it…_" He growled in his thoughts.

"Is that normal?" Mera got his attention.

"What is?" Seth raised an eyebrow. The Atlantean pointed a finger to the top of his head. He followed the direction of her finger, looking up and saw smoke above his head. Now blushing with embarrassment, he realized what was happening and quickly fanned the smoke away with his hand. "Don't think about it, just an old habit of mine."

"Guess you _can_ get weirder." Mera teased.

"Funny." Seth got off the ledge. "Wanna go back?"

"Before that…" Mera steeled herself with a sharp intake of air. "I'm sorry for… everything I've done… everything I said Seth. How I lost my cool before, and…" She sheepishly gestured to his stomach, the shirt concealing the stomach holes she made. "That…"

"Believe it or not, you're the not the first person to pierce my stomach. You should meet my sister when she's pissed off." The mutant joked. He then said. "I'm sorry to hear about your sister." Mera grabbed her forearm. "Can't believe you never told me about your sister. So much about you I didn't know. I regret that."

"Don't blame yourself. I was the one who didn't share my baggage with my friend… and I was the friend who stabbed her own friend… who let fear take over…" She faced him with blue eyes glistening with tears. "And said you've killed more than Zoom. I'm sorry for that."

Surprisingly, Seth gave a chortle. "Back in my real world, there's two Venoms: The original who's a villain and me who's not a villain. But because we had the same name, same physique, similar powers, we were treated the same. I was considered a villain because of it, and yeah, the killing I did didn't help."

"But you did still?" She said.

"Because I told myself that I would make the hard decisions for those who can't." The mutant said. "I told myself that I do it for my family, to make sure that they and the hurt innocents don't have nightmares plaguing them in their sleep… That's why I killed Blackfire… so those innocent girls could sleep in peace in their own beds and their families could finally be happy."

"…Strange…" Mera muttered.

"I bear the lives of everyone I've killed, even the bad ones and remember them. They're like scars. Guess part of the reason I've killed is because of Venom's hunger, and I know chocolate ain't gonna cut it at all times." Parts of him expected a response from the Atlantean, but when he didn't get anything from her, he turned to Mera. His head tilted when seeing her look curiously at him. "What now?"

Mera bit her lip before asking. "You know, you didn't kill Eva, Assassin, before or anyone of the metahuman Central City Circus. Not even Bliss when he used his powers and showed you the face of the person that killed your family in the past… Why didn't you?"

Sarcastically chuckling, he lifted his hands and turned them around, the palms facing upwards. While his hands appeared normal to his friend, to him, they were something else. "My hands have too much blood on them as is, my children have seen too much death in their young lives. Frankie, my first daughter, has even seen my hands, fangs, and the rest of me drenched in blood. Ruby and Evelyn saw me tear through a group of armed humans under Zoom's rule, even eating them… I love that the three of them can see past it and still see me as their father, hug me still. They've even seen me kill, and still love it."

"Those kids have big hearts." Mera smiled.

"Yeah…" Seth agreed. "But they shouldn't be used so much death, even if they are metahumans… I can't let that continue… I have to change it somehow."

"What do you mean? You mean you're gonna try become like The Flash, be a real hero or something?" Mera asked.

Displaying a conflicted expression, the mutant said. "Don't know about that one… I still believe if I have to protect my family, the innocent, those who can't defend themselves, those without powers, then I will make the hard choice. My father taught similarly, and I… parts of wants to stick with those principles, other parts of me listens to the father side of me and wants me to better myself." He inhaled sharply. "I'll see how my thoughts are gonna show themselves when I fight from now on."

"Sounds like a start anyway." The Atlantean said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. She unfolded it and revealed a photo. "Here's my sister, Y'Hila Maajida Challa." Seth looked to the photo, examining it while he was figuring out why Atlanteans have so difficult names.

In the photo was a beautiful tall woman, clothed in an azure-blue sundress. Like Mera, Hila had blue eyes. But Hila has long purple hair, framing her beautiful face. Seth noticed that the dress she wore matched her blue eyes. "Wow." He narrowed his eyes on the golden crown headband on her head. Three pongs on the front with spade rubes on each front of the pong.

"Beautiful, wasn't she?" Mera asked.

"Must be a family trait." He gave her a smile. "You wanna pass it on to the next generation?" He knowingly stated as she took the photo back.

Mera turned around, facing the prison transport van on the street. "I don't know about that… What if he gets out? I can't live in fear of what might happen to my child, should I have one. I don't want anything bad to happen to my child… I don't know what I'd do if that happens."

"Sounds like you're already on the right path to becoming a parent." The mutant chuckled, Mera gives him a confused look. "Parts of being a parent is having this instinct to constantly worry over your kids. It just means you love them and are willing to do whatever it takes to protect them. You've already taken that step… and you already have kids."

"What do you mean? I don't have kids." Mera corrected him.

The elemental then corrected her. "Then what are Luke and Cassandra to you?" He saw her eyes widen. "Ever since they showed up in this city, you've been calling them your kids. Heck, you practically raised them into the heroes they are now, and you should be damn proud of them."

"So, what am I supposed to do?" Mera asked, her eyes focusing on the transport vehicle that drove away, driving towards its next destination. Iron Heights. "Take a chance and hope I do everything right and not screw up my child? How can I know what to do and not to do?"

"That's Parenting 101." He tapped her leg with his foot. "Take the chance, Aqua Princess. And you're never gonna know the "what-to-dos" or the "not-to-dos" _until_ you're holding a child and raising."

"Aquawoman." Seth turned to his friend, finding a wide smile on her confident expression. "My name… is Aquawoman. Parenting is not the only thing I'm gonna try out for real… Hero-ing is the next item on the agenda."

He formed a skeptic expression. "You mean-"

"I'm going back to Atlantis for a while." She explained. "I'm not going to live in fear anymore, making me sink in this single spot. I'm going to live on, move forward with my husband and my family."

"Good." Seth exclaimed. He froze instantly when he felt a pair of soft lips press against his left cheek. When they pulled away from his cheek, the mutant faced the Atlantean who pulled away. "W-What was that for?" He stammered, inwardly hoping his emotions didn't blaze and cause smoke to emit from his entire body as he cupped his cheek.

"Just a thanks… for everything." Mera slowly said before walking towards the edge. "Remember, you need my help, just contact Felicity or Barry and Iris are always welcome to stay at my place."

"Alright… Say hello to your husband for me, and your kid when it comes along." Seth smiled. "See you, Aquawoman."

The Atlantean smiled with her back facing the mutant. "Until next time, Venom!" She shouted before jumping off the ledge.

"**_She's going home…_**"

Seth nodded. "Yeah. Let's follow her example."

X

**(West-Allen Residence)**

Barry walked into the living room, holding a small plastic container with cookies. "Here, a box of cookies if you're feeling peckish."

"Thanks, Bar." Seth accepted the box, stuffing it in his small bag. The mutant was packing a small bag with food and other essential elements for him when he's gone on his mission.

Felicity fidgeted unsurely as she saw the elemental packing. "Are you really sure you have to leave Seth?"

"Yeah, you could stay longer you know." Iris pitched in, parts of her didn't want her new friend to leave. He's become a close friend in times of need, and he's been helping this city against all kinds of major threats without hesitation. "The couch will miss you…and the ones who bought it."

Smiling in response, he stated as he patted the couch. "Yeah, had a good while on this little bastard sure. Plus, the people of this house aren't so bad either." He faced the three natives of this Earth, his friends. "The three of you have helped me a lot ever since I came to this world. I'm grateful to all of you, and honestly, parts of me don't want to leave."

"So why not just stick around a bit then?" Barry hopefully asked.

"Because of Jesse and that masked prisoner in Zoom's clutches, and my family back home." Seth told them with a longing look. "My family's waiting for me, and Jesse and that prisoner is still spending hell in Zoom's hands. I've been holding off for too long now, I have to find them and get them out and bring them to another breach to my home." He punctuated his point by zipping up the bag.

"I have to go home now." The mutant determinedly told them.

"Good thing I already located another breach then." The technopath announced.

"Hold off on giving that location, I have to find Jesse and that other guy before getting to that breach. I'll text you over the phone Mera gave me and then you can send me with the location." Seth explained before swinging the bag over his shoulder.

Seth looked to Felicity.

"I know we met under strange and rocky circumstances, but I am glad to have met you, Felicity Smoak. You've been helping innocent metahumans ever since the particle accelerator explosion, making sure they have a haven to turn when everything they knew and loved turned against them. You've lost friends to fight evil people like Blackfire, but you kept fighting and devised a plan to take him down. I didn't like the approach, true, but I am thankful that I could have joined you and helped avenge your friends. Hope you continue working to protect this city from underground with the rest of your friends."

"I will." Felicity stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his form. "Thanks for everything, friends of mine can now rest in peace thanks to you. Not to mention, I'm safe now."

"Not just me. Tony and Marcus helped me a lot back then." He reminded her as he pulled away. "And Mera and Kendra played a huge part in that last bit, save some of that thanks for them."

"Oh yeah, they're thankful for the treatments before." Felicity told him. After the debacle with the Dollmaker, Seth treated the wounds on the two metahumans to the best of his capabilities.

"Don't mention it." Seth laughed. He shifted his eyes to the detective.

"Thanks for everything, Iris. And I'm not just talking about giving me a place to stay since I was hurled into this world, but, more importantly, for being such a good friend. You're an amazing detective, but an even better person. Your Dad should be proud to have a daughter like you. Not to mention your mentor. Chyre would be seriously proud of the detective you've become. Any expectations people might've had for you, you easily surpassed them. You've been a tremendous friend who welcomed me into her home, and I can't thank you enough."

Iris smiled and hugged him. "You're not so bad yourself. Thanks for helping out me and my home, we owe you."

"We're friends, we don't owe each other anything." He told her steadfastly while reciprocating the hug. Letting go, he turned to the CSI scientist. "Don't know what I can say to you, Barr. Besides thanking you for everything you said to me back during the Blackfire situation. If it weren't for you, I probably would have been dead by now."

"I wouldn't say dead." Barry sheepishly said.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Seth scoffed. "You helped me overcome a problem of mine, helping me to absorb and accept a dark matter element." He lit up a black flame on the tip of his index finger. "This flame is dancing inside of me thanks to you, my friend." Extinguishing the flame, he walked over to him and hugged the CSI scientist. "Thanks, again."

"Thank you for everything you've done, Seth. For protecting my city… and the person I love above all else." Barry said lovingly, his eyes locking onto his wife's.

"Speaking of…" Seth pulled out of the hug and pulled out an envelope. "Think you and the happy wifey takes some time for yourself. So, here." He handed the envelope to Barry. Shifting his eyes between them, he stated. "Thanks for everything."

"Good luck and say hi to the girls when you see them again." The detective told Seth as he turned around and walked to the door.

"Will do." He told her. Opening the door, he walked out of the household.

As the door closed behind the mutant, Barry examined the envelope before opening it. His eyes expanded at the two tickets. "Oh God!" His wife turned to him saw the tickets. "These are first-class tickets to Atlantis. How'd he get them?"

"Seth said Mera could fetch him tickets for an Atlantean cruise." Iris chuckled with a smile. "Guess he was serious."

"Cool." Felicity said… but couldn't help but feel jealous that she didn't get any gift.

X

Leaning against the doorframe, having listened to the words coming from his friends inside the West-Allen household, Seth walked down the small staircase with a strong-willed mind.

He looked up to the blue sky, taking in the different shapes of the dozens of clouds floating over his head. "Pretty sky…"

"**_But?_**" Venom smirked knowingly.

Seth matched his smirk. "It's not our sky…" He took a step forward. The symbiotic skin slithering out of his body and enveloping his feet. "How about…" His clothes changed into the black symbiotic skin, spreading over his body and enveloping his body.

His head was engulfed by it and the white skeletal extensions erupted out of his body like lava erupting from a volcano. Growlingly, he continued. "**We turn to our own sky with our family beside us.**" Lashing out an arm, he shot out a tendril and pulled him off the ground.

Latching onto a large tree, he jumped off the top and jumped into the air with a persistent mind.

Save his friends and return home.

X

**(Central City Train Station)**

Having said her farewells and goodbyes to her friends in Central City and packed her stuff from her hotel, Mera walked down the staircase with a suitcase in hand. She had her ticket ready and was making her way to the train to Atlantis.

She gave the train station a lingering look, as though it was the entire city and her friends standing around her, before turning towards the train to her left side.

"Mrs. Curry!"

Mera stopped, turning on her heels and looked behind her to see Cassandra Cain and Lucas Fox running through the crowd. The former pushed through the mass of people and the latter apologized for her behavior.

"What are you two doing here?" Mera put down her suitcase, quickly shooting a look to the travel plan on the board behind her. "I have a train to catch."

"We know." Cassandra said.

"But we have something for you, a parting gift." Lucas announced, holding out a package.

"I'm not leaving completely guys, I need to take care of somethings in Atlantis before and then I'm coming back, I promise." She said as she took the package. Opening the package, she widened her eyes at the sight of the item in it. "Where'd you get this?"

"Exhaustive search." Lucas chuckled.

"But north it." Cassandra said, unbeknownst to her another malapropism finding its way into her sentence.

Too distracted by the item in the box and the joy washing over from her kids' precious gift, she reached into the box and took it out. The light from the lamps over her head shined down on the golden crown with three pongs on the front, each of them equipped with spade rubies.

"My sister's crown…" Mera said as she rubbed one of the rubies with her thumb.

"We know your sister's gone…" Lucas said, getting his mentor's attention. "But this way… she'll always be close to you. No matter what…"

"Thanks…" Mera tried desperately not to cry, she didn't want to cry in front of her kids. She's done enough of that in Central City already.

"Mrs. Curry." Cassandra got her attention. "We'll miss you, and we love you."

The dam broke and tears streamed down the Atlantean's face. Faster than a speedster could move, she wrapped her arms around her kids and pulled them into a tight hug. "I love you both, too." As they reciprocated the hug, she kissed the top of their heads.

She loved her kids… the ones she has… and the ones she's gonna have in the future.

X

**(Jitterbugs)**

"Another one, West?" JC, the bartender, asked with a bottle of bourbon in her hand.

As the musicians played a relaxing melody behind them, the other customers enjoying the soothing music, Joe had taken a break and decided to enjoy a stiff drink. "Keep em coming, I got nothing better to do right now." He said, gesturing to the empty tumbler in front of him.

"Wanna go for drunk singing for once, Pops?" Iris asked when walking up to her father's side. "You'd make a killing."

"Hey, baby girl." Joe smiled at his daughter.

Iris smiled back, she turned to the bartender. "Bourbon for me. This one too. On the rocks." JC nodded, placing ice cubes in both tumblers before pouring bourbon in them. "Thanks." She expressed to JC. She turned to her father. "Not gonna say you're happy to see me or something?"

"I knew you'd be back again, baby. You always have." Joe sighed, taking hold of the tumbler with bourbon. "Think you got that from your mother."

"Sorry I brought Ma into the conversation before." Iris apologized.

"You shouldn't apologize for that." Joe told her with a wave of his other hand. "You were right. The fear of losing you like I lost my wife, your mother… I'm always gonna have that in me. It's hard. Especially with the life she had since meeting me."

"I know about my Ma's addiction, Pops."

Joe snapped his head so quick it was impossible to think his neck was still intact. "Who told you? Wally?"

Iris shook her head. "Ma told me about it one night. She had several ODs, even though you helped her with rehab."

"Last time I heard of her overdose…" Joe faced his daughter. "I was still a small-time singer at this place, Chyre was there, a beat cop on his break, I think… but his radio was still on and dispatch called, a little girl."

""My mommy took some pills… and now, she won't wake up."" Iris repeated the words of the little girl, remembering the incident clear as day. "I gave Chyre the address back then."

Joe's eyes fell. "Chyre rushed to me, practically dragged me out of here, threw me into the passenger seat in his car and drove back to the place. We got there, opened the door… and your mother was unresponsive. Passed out on the couch. In the kitchen, the stove was on and… You were there."

"Standing in front of an open flame." Iris chuckled hollowly. "You helped Ma into another rehab, but she… was gone after a couple days. I remember you leaving me with some friends because I was too little, while you looked everywhere for Ma with Chyre. I remember you telling that Ma left… it scared me. I thought she abandoned us back then. But I saw how hard it was for you, and I… just focused on you."

"Four years…" Joe shook his head. "Francine was gone for four years, and then shows up on our doorstep with a young boy holding her hand tightly, my son Wallace West."

"Parts of me was angry that Ma returned, because I… didn't know what to say. But I was just happy instead and hugged her." Iris confessed.

"You were always such a big-hearted kid, think that made you want to join the force." Joe chuckled. "Your mother returned to our life, and we loved you and your brother with all we have and watched you go through everything and were proud. We were there when you graduated the academy, watched you become a detective… watched you walk down the aisle and marry you off to that sleazebag Bartholomew."

"He's not that, Pops." Iris kissed her father's cheek. "Ma would be proud of you, you know."

"That's my line, baby girl." Joe held up the tumbler and clanked with his daughter's. "Cheers, baby."

"Cheers, Pops." Iris said back, taking a sip from her drink.

The father and daughter enjoyed the soothing music behind them whilst they continued talking about the happiest times in their family. They also discussed the possibility of a family dinner with Wally when his schedules clear up.

X

**(Zoom's Lair)**

A growl of anger echoed throughout the entire hideout. Zoom slammed the doctor's battered face into the cell door of Nathan Bliss' cell. Black claws digging into the skin barrier on the doctor's neck, slowly drawing blood and coating his abyssal claws.

Zoom pointed his black eyes at the hurt and almost destroyed form of Mr. Bliss. "**Your doctor failed!**"

"I did not find it possible for my doctor to fail, he rarely does." The former ringmaster of Central City Circus stated.

"**You were wrong!**" Zoom shouted, pressing the doctor's face harder against the cell door. "**He failed!**"

"N-N-Nathan." The doctor choked out his pleading, but more than half of his words were left untold in his throat due to the significant amount of blood clogging his windpipe. "Pl- please."

Nathan swallowed his fear. "Mr. Zoom, he can still be of use. He's a doctor and can treat you and your companions should they be hurt."

Swinging his arm backwards, throwing the doctor away like yesterday's trash, Zoom unleashed another growl.

_WHOOSH_

In a flash of blue lightning, he appeared before the mangled remains of the pathokinetic ringmaster. Crouching before him, he raised a claw to his face. Nathan watched as lightning cloaked the evil speedster's claw. "**Your words… mean nothing!**"

To Nathan's surprise, Zoom sped out of the cell and raised the doctor high in the air with one hand. "**Your pet doctor… is meaningless now.**" Behind his mask, the evil speedster formed an evil smile. "**But thankfully an old friend of yours returned… and joined my ranks.**"

"Who?" Nathan asked shakily.

Zoom threw the doctor to the ground. Right in the middle of a shadow. Nathan saw the shadow but saw no one in front of his doctor. His eyes trailed upwards, and surprise met him when he looked at his former crewmember, Rajeet levitating in the air.

"Rajeet?" Nathan muttered in shock.

Orion sent a brief uninterested glance to his old ringmaster before turning his eyes to the doctor under him. The doctor slowly crawled out of the telekinetic's shadow and made eye contact with Rajeet. "Rajeet." The doctor was shocked to see that his former patient was still bearing the stitches he gave him a long time ago.

"**Your first job:**" Zoom pointed a finger to the doctor. "**Kill him now!**"

"Rajeet, don't!" The doctor pleaded of the mouth-stitched metahuman who grunted.

"Orion!" Nathan got the telekinetic's attention. "While you do not communicate the same way as others and me, I do know your language, old friend. Do not do this… he is a friend, after all."

But none of those words affected the metahuman in any way, which he made abundantly when he lifted the doctor into the air. "Rajeet, I beg of you! Don't do this!" Orion didn't listen to any of the doctor's pleads and instead clenched his hand. And twisted it.

A series of cracking sounds emitted from the doctor's body, bones snapping and breaking inside of his flesh suit, right before it fell to the ground with a thud. The lifeless eyes of the doctor pointing towards his former ringmaster.

While he did enjoy the sight of his new metahuman henchman take action and disposing of trash… Parts of him didn't like that this doctor was unable to fix his problem…

His life-threatening problem…

He'd have to wait for his _other_ plan to bear fruit now.

**To be continued…**

**And that's a chapter, peeps!**

**A lot has happened in this chapter.**

**Our favorite mutant learnt a whole lot more about the lovely Atlantean from the deep. Not only is Mera a teacher for two of Gotham's heroes and the co-CEO of a research and development company primality located in Atlantis, but that she holds a grudge against Dollmaker, Barton Mathis, who killed over a dozens of young women and children in numerous cities. Mera's sister Hila among the killed.**

**He also learnt of the two companies that were used as weapons. Mermaiden and Mermaid Pudding, both factories with their products used by Dollmaker to hunt and kill young women and children. Hadn't it been for Felicity who used her powers of information, things could have gotten much, much worse.**

**But Mera lost herself when Felicity and her friends kept Dollmaker being in Central City, even more so when she saw him kill… eternalize Natalie Knight. So, enraged by the sight of that young woman dying in front of her eyes, the failure of trying to save a young life akin to her sister, she left to take of it on her own. **

**Even against dozens of powered beings and trained fighters, Orion proved himself superior with his powers of advanced telekinesis.**

**Things took a dark turn when Dollmaker used Orion and kidnapped Felicity, intending to turn her into a doll. Mera lost herself, and Seth feared her going down a dark path, like the one he's on. He stood before her, fighting her. **

**But he lost that fight, due to her incredible hydrokinesis and Mera's in to her being able to control his body, his water element in him and forcibly make his symbiote retract. Mera punctured his skin from within his body with water spikes. **

**Battles raged at the Bisque Museum, resulting in Orion escaping and Mera standing victorious over Dollmaker. She didn't kill him, but she did move on from the pain of losing her sister and the fear of her future child falling and…choosing not just the path for a hero and a mother.**

**Following her example of returning to Atlantis, Seth make it clear to walk a different path than the darkened one he's been walking on this entire time and he'd return to his world after saving Jesse and the unknown masked prisoner.**

**He said his goodbyes before leaving to find them.**

**But while he and his friends were fighting Orion and Dollmaker, Zoom had his own business to take care of with the metahuman doctor that was part of the metahuman circus. Even a battered and mutilated though Nathan Bliss tried to assure the evil speedster repeatedly, none of it helped because the doctor failed to save Zoom.**

**Zoom had to wait for his secondary plan to bear fruit.**

**Stay tuned and find out.**

**Until next time, peeps!**


End file.
